Course Syllabus

Course Description

This course examines core functions of management and the political socio-economic context within which organizations operate in different sectors of employment. In other words,

managing people at work. One focus of this course is how management occurs in public organizations. However, the management concepts, applications, and theory are useful and applicable in other sectors as well.

Learning Outcomes

Instructor's Background 

Scott Burgins has managed more than 170 economic and community development projects across Indiana, working in most of the state’s 92 counties. His projects include comprehensive land use plans, downtown revitalizations, evaluation of not-for-profit programs, community needs assessments, strategic planning and countywide visioning.

Clients include local government, community foundations, United Ways, social service agencies, manufacturers and other businesses, city, county and state governments, housing organizations and chambers of commerce. He also served on The City of Bloomington Plan Commission for a very long 17 years.

Required Texts

Your enrollment includes an e-version of the text, Management Fundamentals 10e: Concepts, Applications, Skill Development, by Robert N. Lussier.

Office Visits

Let’s talk. The best way to reach me is via email at rburgins@iu.edu. You are welcome and encouraged to schedule meetings or e-mail me between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. during the week to discuss class issues or whatever is on your mind. I am often in my office at SPEA 353 and you can also just drop by.

Course Policies (Big Deals)

Attendance

Woody Allen says 80% of life is just showing up. In this class, it is around 20% of your grade. Because our time is limited, you need to be in class. Missing class only a few days may put you behind in terms of learning course material.

 There are no “excused” or “unexcused” absences in this class, and you are not required to submit doctor’s notes for absences that fall within this attendance policy. You have three free absences, no questions asked. Use them wisely.

After 3 PTOs (whether in the first two weeks or in December), every additional absence will result in a 10% deduction from your Participation grade.

 If you miss 5 classes, you cannot pass the course and will receive a grade of F. There are no known exceptions.

If you cannot attend, you must notify me & the TA before class via email or your Participation grade will be deducted. After 3 missed classes you will receive a make-up assignment.

Think of your three absences as “Paid Time Off” (PTO) that you might have in a job, which may be used at your discretion and does not count against your “pay” (here, points). Should any student have an extenuating life circumstance (e.g., a prolonged illness), please communicate with the instructor. Note: Your grade will be deducted for this class if you:

• arrive late on-line and/or leave early your attendance/participation grade will be deducted for that day.
• on your phone or computer,
• completing work not associated with this class,
• sleeping
• leaving during class and returning before class ends except to go to the restroom

What is In-Class Participation?

In-class participation is:

• Raising and answering questions.
• Sharing ideas, observations, and personal experiences.
• Pointing out relevant data.
• Generating potential solutions.
• Relating and synthesizing the ideas of others.
• Pointing out relationships to earlier discussions.
• Helping others develop their views and ideas.

In-class participation is NOT:

• An opportunity for the instructor to appear more knowledgeable than you.
• An opportunity for the most extroverted or vocal students to continually offer their ideas while everyone sits there quietly.
• Asking about course administration topics.

It is essential that students perform the assigned readings prior to attending the relevant class. Class participation grades will be assigned based on measurement of students’ effective preparation for participation.

 Late Submission of Assignments

Due dates for all assignments are listed in the syllabus below. Failure to submit an assignment by the due date/time will result in the loss of 10% of the assignment’s point value for assignments received immediately after class begins that day. After a 24-hour period a grade of “0” will be assigned

Please make sure you are aware that the “due” date is different from the “available until” date in Canvas. Assignments are often available for several days after the due date to allow for late submissions. Do not confuse the two; assignments should be submitted by the “due date” and time.

 Requesting a Lil’ Bump

The instructor will respond with a somewhat courteous “no,” to any requests to move someone to a higher grade at the end of the semester because you are “really, really close” to that higher grade. Changes like these compromise the integrity of everyone’s grade, and force the instructor to draw inconsistent, unfair, and sometimes arbitrary lines about what is “good enough.” The requirements for each grade are spelled out clearly for you below. Expect that they will be followed strictly.

 Use of AI and ChatGPT

Using AI to assist in completing assignments is severely limited in this course. Do not use it in any assignment unless it has been cleared with me. Otherwise, you will be guilty of Academic Misconduct and all of its brutalizing penalties. We will discuss in class when ChatGPT will be part of an assignment. All other use of AI is prohibited.

You are permitted to use the free version of Grammarly and Microsoft Word’s spelling and grammar tool. 

If you use AI in an unauthorized manner, you will be committing plagiarism* and will be subject to penalties in this class and sanctions by Indiana University. 

WARNING: Submitting any questions, assignments, notes, slides or other instructor-produced course materials into Generative AI without permission is a violation of the faculty member’s exclusive rights and will be reported to the Dean of Students as academic misconduct.

*Plagiarism: Plagiarism is defined as presenting someone else’s work, including the work of other students, as one’s own. Any ideas or materials taken from another source for either written or oral use must be fully acknowledged, unless the information is common knowledge. https://studentcode.iu.edu/responsibilities/academic-misconduct.html.  

Course Withdrawal

For full-term classes, the late W deadline is Sunday, Oct 26. See https://calendars.registrar.indiana.edu/official-calendar/ for other terms and Spring’s dates. 

After the auto-W deadline, withdrawal will be significantly limited, and you will need permission to withdraw and must meet requirements established by O’Neill.

Course Grades 

This course will be interactive in nature, so get ready to join in. Student is expected to be prepared for every class by completing all of the required readings. There will usually be brief quizzes on the readings.

Any letter grade you receive is not an assessment of your intelligence, abilities or value as a person. Rather, the grade reflects what you demonstrated that you learned in the course.

There is a good deal of choice on how hard you want to work to demonstrate that learning. You might choose that passing the course with a C is sufficient; a perfectly appropriate choice for your circumstances. If you strive to get an A, you should know that you are taking on that work and challenging yourself.

The following items will account for you grade in this class:

IU’s grading policies:  https://policies.iu.edu/policies/aca-66-grades-and-grading/index.html.

Critical Incident Analysis Memos

You will be select two Critical Incident from the group that is offered to which you must respond with a well-constructed (and brief) case memo. “Well-constructed” means that your memo is firmly based in the management theory and practical applications of management that we have studied during the semester to that point. The memo must also offer coherent management solutions or recommendations for the problem presented in the case.

Memos will be no more than two single-spaced pages and use a typical memo format (formatting instructions will be provided). A comprehensive rubric for the first memo is will be provided. The second memo’s rubric will be the same.  Use the questions for discussion to guide you in your responses. 

Full disclosure: All memo assignments and team projects, which you will submit via Canvas, will be automatically run through IU’s Turnitin system to check for plagiarism.

Pro Tip: Write the memos from the perspective that YOU are a human resources consultant brought in to deal with, solve, or assess the situation, issue, or problem for your organization. Make recommendations for addressing the current context, but also outline future ramifications and policy changes that might help to prevent uncertainty in the future. Finally, be sure to consider possible unintended consequences of implementing your recommendations. Above all, follow the instructions and rubric.

Exams

There will be three, non-cumulative 100-point exams. They will be multiple choice, true-false and short answer. More details about exams will be covered in review sessions, which are scheduled one class prior to each exam. Exams cannot be made up, unless schedule with the instructor PRIOR to the scheduled exam. The exams are not cumulative and there is no “final” exam.

Note:  Material for exams will come from readings and lecture. Understand some material you will be required to read but we may not get to in lecture and some items we will talk about in class lecture that may not be in your readings.

Pro Tip: If you show up and participate consistently in class and diligently do the readings on time, these exams should not cause you too much anxiety.

There are no make-up examinations or assignments unless there are dire circumstances. If such dire circumstances arise, the instructor must be notified through e-mail prior to the exam or assignment due date and the student must document the reason for the absence. I will decide whether the reason warrants missing an exam or assignment and will award a grade of zero if it does not. I reserve the right to ask different questions on make-up exams. If you require additional time or accommodations, I will schedule time for you to take a proctored exam with me or one of our UTA’s.

Team Project: Case Study

In teams of 3-4 students, you will produce a written report analyzing an organization problem form a HR context, and give a presentation on your findings. Teams will be formed randomly via Canvas.

The general structure has two deliverables:

• a thorough written report analyzing a specific organization or management context,
• a 5-minute professional presentation of your group via Zoom at the end of the semester.

Note: You are encouraged to begin work on this project early in the semester. In the past, students who diligently began work early and stayed on track typically did vastly better on the project. It is strongly recommended not to procrastinate. As the project is largely self-managed, it is possible to do incredibly well or very poorly. The instructor is happy to meet with teams at any time to advise you on how to proceed. Get started! 

A few others:

• Turn your cellphone off before class.
• Do not use your laptop during class. All notes will be handwritten.
• Use of AI is prohibited in this course (see noes below). 

O'Neill Student Honor Code

Getting Help

Disability Services for Students

Securing accommodations for a student with disabilities is a responsibility shared by the student, the instructor and IU’s Accessible Educational Services (AES). For information about support services or accommodations available to students with disabilities, and for the procedures to be followed by students and instructors: Accessible Educational Services: Care & Advocacy: Office of Student Life: Indiana University Bloomington. 

If you have a disability and might require accommodations in this course, please notify the instructor via AES early in the semester so that arrangements can be made to address your needs. Please understand that this process must be executed each semester for which you may need accommodation documentation.

Other Services

Some of you may find yourselves facing more than you can easily handle during the semester. It may be something wonderful, or it may be something terrible, but it will make it difficult or impossible for you to focus, work, think or otherwise deal normally with the semester.

Whatever may have happened, please remember that the Health Services folks have people whose primary job is helping students survive such problems, and your professors are aware that these things can happen. We try to be flexible and helpful about disruptions, although we will want a justification (without personal details) for doing so. If the disruption continues for any substantial length of time, remember that the university allows us to grant incompletes so that students can complete work when their semesters are interrupted. But bear in mind that you must request an incomplete before your grades have gone over the edge, which means communicating with us in the midst of the chaos.

It’s easier to help if we know something is going on. Please try to be in touch as soon as you can - it makes it easier for all of us in the long run, even if it is difficult in the short run to bring yourself to talk about it. You don’t owe us the details – just a message that life has become difficult or complex and some idea of what kind of timeframe you think might be involved will help us to help you best.

Up-to-date information on everything from helping students with food insecurity to financial wellness can be found at Care & Advocacy: Office of Student Life: Indiana University Bloomington. Avail thyself.

Counseling and Psychological Services

For information about services offered to students by CAPS:  http://healthcenter.indiana.edu/counseling/index.shtml

TimelyCare

Indiana students have free, 24/7 access to virtual mental health care services with TimelyCare. Students do not need insurance to access TimelyCare services. https://www.iu.edu/mental-health/find-resources/timely-care.html#0

Religious Accommodation Requests

The "Request for Accommodation for Religious Observances" form must be submitted by the student to the professor no later than two weeks prior to the anticipated absence.  A separate form must be submitted for each absence and for each course. Faculty do not have to consider accommodations for the purpose of allowing students to travel away from Bloomington for religious observance.  Information about the policy is found here: https://vpfaa.indiana.edu/resources/religious-observances-information.html.

Accessible Educational Services (formerly Disability Services for Students) 

Securing accommodations for a student with disabilities is a responsibility shared by the student, the instructor, and the AES Office. For information about support services or accommodations available to students with disabilities, and for the procedures to be followed by students and instructors: https://studentlife.indiana.edu/student-support/iub-aes/index.html

Sexual Harassment 

As your instructor, one of my responsibilities is to help create a safe learning environment on our campus. Title IX and our own Sexual Misconduct policy prohibit sexual misconduct.  If you have experienced sexual misconduct, or know someone who has, the University can help.

If you are seeking help and would like to talk to someone confidentially, you can make an appointment with:

1. The Sexual Assault Crisis Service (SACS) at 812-855-8900
2. Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) at 812-855-5711
3. Confidential Victim Advocates (CVA) at 812-856-2469
4. IU Health Center at 812-855-4011

For more information about available resources:  http://stopsexualviolence.iu.edu/help/index.html. It is also important to know that federal regulations and University policy require me to promptly convey any information about potential sexual misconduct known to me to our campus’ Deputy Title IX Coordinator or IU’s Title IX Coordinator.  In that event, they will work with a small number of others on campus to ensure that appropriate measures are taken and resources are made available to the student who may have been harmed.  Protecting a student’s privacy is of utmost concern, and all involved will only share information with those that need to know to ensure the University can respond and assist.  I encourage you to visit http://stopsexualviolence.iu.edu/help/index.html to learn more.

 IU Culture Centers: https://studentlife.indiana.edu/communities/culture-centers/index.html.