Human Resources Management (HRM)

Department of Management and Marketing

School of Business Administration

Assessment Plan

October 2007

(replaces plan dated August 2005)

  1. Citation of appropriate goals from OaklandUniversity’s Mission Statement.
  • Instruction
  1. Current and Relevant (Faculty Development and Innovative Methods)
  2. Prepare students for Careers
  • Student Development
  1. Campus (and nationally affiliated) Student Organization
  2. Prepare students for Careers

2. Specification of academic unit goals that flow from the cited university goals.

  • Increase educational effectiveness within the context of continuous improvement
  • Advance Student Knowledge
  • Build collaborative relationships within the University and in the external community
  • Curricular review

3. Operationalization of the unit’s goals into objectives for student learning.

  • The HRM degree objectives are attached as a separate document.
  • Briefly:
  • Develop the skills needed to administer the personnel function
  • Develop an understanding of concepts and techniques needed to acquire, develop and utilize an organization’s human resources.
  • Learning objectives represent the common body of knowledge of the AACSB and the Society for Human Resource Management (as codified by the HRCI for the PHR certification exam).

4. Description of the methods by which progress toward the operationalized unit goals will be measured.

The HRM area within the SBA uses multiple methods to assess progress. The attached report details the methods. Not every method is used in each two year assessment cycle. In recent reports, the HRM degree was primarily assessed using AssessmentCenter methodology. According to William C. Byham (1996), Assessment Centers use multiple evaluation techniques. These evaluative tools are designed to assess behavior (skills) most relevant for a position. Historically, 4 different evaluation techniques were used. The next time we use the AssessmentCenter we will use only three exercises. The job analysis exercise assessed students' knowledge and skills about an important but relatively narrow technical issue. We want to replace

this exercise with an exercise that will address a broader issue, such as occupational health and safety. We are examining safety in several course projects to get a better idea of students’ working knowledge of safety before drafting our safety exercise.AssessmentCenter materials are in the Appendix. However, for this reporting cycle due to the curricular transition we have not conducted an AssessmentCenter. In our last report (2005) we indicated that based on our earlier assessment findings, we were in the middle of a curricular revision (phased in starting Fall 2006). This change involves an addition to our major requirements. These changes have allowed us to begin to collect assessment data with some new methods. These are contained in this report. New requirements require students to either complete a major-related internship or pass the PHR exam. In order to mark progress we will have evaluations of internships or test scores. For this reporting cycle we have just begun collecting test scores and we also have one internship exit-interview. The test scores we have collected are voluntary on the part of the students. None of the students reporting test scores to us this round were under the new catalog requirements. As this requirement phases in we will return to the AssessmentCenter to see if the problems we uncovered have been resolved because of the curricular change. We anticipate conducting the AssessmentCenter again in the 08-09 academic year. In addition to test scores and the one exit interview, we also surveyed HRM alumni for this assessment review. Although we mailed approximately 500 cards out, only 22 alums responded. The survey instrument and the summary results are contained in the Appendix. As we phase to the new requirements we anticipate conducting some focus groups with students and internship providers to get additional assessment data. We would anticipate the new focus groups to occur no sooner than 08-09.

Therefore our group uses the following methods (although not in every report):

  • AssessmentCenter (planned for 08-09)
  • Focus Group (planned for hopefully 08-09)
  • Alumni Survey (Summer 07, contained in this report)
  • PHR Exam Scores (on-going, contained in this report)
  • Internship Exit Interviews (on-going, initial debriefing in this report)
  1. List the individual(s) who have primary responsibility for administering the assessment activities.

This is a group activity. All area faculty (Barclay, Markel, Schwartz, Tyler, and York) have contributed. We also try to involve members of our HR Advisory Group by providing them with information on curricular changes and our assessment reports. We would like to note that Professor Tyler, who participated in all discussions during the last two years, passed away in August 2007. We are currently down one faculty member. However, if we are allowed to replace Professor Tyler, we anticipate that our new colleague will also participate in our efforts.

6. Describe the procedures used in your academic unit for translating assessment results into program changes.

  • After an assessment activity has been completed (AC, focus groups, surveys, etc.), area faculty are provided with copies of the results. The area then meets (in person and virtually) to discuss possible changes.
  • Example: After reviewing some of the initial (voluntary) PHR test scores, we decided to try to build additional course content in “safety”. Several ORG 430 projects have been modified to build content area expertise in the safety area. The fact that the certification institute had a separate knowledge area for safety and we do not have a safety course suggested building additional experiences into the curriculum. The Fall 2007 ORG 430 literature review and survey projects now have a safety focus. In addition, the Baldrige Award project in ORG 434 has been removed and a “Stress and Burnout” project has been added that also speaks to safety. The new project involves creating a proposal for a wellness program at an organization.
  • Assessment reports and changes are also shared with the HR Advisory Group for feedback. The group was supportive of our curricular change; they generally do not give much feedback on the reports per se. We will be providing the list with a copy of this report by request.

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