Assignment Brief: The summative assignment for this module is a 3,000 word (+/- 10 per cent) individual report on the HR strategy of a (multi-national) company. Using theories and models from the Strategic Management module (Semester One), you must first assess the available secondary data on your chosen company (e.g. financial reports, annual reports to shareholders, business press, specialist trade journals, published academic papers, etc.) to determine the companyās business strategy (consult the Library Guide: āHow to research companiesā, available on Blackboard). Based on this information, you should outline how and why a particular configuration of HR policies and practices might support the organisationās business strategy. Using any available secondary data on the organisationās actual HR policies and strategies, evaluate whether and to what extent current HR policies support the business strategy, and undertake an evaluation of how and why you might recommend changes to the organisationās current HR strategy. A list of potential companies (where known academic research is available) is listed on the next page.
Based on strategic HRM theory (most notably theories of ābest fitā) it should be relatively straightforward to determine the āmost appropriateā HR strategy for the organisation in question. However, as information on the organisationās actual HR strategy, policies and practices may be harder to come by (depending on the company selected), this might be as far as some students will be able to take their analysis ā in this scenario, you will need to focus on why particular HR policies and practices are āmost likelyā to support/drive the organisationās business strategy, drawing on empirical evidence from the literature (e.g. similar firms in the same/similar industry) and relevant theory. Where data is available on the organisationās HR strategy/policies/practices, students should undertake an assessment of any āgapsā between best practices/best fit and actual HR policies/practices, and then critically evaluate why such differences exist and to what effect.
Start your research by reading Chapter 3 of the core text by Boxall and Purcell (2015) where the authors discuss HR strategies in different contexts (manufacturing and services) and types of firm (multi-divisional and multi-national).