MBAB 5P52: Human Resource Management

There are many primary and secondary research sources that you can use to find evidence for your Final Project. Here are key links and research tips for each type of source.

Research Tip:

Most companies will have a web presence, but keep in mind that many will have both a "public" web site and a "private" web site (e.g. a password-protected intranet or internal site) so you may or may not be able to find out much this way.

What kinds of documents are you after? You want to answer the 5Ws (who, what, where, when, why).

• Start with the section that says "Our Company" or "About Us".
  • Look for a description of the company's vision, mission, and values.
  • Look for a history of the company, which may include a timeline of key events.
  • Look for an organizational chart or list of key officers/executives, which may include brief biographical sketches.
• Look for a link that says "News" or "For the Media".
  • Look for press releases or official statements (e.g. written documents, audio recordings, podcasts, webcasts, or transcribed speeches, or corporate videos).
  • Note: corporate videos may be also archived on YouTube or another type of site.
• Look for a "Human Resources" or "Careers" section for information for prospective employees. This is also a good place to find company policies.
  • There may be career recruiting videos on Youtube (e.g. Explore 3M Careers  playlist) as well as the official ones on the company's  careers site.
• You may need to use the company web site's Site Map to find some of this information, which is typically linked at the header or footer of the home page.

Research Tip:

• Annual reports (10-Ks), quarterly reports (10-Qs), and other securities filings for public companies (e.g. management information circulars) are usually posted on a company's web site in an area labeled "Investor Relations". However, companies usually only archive the most recent few years of their reports. 
• If you require access to older annual reports or financial statement data, you should consult one of the following sources:

Corporate Earnings Call Transcripts and Analyst Research Reports

• Corporate earnings conference calls or webcasts (generally held quarterly with financial & investment analysts) may be transcribed and/or archived on the company website. These transcripts are also available through other sources including Fair Disclosure Wire. This is useful if you want to search within the full text of several years worth of transcripts for a particular word, phrase or name. Use the links provided below to access these sources from off-campus.
• Investment Analyst (Brocker) Research Reports are available via the Investext module in Mergent Online. These reports are written by analysts at investment banks, brokerage houses, and consulting firms and provide in-depth financial information and analysis on companies and industries.

Omni

• You can use the Library's Omni tool to search across multiple databases and content types including magazines, trade publications, academic journals, books, videos, etc.
• For newspaper articles, use Omni Newspaper Search.

Research Tip:

• Additional information may be gathered from interviews with key executives on television channels such as BNN, CNBC, or via recorded speeches (TED Talks), conference keynotes, etc. Some documentaries are also available as streaming video via our Kanopy database.
• Streaming audio interviews (e.g. NPR) or podcasts may also be treasure troves of information.

Podcasts / Streaming Audio

Tracking Corporate Misconduct

Corporate Ethics and Reputation Rankings