Original work, Less than 20% plagiarism.  Must have 10 references.  APA format

10-15 pages of body text (double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12pt, 1” margins, etc.).

HRM-6603 Research Assignment

NOTES:

1. A huge part of this assignment involves making sure that you can follow directions. I know, you are graduate students. Nevertheless, you MUST be able to follow explicit directions on your own.

2. Go to the Research Paper module and get two documents. It is mandatory that you follow the instructions found in these two documents (note, if you have a Mac, you may need to gain access to a PC for this);

a. Setup Word and Grammarly to proof your work

b. Setup Word’s source management tools and use them

3. Go to the Research Paper module and get the document, “Common issues in writing” and print it out. Before you submit your paper, make sure you don’t have any of these mistakes in your paper. Most students lose 20 or more points on just formatting and grammar, so I put together the most common mistakes in a single document. Use it.

4. Get a copy of the APA style guide if you don’t already have one. The 6th edition is going to be necessary throughout your graduate program in business, so you might want to go ahead and buy a copy. There is an example paper that starts on about page 41 or so.

Your research assignment is as follows:

1. Pretend you are the HR Manager of a company and the CEO meets with you to get your opinion on a situation that has developed involving an employee. (Choose one of the situations below). You tell the CEO that you need to do some research and get back with him later, so you leave to do some research.

2. Research the issue in the library databases. Look for anything applicable to the situation, but focus on HR Law cases that are very recent. Take good notes as you go.

3. Prepare a research paper in proper APA format that contains the following:

a. A title page

b. An abstract page. This is a single-spaced page that summarizes the entire document. Pretend you are an HR manager writing for the CEO of the company (me). The Abstract must contain the key legal points and a brief summary of your key recommendations. Make up names as needed for the individuals in your document. Use “Acme Anti-Roadrunner, Inc.” as the company name.

c. 10-15 pages of body text (double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12pt, 1” margins, etc.).

d. At least 10 references that are journal articles or court cases (don’t use websites, except for government ones, and you should have no more than one or two of those, if any).

4. You can submit your paper early if you wish. When ready, submit in canvas. If you submit it by the end of Week 6, I will go ahead and grade it and you can fix your errors before resubmitting it by the due date.

Hint… You must demonstrate that you can use Microsoft Word to handle your references and such. If you do not, then I have no choice but to check them much more closely, to verify that all requisite information is there and that the references each adhere to APA requirements.

Remember… Your goal with this paper is to demonstrate that you can a) write a research paper correctly, b) research an HR topic using the correct databases, and c) formulate and communicate a reasonable response from a superior as a manager. You will not be perfect at this at first, but you will get better the more you do it. Remember, you are not going to write ABOUT some topic. That’s not the point of this paper. You must research the topic, but your research is to be focused on what the existing legislation, court rulings, and common practice are. You then take that information and develop an opinion about what would happen if the issue under consideration was to be ruled on by a court. Finally, you use that opinion to put together a recommendation that explains what you think the company should do to avoid legal issues and not incur too much additional cost. This research paper is just your method of communicating that to the CEO of the company.

 situation below:

Janet is a secretary at a small law office that employs over 75 people, the majority of which are female hourly staff. The senior partner, a male, is pleased with the general performance of the business, and believes that his personally speaking to as many clients as possible is necessary to the function of the business. Because of this, he relies heavily on Janet to manage his schedule and keep him abreast of issues in the company that require his attention. However, as their new HR Manager, you cannot help but notice how she seems to have her hand in every little detail about the goings-on in the company, including your HR office. You are increasingly hearing rumors that Janet takes great pleasure in abusing staff members for the slightest minor discrepancy in their performance, but rarely does so when the salaried staff are present. Upon further investigation, you have been able to discretely determine that this behavior had been going on for some time, sufficient to cause several staff members to seek medical treatment for depression and anxiety.  As you dig deeper and get to know the workers around the office, you put together more information about Janet and how she treats everyone around her. It’s not good. As you begin looking at the numbers, it seems as though the turnover rate is highest in the departments nearest her work area, particularly among the other female hourly staff. You pull the performance reviews of some of the employees that have left and a number of them name Janet’s abusive treatment as a contributing factor to negative performance. Something needs to be done, but what? Last week, word of Janet’s behavior got to the other partners and they asked you what could be done. Your task is to put together a document that explains workplace bullying, outline any laws that may (or may not) be applicable, make specific recommendations about what to do regarding Janet’s behavior, and make specific recommendations about a policy on the subject (i.e. draft the policy).