Faculty Contact Information:
Faculty: Dr. Bill Stewart
Email: bstewart@faculty.ed.umuc.edu
Office hours: Contact anytime via email
Details of contact: Online availability daily during the week; expect response within 24 hours to queries, weekends and holidays excepted. | |
Course Materials:
Complete Guide to Conflict Resolution in the Workplace
Publisher: AMACOM
Author: Masters and Albright
ISBN: 0-8144-0629-7 | |
Course Description:
| HRMN 365 Conflict Management in Organizations (3) Fulfills the civic responsibility requirement.) An introduction to processes observed in and management of conflict within organizations. Topics include general models of conflict, methods of managing conflict, and issues related to disagreements in organizational contexts. Students may receive credit for only one of the following courses: BMGT 398X, HRMN 365, or MGMT 398X. | |
Course Goals/Objectives:
| Upon completing this course you will be able to:
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Course Introduction:
There are no specific course prerequisites; one needs a general interest in management and the social sciences, as well as the willingness to dig in and work for this three-semester hour class. The course consists of an introduction to processes observed in and management of conflict within organizations. Topics include general models of conflict, methods of managing conflict, and issues related to disagreements in organizational contexts.
Trainers, counselors, consultants, and authors of conflict texts point to the potential positive functions of conflict: conflicts allow important issues to be aired; they produce new and creative ideas; they release built-up tension; they can strengthen relationships; they can cause groups and organizations to re-evaluate and clarify goals and missions; and they can stimulate social change to eliminate inequities and injustice. These advantages - and others - are raised to justify conflict as a normal, healthy occurrence and to stress the importance of understanding and handling it properly. This class will build on these ideas to learn to see well-managed conflict as a positive feature of an organization. | |
Grading Information and Criteria:
Class Participation: 10%
Conflict Journal: 15%
Midterm Exam: 20%
Group Conflict Mediation Simulation: 15%
Term Research Paper: 20%
Final Exam: 20%
A = 90% and above
B = 80 up to 90%
C = 70 up to 80%
D = 60 up to 70%
F = below 60% | |
Other Information:
COURSE CONTACT AND ATTENDANCE POLICY:
• Our primary mode of communication and participation will be via your internet browser and UMUC's Web Tycho (WT) distance learning delivery program. A backup for Web Tycho is e-mail.
• I will expect to hear from you regularly. Lurking (that means listening in electronically, but not participating) will not be tolerated. Your active participation is necessary and required. We will miss the regular contact a conventional face-to-face (F2F) classroom offers, but we will make up for it with interaction via WT.
STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES:
1. Attendance and Participation
• To maintain:
o A reliable computer system with an Internet browser:
o A reliable E-mail account. You can and must update your own email address on Web Tycho.
• To check in on Web Tycho and your e-mail regularly, at least twice each week.
• To participate regularly in discussions, accomplish homework and other class assignments on time.
• To be responsible for material covered during your absence. If you will be late with discussions, assignments, exams or other course work, you need to notify me of this fact. Absences are excused if they are due to duty-related travel and bona fide emergencies.
• Excused absences give you the right to make up the work/discussion missed.
2. Activities
• To participate in the weekly class forum discussions via Web Tycho. There'll be virtual discussions and real arguments, a group exercise, a question, or something going on constantly. That's going to be part of "class participation."
• To accomplish three written assignments, consisting of your own personal "conflict journal," your part in a group mediation simulation exercise, and a term research paper.
3. Exams
• To successfully complete a proctored closed book midterm exam and an online open book final examination administered via Web Tycho.
• You are responsible for the material in the text as well as any material provided to you online by the instructor.
4. Plagiarism
• Please review the statement on plagiarism, in the UMUC European Division Catalog. Academic dishonesty is a serious offense. It may result in failure for a specific assignment, academic failure for the class, and/or dismissal from the institution.
Notice:
The University has a license agreement with Turnitin.com, a service that helps prevent plagiarism from Internet resources. I may be using this service in this class by either requiring students to submit their papers electronically to Turnitin.com or by submitting questionable text on behalf of a student. If you or I submit part or all of your paper, it will be stored by Turnitin.com in their database throughout the term of the University's contract with Turnitin.com. If you object to this temporary storage of your paper, you must let me know no later than two weeks after the start of this class. Please Note: If you object to the storage of your paper on Turnitin.com, I may utilize other services to check your work for plagiarism.
5. University Policy Statements
• Refer to the current UMUC Undergraduate Catalog for formal statements of policy concerning Academic Integrity, Attendance, Code of Civility, Code of Student Conduct, Nondiscrimination, Students with Disabilities, and Writing Standards. The catalog is available online at http://www.ed.umuc.edu/undergrad/index.html. | |
Project Descriptions:
The student will accomplish three written assignments, consisting of a personal conflict journal, taking part in a group mediation simulation exercise, and writing an original 8-10 page term research paper.
Conflict Journal.
In the first few weeks of class, as you become familiar with the early concepts of conflict resolution, you will be keeping track of what is happening to you in your daily life, at home, in the office, or in your spare time activities that is causing conflict in your life. This homework task is meant to keep the course subject matter in the front of your mind as you begin your study.
This task should not be onerous. One or two paragraphs each week for four weeks would accomplish the task. In all, three or maybe four double-spaced pages will suffice for length. Your journal should contain your ponderings and stories about conflict as it happens to you--using some of the words, concepts and nomenclature that we will be picking up from our study.
This journal or diary is formal written work in the sense that grammar, spelling, and punctuation must be correct. This is not meant to be research work; no reference list or citations are necessary. Simply superimpose your study of conflict with what is happening in your life and see if you can make some connections.
EEO Mediation Simulation.
This simulation exercise offers the opportunity for group interaction, role playing, case study analysis, and application of theoretical concepts from our text in a real-world situation. You will be presented with a written case situation as a starting point for the simulation. The class will be divided into groups and assigned to specific roles in the simulation; involved will be the two conflicting parties, their legal counsel, and a panel of mediators. Some outside reading and research into EEOC rules and procedures may help in your role playing/presentation.
In the course of the class, at least two rounds through the mediation process will be made. In each of these iterations the complaining party and her counsel will have a chance to state their case, and the opposing party and his counsel will have the opportunity to respond. The mediators will attempt to have the two parties reach a satisfactory settlement, acceptable to all. If such an agreement is not reached, another mediation round will begin.
The Research Paper.
Based on your library and Internet research, you are to write a 8-10 page paper on some aspect of the material in our class: Conflict Resolution in Organizations. You should submit at least five scholarly references outside of your text.
The paper must reflect the academic standard of a 300-level course at the University of Maryland University College. Your paper should conform to a standard style manual--we will use the Publication Manual of the APA, 5th edition, as our standard. Use the reference list style with citations indicated parenthetically in the text. Papers should be double spaced using one inch margins on all sides and be presented in a 12-point type face.
A note on academic style: It is important for you to work with an appropriate style for the world of business or the social sciences in the HRMN program. It is for that reason that you will use the most common academic style guide in the social sciences for this assignment. There is quite a bit of online Internet help available for this academic style requirement as well.
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Academic Policies:
Cases of plagiarism are handled consistent with current UMUC guidelines.
See the UMUC policies at the following URL:
http://www.umuc.edu/policy/
If it is necessary to open another section of this course to accommodate additional student enrollments, the faculty member teaching the new section may use a slightly different syllabus.
All undergraduate distance education courses require a proctored exam. For more information, go to http://www.ed.umuc.edu/de/deprocexam_procedures.html. | |
Course Schedule:
Session# . . . Activity/Notes
1 . . .Course introductory activities; Web Tycho Orientation;
Library Research Tutorials;Understanding Workplace Conflict
2 . . . Diagnosing & Dealing with Conflict
3 . . . Negotiation; Begin Group Mediation Simulation; Conflict Journal Due
4 . . . Facilitation
5 . . . Mediation; Simulation Round 1 Complete
6 . . . Proctored Midterm Exam
- . . . DE Term Break
7 . . . Arbitration; Potpourri; Simulation Round 2 Begins
8 . . . Confronting Workplace Violence; EEO Disputes
9 . . . Dealing with Unions; International Perspectives on Conflict
10. . . Integrated Conflict Resolution System; Simulation Round 2 Complete
11. . . Education & Training; Conflict Resolution Map & Guideposts;
Research Paper Due
12. . . Review and Online Final Exam | |
Faculty Bio:
William G. Stewart, Ph.D., Collegiate Professor of Business & Management.
Dr. Bill Stewart completed the Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership at the University of Oklahoma, writing a dissertation on perceptions of leadership and management in the Armed Forces of the United States. He received the M.B.A. from the University of South Dakota and the B.A. in International Relations and German from Brigham Young University. He joined the University of Maryland University College-Europe faculty in 1990, after retiring from the U.S. Air Force with service in ICBM operations, as a pilot, and in international politico-military affairs for Germany and the United Kingdom. | |
