PA 8520: Human Resource Management and Development in the Public and Non Profit Sector

Harry S Truman School of Public Affairs, U of MO - Columbia 
Instructor: Charles Sampson, Ph.D.
Phone (573) 882-4317 or 882-4243

Term Research Paper

For your term paper, you will need to locate scholarly sources in library databases and the library book catalog. This Sourcepack will help you get started.

Dr. Sampson has provided the following list of sample topics which were selected by students from previous semesters. You may choose one from the list below, or choose one of your own.

• Absenteeism - Causes and remedies
• Age discrimination and mandatory retirement
• Application forms
• Assessment centers
• Arbitration
• Auditing personnel activities
• Behaviorally anchored rating scales
• Co-determination and unions
• Communicating wage and salary information
• Comparable worth
• Current trends in OSHA
• Determining test reliability
• Diagnosis of training needs
• Employee-assistance programs
• Exit interviews
• Fatigue, boredom and monotony on the job
• Flex time
• Governmental regulation of compensatioin
• Grievance process
• Impact of ERISA
• Legal dimensions of job analysis
• Non-verbal communication and interviews
• Peer method of performance appraisal
• Pregnancy and personnel policies
• Privacy concerns and reference checking
• Public sector unionism
• Seniority vs. merit promotion criteria
• Sexual harassment
• Strike and impasse resolution
• Terminating employees
• Turnover - causes and costs
• Unemployment compensation
• Wage compression - policies, problems and solutions

Finding Books

The following bulleted list provides a sample of MERLIN subject headings that will help you get started in your research.

Some of these subject lists include hundreds of books. If you find the list of books under any subject heading too lengthy to browse, click on the "Limit Search" button in the Search interface to sort the list of books chronologically. This will cause the most recent publications to float to the top. Conversely, if you are not finding enough books under a certain subject heading, expand the search to include more libraries by clicking the "MOBIUS" link on your search screen. There are about 10 million books available through our the MOBIUS library network, and most may be requested through a click of your mouse.

• Administrative Agencies - Management
• Administrative Agencies - United States - Personnel Management
• Affirmative Action Programs
• Civil Service - Minority Employment - United States
• Civil Service - Personnel Management
• Civil Service Positions - United States - Classification
• Civil Service - United States - Personnel Management
• Collective Bargaining - Government Employees
• Employee-Management Relations in Government - United States
• Employee Orientation
• Employee Rights - United States
• Employee Selection
• Employees, Dismissal of
• Employees, Rating of (performance appraisals, etc.)
• Employees - Recruiting
• Government Employees - Selection and Appointment - United States
• Grievance Procedures - United States
• Human Capital
• Labor Laws and Legislation - United States - Popular Works (search just the MU campus libraries)
• Labor Laws and Legislation - United States - Popular Works (search in larger library network)
• Manpower Planning
• Nonprofit Organizations - Management
• Nonprofit Organizations - Personnel Management
• Organizational Effectiveness
• Personnel Management - Administrative Agencies - United States
• Public Administration - United States
• Public Administration - United States - Personnel Management
• Public Administration - Moral and Ethical Aspects
• Sex Discrimination in Employment - United States
• Sexual harassment
• Supervision of Employees
• United States - Officials and Employees - Selection and Appointment
• Women - Government Executives - United States

Browsing subject lists is not the only way to find books in the MERLIN book catalog. Consider doing a keyword search in MERLIN using phrases such as the following. Also feel free to make up your own keyword search strategies.

• ("job analysis" and personnel)
• "equal opportunity employment"
• "human resource planning"

Finding Articles

To find articles on specific topics, first select a library database which covers the field of study. The selection below might serve you well, but you could also explore the complete list of library databases if you like.

• PAIS - a database especially good for coverage of public policy, government administration, and politics. PAIS indexes articles in five of the seven journals which Dr. Sampson recommends.
• ABI Inform - a database which focuses on business administration, the business/government connection, and other business topics. ABI/Inform is the only database we offer which indexes articles in every journal Dr. Sampson recommends.
• Business Source Premier - another business database; this one provides full-text articles for about 3,300 scholarly business journals.
• Academic Search Premier - one of our most popular databases, it includes all subjects, but is especially useful for current events/problems
• Lexis Nexis Academic - offers full-text access to thousands of newspapers in the United States and abroad

Dr. Sampson has provided a list of journals that may be especially useful, however you do not have to limit your bibliography to include only these journals. Speak with Dr. Sampson if you are unsure of his expectations regarding selection of sources.