For Assessment 1, you are asked to produce an essay of 1,500 words using information gathered from an interview you have conducted with a human reso

For Assessment 1, you are asked to produce an essay of 1,500 words using information gathered from an interview you have conducted with a human resource manager.

Assessment Question

After interviewing a human resource manager with responsibility for HR issues (or a senior manager in an organisation who does not have HR staff), provide an essay that summarises the key business issues and people management issues faced by that organisation. Are the external environment, business issues and people management issues that you identify related? If so, how?

You don't need to conduct a formal STEEPLED analysis. You'll do this for assessment 2.

Assignment Criteria

Your essay will be assessed on your ability to:

discuss the external environment faced by the organisation

explain the implications of the external environment for the internal operation of the organisation

explain the HR issues of the organisation

explore the plausible connections between the business and HR issues of the business

express ideas clearly and coherently in a written report.

Assessment Instructions

Interview a human resource manager (or a senior manager in an organisation if there are no HR staff) with responsibility for HR issues.

Identify an organisation by thinking about organisations that you know about or have worked at or friends or family have worked at. Ask around. Look in the newspapers. Do a Google search.

Read the document 'Things to think about' and plan a rough set of questions.

Then make contact and set up an appointment to interview the practitioner.

At the interview, ask for permission to record your meeting with a recording device or your phone.

Advise the practitioner that the University is grateful to employers for the help they can provide to students and that the information you record is confidential. No organisation names need to be mentioned. The only readers will be you, the student, and the marker.

Write your essay using the information you have collected.

When writing your essay, focus your answer on the set question which is straightforward:

Write an essay of the key business issues and people management issues faced by that organisation.

Are the external, business issues and people management issues that you identify related? If so, how?

Assessments should be submitted electronically using Gradebook.

You only need to submit the essay. There is no need to submit the recording or transcript/notes from the interview.

Assessment Advice and Resources

This assessment does not have a prescribed minimum number of citations. However, ideas, facts and concepts that are not your own need to be acknowledged through referencing.

You need to demonstrate that you understand the concepts of the course as outlined in course material and readings.

Googling is not a legitimate research method nor is it a substitute for reading course relevant material.

Relying on textbooks from other courses, particularly generic textbooks like Stone, Kreitner and Kinicki, Davidson et al. or Shields with no recognition of course concepts or readings suggests that you do not understand the core concepts of this course. You will be marked accordingly.

The research undertaken in this assessment could contribute towards Assignments 2a and 2b.