Rh objectives

Human Resources Management
MAN 3301
Fall 2012
General Instructions for the Two Mini-Papers

Objectives

This assignment is made with a couple of major objectives in mind. The first and most important objective is to allow you to become familiar with the research base on which the field of human resources management is predicated. While experience in human resources is an important component and it is crucial to learn from your experience, there is a body of literature that informs each course that you take at the University. If you are aware of this body of literature, then you will have the option in the future of answering questions by going directly to the literature that forms the basis of the field, rather than relying on secondary or tertiary sources (such as textbooks) that summarize it for you—sometimes inaccurately.

A second objective of this assignment is to make it clear that the human resources field is dynamic. Your textbook reports on the current state of our understanding of the field, but there are new research reports and new developments all the time. What you learn in class today may be outdated five or ten years from now. You will be outdated, too, if you are not in the habit of maintaining currency in your chosen field. Your chosen field may be something other than human resources management, but you will in some way be involved with people on your job, so you will have at least some need to continue learning about human resources.

You must also be able to critically evaluate information. There are a lot of fallacies that are promulgated as “fact,” in human resources as well as in other fields. It is important to be able to access the empirical basis of the field and to understand the differences among “fact,” “current understanding,” and “position.” Many people have a “position” on controversial topics in human resources management, but not all positions are informed by fact or our current understanding of the