LPOL Course Descriptions

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS FOR M.A. LABOR AND POLICY STUDIES

Required Courses (all required courses are residency based)

Policy Studies I
This course, taken along with the Labor Emphasis Seminar in the first term of study, introduces you to models of policy analysis and to debates about contemporary policy issues. All students will examine selected public policy issues in such areas as environmental or economic policy. Individual students will then study public policy issues which interest them, for example, education policy, social welfare policy, civil rights policy, tax policy or health care policy, labor law reform, trade policy, occupational safety and health policy.

Labor Emphasis Seminar
The Labor Emphasis Seminar is the introductory course for labor and policy studies. It is designed to provide a context for the discussion of current labor policy by reviewing labor history, collective bargaining, labor law, and the structure and government of the trade unions. It considers the current economic, political and industrial relations context of current policy debates. It also considers the recent context for new policy debates in industrial relations and human resource management.

Policy Studies II: Labor and Public Policy
This study is designed to familiarize you with the basic institutions and values of American government at the national level, and to explore the relationship between the American labor movement and the political system. It is designed to give you experience in researching the formation, implementation and impact of federal labor policy. This course has an opening residency but no closing residency.

Corporations, Bureaucracy and Labor Policy
This course is designed to examine the essentials of corporations, bureaucracies (both public and private) and labor policies arising from these in their current forms and contexts. This means two basic things. First, corporations and governments today are knitted together into a global economy. Second, given the international character and activities of these institutions, labor policies involve much more than personnel or collective bargaining policies. Almost everything that international corporations and governments do in their normal operations today has a substantial impact upon labor, both union and non-union. This raises the central question of how and in what ways labor should be involved in and respond to the policies of business and governments today.

Policy Formation in Unions
For the past decade, unions have faced demanding times: declining memberships; corporate restructuring; demands for concessions; hostile government policies; failures of labor law; open union busting; foreign competition; new technology; and growing numbers of women, minority and part-time workers. The purpose of this course is to examine some of the recent problems faced by union policy makers and some of the new policies that they are developing to deal with these problems.

Human Resource Management: Achieving Organizational Effectiveness
This course provides an in-depth analysis of the human resource field. It is designed to give the student an understanding of the goals of the human resource function in today’s competitive environment. A key focus is on the integration of the human resource function into organizational strategies and plans. Topics include: law/regulation, compensation and benefits, training and development and performance management. This course is designed to provide a framework for integrating these activities and practical approaches in developing human resource skills. There is an opening residency but no closing residency for this course.

Modes of Inquiry/Directed Research
The purpose of this course is to prepare you for the research and writing that you will undertake in your final project. The course will examine a variety of research approaches, including survey research, interviews and historical research. The course will also acquaint you with the expectations of graduate research in terms of writing style and documentation. You will write surveys of related literature and do bibliographic research on the topic of your final project.

Elective Courses
You choose three elective courses (9 credits) to reflect your interests and to reinforce the individual focus of your degree. You are urged to use your electives to build a concentration around your final project topic. You may choose to take residency-based, scheduled or individualized electives. You may also cross register at another college or use transfer credit to complete elective requirements.

Examples of elective courses include but are not limited to:

· Ethics, Values, and Public Policy
· Labor Education Seminar
· Labor and the International Economy
· Current Developments in Collective Bargaining
· Comparative Labor Movements
· Collective Bargaining in the Public Sector
· Women and Work
· Theories of the Labor Movement
· Labor Arbitration Compensation, Motivation and Performance