ASSIGNMENT

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BMCM5103
COMPENSATION MANAGEMENT
SEPTEMBER 2019 SEMESTER

SPECIFIC INSTRUCTION

1. Answer in English or Bahasa Malaysia.

2. Number of words: 3000 – 5000 words excluding references.

3. Submit your assignment ONCE only in a SINGLE file.

4. Submit your assignment ONLINE.

5. Submission date: 4th November 2019 until 18th November 2019.

6. This assignment accounts for 60% of the total marks for the course.

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 ASSIGNMENT QUESTION

OBJECTIVE:

This assignment is intended to enhance learners’ ability:

1. To present and defend opinions by making judgment on information and validity of ideas.
2. To review a journal article on one issue related to Compensation Management.

REQUIREMENT:
You are required to answer BOTH the questions in this assignment and complete the assignment
individually. Your assignment has to be presented according to the guidelines.

QUESTION 1
Identify two companies—one that you believe pursues a lowest-cost strategy and another that pursues a
differentiation strategy. Relying on personal knowledge, company annual reports, or articles in newspapers
and business periodicals, discuss these companies’ competitive strategies.

Answer your assignment according to the following format:

1. Define and briefly explain the terms ʽlow cost strategy’, and ʽdifferentiation strategyʼ.
(6 marks)
2. Briefly describe the background of the two companies you have identified for this assignment, its current
practice and responsibility on compensation management.
(6 marks)
3. Relying on the information collected discuss the companies’ competitive strategies.

(15 marks)
4. Complete citation and referencing in APA format
(3 marks)

[TOTAL: 30 MARKS]

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QUESTION 2 – Journal Article Review

1. Select an interesting article pertaining to any issue related to Compensation Management from a
refereed journal or a conference paper.
("Refereed" means that the article has been formally reviewed and recommended by a group of peer
researchers.)

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

Article Review Format

1.0 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 ʽconceptualʼ or ʽempiricalʼ, and why you believe it is conceptual or
empirical.
(6 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 required to
summarize the article briefly (1-2 paragraphs).
(4 marks)

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3. Results/ Findings
 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).
(4 marks)
4. Analysis

 What has changed since the article was written? Is the lesson, ideas and theories still
applicable? To what extent has the issue been resolved?
 Optionally, how do you find the article's models, frameworks and guidelines, etc? Applicable to
your work life or personal life (2-3 paragraphs)
(6 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)
(6 marks)
6. Contributions
 Does this article makes a ʽcontributionʼ by adding to the knowledge of researchers in a research
field?
 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?
(4 marks)

[TOTAL: 30 MARKS]

[GRAND TOTAL: 60 MARKS]

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