To what extent do you consider your organisation’s HR and L&D practices to be ‘vertically aligned’ with its business strategy?

People Management and Development Strategies for Performance

Assessment Questions:
Question 1
You apply for a role as a senior HR manager in a large private sector organisation. As part of the selection process, you are asked to make a ten minute presentation on what you consider to be ONE major way in which the HR function can add value for an organisation. What would you say and why? Justify your answer with reference to your reading.

Question 2
To what extent do you consider your organisation’s HR and L&D practices to be ‘vertically aligned’ with its business strategy? Justify your answer.

Question 3
Illustrating your answer with examples, explain how HR and L&D activity in an organisation can help to promote its values.

Question 4
Burke and Litwin (1992) define ‘organisational climate’ as being the ‘collective impressions, expectations and feelings’ that employees currently have towards their employer. They go on to argue that policy and practice in the field of reward management plays a major role in influencing ‘organisational climate’. To what extent do you agree, and why? Justify your answer with reference to your reading and personal experience.

Question 5
Your Chief Executive Officer (CEO) has e-mailed you following a networking webinar which included a brief presentation about ‘high commitment models of HRM’. She asks you to critically evaluate the pros and cons of either adopting this model for your organisation or making further use of it. Draft a 1000 word briefing paper on this topic for your CEO.

Question 6
In their paper “A meta-analysis of different HR-enhancing practices and performance of small and medium sized firms”, Rauch and Hatak (2016) reported evidence of a strong, positive relationship between some HR practices and organisational performance. Drawing on academic research, explain how your organisation could implement new HR practices in order to lift its performance. Justify your answer.

Question 7
Critically evaluate the strengths and limitations of a best practice approach to HRM in a post- pandemic world of work. Illustrate your answer with examples.

Question 8
Bundles of high-performance work practices (HPWPs), such as those promoted by Pfeffer (1998),are associated with benefits for organisations and employees including higher business performance and employee satisfaction. What are the main barriers that can sometimes serve to prevent organisations achieving the full benefit from high-performance work practices? Justify your answer.

Question 9
You have been invited to deliver a guest lecture at a university for students on a final year undergraduate HRM programme. Your brief is to provide students an insight into your role as a people management professional. What would you highlight as being the main features of your role? Justify your answer with examples.

Question 10
Drawing on your reading, identify and critically evaluate any ONE significant, contemporary development in the field of employee selection.

Question 11
You are asked to critically evaluate management development activity in your organisation. What are its main strengths and weaknesses? What ONE proposal would you make to improve its effectiveness? Justify your answer.

Question 12
How can people management professionals best support line managers in sustaining good quality employment relationships when interacting with their teams virtually? Justify your answer.

Question 13
What are the main advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing HRM and L&D activity to consultants and sub-contractors? Illustrate your answer with examples.

Question 14
Farndale (2005) defined a professional HR function as one which is ‘perceived to make a valued strategic contribution to organizational life’. A CIPD (2020:18) report later found that people management professionals ‘with a more strategic role find more meaning and purpose from their work’. This suggests that HR and L&D work is ‘professional’ when it is ‘strategic’. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposition? Justify your answer.

Question 15
Write a 1,000 word briefing paper for your senior management team on how your organisation’s HR / L&D functions might usefully partner with either a major customer or a major supplier to share good practice in respect of a current challenge.

Question 16
Whilst there is a great deal of potential for HR and L&D managers to use people data to inform decision-making, there is often a lack of capability amongst people management professionals in this area. To what extent do you agree with this viewpoint? Justify your answer.