Research and Writing

Throughout this semester, in addition to the content of the material you will learn in the course, it is equally important that you demonstrate your analytical, research and writing skills. Your ability to be critical/analytical, and in conducting research on authoritative sources is exceptionally important for your career and education and for formulating sound professional and personal opinions and values. If you are not a critical and skilled consumer of information, you will fall prey to those that will take advantage of the reader’s ignorance and leanings towards certain opinions.

In the Discussions, you will be initiating discussions and responding to issues that other students bring up. In addition, you will be completing assignments that will challenge you to address issues in compensation and human resources. To address issues, you should attempt to be as objective and as free from bias as possible. In addition to learning the course materials, you will also need to use three skills, which are addressed separately below in no particular order of importance. I should also note that graduate school is not simply a continuation of undergraduate work by taking more courses. Obtaining a Master’s degree requires you to develop and display your expertise at a much higher level than what was required of you at the undergraduate level.

CONDUCTING RESEARCH

Learning is NOT simply the acquisition of knowledge by reading books and articles, and then restating the ideas of those scholars in an assignment. A primary purpose of conducting research is to synthesize your findings and critically interpret those findings in order to draw sound logical conclusions. It is important that you are able to analytically and critically examine issues and then draw sound conclusions using the weight of your arguments and the evidence you have found to support those arguments. While it is okay to take a position in writing an assignment, you cannot ignore evidence or arguments contrary to your position. In conducting research and writing your assignment, you cannot put on “blinders” so as to only focus on and use evidence that supports your position. This is especially true for issues that are polarizing or controversial (e.g., equal pay, the impact of immigration on wages, etc.,).

The first place for you to start examining issues is to be skeptical of ANYTHING that someone will tell you or that you read (ESPECIALLY those things that you really believe are true) – until you check the veracity of that individual and/or can confirm the validity of their statements. Being skeptical of things that you don’t believe is easy. Being skeptical of things that you DO believe in will keep you honest.

The bottom line is that the ability to conduct objective unbiased research is exceptionally important for you in this course. Do not simply state your opinion – you need to back it with sources and sound reasoning.Instructions
Aligning Performance Appraisals and Compensation Plans
During the past few weeks, we have learned that there are various methods of conducting employee performance appraisals (e.g., trait, behavioral, ranking, MBO, etc.). Your task for this assignment is to pick one of those methods, explain it, and discuss how it could be effectively used to impact employee compensation.
Your response should consider the potential impact the performance evaluation method could have on at least three different organizational stakeholder groups. Also, your assignment must include your thoughts on what organizations can doto prevent ethical and legal challenges that might from arise from linking the method of performance appraisal you chose to employee compensation.
Your assignment should be approximately 5-7 pages in length (not including cover page and reference list) and include ample scholarly and professional sources to support your key ideas. This assignment will be graded according to the rubric attached below