EMPLOYEES ENGAGEMENT
Evaluating Human Resource Management
Assignment : Essay
Assignment 2 is an essay. From one of the HRM topics listed below, choose ONE of the topics:
• Lean working
• Employee engagement
• Outsourcing
In relation to this topic, students are required answer the question:
Critically assess what impact your chosen issue has on the management of people in organizations today in the UK
Your essay must focus on the UK. However, you can examine the topic in a number of ways: you can examine it from the perspective of the different groups that we will consider in class, from a specific HR practice or deal with the topic as an overview drawing from different areas. I am happy to discuss with you ways in which you can write this assignment.
The submission deadline for Assignment 2 is Thursday 27 April 2017 at 5 pm. You must ensure that by this date and time you have you have submitted an electronic copy through MyUCLan.
Your essay must be 2000 words long (excluding bibliography) and is worth 50% of the total marks for the module.
Feedback for completed work will be returned to students via MyUcLan within 15 working days of the submission date. This means that feedback for the first assessment will be returned not later than May 19 2017.Please note, however, that in the event of students submitting work after the deadline, feedback for this work may be returned later than the specified return date.
Students must familiarise themselves with the material in the Module Information Pack (available on MyUCLan) on plagiarism, penalties for late submission and extenuating circumstances. Students should include the following declaration in their work:
I confirm that this assignment which I have submitted is all my own work and the source of any information and material I have used (including the Internet) has been fully identified and properly acknowledged as required in the School guidelines I have received
Any electronic submission of work will in any event be deemed to have agreed to this declaration.
Essay writing
Before students attempt to answer this question, they should follow read the following brief notes to remind themselves what is required in an essay:
• Students should carefully read the question to make sure they are clear what they are being ask to do
• An essay is a structured piece of academic work that requires students to logically and rationally argue the issue that is the subject of the essay
• An essay should be a structured piece of work containing an introduction, the ‘body’ of the text containing the main arguments, and a conclusion summing up those arguments.
• The essay must be fully referenced using the Harvard system and contain a full reference list or bibliography containing all material cited in the essay.
Material covered in the sessions related to the topics for the assignment should be used as a starting point. Don’t simply restate what was covered in the lecture or what you have read in the literature. Develop an analysis of the key issues using secondary material to support points or to forward the case that you are presenting. The question is a broad one, but it is the opportunity to demonstrate that you understand a range of perspectives from academic material.
Make a plan with key points outlined before you begin to write the full answer. Ask yourself, does the analysis flow? Tutors are able to discuss your plan and ideas with you, although they will not read through full assignments.
Simple statements of opinion or prescriptive assertions are not adequate to the task: you need to back up your arguments with evidence and examples, e.g. from case or survey studies.
If you need any further guidance, including locating or identifying secondary material, please arrange to see me.
Please remember that this essay is asking you to focus on academic debates and accordingly your sources must be academic sources
Assessment Criteria
The criteria for the assignment are as follows:
• Evidence of a well-structured analysis clearly related to the question;
• Evidence of wider reading, drawing upon appropriate material to support, illustrate and develop the analysis that is being put forward;
• Ability to reflect critically on and apply theory to practice using appropriate evidence and examples
• Ability to reference properly and accurately.
Marks will be deducted for poor referencing and incomplete or non-existent bibliographies, as well as for poor structure, and for serious mistakes in grammar and syntax.
For guidance on how work will be marked, please refer to the University Assessment Handbook:
http://www.uclan.ac.uk/aqasu/academic_regulations.php
Wherever practicable, students’ work will be marked anonymously.
The key to a successful piece of academic work is a student’s ability to ‘demonstrate’ that s/he understands the topic based on appropriate reading material that the student can then analyse and create into a discussion leading to reasoned conclusions.
Further reading and sources
In particular students can usefully look at the following material:
Lean working:
Bradley, H., Erickson, M., Stephenson, C. and Williams, S., (2000), Myths at Work, Cambridge: Polity Press
Carter, B., Danford, A., Howcroft, D., Richardson, H., Smith, A. and Taylor, P., (2011), ‘All they lack is a chain’: lean and the new performance management in the British civil service, New Technology, Work and Employment, 26:2, pp.83-97
Hadjisolomou, A., (2015), Managing attendance at work: the role of line managers in the UK grocery retail sector, Employee Relations, 37:4, pp.442 – 458
Procter, S. and Radnor, Z., (2014), Teamworking under Lean in UK public services: lean teams and team targets in Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC), International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25:21, pp.2978-2995
Radnor, Z., (2010), Transferring lean into government, Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 21:3, pp.411-428
Sterling, A. and Boxhall, P., (2013), Lean production, employee learning and workplace outcomes: a case analysis through the ability-motivation-opportunity framework, Human Resource Management Journal, 23:3, pp. 227–240
Womack, J., Jones, D. and Roos, D., (1990), The Machine That Changed the World, New York: Rawson Associates
Employee Engagement:
Albrecht, S, (2010), Handbook of Employee Engagement:Perspectives, Issues, Research and Practice, Cheltenham: Edgar Elgar
Keeble-Ramsay, D. and Armitage, A., (2014), HRD challenges when faced by disengaged UK workers, Journal of Workplace Learning, 26:3/4, pp.217-231
Khan, W., (1990), Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work, Academy of Management Journal, 33:4, pp.692-724
Macleod, D. and Clarke, N., (2006), Engaging for Success: Enhancing Performance Through Employee Engagement, Crown Copyright available at:
http://engageforsuccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/file52215.pdf
Saks, A. M., (2006), Antecedents and consequences of employee engagement, Journal of Managerial Psychology, 21:7, pp.600-616
Shuck, B., (2011), Four Emerging Perspectives of Employee Engagement: An Integrative Literature Review, Human Resource Development Review, 20:5, pp.1-25
Truss, C., Alfes, R., Delbridge, R., Shantz, A, and Sloan, E., (2014), Employee Engagement in Theory and Practice, London: Routledge
Outsourcing:
Colling, T., (2005), Managing human resources in the networked organisation, in Bach, S., (ed.), Managing Human Resources: Personnel Management in Transition, (4th edition), Malden: Blackwell, pp.90-112
Cunningham, I. and James, P., (2009), The outsourcing of social care in Britain: what does it mean for voluntary sector workers? Work, Employment and Society, 23:2, 363-375
Johnson, G., Wilding, P. and Robson, A., (2014), Can outsourcing recruitment deliver satisfaction? A hiring manager perspective? Personnel Review, 43:2, pp.303-326
Kessler, I., Coyle-Shapiro, J. and Purcell, J., (1999), Outsourcing and the employee perspective, Human Resource Management Journal, 9:2, pp.5-19
McCracken, M and McIvor, R., (2013), Transforming the HR function through outsourced shared services: insights from the public sector, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24:8, pp.1685-1707
Rubery, J. and Unwin, P, (2013), Bringing the employer back in: why social care needs a standard employment relationship, Human Resource Management Journal, 21:2, pp.122-137
Woodall, J., Scott-Jackson, W., Newham, T. and Gurney, M., (2009), Making the decision to outsource human resources, Personnel Review, 38:3, pp.236-252
