Week 2 — Overall Study Guide

Week 2 of BUS 623 moves from the foundational vocabulary of Week 1 into the mechanics of the employment-decision process itself: how an organization decides whom to hire, what it means for someone to perform well, and how it manages that performance once the person is on the job. The Overview page frames the week around a chain of three questions. First, given a limited budget, is it smarter to develop the staff you already have or to invest in recruiting new people — and how do you put a number on that decision? Second, once someone is hired, what exactly counts as good performance, and how do you measure it without the measurement itself becoming unfair or unreliable? Third, how does an organization turn those measurements into a working performance management system that changes behavior rather than just filing paperwork once a year?

Three chapters carry the week. Chapter 3, People, Decisions, and the Systems Approach, introduces systems thinking and utility theory as the framework for optimizing staffing outcomes — it underpins Discussion Forum 1 and threads into the assignment. Chapters 4 and 5, Criteria and Performance Management, define what job performance actually is, the problems that corrupt its measurement, and how organizations build performance management systems around it — they underpin Discussion Forum 2 and the bulk of the assignment. The two discussions carry equal weight this week; the assignment, worth more than both combined, asks you to put the whole week's material into practice by writing interview questions and a performance appraisal.

Overview Table of Deliverables

The table below reproduces the Week 2 Overview page's deliverable table exactly. Three assessments carry weight this week; together they account for 14% of the course grade.

The Canvas Overview page lists four Weekly Learning Outcomes (WLOs) this week — one more than Week 1. They are reproduced below, each followed by a note on what it actually requires of you and where in the week it is assessed.

Read the four outcomes as two paired arcs. WLO 1 is a decision-science outcome — it asks you to reason about staffing the way an economist would, weighing costs against expected returns. WLO 2 is a systems outcome — it asks you to see performance management as an organizational mechanism with real benefits and real failure modes, not just an HR form. WLO 3 and WLO 4 are the practical, applied half of the week: having studied the theory, you now produce artifacts a working manager would actually use — interview questions and appraisal feedback. The assignment is where WLOs 3 and 4 converge, which is part of why it outweighs both discussions combined.

The required text remains Cascio, W. F., & Aguinis, H. (2019). Applied Psychology in Talent Management (8th ed.). SAGE Publications, available in full text through the Ebook Central database in the UAGC Library. Week 2 assigns three chapters; the Canvas Resources page describes each and ties it to specific deliverables.

For a full walk-through of each chapter's frameworks, key terms, and closing questions, see the dedicated Chapter 3, Chapter 4, and Chapter 5 deep-dive study guides on this site — this overview does not repeat that material, only where it lands in the week's work.

Articles and the Performance Appraisal Webpage

Beyond the three textbook chapters, the Resources page names three required articles, one required webpage, and two recommended articles that round out the week's discussion and assignment work.

• Currence, J. (2021, December). Tear off the rearview mirror. TD Magazine, 75(12), 46–51. Covers strategies for setting organizational goals and how training and coaching develop skills; assists Discussion Forum 2 and the assignment.
• Hogue, S. (2022). How not to be a second-choice employer in 2022. Talent Acquisition Excellence. Covers candidate-first markets and the importance of hiring speed and flexibility; assists the assignment.
• Rogers, M. (2020). A better way to develop and retain top talent. Harvard Business Review, 47–49. Covers processes for developing employees' skills through on-the-job opportunities, learning experiences, and time management; assists Discussion Forum 1.
• Hayes, A. (2023, October 25). Performance appraisals in the workplace: Use, types, criticisms. Investopedia. Covers the types, purpose, and benefits of performance appraisal; assists the assignment.
• Recommended: Hulce, M. (2022). Boldness: Your 2022 hiring strategy. Talent Acquisition Excellence, 10(3), 10–12. Covers automated faster hiring and prioritizing an enjoyable work environment; may assist Discussion Forum 1.
• Recommended: Zielinski, D. (2023). A new pillar of workforce planning. HR Magazine, 68(3), 23–28. Covers workforce planning through data integration and skills verification software; may assist Discussion Forum 2 and the assignment.

The Overview page also directs you to review the Common Objectives of Performance Appraisal infographic, which previews the purposes Chapter 5 develops in full — administrative decision-making, employee development, and organizational communication among them.

Chapter 3 reframes staffing as a decision problem with real consequences and real costs, not a routine administrative task. It introduces the systems approach — viewing an organization's talent decisions as interconnected, with a change in one area (recruiting budget, selection method, training investment) rippling into outcomes elsewhere — and utility theory, which puts a dollar value on the expected payoff of a staffing decision so that competing options can be compared on the same terms. The chapter's central practical question, echoed directly in Discussion Forum 1, is whether an organization is better off developing its existing applicant pool and staff ("making" talent) or investing in recruitment to expand the pool of outside candidates ("buying" talent), and under what conditions each strategy maximizes staffing outcomes.

Chapter 4 tackles a question that sounds simple until you try to answer it precisely: what does it mean for an employee to perform well? The chapter works through job performance as a multidimensional construct, distinguishes it from counterproductive work behaviors, and surveys the individual dimensions of criteria — the specific, measurable indicators an organization chooses to stand in for the abstract idea of "good performance." It also covers the properties a sound criterion measure needs (relevance, reliability, freedom from bias, and practicality, among others) and the problems that corrupt criteria in practice, such as criterion deficiency and criterion contamination.

Chapter 5 moves from defining performance criteria to building an organizational system around them. It covers the purposes a performance management system serves — administrative decisions such as pay and promotion, employee development, and organizational communication of expectations — and it distinguishes objective measures of performance (countable outputs like sales figures or units produced) from subjective measures (supervisor ratings and judgments), along with the strengths and distortions each type invites. The chapter also surveys common problems in the performance-appraisal process itself, including rater errors and the challenge of designing appraisals that employees perceive as fair.

Week 2 has three graded deliverables, and each has a dedicated study guide that takes the prompt apart in full. The summaries below orient you and point you to the right companion document.

7.1 Discussion Forum 1 — Optimizing Staffing Outcomes

Tagged to WLO 1 and CLOs 2 and 3, worth 3%. After reviewing Chapter 3 and the Rogers (2020) Harvard Business Review article, discuss the pros and cons of using existing applicant pools ("making") versus investing in recruitment efforts ("buying") to expand applicant pools, identify which strategy is most costly and which might maximize staffing outcomes and why, then browse real recruiting websites such as Monster.com or LinkedIn and describe how organizations attempt to entice candidates, noting similarities and points of differentiation. The initial post runs 200 words minimum, due Day 3; two peer replies of 100+ words each are due by Day 7. See the Week 2 Discussion Forum 1 Study Guide.

7.2 Discussion Forum 2 — Performance Management System

Tagged to WLO 2 and CLOs 1, 2, and 3, worth 3%. After reviewing Chapters 4 and 5 and the Currence (2021) TD Magazine article, define the purpose of a performance management system, discuss some of its benefits and challenges, and discuss how you have seen a performance management system working at a current or former employer — or research a company online — noting the impact on employee behavior. The initial post runs 200 words minimum, due Day 3; two peer replies of 100+ words each are due by Day 7. See the Week 2 Discussion Forum 2 Study Guide.

7.3 Assignment — Interviewing and Performance Appraisals

Tagged to WLOs 3 and 4 and CLOs 1 and 3, worth 8%, and due Day 7. A two-part, 3–4 page APA paper. Part 1 asks you to devise three insightful interview questions that help assess candidates and defend the rationale for choosing them, using course materials or outside sources to support your choices. Part 2 asks you to write performance appraisal feedback assessing the performance of two people — in an organization or someone you know personally — summarizing each person's strengths and opportunities for improvement as they relate to a job role, and providing meaningful feedback that could facilitate employment development. See the Week 2 Assignment Study Guide.

Week 1 established what applied psychology is and the legal boundaries within which every talent-management decision operates. Week 2 puts that foundation to work on the core mechanics of the employment relationship: deciding whom to hire (Chapter 3's systems and utility-theory approach to staffing), defining what good performance means once someone is hired (Chapter 4's criteria), and building the organizational machinery that manages performance over time (Chapter 5). This is also the first week the course asks you to produce practitioner artifacts — real interview questions and real appraisal language — rather than analysis and reflection alone, a shift in register that continues through the rest of the term as the course moves toward recruitment, selection, and development in later weeks.

Carry Chapter 4's criteria vocabulary and Chapter 5's objective-versus-subjective measurement distinction forward; both recur whenever later weeks discuss selection validity, training evaluation, or compensation decisions, since all of them ultimately rest on being able to define and measure performance defensibly.