DIPLOMA IN HUMAN
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT level 7
Unit 01: Strategic Human Resources
Management and Organisational Behaviour
Scenario
A few years ago, Mr. Axel Erate, a friend of yours, developed an App for iPhone that became so popular that it was sold for £4,000,000 to Apple. Over the years, your friend spent most of the money on cars, luxury holidays, and a failed venture in a pharmacy specialising in homeopathic remedies.
However, after reading an article concerning the Internet of Things, Mr. Erate recently started up a company called UrPhone4Everything® which specialises in creating customised mobile controlled
solutions within a home to control everything from coffee machines to lighting, TVs or heating systems. Mr. Erate started the company with 2 friends: one who specialised in coding, the other who specialised in hardware purchase and installation. He took a more commercial role and was in charge of the website, marketing and finance.
The mission statement of UrPhone4Everything® is “Make your life simpler by connecting everything”. Its vision is “To be the market leader in intelligent home control”.
The business rapidly expanded and, after 6 months, Mr. Erate had to hire 5 people: 1x Personal
Assistant to address all the questions and deal with customer queries, 1x Programmer to help with the coding of the app and the integration with the systems around the house and 3x Installers to perform home installations. Although there is no official organisational chart, UrPhone4Everything® is structured as follow.
Due to the success and originality of the concept, several magazines and newspapers ran feature articles last month and UrPhone4Everything® has been swamped with requests and inquiries. One request in particular came from a wealthy Chinese property developer in the process of building 7000 apartments throughout the UK. Should this contract be successful, when other contracts will come
through. Since it takes 1 engineer between 2 and 4 hours to perform the installation, Mr. Erate knows that it is time to move to the next level and asked a number of HR consulting firms to provide advice.
Unit 01: Strategic Human Resources
Management and Organisational Behaviour
Task 1 of 3 – Sales Pitch (AC1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1 & 2.2)
Scenario:
As a long-time friend of Axel Erate, you are his preferred partner, however you still need to pitch for
the contract since the 2 other members that started UrPhone4Everything® will be involved in the
decision.
Instruction:
Prepare a sales pitch in which you should:
- Explain the importance of strategic Human Resource Management (HRM) and how you could
add value to UrPhone4Everything®; in particular you should discuss how strategic HRM
could be linked with other departments.
- Explain the roles you could play at UrPhone4Everything® and their purposes
- 3.Analyse the factors that UrPhone4Everything® should consider before HR planning
- Determine a preliminary HR requirement for the organisation considering the new contract.
Please note, this is a sales pitch so be ready to answer questions that may arise
Delivery:
_ 1x sales pitch (circa 20 minutes)
Submission:
_ 1x PowerPoint
xxxxx
Task 2 of 3 – HR Plan and Memo (AC2.3, 3.1, 3.2 & 3.3)
Scenario:
You have been successful in securing the contract, and you have a lot to do. The management
priority is to have a HR plan in place as soon as possible, but you feel that a HR policy is equally
important, if not more. Therefore, you have decided to create the HR plan, but to include it together
with a memo about creating an HR policy.
Instruction:
You therefore need to prepare:
- A human resources plan for UrPhone4Everything®
- A memo concerning the importance of HR policy, the memo should provide examples of
regulatory, legal and ethical concerns that should be covered within the policy (living wage vs
minimum wage, maternity cover, equality act 2010, termination of employment, etc.) which
would be importance for UrPhone4Everything®
Delivery and submission:
_ 1x HR plan (circa 600 words)
_ 1x memo (circa 900 words)
xxxxx
Task 3 of 3 – Report (AC4.1, 4.2 & 4.3)
Instructions:
Write a report in which you should
- Describe the impact of organisational strategies, structures and culture on the management of
HR.
- 3.In light of your findings, create a HR strategy for UrPhone4Everything®
Delivery and submission:
_ 1x Report (circa 2000 words
Unit 02: Managing and Co-ordinating Human
Resources
Task 1 of 2 – Presentation (AC 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2,2.4, 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3)
Prepare Power-point Slides 1A: Role of Human Resources in Organisations covering the
following topics:
- Responsibilities of Human Resource in the achievement of organisational objectives.
- Role of Human Resource in effective Change Management
- How Human Resource contribute to professional and ethical principles in organisation
Prepare Power-point Slides 1B: Goals of Effective Human Resource Management
- Approaches and models of HR Delivery
- HR functions and its evaluation
- Contribution of HR in organisational performance and objectives
Prepare Power-point Slides 1C: Correlation between Organisational Performance and Human
Resource Management
- HR issues affecting organisational performance.
- The impact of Human Capital Investment to Organisational Performance
- Different approaches to evaluating the effectiveness of HR function.
Submission
_ Power-point Slides (15-20Slides)
Task 2 of 2 – Essay (AC 13.1, 3.2 and 3.3)
With reference to all the topics covered in the power-point slides, prepare 2000-2500 words essay
which critically examines the correlation between organisational performance and management of
Human Resources.
Submission
_ 1 x Handout (2000 – 2500 words)
Unit 03: Leadership and Management
Development
Assignment Brief
Task 1 of 3 – Critical Analysis (AC 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3)
Write a report that cover the three topics indicated below:
- Discuss the relevance of leadership and management in the success of an organisation
- “Leaders are born” and “Leaders are made” are two phrases which are often the topic of
debate in human resource management.
If you were to choose one of these phrases which you believe in, what would that be? Justify
your answer.
- Evaluate a range of approaches in organisations to developing good leaders and managers.
Submission
_ Report 1500 words
Task 2 of 3 – Case Studies (2.1, 2.2 and 2.3)
Case Study 1: Southwest Airlines
How can an airline survive a government order to ground its entire fleet and shut down for days? After
9/11, all U.S. airlines were faced with this same crisis. One that succeeded through the difficulty was
Southwest Airlines, already known for its outstanding customer service. Southwest’s passengers,
flight attendants, pilots and ground crews were stranded all across the country after the terrorist
attacks. But unlike their competition, Southwest’s leadership did more than just sit and wait. They
encouraged employees to leverage their trademark fun approach to business and to help stranded
customers enjoy themselves at the movies or the local bowling alley. And when the ramifications of
the shutdown forced other airlines to cut staff, Southwest’s then-CEO, James Parker, announced just
three days after 9/11 that the company would be keeping all of its employees, as well as issuing a
profit-sharing payment. Leadership characteristics like crisis management, creative problem solving
and a strong belief in the company’s vision saw Southwest through this unimaginable situation. The
CEO also protected his staff, which ultimately led to a stronger airline.
Case Study 2: Starbucks
Starbucks is recognized for treating its employees, also known as partners, well. The coffee giant
offers insurance benefits, stock options and retirement plans. But back in 1997, Starbucks faced a
crisis when tragedy struck and three employees were killed during a robbery in Washington, D.C. The
outstanding leadership of CEO Howard Schultz was demonstrated when he flew straight to D.C. and
spent a week with the co-workers and families of the three employees.
While some leaders might have stayed as far away as possible from this tragic situation, Shultz’s
natural leadership traits prevailed. With compassion, approachability and a dedication to meeting his
partners’ needs, he did what was right. As a result, the public viewed him and Starbucks more
favourably.
With reference to the case studies above, answer the following questions:
- Discuss various management approaches exhibited by Southwest Airlines and Starbucks to
handle issues affecting their organisation.
- How could leadership approaches integrate learning and development in the organisational
strategy of Southwest Airlines and Starbucks.
Submission
_ Report 1500 words
Task 3 of 3 –Critical Analysis (AC 3.1, 1.2 and 1.3)
- Identify various indicators of success for leadership and management development
programmes
- Elaborate various methods of evaluating leadership and management and organisational
performance.
Submission
_ Report (1500 words)
Unit 04: Contemporary Issues in Human
Resource Management
Assignment Brief
Task 1 of 2 – Human Resource Management Issues (AC 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 4.1
and 4.3)
Scenario
Choose an organisation of which you are familiar with.
- Identity major human resource management issues and challenges greatly affecting the
performance and efficiency of the chosen organisation.
- Discuss how the management tackle the major human resource management issues of the
organisation.
- Evaluate relevant tools used by HR managers to analyse organisation environment.
- Discuss the role of the human resource in organisational development and performance with
reference to the chosen organisation.
Task 2 of 2 – Legal, Regulatory and Governmental Policies (AC 3.1, 3.2 and 4.2)
- Evaluate legal and regulatory frameworks and policies that impact on human resource
management and human resource strategy.
- Determine various approaches implemented by businesses to managing the impact of
governmental and legal policies.
- Identify relevant business and contextual data needed by managers in human resource
planning.
Submission
_ 1 Report for Task 1 (2000- 2500 words)
_ 1 report Task 2 (2000- 2500 words
Unit 05: Global Talent Management
Assignment Brief
Task 1 of 2 – CPD Presentation (AC 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3)
Scenario
You have been working as a Human Resource Manager for a Multinational IT Company. Your
company has employees from different parts of the world working as IT consultants. As part of the
Continuing Professional Development Seminars in your company, you are asked to prepare 10
power-point slides on Global Talent Management which can be presented in 20 minutes. The topics
to be covered are as follows:
_ Global Talent Management and its benefit to the organisation
Roles of Human Resource Managers in Global Talent Management
_ Key factors to be considered in managing talent on a global scale
_ Barriers to effective global talent management
Delivery
_ 1 x PowerPoint Presentation (20 Minutes)
Submission
_ 1 x PowerPoint Presentation Slides
Task 2 of 2 Handouts Preparation for the Seminar (AC 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3)
As a supplement to the presentation, you need to provide handouts to participants which they can
take home. The topics you need to include in those handout include:
_ The Impact of Globalisation and Diversity on Global Talent Management
_ The Role of Global Talent Management in achieving organisational goals and objectives
_ The impact of Global Talent Management on Organisational Performance
Delivery and Submission
_ 1 x Seminar Supplementary Handouts (2000 words)
Unit 06: Performance and Reward Management
Assignment Brief
Task 1 of 2 – Report (AC 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3)
Scenario:
You have applied for a job in a university as a Lecturer in Strategic Human Resource Management.
The university selection team has allotted the topic of Performance and Reward Management for you
to present and discuss in the panel interview.
Part of the requirement before the interview is a report which you need to submit. The report should
cover the following topics:
Theories and Models in Performance and Reward Management,
_ Relevance of reward in employee and organisational performance,
_ Influence of external environment on organisation’s performance and reward management
system,
_ Effective performance and reward management strategies applied in businesses, and
_ Relationship between performance and reward management and workforce learning and
development
Delivery and Submission
_ 1 x Report (3000 words)
Task 2 of 2 Report (AC 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3)
Instruction:
With reference to one organisation of your choice,
_ Evaluate the performance and reward management systems prevalent in the chosen
organisation.
_ Discuss the various methods the company implements to measure employee and
organisational performance.
_ Assess the potential benefits and drawbacks of creating teams in the organisation
Delivery and Submission
_ 1 x Report (1500 words)
Unit 07: Employment Legislation
Assignment Brief
Task 1 of 2 – Critical Analysis on Employment Legislation (AC 1.1, 1.2, 2.1 and
2.2.)
Critical Analysis:
Employment legislation plays a key role in employees and employer relation.
- Discuss the aims and objectives of employment legislation and its significance to employee
and employer relations.
- Identify 3 piece of employment legislation and discuss how they impact on employee morale
and well-being.
- Discuss the role of contracts in employment law.
Task 2 of 2 – Legislative Protection of Workers (AC 3.1 and 3.2.)
In this section of the report, you need to choose an organisation which you are familiar with. It can be
an organisation which you have worked before or an organisation which you know. You are required
to provide an overview of the chosen organisation.
- Discuss the prevailing laws which aim to protect worker’s rights, welfare and protect against
discrimination in your chosen organisation.
- Identify legislation on unfair treatment and practices which protects employees in your chosen
organisation.
Submission
_ 1 x Report for Task 1 and Task 2 (4000 – 4500 words
Unit 08: Business Research Methods
Assignment Brief
Scenario
There is no scenario for this assignment. Instead, you must design an independent research project,
investigating an area within the Human Resource Management Sector.
Task 1 of 1 – Research Project Proposal (All the LOs)
Instructions
In this task, you will need to produce a research project specification in which you:
- Explain the purpose of your research, its value and its contribution to academic knowledge.
- Identify the aims and objectives of your research.
- Critically review key literature and recent literature around the subject area
- Explain and justify your epistemological and ontological position.
- Design and justify your research methods
- Describe and justify how you propose to analyse the results of your research
Delivery and Submission
_ A Completed research proposal (circa 3500 – 4000 words
