Human Resource Practices & Workplace Behavior/Ethics

Cody Smith, Verrazzano Class of 2026, completed major in Business Management and minor in Business Finance

As a Business Management major, I decided to focus on workplace harassment for my capstone, as that is an important part of human resources. Most of my classes were heavily focused on human resources and how to help employees in the right way, which helped with my decision for my research.

I expected the capstone to be quite difficult, as I don't consider myself great at writing long research papers, but it wasn't so bad overall. I see myself as a quick and to-the-point writer, so I'm not good at writing long detailed answers. I also find searching for valid research to be difficult, as I find most articles aren't viable or relate to my topic well enough, especially if it's a niche topic.

If I expanded my research on this topic I would begin by looking at additional articles that talk about strategies to prevent and control harassment. What I've found out from this research is that companies have several steps to control and prevent harassment, and that prevention is key to a healthy work environment.

Working with a mentor was interesting, as I've never done a project that involved a mentor before. It was a fun and unique experience, and I enjoyed presenting my poster at the Undergraduate Research Conference this spring.

Self Confidence and Humility Gained from Research

 Kathleen Preis, Verrazzano Class of 2022, completed major in Business Management with minors in ASL and Biology 

I began the venture with my capstone project in the first semester of my sophomore year. This was a very uncertain time for me personally, since I was going through a lot of personal hardships as well as thinking of changing my degree. It seemed like everything was not going my way, and this took a huge toll on my self-esteem and confidence. I think you could see where this is going….

I decided to change my major and take on two minors. I started my degree in Business Management and began figuring out my new life vision. At the same time, I started a new position as an intern in Human Resources. During my employment, I met a lot of great people and really started to grow as a person. I decided after many conversations with my boss, that I wanted to pursue a career in Human Resources. With hers and Cheryl Craddock’s guidance, I went into the next semester with my head held high.

I realized a lot of new things about myself during this time: I enjoy helping other people, I enjoy group work, and I am capable of more than what I lead myself to believe. I realized that I really was my own worst critic and was not giving myself enough credit. These revelations really helped me grow and develop as a person and allowed me to better myself for the upcoming semesters.

Although there were a lot of personal things happening at that time, I got to meet a lot of great instructors such as Professor Passarello, who helped me with my capstone project. Alongside many other professors who I have met in this new endeavor, I continued to grow as a person. In fact, my self-esteem skyrocketed, I was more confident than I ever was before, and my mentality changed. This got me thinking about my projected new career as a Human Resource professional, or even just a manager in general: how can these new characteristics that I found in myself affect my professionalism and career?

I began to ask many questions to my professors, and even the bosses I met along the way. I asked them how confidence helped them in their careers. However, as I was speaking to my boss regarding my possible thesis, she brought up the aspect of having humility as a manager. While having a long conversation during our one-hour break, I had a self-revelation. Using the humility I always had in myself combined with my newly found confidence, I could grow in my professionalism and so could others. As I previously mentioned, I love helping others. Therefore, when I got the idea to make this my capstone project, I started right away.

Research is my first love, and so I started finding different books, articles, and websites that showed the proven statistics of confidence and humility in leaders, but it was not enough for me. My conversations with Professor Passarello, other instructors, my boss, and of course my mother helped me come to my final project idea: the balancing act of humility and confidence in leaders.

Throughout my time researching, reading, interviewing, and even trying to incorporate some of the knowledge that I have gained in the timespan, I truly think that it has helped me develop my professionalism and even myself. Using these tactics and stressing the characteristics and aspects of my paper has helped me to become a better manager, worker, and individual. I believe that it can have the same, or at least similar, effects on fellow students like me or even newly promoted managers.