Final Examination Questions
1. A junior colleague has sent you an e-mail saying ‘During the course of my studies I
have come across the phrase “best fit is more important than best practice”. What does
this mean exactly, and what is its significance to us?’ Produce a reply.
2. Your chief executive has sent you the following e-mail. ‘I have just returned from a
one-day management conference in which an academic kept on referring to the
“resource-based view” and its significance. What is it, and how relevant is it, if at all, to
what we are doing here?’ Produce a reply.
3. You are the recently appointed HR director of a medium-sized distribution company
based in Dartford, with a staff of 350 including 130 drivers. After three months you
have decided that the crucial HR issues facing the company are the high rate of turnover
of drivers (35 per cent last year), an unacceptable level of road accidents, and an
unsatisfactory climate of employee relations (there is a recognized union for drivers
which is militant and hostile, and there are no formal procedures for employee
communications or consultation). In spite of this the company is doing reasonably well,
although it is felt by the board that is should do better, and there are plans for opening a
new distribution centre in Essex. You have received an e-mail from the finance director
who is preparing the company’s business plan and asks for your proposals on what
needs to be done in HR to support the forthcoming business plan. Formulate your
response.
4. How would you distinguish between high-performance, high-commitment and high-
involvement management?
5. Critically evaluate the concepts of best practice and best fit. What is the distinction
between HR policies and procedures?
6. What is the purpose of HR policies?
7. What principles should govern the operation of a disciplinary procedure?
8. At a meeting of trustees the chief executive of a medium-sized charity proposed that a
director of human resources should be appointed. Two trustees protested that the term
‘human resources’ implied that employees would just be treated as factors of
production, not as people. How would you respond?
9. John Storey wrote in 1995 that ‘Human resource management is a distinctive approach
to employment management which seeks to achieve competitive advantage through the
strategic deployment of a highly committed and capable workforce, using an integrated
array of cultural, structural and personnel techniques.’ Examine the approach to HRM
in your own organization or any other organization known to you, and analyse the
extent to which Storey’s description of HRM applies.
10. In 1998, Karen Legge defined the ‘hard’ model of HRM as a process emphasising ‘the
close integration of human resource policies with business strategy which regards
employees as a resource to be managed in the same rational way as any other resource
being exploited for maximum return’. To what extent do you agree with this comment?
11. Peter Reilly made these comments in 2006 on the three-legged Ulrich model: ‘The
model has many advantages, not least that it aims to centralize activities where there are
scale advantages and also keep close to customers where decentralization is necessary.
But it’s not an easy structure to work with… Splitting the function into three distinct
areas has created boundary disputes and sometimes left a hole at the very heart of HR
operations… One consequence of this division of labour is that lines of accountability
are not always clearly defined… The end result may be a remote service that does not
that doesn’t attend to the areas where managers need most assistance.’ What can be
done to avoid these problems?
12. Your finance director has asked you ‘What is the difference between human resource
management and human capital management? And if they are different, why should we
bother with the latter?’ Formulate your response.
13. What is social capital and why is it significant?
14. Your managing director has sent you the following e-mail: ‘I have been hearing about
the concept of communities of interest. What are they, would they be useful in our
company, and if so, how should we introduce them?’ Draft your reply.
15. What does the concept of CSR mean, and what are the main activities involved? Review
the situation in your own organization, and identify what CSR activities are taking place
and what more could be done.
REFERENCE BOOK:
Armstrong, Michael, 2010–
Armstrong’s Essential Human Resource Management Practice : A Guide to People Management
/ Michael Armstrong.
