HIGHER EDUCATION PROGRAMMES

Academic Year 2022: July – December

Formative Assessment 1: Human Resource Management 1

(HHRM100-1)

NQF Level, Credits: 5, 20

Weighting: 40%

Assessment Type: Short Questions

Educator: Candice Briesies

Examiner: Newman Chigaba

Due Date: 9 September 2022

Total: 100 Marks

Instructions:

• This paper consists of five (5) questions.

• It is based on units 1 - 5 of your prescribed textbook.

• All questions are compulsory.

• A Unicheck-verification report will be issued via ColCampus once the

assignment is submitted. Please ensure that you follow the correct steps when
uploading your assignment, to ensure that the verification report is correctly
issued. You should be working towards a similarity rating of 30% or less.
Currently no marks will be deducted for a similarity report that exceeds
30%.

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 The following learning outcomes are assessed in this FA1 Assessment.

• Understand the term or concept of human resource management

• Provide an overview of the HR function within an organisation.
• Describe job analysis and job design processes and techniques
• Briefly explain how HRM effectiveness is assessed.
• Explain how HR forecasting is done
• Explain why affirmative action and employment equity need to be integrated into
HR practices.
• Explain what an employment contract is and briefly describe the different types of
employment contracts.
• Briefly describe theories of employee motivation.

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Question 1 (25 marks)

1.1 Commentators have maintained that attempts to distinguish personnel

management from human resource management precisely has resulted in
confusion and contradiction rather than clarity. Armstrong (1987) established that
“HRM is regarded by some personnel managers as just a set of initials or old wine
in new bottles. It could indeed be no more and no less than another name for
PM’’.

Justify the weaknesses of the preceding propositions by contrasting human

resource management and personnel management. (8 marks)

1.2 Read the article below and answer the question to follow: (17 marks)

A HISTORY OF TRADE UNIONISM IN SOUTH AFRICA

After the discovery of diamonds and gold ushered in the mining revolution in South
Africa in the 1880s, and the Anglo-Boer war ended in the defeat of the Boers in 1902,
the British Empire still transferred political authority to the white minority. The black
working class was largely commuter, migrant and male whereas white workers had
already been fully part of a settled and urban industrial working class, close to their
places of work. Some of these white workers came from experiences of struggles and
trade unions in Britain, while others were from the defeated Boers who had known the
violence of British colonialism. Many of them became mine workers albeit with higher
skill levels and pay than their black counterparts. Many Afrikaner women were
employed in the garment industry and as shop workers serving the mines.

Mining capitalists earned super-profits by using a system of employing black migrant

male workers from the Reserves (later Homelands or Bantustans), having them living
in policed single-men’s compounds segregated based on tribe and forced to carry
passes in the cities while their homesteads and children were sustained by African
women in the Reserves. This was the basis of the system of cheap labour of racial
capitalism. The growth of industry meant the growing strength and organisation of the
working class.

Adapted: Lrs.org.za. 2022. [online] Available at: https://www.lrs.org.za/wp-

content/uploads/2021/01/A-history-of-trade-unionism-in-South-Africa.pdf [Accessed
28 April 2022].

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 Required:

There is a positive relationship between the establishment of secondary industries

and the growth of trade unionism in South Africa. Discuss this hypothesis.

Question 2 (24 marks)

2.1 Job design is the process of creating a job that enables the organization to
achieve its goals while motivating and rewarding the employee. This means that a
well-designed job leads to higher productivity and quality of work, while also leading
to higher job satisfaction, lower absence, and lower employee turnover intentions.

Identify and describe the three job design programmes that organisations could
adopt and implement to mitigate for job dissatisfaction and employee alienation
arising from repetitive and mechanistic tasks. (15 marks)

2.2 The South African Auditor-General’s report on the 2019-2020 municipal audit
outcomes has shown that only 27 municipalities out of 257 countrywide received
clean audits. Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke reported R26 billion in irregular
expenditure and raised concerns about the ongoing use of consultants. Assume
your HR consulting company has been awarded a tender to assess the
effectiveness of HRM departments for all the municipalities across the country. As
the Chief HR auditor, your task is to design a 9 - point criterion research instrument/
questionnaire that the auditing team will use to gather information on whether the
HRM departments are effective or not. (9 marks)

Note: The research instrument/ question must be designed as per the following
example:

Criterion Yes No

1. The municipality recruits and selects politically affiliated

candidates.

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Question 3 (23 marks)

3.1 Forecasting the demand and supply of employees in an accurate manner

makes appropriate planning possible. One of the major concerns of HR
departments is to avoid the imbalances between the supply and demand of
employees. Once a company has forecasted the demand for labour, it needs an
indication of the firm's labour supply. In the capacity of an HR manager, deliberate
on the four main HR forecasting phases that your department would need to
consider. (17 marks)

3.2 Justify the reasons behind prioritizing the attraction and retention of people with
disabilities when conducting HR forecasting. (6 marks)

Question 4 (12 mark)

Read the scenario’s below and answer the questions that follow.

Scenario A. Miss. Moss Kanter was recruited by a labour broker to work for Shoprite
Checkers to fill a position for an employee on maternity leave.

Scenario B. Clemence stated that “I will never cower before any master. I’m my own
Boss, I provide learning and development services to HE Colleges in South Africa
according to my own time and priorities”.

Scenario C. Mr. Winslow is in the employment of a construction company and his

contract will be terminated after the completion of the 5-year project.

Required:

Identify and describe the types of employment contracts depicted in the above
scenarios.

Question 5 (16 marks)

To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already
achieved, but at what he inspires to (Kahlil Gibran). Based on the information from
your prescribed courseware, provide a watertight summary of the four theories of
motivation (present the information in four distinct paragraphs)

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