******* HR In-The-News Assignment ******

Examples of the challenges in managing human resources are all around us in the media. The
purpose of this assignment is therefore to familiarize you with human resource management issues as
they arise in the news. There are articles sprinkled all over the media (newspapers, magazines,
professional publications, etc.) that discuss the importance of HR issues to businesses and the
managers who run them. At several points in the semester, students will be responsible for completing
an analysis of an HR issue they have found in the popular press. The popular press sources should
include national newspapers (e.g., NY Times, Wall Street Journal), business periodicals (e.g., Business
Week, Fortune, Newsweek) or trade publications (HR Magazine). Please do not use academic
empirical journals as their level of analysis is beyond the purpose of this assignment. You may search
through current magazines and newspapers or those that are archived, but no further back than the last
2 months.

Your write-up should adhere to the following format (including the headings in bold):
========================================================================
Name:
Section:
Name of article and source:
(Be sure to attach the full copy of the article to the back of your submission)

1). Summary of Article:

(Generally this should be very brief - about 3 sentences)

2). Relevance to HR and our course:

In this section discuss why this topic is and/or should be of interest to employees and managers in an
organization.

3). My Reaction and Interpretation:

In this section discuss why you agree or disagree with the message in the article. Discuss WHY or
WHY NOT and support this through proper citation of material learned in class (class notes or
textbook).

Each written assignment is graded on the following guidelines:

0 = Did not hand in the assignment in class

2 = Handed something in and mostly answered questions but missing attached article (2 points)
3 = Handed something in and mostly answered questions, but discussion was limited (3 points)
4 = Answered questions with some critical analysis and discussion (4 points)
5 = Fulfilled assignment requirements with detailed critical analysis of article (5 points)