Syllabus for HRM-620

THE LEGAL AND ETHICAL ENVIRONMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course provides a careful examination of the significant ethical and legal issues facing the human resource professional. While there is a focus on employment law, there is an equally strong consideration of ethical issues, which human resource personnel must address and share with other decision-makers in the organization.

General Aim

The amount of legislation that affects Human Resources has significantly increased within the last decade. Furthermore, the manner in which we manage our departments, employees and the organization itself has met with more scrutiny in the past few years. The ethical and legal guidelines a Human Resource professional must both follow and make certain others follow continually increase. Avoiding litigation is a matter not only of good planning but also training, awareness, feedback and up to date knowledge. This course will bring the student through a history of what has evolved in Employment Law and Ethical Behavior in our organizations. Managing today is most complex, and anyone can be held both personally and professionally liable for their behavior no matter how innocent or unintentional an action might be. The course will cover what Human Resource professionals should do in the new millennium in order to create a litigiously free and ethical workplace.

CONTENT AND SCOPE

I. Employment Relationship: Ethics and Legal Considerations

1. Character and nature of regulatory environment
2. Ethical and legal principles
3. Conflict of ethics and law
4. Establishing a foundation of ethics and law

II. Ethics and the Law

1. Key ethical issues
2. Importance of ethics in the legal foundation
3. Human rights in the workplace
4. Ethics and the human resource professional

III. The Civil Rights Act of 1964

1. Equal employment opportunity
2. Disparate treatment
3. Disparate impact
4. Civil Rights Act and human resource policy

IV. Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action

1. Ethical principles
2. Legal requirements
3. Forms of discrimination
4. Key court decisions

V. Discrimination: Race, Gender, Sexual, and Affinity Orientation

1. Racial issues
2. Gender discrimination
3. Sexual harassment
4. Affinity orientation

VI. Discrimination: Religion, National Origin, and Disability

1. Religious discrimination
2. National origin issues
3. Age and Aging
4. Mental and physical handicaps

VII. Developing Ethical Policies in Human Resource Areas

1. Key policy considerations
2. Ethical approaches to personnel matters
3. Ethics and social responsibility
4. Role of human resource professional

VIII. Evaluating Personnel and Work Behavior

1. Employment testing
2. Appraisal safeguards
3. HR policies and procedures
4. Disciplinary actions

IX. Employee Privacy and Rights of Employer and Employees in the Workplace

1. Expectation of privacy
2. Employer need v. employee rights
3. Right to organize
4. Labor-management relations

X. Ethics and Organizational Culture: The Relationship among Law, Morality and Employee Morale

1. Ethical culture
2. Positive human behavior
3. Enhancing quality of life
4. Improving and maintaining morale

COURSE OBJECTIVES

After completing this course, you should be able to:

1. Understand the relationship between ethics and law.
2. Identify ethical considerations which business organizations in a democratic society must consider.
3. Define “equal employment opportunity” and understand how human resource professionals and departments must function.
4. Discuss the ethical and legal issues related to Affirmative Action Programs and the human resource department of a typical organization.
5. Explain what constitutes discriminatory practices and harassment in terms of race, gender, sex, and affinity orientation.
6. Delimit what conditions establish the basis for discrimination in the areas of religion, national origin, age, and disability.
7. Develop human resource policy which reflects appropriate ethical behavior.
8. List and discuss principles and techniques of evaluating employees and their behavior in the workplace which meet ethical and legal standards.
9. Explore the issues of employee privacy and the rights of both employees and employers in the workplace.
10. Explain the importance of a sound ethical climate and organizational culture on the morale of the workforce.

COURSE MATERIALS

You will need the following materials to do the work of the course. The required textbook is available from the College's textbook supplier, MBS Direct.

Required Textbook

1. Bennett-Alexander, Dawn, and Hartman, Laura (2009). Employment Law for Business. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Textbook Companion Site

ISBN-13: 978-0073377636

COURSE STRUCTURE

The Legal and Ethical Environment of Human Resources is a three-credit online graduate course, consisting of ten (10) modules. Modules include an overview, topics, learning objectives, study materials, and activities. Module titles are listed below.

1. Module 1: Employment Relationship: Ethics and Legal Considerations

2. Module 2: Ethics and the Law

3. Module 3: The Civil Rights Act of 1964

4. Module 4: Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action

5. Module 5: Discrimination: Race, Gender, Sexual, and Affinity Orientation

6. Module 6: Discrimination: Religion, National Origin, and Disability

7. Module 7: Developing Ethical Policies in Human Resource Areas

8. Module 8: Evaluating Personnel and Work Behavior

9. Module 9: Employee Privacy and Rights of Employer and Employees in the Workplace

10. Module 10: Ethics and Organizational Culture: The Relationship among Law, Morality and Employee Morale

Consult the course Calendar for assignment due dates.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

For your formal work in the course, you are required to participate in online discussion forums and complete written activities. See below for more details.

Consult the course Calendar for assignment due dates.

Discussion Forums

This course requires you to participate in ten (10) graded discussion forums. There is also one ungraded but required forums in Module 1. Click to view Online Discussion Grading Rubric.

Written Assignments

You are required to complete ten (10) written assignments. Each module includes a written assignment based on the textbook. They reflect on your reading of the text and understanding of the content. These assignments vary in what is requested and the type of responses (e.g., specific questions to be answered, essays to be written, and factual vs. creative work to be done). You should develop answers and wherever possible cite sources. Several assignments are long and require critical thinking and substantive writing. The written essays (2) require some careful planning and writing (in Module 2). These assignments replace the traditional midterm and final examination. Organize your thoughts, cite sources, and edit carefully.

GRADING AND EVALUATION

Your grade in the course will be determined as follows:

1. Discussion forums (10)—30 percent
2. Written assignments—70 percent

1. Textbook chapter questions (7)—35 percent
2. Essays (2)—15 percent
3. Memos (3)—15 percent
4. Survey (1)—5 percent

All activities will receive a numerical grade of 0–100. You will receive a score of 0 for any work not submitted. Your final grade in the course will be a letter grade. Letter grade equivalents for numerical grades are as follows:

To receive credit for the course, you must earn a letter grade of C or higher on the weighted average of all assigned course work (e.g., assignments, discussion postings, projects, etc.). Graduate students must maintain a B average overall to remain in good academic standing.

STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS

First Steps to Success

To succeed in this course, take the following first steps:

1. Read carefully the entire Syllabus, making sure that all aspects of the course are clear to you and that you have all the materials required for the course.

2. Take the time to read the entire Online Student Handbook. The Handbook answers many questions about how to proceed through the course, how to schedule exams, and how to get the most from your educational experience at Thomas Edison State College.

3. Arrange to take your examination(s) by following the instructions in this Syllabus and the Online Student Handbook.

4. Familiarize yourself with the learning management systems environment—how to navigate it and what the various course areas contain. If you know what to expect as you navigate the course, you can better pace yourself and complete the work on time.

5. If you are not familiar with Web-based learning be sure to review the processes for posting responses online and submitting activities before class begins.

Study Tips

Consider the following study tips for success:

1. To stay on track throughout the course, begin each week by consulting the course Calendar. The Calendar provides an overview of the course and indicates due dates for submitting activities, posting discussions, and scheduling and taking examinations.

2. Check Announcements regularly for new course information.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

Students at Thomas Edison State College are expected to exhibit the highest level of academic citizenship. In particular, students are expected to read and follow all policies, procedures, and program information guidelines contained in publications; pursue their learning goals with honesty and integrity; demonstrate that they are progressing satisfactorily and in a timely fashion by meeting course deadlines and following outlined procedures; observe a code of mutual respect in dealing with mentors, staff, and other students; behave in a manner consistent with the standards and codes of the profession in which they are practicing; keep official records updated regarding changes in name, address, telephone number, or e-mail address; and meet financial obligations in a timely manner. Students not practicing good academic citizenship may be subject to disciplinary action including suspension, dismissal, or financial holds on records.

Academic Dishonesty

Thomas Edison State College expects all of its students to approach their education with academic integrity—the pursuit of scholarly activity free from fraud and deception. All mentors and administrative staff members at the College insist on strict standards of academic honesty in all courses. Academic dishonesty undermines this objective. Academic dishonesty takes the following forms:

1. Cheating
2. Plagiarizing (including copying and pasting from the Internet without using quotation marks and without acknowledging sources)
3. Fabricating information or citations
4. Facilitating acts of dishonesty by others
5. Unauthorized access to examinations or the use of unauthorized materials during exam administration
6. Submitting the work of another person or work previously used without informing the mentor
7. Tampering with the academic work of other students

Academic dishonesty will result in disciplinary action and possible dismissal from the College. Students who submit papers that are found to be plagiarized will receive an F on the plagiarized activity, may receive a grade of F for the course, and may face dismissal from the College.

A student who is charged with academic dishonesty will be given oral or written notice of the charge. If a mentor or College official believes the infraction is serious enough to warrant referral of the case to the academic dean, or if the mentor awards a final grade of F in the course because of the infraction, the student and the mentor will be afforded formal due process.

If a student is found cheating or using unauthorized materials on an examination, he or she will automatically receive a grade of F on that examination. Students who believe they have been falsely accused of academic dishonesty should seek redress through informal discussions with the mentor, through the office of the dean, or through an executive officer of Thomas Edison State College.

Plagiarism

Using someone else's work as your own is plagiarism. Although it may seem like simple dishonesty, plagiarism is against the law. Thomas Edison State College takes a strong stance against plagiarism, and students found to be plagiarizing will be severely penalized. If you copy phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or whole documents word-for-word—or if you paraphrase by changing a word here and there—without identifying the author, then you are plagiarizing. Please keep in mind that this type of identification applies to Internet sources as well as to print-based sources. Copying and pasting from the Internet, without using quotation marks and without acknowledging sources, constitutes plagiarism.  (For information about how to cite Internet sources, see Online Student Handbook > Academic Standards > "Citing Sources.")

Accidentally copying the words and ideas of another writer does not excuse the charge of plagiarism. It is easy to jot down notes and ideas from many sources and then write your own paper without knowing which words are your own and which are someone else's. It is more difficult to keep track of each and every source. However, the conscientious writer who wishes to avoid plagiarizing never fails to keep careful track of sources.

Always be aware that if you write without acknowledging the sources of your ideas, you run the risk of being charged with plagiarism.

Clearly, plagiarism, no matter the degree of intent to deceive, defeats the purpose of education. If you plagiarize deliberately, you are not educating yourself, and you are wasting your time on courses meant to improve your skills. If you plagiarize through carelessness, you are deceiving yourself.