Arkansas Tech University

OL/PS 4543: Workplace Supervision

Fall 2020
______________________________________________________________________________
Course Title: Workplace Supervision
Course/Sec #: OL/PS 4543 TC1 and TC2
Instructor: Jennifer Saxton, M.S.
Office: Available through WebEx Teams or WebEx Meetings (instructions available
within the course)
E-mail: jsaxton@atu.edu
Office Hours: Due to the online nature of the BAOL and BPS degree programs, my availability
varies. Since most of my students have varying work schedules and other
obligations outside of school, I find this helps with being able to meet with you
when YOUR schedule allows. Should you need to schedule a time to talk by
phone or meet through WebEx, please email me to schedule and I’ll be happy to
accommodate.

Important Course Dates:

Course Begins – August 19, 2020
Last Day to Add – August 25, 2020
Last Day for 100% refund of tuition/fees – August 25, 2020
Attendance Date* – September 2, 2020
Last Day for 80% refund of tuition – September 2, 2020
Last Day to drop with “W” – November 18, 2020
Final assignments – due December 6, 2020

*The attendance date is the date that official attendance will be reported to the Registrar’s Office.
Attendance is measured as: physical attendance, submission of an assignment, OR completion of
Blackboard Attendance Accounting module. Students must attend the course before its unique
attendance date (not due date). There are no exceptions. Students not completing this requirement
will be submitted to the Registrar’s Office as “Did Not Attend” and will, subsequently, be dropped
from the course.

Link to the Registrar’s official academic calendar: https://www.atu.edu/registrar/calendar.php

Course Description
This course provides an overview of various entry-level leadership and supervisory skills practiced
by professionals in the public and private sector. The leadership skills identified will focus on the
following competency areas: communication, employee coaching, project management, business
analysis, continuous improvement, and resource management and how they pertain to front-line
supervisors within the workplace.

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A Note about Course Numbering
The Department of Professional Studies offers the Bachelor of Professional Studies and Bachelor
of Arts in Organizational Leadership degrees. These two degree programs share a number of
courses which will be listed with the PS (Professional Studies) and/or OL (Organizational
Leadership) prefixes. Courses with the same number and title may be listed as either PS or OL and
will satisfy course requirements within the specific degrees. This course is cross-listed as PS 4543
and OL 4543. If you have questions, please contact your faculty or academic advisor.

Required Course Text

Humphrey, B. The 21st Century Supervisor. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, 2000.

Supplemental Readings and Websites

Additional readings will be assigned from provided material or Internet resources posted in
Blackboard as necessary.

Justification for the Course

This course examines introductory supervisory styles as they apply to the competency areas related
to the projected learning outcomes in Department of Professional Studies. These competency
areas include: operations management, technology applications, facilities planning and
management, human resource management, fiscal management, and organizational behavior. The
course objectives will be applied directly to these competency areas and will focus on developing
the students’ front-line leadership skills.

Course Objectives
As the result of participation in this course, students will:
1. Identify appropriate interpersonal, technical, and administrative skills necessary for
today’s workplace supervisor
2. Identify and implement effective team building strategies within a workplace setting
3. Employ coaching and mentoring skills as a supervisor in workplace settings
4. Demonstrate effective project and resource management skills.
5. Identify appropriate business analysis skills for the workplace, to include performance
management, cost of quality, work flow, and business process analysis and improvement
6. Develop and learn how to implement a diversity and inclusion training plan for the
workplace.
7. Identify and develop solutions for ethical issues in a workplace setting
8. Recognize personal attributes of effective supervisory skills and understand how to
implement those into your current and future workplace setting

How Course Meets General Education Requirements

The general education curriculum at Arkansas Tech University is designed to provide a foundation
for knowledge common to educated people and to develop the capacity for individuals to expand
that knowledge over his or her lifetime. The University has identified a set of comprehensive goals

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that will allow students to accomplish these general education objectives. This course addresses
the following specific Arkansas Tech University general education goals:

Communicate effectively
Think critically
Develop ethical perspectives
Apply scientific and quantitative reasoning

Methodology
The objectives will be achieved through textbook readings, supplemental readings, PowerPoint
presentations, online discussions, tests/quizzes, and individual assignments.

Technology Competencies
 ATU provides technical support through the Office of Information Systems (OIS). The OIS
can be reached via phone 479-968-0646, email campussupport@atu.edu or online at
https://ois.atu.edu.
 OL/PS 4543 is an online course so access to a device that has internet availability is required
at all times. Access to course materials is achieved by using an Internet browser and entering
the Arkansas Tech University Blackboard® (Bb) site: https://bblearn.atu.edu
 Recommended browsers are the latest non-beta version of Mozilla Firefox for PC and/or
MAC or Google Chrome. Avoid the use of Internet Explorer as many compatibility issues
have been reported. Required browser settings are provided by the OIS. It is recommended
that you check your settings with this Browser Checker.
 Students are required to utilize and submit all writing assignments using Microsoft Word (.doc
or .docx attachments). Utilization of a single word processing program enables course users
the ability to create, share, and submit assignments with ease throughout the duration of the
course and program. All ATU students have access to Microsoft Office 365, which includes
Word and other useful applications.
 You can check your Tech email here by logging in, using your Tech log-in credentials. It is
recommended you add your Tech email to your phone email application and turn on
notifications in order to stay up-to-date with important course information that will be sent to
your Tech account.

Technology Issues
From time to time, you may experience a technical issue with the course. Before reaching out to
me, please try using a different browser to access the course. Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome
are the most compatible with Blackboard, so if you experience an issue in the course, please try
switching to one of these browsers first. If that doesn’t work, please contact Campus Support to
enlist their help. I’m happy to assist you, however I am not much help when it comes to technical
issues between programs and devices. Campus Support is in place for issues such as these.

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Course Announcements
Important correspondence related to the course will be posted in the Announcement section and
emailed to the class. Sometimes these will be lengthy…I will apologize in advance for that…but
any information I include in an announcement is really important and needs to be read as soon as
possible. Check the Announcement section each time you access the course to make sure you
haven’t missed any information.

Course Content Availability

Course content will be posted every week by 7 a.m. Central Time on the date specified in the
assignment checklist, unless noted otherwise. Course learning materials and corresponding
assignments are located in Blackboard under the “Course Content” tab. Module folders, which
are located in the Course Content section, will open at 7 a.m. and will be due at 11:59 p.m. on the
days specified in the course schedule. The late work acceptance policy is included on page 6 of
this syllabus.

Assessments
Assignments
Throughout the course, assignments will be given to reinforce the student’s understanding of the
course material as well as to apply various management and leadership concepts. All assignments
will be posted in the “Course Content” tab in Blackboard under the respective module. All
assignments will be due by 11:59 p.m. Central Time on the due date specified on the “Assignment
Checklist” located in Blackboard. All assignments must be submitted through Blackboard in order
to receive credit.

Projects
There are two major projects assigned this term. The first project, beginning during Week One of
class, you will learn about diversity and inclusion in the workplace. The project criteria will be
given in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace content folder. The second project
is a final individual workplace supervision project assigned for each student to complete during
the term. The project will focus on applying the different supervision concepts presented in the
course to a practical leader role. The project criteria will be given in the Workplace Supervision
Final Project content folder. These are both individual projects. There are no group projects this
term.

Quizzes and Tests

There will be chapter quizzes for some of the chapters in the textbook presented in the course. All
quizzes will be available and completed through the corresponding module in “Course Content”
tab in Blackboard. The dates of the quizzes are available in the “Assignment Checklist” located
in the Course Information section of Blackboard.

Participation/Discussion Forums
Class conversations will take place through Blackboard Discussion Forums. Your initial response
to the discussion forum is due within the first five days of the module opening date (the initial
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posting deadline is posted with each discussion topic.) Your original postings should show great
depth of calculated thought. When creating a dialogue with a colleague in class, respond to
postings that capture your interest. Be selective. When responding to another, state your reaction
to what was said and add information that will spur further thought on the subject. Perhaps
someone else will follow up on your comment…just as we would in a face-to-face class.

When posting to discussion forums, students are expected to communicate on a professional level:
formal language, correct use of grammar and spelling, no slang, etc. Courtesy and respect are
essential in all communications.

At a minimum, most forums will require you to post a response to the forum topic and reply to a
minimum of 1 other student. When responding to another student’s posts, your response should
be, at a minimum, 100 words. In addition to responding to my discussion topic prompt, in your
initial response, pose an additional question related to the module topic for your classmates to
answer. This question does not count toward word count requirements set forth in the discussion
instructions. Discussion Forums will not be allowed to be made up if they are missed.

Please see the section for Discussion Forum Post Requirements located in the Course and Text
Introduction Module for additional important information.

E-mail/WebEx/Discussion Board Decorum

This is an online course, therefore a majority of our conversations will take place via email,
Blackboard, and WebEx. Please carefully construct your messages when sending emails, sending
WebEx messages, and posting to discussion forums. Be thorough in your communication,
providing course #’s, assignment titles, and other pertinent information when necessary. This will
be helpful with responding to your requests, and will cut down on having to ask clarifying
questions, which could delay a reply.

Announcements and other course-related correspondence will be sent to your ATU e-mail account;
therefore, it is necessary that you check your account frequently. You can download the Microsoft
Outlook app to a smartphone and have your email pushed to your phone so you have instantaneous
and on-time access to relevant course information. To avoid your emails to me going into my junk
file, you should use your ATU e-mail account for all communications. In most cases, I will
respond to your emails within a 24-hour period.

Grading Summary
Chapter/Module Quizzes 120 points
Participation/Discussion 115 points
Diversity & Inclusion Project 130 points
Final Leadership Project 40 points
Chapter Assignments 95 points
2-pt Final Exam 100 pts
Total Points 600 points
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Grading Scale
90-100% = A = 537 – 600 pts
80-89% = B = 477 – 436 pts
70-79% = C = 417 – 476 pts
60-69% = D = 357 – 416 pts
Under 60% = F = 0 – 356 pts

Returning of Assignments
Graded assignments will be posted to the Gradebook in Blackboard within 7 working days of the
due date, however, I will make every effort to return your graded assignments to you before that
date. On occasion, larger assignments may require additional time for grading. In the event that
an assignment will take longer than expected, an announcement will be posted notifying the class.
An assignment checklist which contains a grading schedule that follows the above grading policy,
has been posted in the Course Information section for you to refer to.

Make-Up Policy/Late Work

The expectation is that you will submit assignments by the due date listed in the course schedule.
I understand that things arise from time to time that prevent you from meeting a deadline, so I have
a late work submission policy outlined here. Assignments and quizzes must be submitted by the
due date listed in the course schedule to be considered for full credit.

In the event that you miss an assignment or quiz deadline, you can earn reduced credit for the
assignment at any point up until 11/30/20 using the following scale as a guideline (1 day late =
20% reduction, 2 days late = 30% reduction, 3 days late = 40% reduction, 4+ days late = 50%
reduction.) The exception to this policy is that the discussions, the final Workplace Supervision
Project, and the 2-pt Final Exam may not be submitted past the due date for partial credit. These
must be submitted by the due date in order to earn credit.

Although late work is accepted in this course, the excessive absence policy listed below is still
followed. If you miss two full weeks, you will be dropped from the course.

Course Policies
My Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Classroom
It is my mission to create and provide an inclusive learning environment, inviting of uniqueness
and diversity in thoughts, perspectives, experiences, and identities (including race, nationality,
gender, age, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, religion, culture, and abilities.)

To help accomplish this:

 If you have a name and/or set of pronouns that differ from those that appear in your official
student records, please let me know.
 If you feel like your performance in the class is being impacted by your experiences inside
or outside of class, please don't hesitate to talk with me. I want to be a resource for you. If

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 necessary, I will post a general announcement to the class to address your concerns, but in
an anonymous manner.
 I, like many people, am still in the process of learning about diverse perspectives and
identities. If something was said in class (by anyone) that made you feel uncomfortable,
please talk to me about it.
 Diversity that students bring to this class will be viewed as a resource, strength and benefit.
 At times, material discussed in class may be of a challenging and sensitive nature,
therefore, it is imperative that there be an atmosphere of trust and safety in the classroom.
I will foster an environment in which each class member is able to hear and respect each
other. It is critical that each class member show respect for all worldviews expressed in
class.

Academic Misconduct – Cheating or Plagiarism

University policy will be followed. At a minimum, the student (and any student caught assisting
in the misconduct) will be given an automatic “F” for the test/assignment in question and possibly
an “F” for the course. Subsequent cases of plagiarism will result in a minimum of one letter grade
course reduction for each incident. In addition, any student who aids another student in plagiarism
(e.g., provides a completed homework assignment to another student for submission) will be
treated as also being involved in plagiarism and appropriate penalties will apply. Egregious cases
of plagiarism (i.e., large sections copied from another source) will result in an automatic “F” for
the course.

For this course, OL/PS 4543: Workplace Supervision, penalties for violations of Academic
Integrity include, but are not limited to:

 partial deduction of assignment/test points

 full deduction of point on assignment/test
 loss of letter grade for final grade
 removal from course with a grade of “F” (for multiple incidents)

Excessive Unexcused Absences/Missed Assignments

If at any time during the term you miss two modules without notifying me of an official excused
circumstance, you will be referred to the Tech Early Warning Program and an email will be sent
to your Tech email account. If you are unresponsive within a week of being referred, you will be
dropped from the course with a “WN” for non-attendance. If you are experiencing difficulty with
completing an assignment or understanding the instructions, it is your responsibility to reach out
to me for additional help. Just not turning it in could be detrimental to your grade. Contact me
immediately if you are having troubles…I promise you, your success is my #1 priority!!

Campus policy outlines the dates for dropping a course with a “W”. If you have a failing score
and do not drop before the stated deadline, you will receive an “F” on your transcript for the course;
therefore, it is in your best interest to monitor your status in the course and take advantage of the

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opportunity to withdraw with a “W” rather than remaining in the course and receiving an “F”.
Tech has a very lenient withdrawal policy which allows a student to withdraw with an “W” until
almost the end of the semester.

For absences which make it difficult for you to contact the instructor, such as an emergency, you
should contact the Student Services Office, Doc Bryan Student Services Center, Room 233, (479-
968-0239) to have the instructor notified.

Student Needs Statement

Any student who faces challenges securing their food or housing and believes this may affect their
performance in the course is urged to notify the instructor, if they are comfortable in doing so.
Community resources are available for students and can be found at the following webpage:
https://www.atu.edu/localresources/

If a student finds they need additional support, they are encouraged to contact the Office of the
Vice President for Student Services (479-968-0238).

University Testing and Disability Services

Arkansas Tech University does not discriminate on the basis of color, sex, sexual orientation,
gender identity, race, age, national origin, religion, veteran status, genetic information, or disability
in any of our practices, policies, or procedures. If you have experienced any form of discrimination
or harassment, including sexual misconduct (e.g. sexual assault, sexual harassment, stalking,
domestic or dating violence), we encourage you to report this to the institution. If you report such
an incident of misconduct to a faculty or staff member, they are required by law to notify Arkansas
Tech University’s Title IX Coordinator and share the basic fact of your experience. The Title IX
Coordinator will then be available to assist you in understanding all of your options and in
connecting you with all possible resources on and off campus. For more information please visit:
http://www.atu.edu/titleix/index.php.

Arkansas Tech University adheres to the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act in
order to prevent barriers to academic accessibility. If you need an accommodation due to a
disability, please contact the ATU Office of Disability Services, located in Doc Bryan Student
Center, Suite 141, or visit https://www.atu.edu/disabilities/.

Disability Services
Doc Bryan Suite 141
1605 N Coliseum Drive
Russellville, AR 72801
Phone: (479) 968-0302
Fax: (479) 968-0375
TTY Services: (479) 964-3290

Email: disabilities@atu.edu