This assignment requires you to conduct research based on an actual organization you can have access to. Your aim is to find out about HR strategies in one or both topics below that the organization has chosen to help achieve their organizational outcomes, and recommend whether these strategies should remain or be changed.
You may choose to address ONE or BOTH of the following two topics, which are related to the contemporary HR issues discussed in this subject:
1. Performance assessment of staff, particularly focusing on processes linking with talent management.
2. Talent management, particularly focusing on processes building future capability in the organization.
This option of the assignment is designed to provide you with an opportunity to apply the knowledge learnt and developed in the subject study to the practical case analysis on key contemporary HR issues. You are encouraged to speak to HR personnel and/or managers/employees in your own organization or in one you are familiar with; or to reflect on what you have been doing if you are in a HR role. This is to ensure that you conduct a thorough analysis and are able to draw out organzational strategies to address the specific HR issue(s).
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This task may only by undertaken by a GROUP. It is your responsibility to form your own group. You must provide names of up to 4 members in your group to your on-campus lecturer no later than Week 3 of Trimester 3 (NOTE: for off-campus or remote students, please provide the list of names of your team to the unit chair on Week 3 also). Please note: if you cannot pull a team together in a short time (within three weeks), you would find it difficult to work together with only 6 weeks to complete your group project report as group work requires much more effective time management and coordination.
Individuals within the group must also respond to the following question with a 500 word individual response which should be submitted separately by each student:
Each choose another country where the organization is not based. From your understanding of the organization and its practices, please explain how these practices would need to be adjusted due to cultural or other considerations for the strategy to work effectively in that other country.
The Group Report must be written in 4,500 (min) to 6,000 (max) words, plus 500 words from each group member. The individual contributions should be submitted separately by each student.
REPORT FORMAT – STRUCTURE AND PRESENTATION OF YOUR REPORT
Please use a formal report style with headings and a clear logical numbering system. You should also include a full list of references. Only include information in your references and appendixes that have been directly referred to in the body of your document. Your report should include:
Format of report and explanation of required content:
(i) Title page – containing the subject title and code, lecturer’s name, all group members’ names and student id numbers and the word count
(ii) Table of contents
(iii) An executive summary which includes the objectives, methods and key findings of your report. Your executive summary should be no longer than one page – approximately 200 – 300 words
Main Report:
1. Introduction – a brief introduction to the paper
2. Overview of the organization – this should be brief
3. Literature review – this is a large component of the paper and so needs to include a thorough review of relevant literature
4. Identified best practices or issues and problems – this would be based on your interviews and research about the organization
5. Discussion and analysis – this is the other large component of the paper and needs to discuss and compare your findings about the organization in relation to its practices and issues with the literature.
6. Conclusion – this would include recommendations and suggestions about what options for the organization in what it should continue to do, stop doing, improve, or change.
7. References – note the reference requirements in the assessment criteria.
8. Appendices (e.g. research questions asked in interviews could be included here).
Please include the word count on the front page of your assignment.
Additional 500 word reports from each individual: No need for a formal structure. However, it is recommended that you have an introductory sentence and a conclusion.
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OPTION 2 – INDIVIDUAL WRITTEN RESEARCH PAPER
If you prefer to work on your own, you may choose to write a research paper based on ONE of the following topics:
1. Gender diversity. One of the most topical issues in HR in Australia is the perception that many women are not able to be promoted to senior positions because of a ‘glass ceiling’. However, gender diversity can be a key differentiation in becoming an employer of choice. Discuss what can be done to address the imbalance of gender diversity in senior positions and compare Australia’s progress in gender diversity with at least two other countries in different continents. Use academic and practitioner literature to support your argument.
OR
2. Performance assessment. In a number of organizations there has been a shift away from annual performance appraisals as the prime mechanism for assessment of staff performance. This has been partly due to feedback from staff and managers that they do not like the process, as it can be seen as time-consuming, a ‘numbers game’, unreliable, unfair, and not a true reflection of actual performance. With this in mind, discuss alternative performance review processes that can be used by organizations, and how organizations may need to modify performance systems to suit the cultural context in different countries. Use academic and practitioner literature to support your argument.
OR
3. Employee voice. Involving employees in the decision-making processes of organizations is seen by many theorists as essential in building good employee relations. How can organizations enable employee voice in both unionized and non-unionized contexts? Discuss this by comparing processes operating in at least two different countries from different geographical regions of the world. Use academic and practitioner literature to support your argument.
OR
4. Employee engagement. The level of employee engagement is becoming increasingly important for organizations to remain productive and competitive. What can organizations do to more effectively increase commitment and engagement of their key employees? How would these processes vary for multi-national organizations operating in different countries and cultures? Use academic and practitioner literature to support your argument.
The individual options for the first assignment are designed to provide you with an opportunity to apply and synthesize the knowledge learnt and developed in the subject study and critically discuss and analyze contemporary HR issues. You are required to conduct a thorough research on the chosen topic area and write a discussion paper of 3000-3,500 words (exclusive of title page, figures/tables, appendices and references).
STRUCTURE AND PRESENTATION OF YOUR RESEARCH PAPER
Although a research paper, the format of your paper should still be based on report format. You may use headings and a clear logical numbering system. You should also include a full list of references. Only include information in your references and appendices that has been directly referred to in the
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body of your document. In your research paper, you do NOT need a table of contents or an executive summary. Your paper should include:
1. A title page containing the subject title and code, lecturer’s name, your name and student id number and word count
2. Introduction (brief outline of the topic and your argument)
3. Relevant literature review – synthesising key academic and practitioner journal articles and other literature related to a discussion of the topic area
4. Identifying best practices or issues and problems (what issues and problems or best practices of organisations did you find through readings?)
5. Discussion and analysis (how could the issues and problems identified be addressed by using a set of HR solutions/strategies?)
6. Conclusion (what are your key points of learning/findings or recommendations for organisations