University of Baltimore

SYLLABUS for
Personnel Psychology
APPL 644 Spring 2016

Instructor: J. Peter Leeds, Ph.D. 202-321-8938

Email:
Office hrs:By appointment
Classes meet: Thursday 6:30 PM to 8:PM; Room LC 207

Schedule of dates and assignments - Overview:

Date / Session / Meeting / Chapter / Project Due
28-Jan / 1 / Inclass / 1 Org, Wk, & App Psyc
4-Feb / 2 / Inclass / 9 Job Analysis / Select Job
11-Feb / 3 / Inclass / 2 Law and HR–Guest speaker
18-Feb / 4 / Inclass / 3 People, Decisions, Systems / JA report
25-Feb / 5 / Inclass / 4 Performance Criteria
3-Mar / 6 / Inclass / 5 Performance Management / PA SPSS*
10-Mar / 7 / Inclass / 6 Individual Differences
17-Mar / Spring break / No Class
24-Mar / 8 / Inclass / 7 Validation & Use of Ind Diff Measures
31-Mar / 9 / Inclass / 8 Fairness in Decisions / PA report
7-Apr / 10 / Inclass / 12 Selection Methods: Part 1-Guest Lecturer
14-Apr / 11 / Inclass / 13 Selection Methods: Part 2 / Selection SPSS*
21-Apr / 12 / Inclass / 14 Decision Making for Selection15 & 16 T&D: Design, Implement and Measure + Pre-reading for Item Writing Workshop
28-May / 13 / Inclass / Item Writing Workshop / Selection report
5-May / 14 / Inclass / 5 Class Presentations (1 per team) / PowerPoint(s)
12-May / 15 / Inclass / Cumulative Final Exam

I. Course Description

This course will provide a broad overview of industrial psychology & Industrial psychology. It focuses on measuring the characteristics of people and jobs and maximizing the fit between them through the HR functions (e.g., job analysis, recruitment, selection, performance appraisal, and legal issues).

II. Course Objectives: At the end of the course you should be able to:

· Identify and discuss the major variables, methods, findings, and controversies associated with industrial psychology,

· Demonstrate core competencies in:
1. Conducting a job analysis
2. Developing Criteria for measuring job performance
3. Developing a valid applicant test battery
Demonstrate your ability to:
1. Analyze personnel data using SPSS
2. Write a technical report for management

· Student Learning Outcomes:

1. Use the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to analysis a set of data in order to document and show evidence for the measurement properties and validity of a selection tool.

2. Explain and evaluate the theories, research, and practices within the field of Personnel Psychology including processes regarding staffing, job analysis, training and development.

3. Demonstrate how the theories and research in Personnel Psychology can be applied to help solve real-world business problems.

4. Discuss the complex issues of law and ethics facing Personnel Psychology today and how these issues affect workers, organizations, and society.

5. Describe and discuss important constructs in personnel research (e.g., job analysis, performance appraisal, criterion development, competency modeling, forms of test validation evidence, etc.).

6. Integrate knowledge of job analysis, performance appraisals, and test development to compose a set of reports in American Psychological Association (APA) style and deliver a PowerPoint presentation based on those reports.

III. Class format:

· Assigned chapters, readings, and projects will be discussed in class.

· You are required to answer at least three (3) end of chapter questions for EACH of the 1-16 chapters (Chapter 10 is excluded).

o The questions are posted in Sakai in the Forums section as Topics under each chapter.

o Post your responses in that topic area along with your personal identifying information (should be captured automatically).

o Compose a ½ to 1 paragraph response to each of the 3 questions

o We will review and discuss some of these in class as time permits.

· Work on projects (three) will be done outside of class

· Sakai and Team Viewer will be used for discussion of course readings and projects: (Three Class Projects)

· On-Line Class/tutorial sessions (if applicable) will be held using Team Viewer group meeting software (dates and times TBA). Download the TeamViewer software at http://www.teamviewer.com

· Participation in assignments such as the B-PAD (Behavioral Personnel Assessment Device Video SJT) assessment systems. For this assignment you are to complete the on-line high fidelity video assessment to be made available to you at http://www.bpad.com/. Then compose a 1 page reaction to the assessment. More information to follow.

· The cumulative Final Exam (May 12) will cover the chapters 1-16 (except 10)

IV Texts:

· Required: Cascio, W. F., & Aguinis, H. (2011). Applied Psychology in Human Resource Management (7th Ed.). Prentice Hall.
ISBN: 13: 978-0-13-609095-3

· Optional: Landy, Frank J., & Conte, Jeffrey M. (2010). Work in the 21st Century: An Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology. 3rd edition Blackwell Publishing ISBN- 978-1-4051-9025-1

V. Course requirements for each student*:

Completion of 3 team projects** / 15% (5% each)
Quality of answers to end-of-chapter questions / 10%
Final Cumulative Examination / 65%
Class Participation / 5%
B-PAD review and write-up / 5%
Grade Scale: 90-100 A; 80-89 B; 70-79 C / 100%

* Failure to contribute to projects and/or post answers to end-of-chapter chapter questions may result in a grade decrement.
** Students will work in teams of 5 to complete each of three projects with equal participation form each member. A team leader will be assigned or better yet elected to each project.

Session/ location / Date/ Chapters in texts

(1) Jan 28 Chap1 Organizations, Work, & Applied Psychology

(2) Feb 4 Chap 9 Job Analysis –

Decide on Job to use for projects

(3) Feb 11Chap 2 The Law and Human Resources Management - Guest Speaker

(4) Feb 18 Chap 3 People, Decisions, and the Systems Approach

Job analysis project due

(5) Feb 25Chap 4: Criteria: Concepts, Measurement, and Evaluation

(6) Mar 3

Chap 5 Performance Management

How to develop Performance Appraisal Measures

(7) Mar 10 Chap6 Measuring & Interpretation of IndividualDifferences

Mar 17 **** Spring Break ****

(8)Mar 24 Chap 7 Validation & Use of Individual Differences Measures

(9)Mar 31 Chap 8 Fairness in Decisions

Performance Appraisal Project Report Due

(10)Apr 7 Chap 12 Selection Methods: Part 1

(11) Apr 14 Chap 13 Selection Methods: Part II

Selection Procedure SPSS Data structure Due

(12) Apr 21 Chap 14 Decision Making for Selection15 & 16 T&D: Design, Implement and Measure + Pre-reading for Item Writing Workshop

(13)May 28 Item-Writing Workshop

Selection Procedure Project and Report Due

(14) May 5 Class Presentations

(15) May 12 Cumulative Final Examination

Overview of Class Policies:

Class attendance is expected. Students who miss classes for any reason are responsible for all of the material covered in class. Please contact classmates for any missed material.

2. I prefer to communicate through my Gmail account (). We will use this for all correspondence and assignment submissions.

Make-up exams/assignments are not allowed unless under documented circumstances. Please contact me as soon as you know you are not able to come to class on exam day or complete an assignment as assigned.

4. Any evidence of cheating will not be tolerated and will result in a 0 on the assignment or an F in the course, depending upon the severity (See Academic honesty section below).

The following behaviors are disrespectful, and therefore, inappropriate:
Conversing with other students when the instructor or another student is speaking.
Use of cell-phones, pagers, or computers for purposes other than taking notes.
Disrespectful actions such as obscene language, harassment of any kind, rude remarks (to any member of class) or any other action that will interfere with student learning.

Class Attendance: University rules related to excused and unexcused absences are located on-line at http://www.ubalt.edu/academics/uploads/catalogs/gradcatalog_14_16/14-16%20grad%20catalog--academicpolicies.pdf. While attendance is not mandatory it is expected that you will attend each class, as much of the material that will be covered on exams comes from lectures and discussions in class. If you are absent, it is your responsibility to get any materials or information you missed.

University Policy – Use of Turnitin.com: As a part of an institution-wide effort to ensure the originality of student work, the University of Baltimore licenses Turnitin, a commercial text matching service that analyzes students’ submissions against its own archive of student papers, articles and web sites to report on student originality and identify possible plagiarism. Incorrect use of other individuals’ work will likely result in plagiarism charges, which can lead to a failing grade on an assignment, a failing grade in the course, or even suspension from UB. All UB faculty members reserve the right to use this or other measures to evaluate your work for originality and proper attribution. Not understanding the definition of plagiarism or improper attribution are not excuses for failure to abide by originality requirements in this or any other course.