UWBS038G Human Resource Management: Explain the Concepts of Leading (6HR004)
UWBS038g Assessment Briefing for Students
Assessment brief: 6HR004 Sustainable Human Resource Management
Academic Year: 2015 / 2016 - Semester 1
Module assessment detail (approved at validation as amended by module modification)
Module code & title 6HR004 Sustainable Human Resource Management
Module Learning outcomes: Indicate if tested here
ASSESSMENT ONE – INDIVIDUAL ESSAY
LO2 Identify and explain the concepts of leading and managing others in respect of current and key theories of leadership and management. Yes
LO4 Analyse complex situations through the synthesis of ideas taken from a range of sources and to diagnose problems,& devise solutions to a range of contemporary HR issues.
Yes
Assessment type Weighting (%)
Essay 50%
Assessment type, weighting and LOs tested by this assessment indicated in the shaded area above by a
Important requirements (Delete where appropriate, if other please provide detail)
Mode of Working: Individual
Presentation Format: Essay
Method of Submission: Hard and electronic (disk) copy Friday teaching week 9.
Mark required to pass this coursework: 40%
Hand in date & time Friday of teaching week 9, i.e. 11th December 2015. 3pm
Date & method by which you will receive feedback
Hand in date plus 20 working days
Resit/retrieval date Undergraduate resit date(s)
Assessment limits (in accordance with UWBS assessment tariff)
No more than 2500 words (excluding any appendices)
Do clearly state your student number when submitting work but do not indicate your name. Always keep a copy of your work. Always keep a file of working papers (containing, for instance, working notes, copied journal article and early drafts of your work, etc.) that show the development of your work and the sources you have used. You may need to show this to tutor at some point so notes should be clear and written in English. This is an important requirement. There may be circumstances where it is difficult to arrive at a mark for your work. If this is so you may be asked to submit your file within 3 working days and possibly meet with your tutor to answer questions on your submission.
Explanation of submission requirements and further guidance
• Assessments are subject to a word limit to ensure consistency of approach across all modules. Your work should not exceed the limit indicated (excluding references and appendices). Do not feel that you have to “achieve” this word count in your work. What is important is that the work satisfies the stated learning outcomes which are articulated through the assessment criteria (see following page).
• Care is taken to ensure that work has been marked correctly. Checks are conducted by both a second lecturer and an independent expert from outside the University on batches of work.
• Your work will not be returned to you but you will receive detailed feedback explaining how your mark has been arrived at and how your work could have been improved upon.
• Always use the Harvard style referencing system. The University’s Learning Information Services have produced a series of guides covering a range of topics to support your studies and develop your academic skills including a guide to Harvard referencing http://www(dot)wlv(dot)ac(dot)uk/lib/skills_for_learning/study_guides.aspx
• Expensive or elaborate bindings and covers for hard copy submissions are not required in most instances. (Refer to guidelines however in the case of dissertations).
• The Business School has a policy of anonymous marking of individual assessments which applies to most modules. You should not identify yourself directly in the work you submit and you may need to use phrases such as “the author of this assignment ….” in your submitted work.
Avoid academic misconduct
Warning: Collusion, plagiarism and cheating are very serious offences that can result in a student being expelled from the University. The Business School has a policy of actively identifying students who engage in academic misconduct of this nature and routinely applying detection techniques including the use of sophisticated software packages.
• Avoid Collusion. The Business School encourages group working, however to avoid collusion always work on your own when completing individual assessments. Do not let fellow students have access to your work at any stage and do not be tempted to access the work of others. Refer to your module tutor if you do not understand or you need further guidance.
• Avoid Plagiarism. You must use available and relevant literature to demonstrate your knowledge of a subject, however to avoid plagiarism you must take great care to acknowledge it properly. Plagiarism is the act of stealing someone else's work and passing it off as your own. This includes incorporating either unattributed direct quotation(s) or substantial paraphrasing from the work of another/others. For this reason it is important that you cite all the sources whose work you have drawn on and reference them fully in accordance with the Harvard referencing standard. (This includes citing any work that you may have submitted yourself previously). Extensive direct quotations in assessed work is ill advised because it represents a poor writing style, and it could lead to omission errors and a plagiarism offence could be committed accidentally.
• Avoid the temptation to “commission” work or to cheat in other ways. There are temptations on the internet for you to take “short cuts”. Do not be tempted to either commission work to be completed on your behalf or search for completed past academic work.
When you submit your work you will be required to sign an important declaration that the submission is your own work, any material you have used has been acknowledged and referenced, you have not allowed another student to have access to your work, the work has not been submitted previously, etc.
Assessment Brief / Task The detailed requirements for this task are as follows:
“As the language of sustainable development enters the business mainstream, the responsibility for managing social and environmental issues is slowly shifting from the corporate fringe to an important business function”.
Do you agree with all, or part, of this statement? Be careful to address all of the different concepts in your report..
The following information is important when:
• Preparing for your assessment
• Checking your work before you submit it
• Interpreting feedback on your work after marking.
Assessment Criteria
The module Learning Outcomes tested by this assessment task are indicated on page 1. The precise criteria against which your work will be marked is as follows:
• Using information: Identify and use relevant academic literature to support analysis and to inform discussion of theories and concepts
• Analysis: Use of argument, models, evidence and techniques in the development of theory and practice
• Critical thinking: Objectively assess the relative contribution of different analytical approaches and theoretical perspectives.
• Presentation: Clarity of portfolio presentation, using appropriate English, with correct grammar, spelling and punctuation, with appropriately referenced sources using the Harvard Referencing Methodology
Performance descriptors
Performance descriptors indicate how marks will be arrived at against each of the above criteria. The descriptors indicate the likely characteristics of work that is marked within the percentage bands indicated.
Level 6 % Work will often demonstrate some of the following features
1 70-100
The work varies from very good (70-79%), excellent (80-89%) to outstanding (in excess of 90%). Very good, possibly outstanding or exceptional level of analysis, showing deep critical engagement with a comprehensive range of contextual material. Demonstration of independent thought resulting in creative responses to the assignment brief and some telling insights. Clear evidence of understanding of current scholarship and research based on an extensive range of relevant sources. Clarity of structure demonstrating complete focus of argument. Little or no obvious errors in referencing or grammar or syntax. Mature links made between relevant ideas, theories and practice.
2:1 60-69
Clear links between theory and practice. Good coverage of assignment issues. Full understanding of core issues. Evidenced level of understanding of appropriate theory and concepts. Some small repeated errors in referencing or grammar or syntax as appropriate
2:2 50-59
Identifies main issues and relevant theory. Coverage of most of assignment issues. Competent application of relevant theory and states obvious links to practice. Some repeated errors in grammar or syntax possibly failure to apply Harvard referencing standard correctly in places.
3 40-49
Makes few links between theory and practice. Answers question in a very basic way. Describes relevant theory accurately, and some relevant ideas offered. Possibly failure to apply Harvard referencing standard correctly. Limited coherence of structure.
Fail 30-39
Some learning outcomes and / or assessment criteria not met. Inadequate content with issues not addressed; insufficient evidence of understanding of relevant theory and concepts and only partial understanding shown. Very limited application of theory. Use of extensive quoted passages is evident. Evidence of sufficient grasp of learning outcomes to suggest that the student will be able to retrieve the module on resubmission.
Human Resource Management
Student:
Institution:
Human Resource Management
h might benefit the organization. The human resource manager is responsible
Human resource management refers to the process of hiring and offering training to the same employees in order upgrade their skills whicfor the recruitment of staffs to the organization, conducting job analyses, orientation, training and managing wages and salaries of the employees. In addition, the human resource department also evaluates the performance of different employees in an organization, resolve the conflicts in the organization and also ensuring that there is flow of information in all levels of employees in the organization. In this case, the human resource managers need to have some of these qualities in order for them to deliver on behalf of the organization; perfect knowledge of the market industry, some leadership and negotiation skills. Therefore, the core mandate of these managers is to ensure that the employees are managed in order to ensure that the organizations goals and objectives are attained. The HR department is also expected to work together with other department like that of the production in order to attain a certain output in the production process. This is because labor is one of the factors of production and therefore an organization can attain its goals if it ensures that it invests well in labor by providing a better remuneration and rewarding its employees as a way of motivation and also with the aim to retain some of its best employees. Besides, with the current trends in the competitive market, organization seek to employ productive staffs in order to fit in the industry. This paper focuses on the concept of human resource in an organization. Moreover, it also enlightens the reader on the theories of leadership and management in an organization.
Identify and explain the concepts of leading and managing others in respect of current and key theories of leadership and management.
The concept of leadership and management go hand in hand and are of great importance to any organizations whose aim is to perform in the market. The leading function refers to the use of non-coercive influence with the aim of directing and coordinating the activities of the employees or members of a certain organization in order to achieve or accomplish certain group activities. Effective leadership in an organization is expected to give direction to the effort of all workers I order to attain the organizations/ company’s goal without any form of guidance. However, the link between the individual and organizations goals may become tedious which may lead to a situation of served optimization in which individuals / the employees of the organization work to achieve their individual goals and therefore the whole organization becomes ineffective in achieving its goals. In this case the individual goals take precedence over the organizational goals (Thiele, 2013). Leadership as a property is the set of qualities that are attributed to those who are considers to have successfully employed such influences in their respective organization. Therefore, a leader in an organization influences the behavior of followers. A leader has the authority to exert force to another person, power to exercise force on another person and control of another person. The sources of power for leaders in an organization may be legitimate in the sense that other employees may feel that it is legitimate or right for another person to give orders. In addition sources of power may be from, reward, charismatic and coercive. In addition, the leaders in an organization might lead with different style depending on the type of employees that he or she may be dealing with. Examples of leadership styles include autocratic, democratic and leissez faire. There are a number of theories or approaches towards leadership (Thiele, 2013).
Trait Theory
The trait theory was among the early approaches to leadership. The theory tried to identify personality and physical characters of the successful leaders. Among the personal traits, a leader could have the following; education, self-assurance, intelligence assertiveness, companion, tolerance among many other traits. On the other hand the physical traits may include good voice in a leader, tall among others. However, this kind of theory may not be commonly used. It may be used in the determination of the traits that are associated with success in particular instances. There are also large numbers of physical and personal traits in a number of situations (Thiele, 2013).
The Human Relation theory
This theory suggests that the ability to lead depends more on how a person behaves than his or her personality traits. Besides, this approach advocates democratic or participative leadership approach where the other staffs are given a chance to contribute ideas and suggest solutions to various situations or problems. In this particular case, the leader plays the role of coordinating the employees of the organization.
Theory X and theory Y
These theories were developed by Douglas Mac Gregor. The approaches express that a person’s leadership style is influenced the person’s perception or notion towards what people are like. In this case, theory x an individual is assumed to be naturally lazy. In this regard, an individual under the theory x lacks vision, dislikes responsibilities, prefers to be led with others and they are also resistant to changes thus they are not ready to embrace any changes that may arise in the organization (Schyns, 2005). In addition, they are considered not being intelligent or bright in any way. They are also self-centered and their goals take precedence over the organizational goals. They must also be rewarded, persuaded, controlled or even punished in order to do something. On the other hand, the theory notion is that an average man likes work and enjoys working and views work as good as rest. They are also considered to be ambitious and works under minimal or no supervision. These types of individuals are also regarded to be generally right and have the ability to make decisions independently. Hence their commitment towards work is directly proportional to the reward expected (Storey, 2007). They also not only accept responsibilities given to them but will go up to an extent of seeking it.
Path Goal theory
The path goal theory is where the junior staffs or the sub-ordinates in an organization view their leaders as a source of power. This kind of power is referred to as reward power since it comes from the sub-ordinates. The leader plays a major role of ensuring that he or she provides clarity in terms of the direction to be followed by the sub-ordinates. The leader in this particular case will also determine the best rewards to accord the employees in the organization. In regard to this theory the leader may change leadership styles in accordance to the traits of the junior staffs, the nature of their work, clarity of the organizations authority systems and the physical environment in which work is being carried out (Schyns, 2005).
Contingency Theory
This theory of leadership stipulates that leaders should be flexible enough in adoption of certain specific situations that they may encounter in their line of work. Therefore, in this case, the theory requires that leaders should apply different leadership styles to apply in different work situations. The above are the theories of leadership that have been evident and practical in a number of organizations.
On the other hand, management refers to the overall mandate that is vested in the bigger positions of an organization whose aim is to oversee the organizations activities and ensure that the organization is working hard towards achieving its goals and objectives. Moreover, the managers of an organization are always held responsible when the organization fails to perform and therefore man...