Analyzing the Efficacy of Your Selected HR Practices in the Form of an Individual Report.

August 24, 2018

The third part of your project-based assignment involves analyzing the efficacy of your selected HR practices in the form of an individual report. This involves demonstrating a sound understanding of your case study organization and its HR practices and undertaking extensive research of relevant academic literature on the selected HR practices.

In your Individual Report, you are required to answer five specific questions:
1. To what extent is the organization’s performance management, rewards management and human resource development practices aligned with the organizational strategies?
– What role does workforce planning play in enabling alignment?
– Why is alignment important?
– What are the implications of lack of alignment [drawing on the
academic literature]?

2. What are the key issues with the organization’s performance management, rewards management and human resource development practices? Why are these issues for the organization [drawing on the
academic literature]?

3. To what extent is the performance management, rewards management and human resource development practices integrated with one another?
-Why is integration important?

-What are the implications of lack of integration [drawing on the academic literature]?

4. What explains any gap that may exist between theory and practice in relation to the case study organization? What, if any, are the limitations of the academic literature?
5. Based on your analysis above, what recommendations would you make to the senior management team of the organization aimed at improving their performance management, rewards management and human resource development practices [drawing on the academic literature to justify your response]?

Format of Report
This assignment is a report you need to present in academic form because of the inclusion of theoretical discussion. The structure of your report must include:
 Introduction
 Organisational Background
 Analysis [answering the five questions above: this is your analysis]
 Findings and Recommendations
 Conclusions
 Reference List
 Appendix
For easy reading, in addition to the report structure headings above, please include subheadings in the report showing issues or themes you are discussing. If necessary, you can provide an appendix which will not be included in the report’s word count (for example with your group’s SWOT or PESTEL analysis – noting it must be properly referenced).

Students will need to first provide a brief description of the organization and its organizational context, as Strategic HRM must be aligned with the organisation’s strategy (the ‘Background’ section identified above). This part is
counted in the word limit but should be no more than 5%. The risk is that students may spend too much time initially describing the organization (which indicates an inability to compress information and identify what’s important), and in turn, this may leave insufficient time to analyze the organization. Obviously, students will still need to describe organizational practices (that fit within the scope of the initial organizational description) throughout the report as the necessary background to analysis, but this description should be relatively short and directly linked to the analysis and recommendations.

Students will need to focus on the analysis and findings sections of the report. These sections are the analytical components of the report and should focus on applying HRM principles, themes, concepts and theories to existing HR practices within the case study organization. The analysis provided in these sections underpins, and provide an evidence base for, the recommendations provided in order to improve practices. Writing a good academic assignment requires good research, critical evaluation of theory in light of contemporary research and practice, and a
persuasive, well-structured argument. All these aspects will be heavily weighted when marking the reports (please see the Marking Guide for further clarification).

2500 words in length (give or take 10-15%, but no less than 2000 words). You are required to use a minimum of 15 peer-reviewed journal articles from the approved list of journals included in this Guideline. Students should endeavour to utilize journal articles that have been released in the last 15 years. We recognize that a considerable amount of HR research was undertaken in the 1990s, and encourage you to read and utilize these sources, however, journal articles from more than 15 years ago will not count as one of the 15 approved journal articles. You must also use at least two scholarly texts (three if the Unit textbook is cited). This is a minimum standard expected in order to pass the assignment; the achievement of higher grades (e.g. Credit, Distinction, High Distinction) requires additional research and more sophisticated analysis to be undertaken.

About the author 

Antony W is a professional writer and coach at Help for Assessment. He spends countless hours every day researching and writing great content filled with expert advice on how to write engaging essays, research papers, and assignments.

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