School of Labor and Employment Relations

Current Students

LER Courses

The School of Labor and Employment Relations is a freestanding graduate program that offers an excellent interdisciplinary education in employment relations. We interact with faculty in psychology, law, business administration, human resource education, and economics with regard to classes and professional resources. Many of our professors have joint appointments in these departments. This allows for flexibility in our curriculum and it gives the students the ability to individually tailor their program of study.

To receive a Master's in human resources and industrial relations (M.H.R.I.R.), students must complete a 48 hour program. Many of the classes available to LER students are cross-listed with other programs. Our students graduate from our program with a well-rounded education that has exposed them to a variety of ideas and disciplines. Additionally, many of our classes require the students to work in teams and make presentations. Our students gain not only knowledge in our program, but also the skills necessary to make them valuable additions to your organization.

Below is a listing of courses that fall under each of the different subject distribution areas. Scroll down to find a numerically ordered list of course descriptions of our required and elective classes. Students usually take 4 courses per semester. Additionally, most students find an internship during the summer to utilize the knowledge and skills that they have learned in the classroom. Among the 48 hours of course work, there are two required courses:

LER 591-Employment Relations Systems
LER 593-Quantitative Methods in Labor and Employment Relations (statistics)

Additionally, one course in each subject distribution area is required. The four subject distribution areas below are: Human Resource Management and Organizational Behavior, Union Management and Labor Relations Policy, Labor Markets and Employment and International Human Resource Management. The five remaining electives can be tailored to suit the student's particular interests and career aspirations.

LER Course Descriptions

412 ECONOMICS OF POVERTY
Same as Economics 412. Analysis of the nature and causes of poverty with special emphasis on critical evaluation of programs to combat poverty in the United States. Prerequisite: Economics 102 and 103 or equivalent. 3 undergrad hours; 2 or 4 grad hours.

434 EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS
Same as Finance 434. Studies the structure and financial issues involved in employee benefit plans, specifically group life, disability medical care plans, qualified pensions and profit-sharing plans. Prerequisite: Finance 230, Economics 340, or Business Administration 313, or graduate standing. 3 undergrad hours; 3 or 4 grad hours.

440 ECONOMICS OF LABOR MARKETS
Same as Economics 440. A study of the microeconomic determinants of labor demand and supply, economic effects of unions, and macroeconomic labor market problems. Prerequisite: Economics 302 or equivalent. 3 undergrad hours; 2 to 4 grad hours.

450 EUROPEAN WORKING CLASS HISTORY, 1750 TO THE PRESENT
Same as History 450 and Sociology 422. Comparative study of the rise of the working class in European countries; formation, culture and daily life; stratification with the working class; workers in organized labor and revolutionary movements. Prerequisite: One year of college history or consent of the instructor. 3 undergrad hours; 2 or 4 grad hours.

480 U.S.WORK CLASS HISTORY SINCE 1780
Same as History 480. Focuses on working class formation, culture, ideas, and organization; examines daily experience of work and community life; special emphasis on race, ethnicity, and gender in the process of class formation; labor relations and the changing patterns of working class protest and accommodation. Prerequisite: One year of college level history or consent of instructor. 3 undergrad hours; 2 or 5 grad hours.

522 GOVERNMENT REGULATION
Focuses on federal and state legislation, court and agency rulings, and executive orders that regulate a wide range of private and public employment practices including: Title VII and Affirmative Action Compliance; American with Disabilities Act; drug-, HIV-, and genetic testing; Fair Labor Standards Act; Civil Service procedures; Equal Pay Act, Family and Medical Leave Act, and employment-at-will; constitutional protection for employees, job-applicants, and others. Prerequisite: Labor and Industrial Relations 547 or 591, or consent of instructor. 4 grad hours.

523 ORGANIZATIONAL FUNDAMENTALS FOR HR
Increases students' effectiveness in analyzing and understanding organizations and the organizational context. It relies on the case method and focuses a number of important themes such as organization design; strategy; decision-making; and culture. In order to prepare students for the various transformations that they will experience in their careers, it examines many of these topics in the context of organizational change. Exposes students to basic ideas about key organizational topic - as well as a number of applications of these ideas - in order to give them a framework for organizing past experience. The topics covered do not offer a recipe for what to do in all situations, but rather give students a set of skills and different ways of thinking that can help them address novel problems they will face throughout their lives.

530 FOUNDATIONS OF INDUSTRIAL-ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
Same as Psychology 530. Theoretical and empirical foundations of various content areas in industrial-organizational psychology; sample topics include employee selection and placement, training, human factors engineering, work motivation, employee attitudes, leadership, and organizational theory. Prerequisite: Twelve hours of psychology or consent of instructor. 4 grad hours.

540 LABOR ECONOMICS I
Same as Economics 440. Survey of recent trends in the labor force, of real and money earnings, and of the distribution of national income used as the basis for a critical economic analysis of contemporary English and American wage theory. Prerequisite: Economics 302 and 303. 4 hours.

541 LABOR ECONOMICS II
Same as Economics 541. Economic issues and implications involved in hours of work, employment and unemployment, and trade union institutionalism (the impact of the trade union upon the basic institution of a free enterprise economy); emphasis in all cases on the development of appropriate public policy. Prerequisite: Economics 302 and 303. 4 hours.

542 COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
Same as Economics 542. Examination of: social values and social science concepts to develop a framework for explaining the basis and shape of collective bargaining as it has been practiced in the United States; government and law, unions, and employers as part of the development of this framework; the environment of collective bargaining with respect to the role of economics and bargaining structure; the negotiating process as the interactive basis for union-management relations; conflict and conflict resolution as part of the negotiating process; wage and other effects of collective bargaining as bargaining outcomes; contemporary changes in union management relations. Case materials and exercises may be used to supplement course materials. Prerequisite: Consent of instructor. 4 hours. Graduate credit is not given for both Economics 343 and LER 542.

543 WORKPLACE DISPUTE RESOLUTION
Same as Economics 543 and Law 665. Examination of the use of procedures to resolve employment disputes in both union and nonunion workplaces; comparative analysis of grievance arbitration, interest arbitration, mediation, fact-finding, and combinations of these procedures; special emphasis given to the role of third party intervention. 3 professional hours; 4 grad hours. Professional credit only applicable to Law 665.

545 ECONOMICS OF HUMAN RESOURCES
Same as Human Resource Education 534. A study of the economics of personnel with the modern corporation. Topics include hiring, promotion, evaluation, discrimination, raiding, job definition, pay schemes, benefits, and design of work. Prerequisite: LER 593 or equivalent or consent of the instructor. 4 hours.

547 LABOR LAW I
Same as Law 662. A study of the National Labor Relations Act as amended, the pre-act history of the labor movement, and the judiciary's response thereto, with emphasis on understanding the problems, experiments, and forces leading to the enactment; includes the negotiation and administration of the collective bargaining agreement, especially the grievance arbitration procedure, its operation and place in national labor policy; and explores the relationship of the individual and the union. Prerequisite: Graduate standing or completion of first year of Law curriculum. 3 or 4 professional hours or 4 grad hours.

548 TOPICS IN PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
Same as Business Administration 511. Examines the organization and administration of the personnel function in management; the relations of personnel administration to operating departments and the scope of business and industrial personnel services; analytical appraisal of policies and practices in selected areas of personnel administration, such as selection and training, carried out through case studies and direct industrial contracts; and specific consideration given to problems up to and including placing the person on a job. Prerequisite: Consent of the instructor. 4 hours.

551 LABOR LAW AND PUBLIC POLICY
Same as Law 360. Analyzes current major policy issues in labor relations and employment law through the concepts and techniques of the lawyer and the labor relations specialist. Prerequisite: For law students, LAW 662 or consent of instructor; for LER students: one semester of LER course work or consent of instructor. 3 professional hours; 4 grad hours.

554 COMPARATIVE EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS SYSTEMS
Same as Law 666. Examines employment systems in selected developed, newly industrialized, and developing economies. Explores employment systems in the context of regional and political integration. Topics include the organization and policies of unions and employers, as well as management-labor relations, and the roles of firms, national governments, and international organizations in shaping employment systems. Emphasis will be placed on the analytical tools needed to make multi-country comparisons, to link theory and practice, and to understand the reasons for major changes in the nature of employment relations. 3 professional hours; 4 grad hours. Professional credit only applicable to Law 666.

556 INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS THEORY
An integrated analysis of the principles of labor and industrial relations through the study of the works of the major theorists and their critics. Prerequisite: Consent of instructor. 4 credit hours.

557 HUMAN RESOURCES THEORY
Continuation of LER 556. Focuses on contemporary research in human research management and related fields. 4 grad hours.

558 STUDENT-FACULTY WORKSHOP
Training and experience for Ph.D. students in the application of social science and industrial relations theory and research methodology to contemporary industrial relations problems through presentation and discussion of faculty and student research. Ph.D. students are required to make presentations and to participate in workshop discussions during the entire period of their campus residency. 4 hours. Approved for both letter and S/U grading.

559 MICRO RESEARCH METHODS
The purpose of this course is to provide doctoral students a foundation for conducting independent, scholarly micro research (i.e., individuals or small groups as the primary unit of analysis) by addressing the components of the research process. This foundation for conducting independent research is based on the research process as an open system of interconnected choices that unfold sequentially: (1) Choosing and Framing a Research Question, (2) Choosing an Hypothesis to Address the Research Question, (3) Choosing a Strategy and Design, (4) Choosing Modes for Treating Constructs, (5) Choosing Forms for Converting Data into Observations, (6) Choosing Procedures to Analyze Data, and (7) Choosing Conclusions for Interpreting Results. 4 grad hours.

561 COMPENSATION SYSTEMS
Compensation theory and practice. This course addresses the theoretical and practical issues associated with the design of effective compensation systems. The design phases include establishing internal equity, external equity, and individual equity. Budgeting and administration are also addressed. Case analyses and computer simulations may be used to supplement course materials. 4 grad hours.

562 HUMAN RESOURCES PLANNING AND STAFFING
Examines conceptual issues, policies and practices relating to the attraction, selection, development, and planning for the most effective utilization of human resources. 4 grad hours.

563 HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND COMPUTER APPLICATIONS IN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
Design, implementation, and evaluation of human resource information systems (HRIS). Topics to be covered include fundamental database characteristics, information systems and management processes, systems analysis and needs assessment in Human Resources and Industrial Relations departments, implementing HRI systems, the use of HRI systems to solve organizational problems, information systems and labor relations. A series of cases and computer exercises, which will play a major role in determining the course grade, will be used. Regular seminars and some laboratory sessions will be scheduled throughout the semester. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in Labor and Industrial Relations or consent of instructor.

564 HUMAN RESOURCE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
Examination of: theories of behavioral change; application of these theories to training needs, especially with reference to the internationalization of business, changes in labor demand, demographic trends in the United States, and increasing work force diversification; advantages and disadvantages of the various training and development techniques; relation of training to organizational strategies; methods of training evaluation. Special attention is given to the need for and methods of cross-cultural training. Students develop training exercises for class presentation and participation. 2 grad hours.

565 HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT AND STRATEGY
Same as Business Administration 512. Designed to provide integration across the specific functional areas of the human resources management (HRM) field, while at the same time demonstrating the linkages horizontally within HRM and vertically with strategic management of the firm. This case-focused course places emphasis on human resources issues of strategic importance to the organization. Prerequisite: One prior course from the Organizational Behavior and Personnel Management distribution subject area list (in the M.H.R.I.R. degree requirements for the graduate degree in LER). 4 grad hours.

566 INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human Resource management issues examined from the perspective of the multinational firm. Topics include globalization and human resource strategy, management and the structure of multinational firms, dealing with intercultural differences, selecting employees for foreign assignments, training and developing expatriate employees, evaluation and compensation of employees in international assignments. Individual and group projects. Prerequisite: Graduate standing. 4 grad hours.

567 NEGOTIATION IN HUMAN RESOURCE DECISIONS
General survey course concerning the strategies and tactics of bargaining and negotiation, with special emphasis on applications in human resource management contexts. Topics covered will include: the structure of negotiated outcomes; integrative bargaining tactics; distributive bargaining tactics; negotiation planning; power, persuasion and influence; communication; negotiating in teams and groups; negotiating using 3rd parties (arbitrators, mediators, agents); cross-cultural negotiations. Students will discuss negotiation issues and build negotiation skills through a series of experiential exercises and cases. Credit is not given for both this course and MBA 505 (Sections W1 and W2: Managerial Negotiations). Prerequisite: Graduate standing. An introductory course in social psychology or organizational behavior is preferred but not required.2 grad hours (Eight week course). Students may not receive credit for both this course and Master of B ADM 505 (Section J: Managerial Negotiations.).

568 FIRM PERFORMANCE AND HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
The purpose of this course is to enable student to understand some basic ideas about and measures of firm performance with heavy emphasis on the role of human resource managers. Students will gain an understanding of how human resource professionals fit into the organization, structure, and function of business firms. Many basic ideas from the field of finance will be studied. The course covers theoretical ideas and has many empirical, policy, and practitioner-relevant applications, all with the goal of providing human resource managers fundamental financial analysis tools to enable them to function effectively in their post-graduate corporate workplaces. 4 grad hours.

569 POWER AND INFLUENCE FOR HRM
This course explores what HR managers need to know to overcome resistance to change, deal with the inevitable stresses associated with change, and implement appropriate change strategies. Topics covered include: (1) assessing bases of power and influence; (2) practicing diagnostic skills to understand behavior in an organizational context; (3) building effective work relationships, both in groups and on a one-to-one basis; and (4) leadership, in terms of alignment, organizational change, and learning to lead. 4 grad hours.

570 LEADERSHIP FOR HR MANAGERS
In contemporary organizations, the HR function is often called on to serve a variety of leadership roles. Thus, HR managers will not only need to learn how to utilize and improve their leadership skills in different and changing contexts, but also how to help other employees become effective leaders. The goals of this course are (1) to analyze and discuss a number of key frameworks that will provide students with knowledge of leadership in different types of organizations, and (2) to provide students with practical tools to help them make sense of their own on-the-job experiences and equip them with basic action-planning skills that they can use on the job.

590A INDIVIDUAL TOPICS
Students in labor and industrial relations may register for this unit with the consent of their curriculum adviser and the adviser under whom the student will perform individual study of research. Such individual work may include special study in a subject matter for which no course is available or an individual research project, including on-the-job research in industry, which is not being undertaken for a thesis. 0 to 8 grad hours.

590BTS BETWEEN THEORY AND STATISTICS
This multidisciplinary course explores research skills not commonly taught in methods or theory classes. The major theme is telling a “story.” Stories provide critical connections between theory and data, frequently making the difference between research that is published and research that is not. Students from multiple behavioral science disciplines attend. Course materials are adapted to the group’s interests. For instance, if you present your own research, we begin class with “What can we help you with?” If you are curious about a new method, we study it and find papers that use it. Students at diverse stages in their program attend, so we cover different materials every quarter. The course is appropriate for students at all stages in their doctoral program.

590CB COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
The course examines collective bargaining in the context of professional sports and entertainment. Collective bargaining laws and public policies will serve as a backdrop for understanding terms and conditions of employment for professional athletes and entertainers. Topics will include antitrust law, the National Labor Relations Act as it pertains to the duty to bargain, strikes, and lockouts; current issues in testing for steroids and performance enhancers; “baseball arbitration”; the Writers’ Guild Strike of 2007-08, and others. Simulations of mediation and arbitration will be included, and will be part of a series of weekly writing assignments. The course complements, but does not substantially overlap with, Collective Bargaining. Students who have taken that course are welcomed; and students with no prior background in collective bargaining are also encouraged to enroll. 4 grad hours.

590CCL COMTEMPORARY CHALLENGES IN LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT LAW
This seminar will explore the challenges in enforcing the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) -- first enacted during the New Deal and not significantly amended since 1947 -- in a dramatically changed social and economic environment. The course will also take into account parallel developments in individual employment rights.

Students will consider the complexity of administering labor law in a politically polarized climate. They will study how new developments in information technology (e.g., electronic monitoring, social media), a changing employment model, and other evolving workplace trends are creating tensions with existing law, including certain statutory concepts (like who is an “employee”, an “independent contractor”, or an “employer”) and legal doctrines (like the scope of mandatory bargaining, privacy rights and rules on communicating at work).

The class will examine whether institutional features of the basic labor law are a good fit with today’s competitive economy, labor market conditions, and worker preferences: for example, the traditional, adversarial model of labor-management relations; the principle of exclusive union representation in decentralized bargaining units; and the prohibition of other forms of workplace representation.

Students will also look at other current issues related to the employment of undocumented workers; efforts to organize domestic workers (excluded from NLRA coverage); and the growing use of mandatory arbitration to resolve disputes arising in non-union workplaces. 2 grad hours.

590CG HUMAN RESOURCES AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
This course enables students to understand the many connections between the HR function in a large corporation and the domain of corporate governance. Students will learn about the process of selection, orientation and operations for members of the board of directors of a public corporation, as well as the work of a board on strategic topics including: executive pay, CEO assessment, executive recruitment and retention, succession planning, leadership development and talent processes, overall business strategy, legal compliance, and related matters. The roles and responsibilities of the HR function will be identified in all of these domains. Special attention will be given to current policy debates on various aspects of corporate governance and special challenges such as relations with institutional investors, international variation in policies and practices, ethics and corporate social responsibility. Course readings will include scholarly articles, consulting studies, and original documents from the corporate world. 4 grad hours.

590CM CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN HR ORGANIZATIONS
Change management is a core skill for all HR professionals. This course covers planned change, unplanned change, and continuous change in organizations. Build skills in making the case for change, understanding resistance to change, working with champions, serving as a change agent, conducting a stakeholder map, using project management tools, tracking results with metrics, implementing new technology, and bridging across cultural, organizational and national boundaries. Particular attention is given to building capability and changing cultures within the HR function so that HR can support change across the organization. 4 grad hours.

590E GOVERNMENT REGULATION AND EMPLOYMENT LAW
Focus is on employment law. Topics covered include employee benefits with special emphasis on health insurance; occupational health and safety issues and various employment contractual obligations, statutory exceptions to employment at will; retirement issues including mandatory retirement, ERISA, private pensions and pension benefit discrimination. Prerequisite: Graduate standing. 4 grad hours.

590ECA EMPLOYMENT AND COMMERCIAL ARBITRATION: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE
This course explores the interrelationship between commercial and employment arbitration. Arbitration is a private justice system. It is relevant because many employers require employees to sign away their right to sue, and to submit disputes to binding arbitration. The course begins in medieval England, when the Statute of the Staple of 1339 allowed businesses to avoid court and to settle disputes by arbitration. An important law, enacted at the behest of William III, created the roots of the present laws that govern arbitration. This history is related to current uses of arbitration. A central question in the course is whether employment and commercial arbitrations are analogous. Both involve business relationships; and the course also shows how certain employment laws draw directly from commercial law principles. But businesses are usually able to negotiate with each other, and also have more freedom to create fair and just arbitration systems. Employees, in contrast, have little or no negotiating power with their employer, and are often forced to take whatever system the employer provides.

590EL HR, EMPLOYMENT LAW AND THE MULTICULTURAL CORPORATION
Multinational corporations face the challenge of operating across multiple legal jurisdictions, which pose particularly complicated situations for human resource management. Employees in these different jurisdictions may be doing work that is highly interdependent, but they are subject to widely varying employment law. This seminar will feature a series of special topics in employment law ranging from fair dismissal to privacy to employee involvement, with guest corporate executives discussing the specific challenges of simultaneously operating across legal jurisdictions. Underlying principles from comparative employment law will provide a context for the sessions. 2 grad hours.

590EO STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND THE ENTREPRENEURIAL ORGANIZATION
Using the case method, this course will apply human resource principles and practices to entrepreneurial firms throughout their various developmental stages. The course will center around three stages in the life cycle of an entrepreneurial firm: organizational infancy (1-10 employees); growth and institutionalization (50- 150 employees); going global or being acquired by a much larger company (over 500 employees). Employing class lectures, case material analysis and discussion and guest speakers, the course will provide students with the understanding of the specific human resource needs at each of these organizational phases. In doing so, the course will illustrate the important strategic role of human resource management and its potential contribution to the sustainability and competitive advantage of entrepreneurial firms. 4 grad hours.

590ERC LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS IN CHINA
By reforming its planned economy to a “market-based one with Chinese characteristics”, China has emerged as a major economic power. Many businesspeople who until now have had no particular interest in China have had to work in China because there companies are sourcing products there, trying to sell there, or setting up manufacture there. How China develop its labor market institutions, resolves increasing labor-management conflict, and manage its huge labor force are important questions that no serious students of labor relations and HRM can afford to ignore.

This course is designed to provide students with an introduction to the changing labor and employment relations in contemporary China. It has several sections. First, there is a short section I call “background.” In this section, we cover a bit of the historical, political, and social context in which labor and employment relations are embedded in China. Second, we look at the diverse patterns of employment relations and HRM practices in the foreign invested firms, domestic private firms, and state-owned firms. Third, we look at the fragmentation and transformation of China’s working class and the changing role of Chinese trade unions. The latest developments in the Chinese labor law and the trends of labor conflicts will also be covered to provide students with up-to-date knowledge on China’s rapidly changing labor and employment relations.

590I COMPENSATION AND PERFORMANCE INCENTIVES
The purpose of this course is to provide an in-depth understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of different performance incentive plans. The first part of the course will focus on several theoretical issues that are useful in evaluating different performance incentive plans. Following the theoretical framework, each type of performance incentive plan will be studied in depth. This will include details regarding the design and administration of the plan and identifying situations where each plan is most appropriate. This will be accomplished through the discussion of the cases and evaluation of the plan's features using the theoretical models discussed in the first part of the class. Major topics include: (1) Theoretical issues that encompass the objectives of performance incentive plans: firm v. worker perspective, the role of risk-sharing and risk aversion in the design of incentive plans, aligning individual performance measures with firm objectives, trade-off between "objective" and "subjective" performance measures, free-riding in group compensation systems, and organizational change & the implementation of incentive performance plans; (2) Gainsharing plans; (3) Bonus & profit-sharing plans; (4) Stock & stock option plans; (5) Linking pension & incentive performance plans. Graduate standing. 4 grad hours.

590IM IMMIGRATION, EMPLOYMENT, AND PUBLIC POLICY
The proposed course examines the magnetic attraction of jobs in the U.S. and immigration, with a particular focus on laws that have regulated or restricted this inflow from the 1800s through the present. Each week, the course integrates three related perspectives on immigration and its impact on the employment relationship in the U.S. Weekly readings will be assigned from each of the following rubrics: (a) Employment Laws, (b) Immigrant Narratives, and (c) Government and Institutions.

590MON ANALYSIS AND MANAGING ORGANIZATIONAL NETWORKS
This course will teach you tools for evaluating and managing organizational networks. Identifying who communicates with whom (and about what) is critical for global organizations. While the focus is organizational, the basic concepts and skills are common to all uses of social media, including entrepreneurship, online marketing, and management consulting. We will explore network components such as centrality, brokerage and diffusion and the role they play in individual and collective behavior. You will spend a good part of the course analyzing data using a widely known organizational network program. You will begin with your own Facebook data, examining your connections and your friends’ connections. You will then conduct an analysis at a real organizational site. You will design, collect and interpret these data, which may come from a student, University or work organization.

590N HEALTH, SAVINGS AND FAMILY ISSUES IN THE WORKPLACE
A substantial part of employees' compensation comes in the form on non-wage benefits, such as health insurance, retirement plans, paid time-off from work. The goal of this course is to introduce students to some of the major features of employee benefits and work-family issues, including what choices are available to firms in the provision of benefits, what choices firms can offer their employees, and what are the incentives and consequences created by these different choices. The course will also discuss timely public policy issues, such as rising health care costs, Social Security and pension reform, and the Family and Medical Leave Act. 4 grad hours.

590PT PEOPLE AND TECHNOLOGY: CHANGING WORK SYSTEMS
This course is designed to give students the ability to deal with workplace changes centered on technology and how people use it. Technology has always been a force in the workplace and society. The tensions between the social and technical will demand flexible, multidisciplinary approaches. This class is designed to ensure that the future will not catch students unaware. The course emphasizes the interdependency of practical skill sets, advanced problem solving methodologies, and system thinking that combine together to foster innovation and success at the interface between people and technology. The course provides tools to assist students in evaluating technology challenges in the very workplaces that recruit LER students. Highlights in the class will be an overview of quality methods, an introduction to emerging technologies, and the opportunity to learn from a variety of guests with diverse experiences across these complex ideas. 4 grad hours.

590WFO WORK, FAMILY, AND ORGANIZATIONS
The goal of this course is to provide you with an introduction to the interface of work and family in organizations. We will focus on three related topics: (1) individual employees and their families, how they experience work and family/life conflict and how they can achieve balance between work and family life; (2) organizations and the work-family benefits and policies they provide (or not), their usefulness for employees and the benefits they might provide for the employer; and (3) the changing definition/perception of family and issues related to gender and equity in the workplace.The class will include lectures, guest speakers, class discussions, exercises, and films.

590X MACRO RESEARCH METHODS
This research methods course is intended for PhD students in industrial relations and related fields who anticipate conducting quantitative empirical research in non-experimental settings. The objective of the course is to provide students with an understanding of how non-experimental research designs and statistical procedures are used to test for causal relationships between variables. The course emphasizes the use of both research design and statistical methods for obtaining unbiased estimates of the effect of an independent variable on a dependent variable. The course assumes students have a good understanding of multiple regression applied to cross-sectional data. From this basic knowledge, the course focuses on sample selection strategies, the use of panel data, the identification of “natural” experiments and the use of instrumental variable techniques methods useful for testing hypotheses in non-experimental settings. Specific techniques applied to limited dependent variables and duration data will also be introduced.

591 EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS SYSTEMS
A general framework for the analysis of employment relationships. Topics include industrial relations theory, the American system of collective bargaining, inter-country system differences, and human resource management strategies and practices. Prerequisite: Graduate standing. 4 grad hours.

593 QUANTITATIVE METHODS IN LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS
Application of statistical methods to problems in human resources and industrial relations. Analysis and presentation of results using computer software. Covers statistical techniques through analysis of variance and multiple regression. Prerequisite: Any elementary statistics course. 4 grad hours.

595 MANAGING DIVERSITY GLOBALLY
Over the past four decades organizational approaches to managing workforce diversity have evolved from meeting the requirements of Title VII law to nurturing effective and diverse work groups as a business necessity. The challenge for managers is to understand the various aspects of diversity and its consequences in organizations. The purpose of this course is to provide an in-depth understanding of how the Human Resource Management function can contribute to leveraging diversity as a competitive advantage. Each week we will examine various HR functions in relation to diversity management practices. By the end of this course students will have a holistic appreciation of the HR tools necessary to implement effective diversity management practices. 4 grad hours.

597 EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION AND PERFORMANCE
Managing and motivating employees effectively is one of the most complex and challenging issues facing companies today. While business leaders acknowledge the need for implementing effective performance management systems, recent studies indicate that an overwhelming majority of performance management systems are unsuccessful. Takes a strategic approach to employee motivation and performance starting with a firm level view to reviewing current approaches to employee motivation and performance management. Aims at providing students with practical and conceptual tools that will aid them in future endeavors to design and implement employee development and performance management systems. Format includes in-class discussions, case studies and individual assignments and papers. 4 grad hours.

598 IMPLEMENTING HIGH PERFORMANCE WORK SYSTEMS
Intensive analysis of all aspects of high performance work systems, including work design, reward systems, training, team operations, lean/six sigma systems, and labor-management partnership. Special focus on skills and principles for effective implementation, in ways that advance employee well-being and to organizational effectiveness. 4 grad hours.

599 THESIS SEMINAR
For all students writing theses in labor and industrial relations at the M.H.R.I.R. and Ph.D. levels. 0 to 16 hours. May be repeated. Approved for S/U grading only.

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