The UFHRD Teaching and Learning Resource Bank

Resource Title Innovative Live-case HRM Training Course

Authors Mina Beigi, Ph.D.

Texas A&M University
Department of Educational administration and Human resource Development

Key Words Teaching and learning HRM, Experiential exercises, HRM functions, Student
learning

Context This course was actually designed and delivered among several full- and part-
time master’s level students in business & management; especially those studying
HRM and HRD in two of the top Iranian management schools.

Human resource management is both a theoretical and practical field. Students

both need to have basic knowledge about HRM and how to use the methods and
techniques introduced in HRM textbooks. This course was designed for
management and business students that sought to practice HRM or HRD as a part
of their career in the future. One purpose was to give a realistic point of view to
the students about the practice on HRM functions. The instructor hoped that the
experiential exercises give a glimpse of what is going on in the real-world for
HRM and prepare students for their future careers.

This course was designed for attendees who did not have a positive attitude
toward HRM and its practicality. The attitudes were more technical and hard
rather than soft toward human resources. One objective for the instructor was to
impact the student's attitude toward HRM.

The exercises are designed in a way that students can not complete it without fully
reading and understanding the course readings and materials.

Purpose The objective of the course is to enhance student learning and mastery of “Human
Resource Management” functions using experiential and live-case exercises.

How it works  Students are divided into groups at the beginning of the semester
(see appendix 1 for an activity to assign students into groups).
 Students are required to work on the following exercises
throughout the course in their groups (See appendix 2 for a
sample of 6 exercises).
 A template is designed to accompany each exercise with the
purpose of informing students about the scores devoted to each
exercise and also providing some guidelines to help student
understand the scoring criteria. The instructor may teach HRM

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 functions based on the book "Human Resource Management" by
Gary Dessler in the first two third of each session. Then, groups
can be asked to start working on the exercise relevant to the topic
discussed in the class and finish and deliver it by the next session
(next week).

 Exercise 1 (selecting a company):

Each group is asked to choose a real company (which the group
may have access to its data) by the second session of the class.
Since many of the graduate-level students work part-time or full-
time this would not be difficult for them. Besides, the instructor
may inform the students that in case any group does not have
access to any company’s data the group could either choose the
department, university, or any university-affiliated organization
or ask the instructor to introduce one company to them.
International students can be paired up with working students.
The assignments were arranged as follows.
Students need to gather general information about the company
(see appendix exercise 1)
 Exercise 2 (job analysis):
Students would draw a primary work flow of the company to
have a general idea regarding the company jobs. They would go
on and choose a job from the company to analyze using O*NET
and company sources. The students are informed that this job is
going to be the base for the next exercises.
 Exercise 3 (job advertisement):
Students are informed that the company needs to recruit some
candidates for the job they analyses in the previous exercise.
Then, they are asked to prepare an advertisement for that specific
job. Students are encouraged to be as creative as they can.
 Exercise 4 (job interview):
Students are asked to prepare a selection process, interview
questions, related resume and an interviewee (either from the
other groups or anyone else they want) for the advertisement
they prepared in the exercise 3. They then play roles of a
selection committee in the class.
 Exercise 5 (training):
Students are asked to design a training program for the employee
selected in assignment 4. They need to need to read the chapter

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 in their course book and listen to the lecture on the training
carefully to be able to complete this exercise.
 Exercise 6 (Performance assessment):
The groups would try to design a performance appraisal method
 Exercise 7 (career path):
Students are asked to design a career path for the specific job
they chose within the company.
 Exercise 8 (compensation and benefits):
Students are asked to select from the compensation methods and
design a compensation and benefit package for the job they
selected.

The instructor and the teaching assistants may go through all the
assignments and give feedback to the groups. The instructor may devote
portions of class time to students to briefly present the progress of their
work in the class.
Evaluation/Feedback “Innovative Live-case HRM Training Course” was implemented at two
Iranian universities during fall 2011.
Students from six management master’s level HRM courses and one
master’s level HRD course at University of Tehran and students from
one MBA course at Sharif University of Technology were taking an
HTM course which used “Innovative Live-case HRM Training” module.

Students in these classes participated in a pre-post study.

A total of 98 students registered in the course and 64 out of 98 of them
completed both completed an HRM attitude scale and an HRM
knowledge test in the first and the last session of the course. Students
were not informed about the HRM knowledge test at the beginning and
the end of the term so that they wouldn’t prepare themselves for the
exam. Furthermore the post-test was separated from the final exam so
that the students wouldn’t worry about their scores.

The results of the pre and post test showed significant increase in
student knowledge about all functions of human resource management
and their attitude toward human resource development.

Besides, students’ attitude toward teamwork was evaluated before and

after the course. Students showed significant improvement in attitudes
towards teamwork.

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 Appendices

Appendix 1: Group assignment activity

All the students are asked to write the answer to the four following questions on an index card:

1. What are two of your personality main strengths?

2. What are two of your personality main weaknesses?

3. When working in a team what are two of the main contributions you can make?

4. When working in a team what are two of the main shortcomings you have?

The students don’t need to put their name on the index card; instead they are asked to write a secret code
on it. The instructor collects the index cards and reads the code and the answers on each index card
aloud. Students are instructed to write down the codes they like to choose as a teammate. Then students
are asked to stand-up and walk round the class and find out who the codes they selected belong to and
negotiate forming their groups.

This activity would give the students some basic information about their classmates and helps the match
between team members. The students may be advised to appreciate diversity and select both males and
female members in their groups.

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 Appendix 2: Exercises

 Exercise #1: selecting a company:

With this exercise, the students, who have been already grouped together and just met, begin their work.
Each group has to choose an organization, based on their preferences.
Groups are given the upmost freedom in selecting their organization: it can be the workplace of
one member of the group; an organization to which one member of the group has information access; one
of the Fortune top 500 companies; or a company listed in the 100 Best Companies to Work For, or it can
be their department or school. In general, every organization to which the group has information access is
acceptable and the organization size does not matter at all.
To perform this task, a blank form is given to the students, and each group must fill at least 80%
of the form. The reason for not asking them to fully fill the form is their probable information gap(s).
Note that although it seems like an easy choice, but it is also a highly important decision to make.
Selecting an arbitrary organization without enough study, may confront the group members with many
problems later. For example, if they wish to continue their career in an international level, selecting a
successful international company would be the best choice, because by doing so, completing the
exercises they can achieve a realistic view of the activities of such companies. Otherwise, if they intend to
run an entrepreneurial business, or work in the field of human resource management, they would better
choose an organization in accordance with their career plans.
Moreover, choosing an organization only provides the students with a framework that will be
assumed as a judgment criterion for other exercises. It means that students just collect the basic
information from these organizations, and all other relevant activities are designed within the groups. For
instance, in the evaluation of the exercise concerning the compensation and benefits, it is essential to have
some real information about the organization’s costs and possible budget that can be allocated to the
exercise.
You need to search in order to select an organization, and this is not possible in the classroom.
The students will be given enough time to do this exercise out-of-class. Students also have to gather some
information about the organization’s organizational culture. This can be done visiting the websites and
internet sources or interview with the organization’s staff and direct observation. By performing this
exercise, the students should provide a relatively clear image of the organization. For more information
about the issue of organizational culture, see a reliable textbook of Organizational Behavior.

 Exercise #2: Job Analysis

This exercise consists of two main steps:
- First step: (preparing the workflow process ): The students must have already read the relevant
chapter of the textbook and/or the slides related to workflow process. Then each group has to
prepare a scheme of the workflow process in its chosen organization. They can focus on only one
product or service, in case many multiple or complicated activities take place in the organization.
Workflow process here means the process of transforming inputs into output. Students should
illustrate this process through a simple diagram (no need to get involved in the details). The
purpose of preparing this diagram is to achieve an image of general processes and the jobs
defined in the organization.
- Second step: (preparing the job description and job specification): After depicting the
organization’s workflow process, each group considers one of its jobs, and prepares the job
description and the job qualification requirements. Group members are expected to visit the
O*net website (at www.onetonline.org/), communicate with people on the job, or use other
methods mentioned in the textbook, hence collect the required information to do the exercise.

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 After fulfilling the exercise with the participation of each and every member, groups e-mail the
text file to the corresponding class TA.
Note: Scrutinize your selection of the job. Try to select a job, relatively interesting for all
group members, or a job that they are willing to learn and achieve more knowledge about. This
job will be the benchmark for all upcoming exercises, and a careless choice may result in lower
team-work quality, hence mitigate the performance outcome and assessment results.

 Exercise #3: Job Advertisement

In this exercise, each group has to create a job advertisement, designing a poster for the job they have
already analyzed. The students must have already studied the relevant chapter of the textbook and/or
the slides related to a job advertisement.
It is also suggested that they search various internet sources, and obtain the characteristics of an
illustrious advertisement for their group’s selected job. Seeing a number of successful instances of
these advertisements can be of good help to create a better job advertisement.
Each group is expected to do their best in designing an innovative and effective poster, through
consensus and demonstrating sensitivity to the advertisement’s design, content, etc. They are
permitted to consult with different experts, but the main focus is on the consensus among group
members. The advertisement can be prepared for online announcement, newspapers and magazines,
or interorganizational or extraorganizational advertising.

 Exercise #4: Job Interview

In this level, the groups have to perform the job interview for the job they have already advertised. In one
class session, each group will do the role playing by interviewing a student, considered as the job
applicant. Each group has already devised their interview questionnaire. They also refer to their textbook
and/or lesson slides to select the best interview method among the different methods they have learned,
and develop a scenario for the day of the interview. All group members ought to play a role in the
interview process. It will be a group interview, meaning that all group members interview with the job
applicant.
All job advertisements, created in the previous excercise will already be emailed to all class
members. Each student can volunteer and apply for one advertisement, and send his/her resume for the
advertising group. The students themselves are responsible for coordination between the applicant and the
interview group. Thus, each group has to coordinate for the interview with one job applicant.

 Exercise #5: Training

In this exercise, group members have to refer to their already prepared job description, and select some
items for training. Then, via consensus and considering the existing training methods, design a training
course for the selected items.
It is expected that groups go beyond the conventional training methods, and try their best to
design a creative and effective training course, likely to result in learning. Each group must describe the
chosen method and the reason for choosing it, suggested trainer or trainers in the course and the reason
for selecting them, the course assessment criteria, and methods for measuring the course effectiveness.

 Exercise #6: Performance Assessment

To complete this exercise, the students have to design a methodology for performance assessment of a
family of jobs, including their already selected job. The reason for involving in a category of jobs is that
organizations usually design performance assessment methods for a family of jobs (and not a single job).
Individuals are expected to design an appropriate and feasible method, considering the condition under

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which their selected organization is run. Moreover, the groups must find the required blank templates for
their designed method, by searching the internet, and make them consistent with their selected
organization’s conditions.