Assessment 1: Essay
Length: 1,500 words (including in-text citations and quotes but not including references).
After interviewing a human resource manager (or other senior manager in an organisation with no HR staff) with responsibility for HR issues, provide an essay summarising the key business issues and people management issues faced by that organisation. Are the business issues and people management issues related? If so, how?
This question will be assessed on the criteria outlined in the rubric, on the Assessment 1 tab on the course website.
This assignment (like all of the assessments in this course) does not have a prescribed minimum number of citations.
However: ideas, facts and concepts that are not your own need to be acknowledged through referencing.
Students need to demonstrate that they understand the concepts of the course as outlined in course material and readings.
Googling is not a legitimate research method nor is it a substitute for reading course relevant material.
Citing obscure journal articles rarely impresses; understanding core course content and correctly applying core content does impress.
Relying on textbooks from other courses, particularly generic textbooks like Stone, Kreitner and Kinicki, Davidson et al or Shields, with no recognition of course concepts or readings suggests that the student does not understand the core concepts of this course. You will be marked accordingly.
Assessment Aims
Assessment 1 develops your ability to apply core course material to a practical case of your choice and demonstrate and develop your interviewing, analysing and reporting skills. You will use the information gathered from your interview with a human resource manager to write an essay of the key business issues and people management issues faced by that organisation.
Course Objectives
By completing this assessment task you will be able to:
CO1. Explain the key features distinguishing personnel and Human Resource Management
CO2. Explain the differences in ‘best practice/universalist’, and ‘contingency’ approaches to HRM and explain the implications in their use
CO3. List the key factors shaping the development and adoption of HRM within organisations
CO4. Explain the importance of strategic fit between HR and other organisational practices and goals
CO5. Undertake evaluations of organisational and HRM effectiveness
CO6. Explain the key issues and management options in talent recruitment and retention, re-profiling and workforce planning.
Assessment Description
For Assessment 1, you are asked to produce an essay of 1,500 words using information gathered from an interview you have conducted with a human resource manager.
Assessment Question
Answer the following question: ‘After interviewing a human resource manager with responsibility for HR issues (or a senior manager in an organisation who does not have HR staff), provide an essay that summarises the key business issues and people management issues faced by that organisation. Are the business and people management issues that you identify related? If so, how?’
Assessment Criteria
Your essay will be assessed on your ability to:
discuss the external environment faced by the organisation
explain the implications of the external environment for the internal operation of the organisation
explain the HR issues of the organisation
explore the plausible connections between the business and HR issues of the business
express ideas clearly and coherently in a written report.
Assessment Instructions
Interview a human resource manager (or a senior manager in an organisation if there are no HR staff) with responsibility for HR issues.
Identify an organisation by thinking about organisations that you know about or have worked at or friends or family have worked at. Ask around. Look in the newspapers. Do a Google search.
Read the document ‘Things to think about’ and plan a rough set of questions.
Then make contact and set up an appointment to interview the practitioner.
At the interview, ask for permission to to record your meeting with a recording device or your phone.
Advise the practitioner that the University is grateful to employers for the help they can provide to students and that the information you record is confidential. No organisation names need be mentioned. The only readers will be you, the student, and the marker.
Write your essay using the information you have collected.
When writing your essay, focus your answer on the set question.
Assessments should be submitted electronically using Gradebook.
Assessment Advice and Resources
This assessment does not have a prescribed minimum number of citations. However, ideas, facts and concepts that are not your own need to be acknowledged through referencing.
You need to demonstrate that you understand the concepts of the course as outlined in course material and readings.
Googling is not a legitimate research method nor is it a substitu
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