Graduate School of Management University of California, Davis Winter 2003 Professor Beth Bechky babechky@ucdavis.edu AOB IV rm. 147, 752-0911 Office Hours: Monday 3-5 pm MGT 224 Human Resource Management: Managing in High-Tech Environments Course Overview, Readings, Requirements, and Schedule Course Overview In the course of your career you will need to make decisions regarding how to manage, compensate, and motivate people. Northern California is a region with a high technology, knowledge intensive workforce. This course provides an understanding of how firms and managers make choices about organizing such a labor force. The aim of this course is to provide students with a solid grounding in the management of labor, work, and the employment relationship. In MGT 224, students will examine firms human resource systems, the interrelated policies and practices for managing people. The course is not intended to be a preparation course for human resource managers. Instead, we will focus on how firms organize their labor force in response to the environments they face. We will investigate the changing workforce and workplace, with a particular emphasis on high-technology workplaces. The course is intended for students who seek to understand how to strategically structure, manage, and motivate their labor force. In MGT 224, we explore several kinds of human resource systems, from the historical systems in the US to the current ways firms manage workers in high technology and knowledge intensive environments such as software development, engineering, consulting, and filmmaking. We will examine relevant features of the environment external to firms -- labor markets, product markets, laws and regulations, and technology. We will then look at how these conditions affect the choices firms make in governing and managing their workers the decisions as to wages, benefits, working conditions, ways of organizing work, and other human resource policies and practices. Students will develop an understanding of these choices by analyzing the systems fit with the environment and the consequences of policies and practices under different systems.
Required Readings Course packet available at Navins. There is no textbook for the course. The readings are drawn from a number of sources. They include some academic articles, excerpts from longer works, cases, and short articles from the popular and business presses. Some additional materials may be distributed as the course progresses. Course Requirements Your grade will be based on (1) A group project comparatively analyzing the human resource systems of two organizations in the same industry. The project will consist of a 10-12 page paper as well as a group presentation on the final day of class. It is due on March 11 th and is worth 40% of your grade. More details will be given on the project as the quarter gets underway. (2) One individual case analysis of your choosing, which is worth 20% of your grade. We will be discussing cases in sessions 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. Your 2-4 page analysis is due at the beginning of the session in which the case is discussed. Good analyses will present the case issues in relation to the course concepts and the other readings for the session. (3) A short (5 page) book review on a human resource or industrial relations book of your choosing. As much as I would like to, I cannot possibly cover every human resource topic in a 10 week course. Therefore, I would like you to think about what human resource issue most interests you, find a book that discusses it, and review this book for the class. Good reviews will (a) have an opinion backed with evidence and (b) relate the book to the course issues/concepts. You will e-mail the title and a short description of your book to me by February 11 th. The review is worth 25% of your final grade, and is due March 4 th. All students in the class will receive copies of all reviews. (4) Participation. Participation counts for 15% of your grade, and includes class attendance, informed involvement in class discussions, cases and exercises. Participation is evaluated seriously: I appreciate timely, relevant, interesting contributions that are constructive and contribute toward moving the discussion forward. 2
MGT 224 Winter 2003 Class Schedule and Reading Assignments Session 1: Introduction and Course Overview (Tues, Jan 7) CASE: Charges of Exploitation Roil a Catfish Plant, New York Times. (Distributed in class.) Session 2: Employment Relationships and the New Deal Framework (Tues, Jan 14) Historical Evolution of the U.S. Collective Bargaining System, Thomas Kochan, Harry Katz, and Robert McKersie, Chap. 2 from The Transformation of American Industrial Relations. The Development of Internal Labor Markets in American Manufacturing Firms, Sanford M. Jacoby, Chap.2 in Internal Labor Markets, Paul S. Osterman, ed. Fundamentals of Scientific Management, Frederick W. Taylor, in Working in America, Amy Wharton, editor. Session 3: From Job Enrichment to High Involvement Work Systems (Tues, Jan 21) Is the New Deal Collapsing? With what might it be replaced? George Strauss, Industrial Relations, 34, p. 329-349. A new strategy for job enrichment J Richard Hackman, Greg Oldham, Robert Janson, and Kenneth Purdy, California Management Review, 1975, v. 17, p. 57-71. Producing competitive advantage through the effective management of people, Jeffrey Pfeffer, Academy of Management Executive, 1995, p. 55-72 CASE: How I Learned to Let My Workers Lead, Ralph Stayer, Harvard Business Review November-December 1990, p. 66-83. What are the most important characteristics of the new HR system at Johnsonville Sausage? How does this system fit with the environment? What outcomes result from this system? Should Ralph Stayer have let the workers vote on acquiring another plant? In class: Hand out engineering cases 3
Session 4: Science and Scientists (Tues, Jan 28) The Normative Structure of Science, p. 267-278 in RK Merton, The Sociology of Science. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. 1973. Autonomy in the Industrial R&D Lab, Lotte Bailyn, Human Resource Management 24(2), p. 129-146. CASE: Perlegen Sciences. Linda Hill. What are the characteristics of the HR system at Perlegen? How do they fit with the environment? What would you recommend to Margus with regard to integrating Brandeau? What would you suggest to Brandeau? In class: Discuss interviewing techniques Session 5: Technology and Engineers (Tues, Feb 4) The dual ladder: motivational solution or managerial delusion? Thomas J. Allen and Ralph Katz, R&D Management 16(2), p. 185-197. CASE: Soul of a New Machine. Tracy Kidder. What are the characteristics of the HR system? Why did these guys work so hard? Comparing engineering case chapters: Engineering culture: Control and commitment in a high tech corporation. Gideon Kunda, 1992. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. The social production of technical work. Peter Whalley, 1986. Albany: SUNY Press. Finding Time: How Corporations, Individuals, and Families Can Benefit from New Work Practices. Leslie Perlow, 1997. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 4
Session 6: Knowledge Work and the Professions (Tues, Feb 11) The Professions, Ch. 4, p. 64-83 in Working: Sociological Perspectives, Robert A. Rothman, 1998, Prentice-Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ. Professional and managerial work in the 21 st Century, Ch. 1 in Professional work: A sociological approach, Kevin T. Leicht and Mary L. Fennel, 2001. Blackwell Publishers: Malden, MA. Hired Guns: Partners and Associates in Large Law Firms, Paul Hirsch. CASE: The Case of the Part-Time Partner, Gary Loveman. Should Rick, Julie, and Tim be made partners? Why or why not? What are the right tests for promotion to partnership? Happy President s Weekend: No class Feb 18! Session 7: Information Technology and the Changing Workplace (Tues, Feb 25) Two cheers for the virtual office. Thomas Davenport and K. Pearlson, 1998. Sloan Management Review, 39, pp. 51-65. Learning from Notes: Organizational Issues in Groupware Implementation Wanda Orlikowski, 1993. Information Society, 9, 4, pp. 237-250. What s your strategy for managing knowledge? Morten Hansen, Nitin Nohria, Thomas Tierney, 1999. Harvard Business Review, 77, 2, p. 106-118. CASE: Managing knowledge at Booz-Allen and Hamilton: Knowledge on-line and off. Charles Galunic and John Weeks. What are the characteristics of Booz-Allen s new knowledge management system, and how do these relate to the HR system? How does the new system fit with Booz-Allen s strategy? 5
Session 8: Managing Network and Project-Based Organizations (Tues, Mar 4) The Contingency Work Force, Jaclyn Fierman, Fortune, Jan. 24, 1994, p. 3 Temporary Clerical Workers, Robert E. Parker in Working in America, p. 447-459. Paradox in project-based enterprise: The case of film making, Robert J. DeFillippi and Michael B. Arthur, 1998. California Management Review, 40, p. 125-139. Net-working for a living: Irish software developers in the global workplace. Sean O Riain, in Global Ethnography, Michael Burawoy et.al., eds, Berkeley: University of California Press. Session 9: Group presentations Wrap-up: 21 st Century Work and Management (Tues, Mar 11) The New Managerial Work, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business Review, November-December, 1989, pp. 85-92. The Shamrock Organization, Chapter 4 from The Age of Unreason, Charles Handy. In class: Group project presentations 6