Human Resources – Business Issues and the context of HR
Summative Assessment for Business Issue & the Contexts of HR (5CHR/03)
Assessment brief/activity
You have been asked by your CIPD Branch to lead a discussion at one of its events on ‘The evolving role of HR in the contemporary business world’. You have been asked to produce a paper for inclusion in the delegate pack. In your paper, you should include the following:
• An analysis of some of the key forces which shape the HR agenda e.g. models of the HR function, HR strategies, insights and solutions to support business performance, business ethics and accountability.
• Compare at least three different tools for analyzing the business environment.
• Assess at least four different factors which impact on an organizations business and its HR function. You should include examples of external and internal factors to illustrate the different types of impact.
• Summarize the key stages in strategy formulation and implementation with reference to a model from the literature. You should also refer to the role of HR in each of the stages and in particular, highlight HR’s contribution to business ethics and accountability.
• Give some examples of how business performance can be evaluated, making reference to at least three types of indicators. You should make particular reference to the role of HR in business planning and change management with some examples to illustrate HR’s key role.
• Explain how at least four different sources of business and contextual data can be assessed and utilized for planning purposes.
• Evidence to be produced/required
A written paper of approximately 3900 words in total.
You should relate academic concepts, theories and professional practice to the way organizations operate, in a critical and informed way, and with reference to key texts, articles and other publications and by using organizational examples for illustration.
All reference sources should be acknowledged correctly and a bibliography provided where appropriate (these should be excluded from the word count).
All submissions should be in the region of 3,900 words plus or minus 10% and references should be added in the Harvard Referencing Format. There is a Harvard Referencing tutorial in the Resources Area which outlines the formatting required.