BMHR5103/USTY/MAY16/A-KK

OUM BUSINESS SCHOOL

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ASSIGNMENT
BMHR5103 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
MAY 2016
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INSTRUCTIONS TO STUDENTS

1. This assignment contains question that is set in English.

2. Answer in English only.

3. Your assignment should be typed using 12 point Times New Roman font and 1.5 line spacing.

4. You must submit your hardcopy assignment to your Facilitator according to the due date.

5. Your assignment should be prepared individually. You should not copy another person’s
assignment. You should also not plagiarise another person’s work as your own.

EVALUATION
This assignment accounts for 60
0% of the total marks for the course.
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ASSIGNMENT QUESTION

PURPOSE
The purpose of this assignment is to develop learners’ ability :
1. to evaluate the basic principles and current issues of HRM
2. toapply the theory of HRM to organizational practice.

REQUIREMENT
You are required to answer the TWO (2) assignment questions. These assignments should
be completed individually.

Assignment Format:
a. Use double spacing and 12-font size Times New Roman.
b. Provide references: References should use the American Psychological
Association(APA) format
c. References should be current (year 2005 and onwards)

Notes:

• Assignments should be submitted according to the fixed date.

• Plagiarism is not acceptable. If you are not sure what is meant by plagiarism, refer to
the various websites which discuss this matter, e.g.
owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts.
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Assignment 1 (40%)

Assume that you are being employed as a consultant by a company that needs to
seek your advice on the alleged issues of pay gaps between the women and male
employees in the same positions and performing the same tasks in the
company. The company does not want to be accused of practicing gender
discrimination which will be bad publicity for its image. Though there was a recent
media publicity which suggested that women should themselves need to do
research to know their worth and negotiate effectively, however this alone will not
solve this systemic pay gap.

Your task as the consultant is to find out through interview session/s with the Human
Resource manager/director for the company the reasons for the alleged issues, and
suggest remedial actions.

Requirement:
You are required to hand in a written report on your findings and recommendations.
Your report should contain about 2000-2500 words (7-10 pages) and cover the
following parts:

Part 1: The Introduction

The opening section describes the firm’s background & profile, its current position
and its internal & external environment. Include the name of the human resource
manager’s and his background. You are to include pictures, graphs, tables etc, as to
illustrate the situation.
(10 marks)

Part 2: Problem
This section is one of the most important parts of your report. While there are no
specific length requirements, the goal of this section is to present the statement of
the problem(s) faced by the company. You are required to analyse the problems
giving facts and figures.

(10 marks)

Part 3: Proposed Plan of Action

Present the result/findings from your interview with the HR manager/director of the
company. Present your proposed action plan to deal effectively with the major
issues and problems of the issue. This should involve a detailed, step-by-step
action plan presented in a comprehensive and understandable manner. Your
proposed plan of action should be realistic for example, time frames, designation of
roles/responsibilities of all stakeholders etc.
(15 marks)

Part 4: Discussion/Conclusion
Conclusions are drawn and implications presented. (5 marks)

[TOTAL: 40 MARKS]
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Assignment 2: Individual Article Review (20%)

(1) Select an article.

Select an interesting article on issues pertaining to “skills and productivity of older
workers ” in an organisation from refereed journals or conferences.
("Refereed" means that the article has been formally reviewed and recommended by a
group of peer researchers.)

(2) Write the Review

Write the review of the article in accordance to the following format.

ARTICLE REVIEW Format

1. Introduction:
State the Objectives, Article Domain, Audience, Journal and Conceptual/Empirical
Classification. You may adopt the following sample:

Paragraph 1: State the objectives (goals or purpose) of the article. What is the
article's domain (topic area)?

Paragraph 2:
• Audience: State the article's intended audience. At what level is it written, and what
general background should the reader have; what general background materials
should the reader be familiar with to understand the article?
• Appropriate Journal?: Why is the journal appropriate (or inappropriate) for this
article?

Paragraph 3:
• State whether the article is "conceptual" or "empirical", and why you believe it is
conceptual or empirical. Empirical articles and conceptual articles have a similar
objective: to substantiate an argument proposed by the author. While a conceptual
article supports such an argument based on logical and persuasive reasoning, an
empirical article offers empirical evidence to support the argument. Empirical articles
offer substantial, detailed evidence which the authors analyze using statistical
methods. Empirical articles must include hypotheses (or propositions), detailed
research results, and (statistical) analyses of this empirical evidence. Empirical
research includes experiments, surveys, questionnaires, field studies, etc, and to
limited degree, case studies. Conceptual articles may refer to such empirical
evidence, but do not provide the detailed analysis of that evidence. Of course, both
types of articles can use real life examples to back up their points. Just because an
article provides examples, does not necessarily mean that it is empirical.
(4 marks)
2. Brief Summary
• For your article review, you do not have to spend much space summarizing the
article. Instead the analysis of the article is more important. Thus, in this section, you
are only required to summarize the article only very briefly (1-2 paragraphs).
(2 marks)
3. Results/ Findings
• Very briefly summarize the important points (observations, conclusions, findings). Do
not repeat lists of items in the articles - just summarize the essence of these if you
feel they are necessary to include. (1-2 paragraphs).
(2 marks)
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4. Analysis
• What has changed since the article was written? Is the lesson, ideas and theories still
applicable? To what extent has the issue has been resolved?
• Optionally, how do find the article's models, frameworks and guidelines, etc.
applicable to your work life or personal life (4-5 paragraphs)
(4 marks)
5. General Critique
• In this section you should state your opinions of how well (or poorly) the authors did
their research and presented the research results in the article. Your critique can
contain both positive and negative comments. (2-3 paragraphs)
(4 marks)
6. Contributions
• An article makes a "contribution" by adding to the knowledge of researchers in a
research field. An article can make a contribution to the research field in many ways.
Does it provide a new way to look at a problem? Does it bring together or
"synthesize" several concepts (or frameworks, models, etc.) together in an insightful
way that has not been done before? Does it provide new solutions? Does it provide
new results? Does it identify new issues? Does it provide a comprehensive survey or
review of a domain? Does it provide new insights?
• Also, is it salient (relevant and current) to a particular scientific issue or managerial
problem? Are the issues addressed introduced in a way that their relevance to
practice is evident? Would answers to the questions raised in the article likely to be
useful to researchers and managers?
• Alternatively, if you believe the article makes no contributions, explain why clearly. (2-
3 paragraphs)
(4 marks)

[TOTAL: 20 MARKS]