Managing People Human Resource Management and Talent Management Paper

Managing People Human Resource Management and Talent Management Paper

Question Description

Managing People

Individual Coursework – 60% weighting

Choose any one of the suggested topic and conduct a research. You are expected to analyse one

problem area in light of appropriate organisation theory/principles and perspectives introduced in

this module.

Suggested Topics

? Workforce Diversity

? Organizational Culture

? Work Motivation and Job Satisfaction

? Groups and Teams in Organizations

? Leadership Styles and Organizational Effectiveness

? Organizational structure and Design

? Organizational Change

? Human Resource Management/Talent Management

Note: Student is expected to formulate his/her own topic based on the key words provided above.

You may discuss with the module convener.

Requirements

The topic should be addressed in 2 500 words structured essay.

Please do not go beyond the word limit excluding References.

The essay should be based on

(a) The concepts and ideas presented in the lectures and recommended readings;

(b) The concepts and ideas contained in the further readings in the module outline;

(c) The concepts and ideas contained in any other additional sources (namely, academic

journal articles, books or book chapters) that you deem relevant for the chosen topic.

The purpose of the assignment

? To test your knowledge of Managing People and issues presented in the module – as you need

to discuss their contribution to our understanding of organisations;

? To help you better understand these theories and issues and their application to practical

problems – as you need to apply relevant theories to management practices.

? To develop basic research skills – as you need to integrate different knowledge sources into

your essay;

? To develop the skills of writing a convincing essay.

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Essay Format

SECTION ONE: INTRODUCTION (about 150-200 words)

This section provides the positioning for your essay (scope and objectives, nature of the problem).

It should include an introduction to the overall theme of your essay as well as a justification for

your chosen topic (why is it relevant, important, interesting, etc.?)

SECTION TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW (about 600-700 words)

This section offers a critical review of the literature relevant to your chosen topic. You should try

to answer these questions: what do we know about this topic in terms of theory or principles? If

the topic has been established for some time, what researchers have done on this topic? A few

themes may emerge from the literature on the topic. Therefore, you should describe and evaluate

them accordingly. If necessary, subtitles may be used for structure. If appropriate, you may extend

the literature review into a (theoretical) framework that will guide your analysis (section 4 below).

SECTION THREE: A CHOSEN EMPIRICAL CASE (about 700- 800 words)

Your study can rely on primary data or/and secondary data. If you choose primary data case study

then you may collect data using interview or questionnaire method. However, if you plan to use

secondary data, you may get information from business newspapers or magazines; academic

journal articles, Harvard Business Review etc. (refer to module outline).

Please note that the research aims are, firstly, for you to collect information regarding a case from

various sources, and secondly, that you learn to compose and analyse a particular management or

organisational problem in an academically disciplined way. A word of caution: you should not

take a short cut by simply reporting others’ study on the topic from one single source.

SECTION FOUR: DISCUSSION & RECOMMNEDATIONS (about 500- 600 words)

You should apply the theoretical concepts reviewed in the literature to analyse and interpret the

material presented in section 3 above. You may address the following. To what extent the

concepts or theory/issues introduced (section 2) help diagnose problems, offer an explanation,

and/or provide ideas for a solution. Having conducted your analysis, would you be able to add

something of value in terms of insight, perspective, scope and/or depth to the topic?

SECTION FIVE: CONCLUSION (about 150-200 words)

You should summarise the key points of your essay and briefly discuss the main theoretical and

practical implications of your findings. Highlight the main contributions of your study.

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REFERENCES

This section often reveals how your study is framed (relevant theoretical debate) and how far and

in-depth your study may develop by the following: textbooks sources (primarily of an

introductory nature); relevant research to date; relevant contributions from other social science

disciplines (e.g. from sociology, anthropology, psychology, political economy, and other

academic sources, for instance, dissertations and PhD theses). Please note that the strength of

academic journal contributions lies in its rigorous scrutiny by peers through the referee system

and in its systematic analysis, whereas information from websites, albeit timely, must be treated

with due caution. For instance, information from company websites often serves a PR purpose

and, therefore, cannot be taken at face value. You must ask: how much of this is of information

and/or analysis?

All references in your essay should appear in References. Please make sure that a full reference

list is presented in alphabetic order. Please consult coursework style guide (below) for correct

referencing.

 

Key assessment criteria

1. knowledge of the subject matter, including

(a) understanding: good understanding of the concepts and ideas introduced in the

module and presented in the materials used in the preparation of the coursework

(b) analysis and interpretation: demonstrated ability to appropriately apply theoretical

concepts to organisational or business practices

2. structure and organisation: logical clarity in presenting the arguments, consistency, and

completeness

3. originality and critical reflection (in contrast to regurgitation)

4. proper citation of the literature: You are expected to show reading beyond that given for the

lectures and reference additional articles that are relevant to your essay. Keep in mind that you

should not present as your own the words, the work, or the opinions of someone else without

proper acknowledgement. You also should not borrow the sequence of ideas, the arrangement

of material, or the pattern of thought of someone else without proper acknowledgement. All

direct quotes from the textbook or any other source must be identified by quotation marks and

referenced. Plagiarism, cheating or any other form of academic malpractice is unacceptable

and will be penalised. Thus, cite your sources, use accurate (but sparing) direct quotations and

set up a full list of references.

YOU MAY WISH TO CONSULT THE FOLLOWING TO IMPROVE YOUR WRITING

SKILLS:

Redman, P. (2001) Good essay writing: a social sciences guide. London: The Open University

and Sage.

Turley, R. M. (2004) Writing essays: a guide for students in English and the humanities. London:

Routledge. (Chapters 1-4, and 10)

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COURSEWORK STYLE GUIDE

Please follow closely

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS

The manuscript should be printed in 12-point font (preferably Times New Roman), on white

standard size (A4) paper, single-sided, double-spaced throughout, and with at least a one-inch

(2.5 cm) wide margin at top, bottom, and both sides of each page. All pages (except the cover)

should be numbered consecutively.

PARTS OF THE MANUSCRIPT

Parts of the manuscript should be arranged in the following order: (1) title page, (2) main text,

(3) references, (4) appendixes, (5) tables, and (6) figures. (Please, note that parts 4, 5, and 6 are

optional.) Do not use footnotes or endnotes, but incorporate all the relevant information into the

text.

1. Title page

This page should look as follows

COURSEWORK TITLE

Student’s Last Name and First Name

MBA … [degree programme]

Word count: [insert your exact word count]

BUSI425) Managing People

Module convenor:

[date of submission]

2. Main text

The text should be left-justified, with the first line of each paragraph beginning with the

tab. It should be structured into sections (and subsections, if necessary), with each

section/subsection beginning with a heading. Keep the heading on the same page as the

first paragraph of the section/subsection it belongs to.

3. Headings

The sections should follow the format specified for the assignment and contain the following

headings:

- Introduction

- Literature review

- A chosen study

- Discussion

- Conclusion

- References

4. Citations in the text

Citations to references should be designated throughout the text by enclosing the authors'

names and year of the reference in parentheses.

If the author's name is in the text, follow it with the year in parentheses

Example:

5

Perrow (1986) described…

If the author's name is not in the text, insert it and the year in parentheses

Example:

...institutional theory (Tolbert and Zucker 1996)....

Page numbers, to indicate a passage of special relevance or to give the source of a

quotation, follow the year and are preceded by a colon.

Example:

Zbaracki (1998: 615) explained....

Tolerance for ambiguity has been defined as "the tendency to perceive ambiguous

situations as desirable" (Budner 1962: 29).

Multiple citations are listed in alphabetical order and separated by semicolons.

Example:

Several studies (Adams 1974; Brown and Hales 1975, 1980; Collins 1976a,b)

support this conclusion.

If the work has two authors, cite both names every time the work is cited in the text. If the

work has more than two authors, cite all authors the first time the reference occurs; in

subsequent citations of the same work, include only the surname of the first author

followed by "et al." and the year.

Example:

Few field studies use random assignment (Franz, Johnson, and Schmidt 1976).

[First citation] … even when random assignment is not possible (Franz et al. 1976:

23). [Second citation]

5. References

References should begin on a new page, with the word “REFERENCES” centred in caps

and boldface above the section. References should be double-spaced, left-justified with

hanging indent.

Please cross-check your text with the reference list to make sure that every reference you

cite in one appears in the other and that each reference is complete; double-check the

spelling of authors' names.

List references in alphabetical order by the last name of the author (first author if more

than one) or the editor, or by the corporate author (e.g., U.S. Census Bureau), or periodical

name (e.g., Wall Street Journal) if there is no indication of individual authors or editors.

For two or more references by the same author(s), list them in order of the year of

publication. For two or more references by the same author(s) from the same year, list

them in alphabetical order by title, distinguishing each reference by adding letters (a, b, c,

etc.) to the year or to “Forthcoming” (e.g., “1992a” or “Forthcoming a”).

World Wide Web sources must be acknowledged following the basic rules for

conventional sources. A reference to a Web page should include the author(s)/editor(s)

name (if known), the last update or copyright date, the document (Web page) title, the site

title, the full URL, and the access date.

Examples:

Books

Geertz, C. (1973) The interpretation of cultures. New York: Basic Books.

Journal articles

Nahapiet, J. and Ghoshal, S. (1998) ‘Social capital, intellectual capital, and the

organizational advantage’, Academy of Management Review 23/2: 242–66.

Pettigrew, A. M. (1979) ‘On studying organizational cultures’, Administrative

Science Quarterly 24: 570–81.

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Chapters in books

Weick, K. E. (1977) ‘Enactment processes in organizations’ in B. M. Staw and G.

Salancik (eds.) New directions in organizational behavior, pp.267-300,

Chicago: St Clair.

Dissertations

Charles, M. (1990) ‘Occupational sex segregation: a log-linear analysis of patterns

in 25 industrial countries’. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Sociology.

Stanford University, Stanford, CA.

Magazine articles

Economist (1998) ‘Driven by Fiat’, April 25, pp.95–6.

World Wide Web sources

Department of Education (Victoria, Australia) (1996) ‘Using the internet for

research’, Learning with the internet.

http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/loti/page1.htm (accessed: 14 February, 1997).

Please note that in your list of references you need to include all the references in a single list, in

alphabetical order. Do not separate references into the lists of books, journal articles, etc. In the

above example, the references from different types of sources a