HCA 502 ARTICLE APPLICATION PROJECT – SPRING 2020 (online)

As you know the articles for this course are broken down into 6 parts (topical areas). The main purpose of this assignment is to have you use some of these articles for various HR initiatives that are relevant to your current or former workplace. To accomplish this goal you need to do the following:

1) For each of the 6 parts identify ONE article that you believe is relevant to an organization that you work (or have worked) for. Please note you must select one article per part . You cannot skip one part and do two articles from another part. By the end of this course you will have selected a total of SIX articles for this assignment.

2) For each selected article your first paragraph or two will be a summary (about 5 or 6 sentences) of that article. Label this section: PART 1 : SUMMARY . Make sure you put the title of the article above this section.

3) The next section will be a brief description of a company you work at (or have worked at) and a problem that this company has (or had) that relates to the article you selected above. For example, your company may have had a problem with: high turnover in a given job, poor employee morale in a certain department, weak customer satisfaction, sexual harassment claims, etc. This section should also be a paragraph or two. Label this section: PART 2: PROBLEM .

4) The third section will be a description of a HR initiative (e.g., new policy, revised procedure, additional benefit regarding…) that is relevant to the selected article and the situation you described above in part two. In this paragraph please indicate why this initiative will address the problem/issue you described in part 2. Label this section: PART 3: HR INITIATIVE .

5) In the fourth section identify the main implementation challenge you anticipate to your HR initiative. For example will your initiative cost the company a significant amount money? Do you expect resistance to your initiative from any particular individual or group? If yes, why? How much time might it take to get people on board with your idea or to get your idea up and running? Will there be any structural changes needed to the company (e.g., division of labor, supervisory changes, revisions to labor agreements)? Label this section: PART 4: IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGE .

6) The final section should describe how you would evaluate your initiative. What criteria will be looked at to see if your initiative was effective? How much time after implementation should this data be collected? Who should do this assessment? Label this section: PART 5: EVALUATION .

In summary, you are writing five sections on each of the 6 articles you select. Each article analysis should not exceed three-spaced pages. Each article analysis will be scored based on the scoring system below:

Scoring Guide (20% for each section)

Part 1: Article Summary

In 3 or 4 sentences the student correctly and clearly summarizes the key points in the chosen article. Make sure the exact title of the article and the author(s) is identified in the first sentence or in the heading above this section.

Part 2: Problem section

In a paragraph or two the student briefly describes their current or former company. Then the student describes a problem or issue this company is having that relates to the article in part 1. The student’s writing is clear, complete, and professional.

Part 3: HR initiative section

The student comes up with a HR initiative that addresses the problem described in part 2. The student’s writing is clear, complete, and professional.

Part 4: Implementation challenge section

The student identifies a major implementation challenge associated with his/her initiative described in part 3. The student’s writing is clear, complete, and professional.

Part 5: Evaluation section

The student describes how he/she would evaluate the success of his/her initiative. The criteria that will be used and when the data will be collected is also described in this section. The student’s writing is clear, complete, and professional.

Please make sure you use these headings in your paper so it’s clear to me when one section ends and the next one begins.