TUTORS HANDBOOK - INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Third...

© 2014 John Stredwick INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Third Edition

TUTOR’S HANDBOOK

Introduction The main purpose of this book is to give a balanced introduction to the complex world of human resource management. Essentially, it is intended for first degree students studying the subject as part of a modular Business or Human Resources degree course or for students on a Higher National Diploma in Business Studies. It can also be valuable on post-experience courses such as Certificate or Diploma in Management Studies and for students on the early part of their Institute of Personnel and Development (IPD) Professional Development Scheme.The book combines the main theoretical underpinning for the subject area with a large number of practical examples and cases to assist the learning process. It is divided into 12 chapters to provide one topic a week on a modular course, but many of the chapters have sufficient material to allow work to be extended into two semesters if this is required.The Handbook consists of the following materials to be used in connection with the chapters of

the Handbook:

Answers and advice on student activities at the end of each chapter.Revision questions for each chapter.Masters from which lecturers have permission to produce acetates for use in classes.Some suggested assignments to be used on the module.Suggestions and advice on how to use the running case study (Meteor Telecoms).Ideas on how to get the best use out of ‘Focus on research’.How to get the best out of the book Chapter objectives At the start of each chapter is a short list of objectives, which can be a basis for introducing the lectures and used throughout the teaching to bind together the disparate themes in human resource management.Tables and illustrations There are numerous tables and illustrations in the text and these can be used as focal points of discussion in seminar groups, asking students in advance to comment, interpret and add to a particular illustration. At the end of this Handbook, you will find a selection of tables and illustrations that can be copied without limit.Case studies – general A selection of cases drawn from the author’s own research and from other publications. The advantage of such cases is that they give a realistic summary of how a specific subject or issue has been tackled in practice. The disadvantage is that they are simply summaries and inevitably miss out much of the overall context and explanatory text. So, if they are to be used to the full, students should be referred to the full source or the tutor should prepare themselves by reading the full source material beforehand.Alternatively, for seminar activity, a group of students can be asked to prepare a short talk on the case to lead off the seminar, with the remainder of the seminar being devoted to issues arising from the case.An Int roduction to Human Resource Management, 3e John St redwick (Instructor Manual All Chapters, 100% Original Verified, A+ Grade) 1 / 4

© 2014 John Stredwick Case study – Meteor Telecoms There is a story associated with Meteor Telecoms linked to each of the chapters. The author’s experience is that many students with little or no practical experience need to attach themselves to characters to gain greater understanding of the issues at stake. It is also easier to describe failures under such conditions, as few realistic failures are set out in the literature, for the obvious reason that few practitioners or organisations will agree to failure being publicised or to be associated with it in any way. There is a section later in this Handbook specifically on the Meteor questions.Chapter summaries The summary at the end of each chapter should also help to reinforce the main issues, theories and body of knowledge discussed within that chapter. It is never easy to encapsulate the entire chapter in a few brief sentences and I am conscious that these summaries are far from perfect in this respect. However, research shows that students do prefer some form of summary to help them remember some of the important parts of the chapter so these sections cannot be omitted.However, you may wish to ask some of your especially talented students to add some of their own chapter summaries. Students should be encouraged to read sections of each chapter (or the whole chapter) in preparation for each lecture.Focus on research Each chapter has a few selected summaries from published research. In most cases, these originate from articles in learned journals, but there are also a few summaries of research publications, notably from the Institute of Personnel and Development. The articles have been chosen mostly from a personal viewpoint in that they are quite readable (have tutors sometimes found some journal articles difficult to fathom?) and provide interest and information at several levels. On the whole, the statistical content is not too advanced and provides some basis for students to start considering what makes up research methods for later in their course. A few, particularly the Collinson and Collinson article in Chapter 9 and the Hayes article in Chapter 7, make for gripping reading. Tutors may wish to suggest others in this vein.Summary questions and answers A selection of essentially simple questions and answers for each chapter are included in this Handbook. I have always had some doubts of the value of having self-test questions and answers published in the text. We all know that it is all too tempting for some students, especially weaker ones, to look at the answers without having given sufficient consideration to the questions. They also take up a lot of space in the text. So I have included these in this Tutor’s Handbook and they can be issued separately or together as tutors wish for seminars or end-of-semester revision or even as short questions as part of a mixed examination format.Questions for students to answer on each chapter

These can be used as:

Revision on each chapter – given out at the end of each lecture or towards the end of t he course.Part of the assignment where students need to complete the answer for, say, tw o chapters. This at least ensures that they have carried out some reading.Short questions as part of an interim test or final examination assessment.Chapter 1 questions 1.According to Ulrich, what are the four main roles played by human resources?

• What financial benefits did Huselid find for organisations that had significantly above-averag

e scores in using HR practices?

3.Name five HR practices that research has indicated produce a high level of commitment.

• What is a ‘handmaiden’, according to Storey? 2 / 4

© 2014 John Stredwick

• Describe five factors that have led to uncertainty in employment and have contributed to

redundancy over the last 20 years.

• How did Zotefoams promote team efforts?
• Name six difficulties identified with the theory and practice of business partners.
• When looking at the resource-based view of the organisation, competitive advantage is

associated with four key attributes. What are they?

• What were the main initiatives leading to improved performance in the Claridge’s case study?
• What are the main ‘bundles’ of HR activities that some researchers have indicated lead to

improved organisational performance?

Chapter 1 answers

1.♦ Change agents ♦ Business partners ♦ Administrative experts ♦ Employee champions

2.An extra market value per employee of between £10,000 and £40,000.

3.

Select five from:

♦ Employee involvement ♦ Employee voice ♦ Harmonisation of terms and conditions ♦ Employment security ♦ Sophisticated recruitment and selection ♦ Extensive training and development ♦ Self-managed teams ♦ Extensive systems of flexibility ♦ Performance pay

4.Those working in human resources who play little part in implementing policy, operate at a tactical level only, dealing with administration and the provision of welfare, training and basic recruitment.

5.

Select five from:

♦ Decline in manufacturing ♦ Technological advances in the service area, especially related to telephony and computing ♦ Delaying ♦ Business process engineering ♦ Decentralisation ♦ Takeovers, mergers, buy-ins, buy-outs and float-offs ♦ Privatisation in the public sector ♦ Outsourcing ♦ Creation of agencies in the public sector

6.Through a benefits harmonisation programme together with employee share options and profit- sharing schemes.

7. 3 / 4

© 2014 John Stredwick

Select six from:

♦ The lack of clarity as to what a ‘strategic partner’ is actually supposed to do ♦ Business partners had difficulty in identifying how they ‘added value’ and too much time was taken up by trying to ‘measure’ this value ♦ Business partners often reverted to what they knew best and simply became a generalist working for their line management team ♦ Insufficient training has been given to business partners in consultancy, relationship management and third -party management skills ♦ Line managers have not received enough training to develop expertise in day-to-day HR activities (so business partners carried on doing this part of their job) ♦ The cost of service centres has been greater than anticipated ♦ The loss of ‘generalist’ activity has been regretted by HR staff who have regarded this area as their heartland ♦ Confusion over roles with lines of responsibilities not defined ♦ Perceived remoteness of shared-service operations

8.♦ HR is seen to be valuable ♦ The rarity of certain key employee skills ♦ The inability to substitute ♦ The difficulty of imitation

9.♦ A new reward and recognition scheme ♦ A new performance management scheme ♦ Skills training ♦ Internal promotion ♦ Regular communication through a quarterly newsletter.

10.♦ High level of employee commitment and employee involvement ♦ Employee voice ♦ Harmonised terms and conditions ♦ Employment security ♦ Sophisticated recruitment and selection ♦ Extensive learning and development operations/talent management ♦ Self-managed teams ♦ Extensive system of flexibility ♦ Performance pay

Chapter 2 questions

• Name four alternative courses of action that should be considered before recruiting takes

place.

• What alternatives are there to advertising when looking to attract applicants?
• Set out five issues that need to be considered when creating and maintaining interest in a job

advertisement.

• What are six essential components of a job description?
• Give four examples of third parties that can be used in the recruitment process.
• Detail three potential disadvantages of telephone screening.
• Detail four methods to collect the information you need for job analysis, according to Taylor.
• Identify five difficulties associated with using technology in recruitment.
• What was the theme of the revised Adidas branding?
• What is a competency profile?
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