PG Open Assessment Template (72M) - RESIT (Moderated) V.F

Module Code: MAN00072M
Module Title: Human Resource Management in Context

Module Leader: Dr Chidozie Umeh
Open/Closed Assessment: Open Exam Resit
Maximum Word Count: NA
Release Date: TBC
Submission Deadline: TBC
Weighting: 100%
Important information
A penalty of five marks will be deducted for late submissions that are made within
the first hour after the deadline. Submissions that are more than one hour late but
within the first 24 hours of the deadline will incur a penalty of ten marks. After the first
24 hours have passed, ten marks will be deducted for every 24 hours (or part
thereof) that the submission is late for a total of 5 days. After 5 days it is treated as a
non-submission and given a mark of zero. The consequences of non-submission are
serious and can include de-registration from the University.
If you are unable to complete your open assessment by the submission date
indicated above because of Exceptional Circumstances you can apply for an
extension. If unforeseeable and exceptional circumstances do occur, you must seek
support and provide evidence as soon as possible at the time of the occurrence.
Applications must be made before the deadline to be considered.
Full details of the Exceptional Circumstances Policy and claim form can be found
here: https://www.york.ac.uk/students/studying/progress/exceptional-circumstances
If you submit your open assessment on time but feel that your performance has been
affected by Exceptional Circumstances you may submit an Exceptional
Circumstances Affecting Assessment claim form by 7 days from the published
assessment submission deadline. If you do not submit by the deadline indicated
without good reason your claim will not be considered.
Please take proper precautions to safeguard your work and remember to make
backup copies of your data. The University provides all its students with
storage space on the University server and you should save and back up any
work in progress on this server on a regular basis. Computer failure and theft
of your equipment or storage media are not considered exceptional
circumstances and extensions cannot be granted for work lost for these
reasons.
Page 1 of 6
SECTION A
Answer ALL questions in section A, relating to the case study.
CASE STUDY

Northern Plant: ‘The factory that time forgot’
“Northern Plant is very, very difficult to manage. The workforce don’t seem to
appreciate that team working is an important day-to-day function that enables
the organisation to run efficiently. They do not want to work in teams, and they
don’t seem to respect the authority of their first-line managers.”

This statement was made by Mike, a senior human resource manager from Northern
Plant’s Corporate Headquarters. Mike had been drafted in to lead a human resource
management team, charged with introducing team working at Northern Plant, which
its parent company sees as key to improving competitive advantage within the high-
tech sector of the automotive industry in which it operates.

Prior to Mike’s arrival, Northern Plant had tried to introduce the workforce to high
performance team working, but with little success. Workers had resisted teamwork,
which they believed would lead to work intensification. The ways in which they
resisted, however, was not something that managers at the plant found easy to
understand or to explain. As a long-standing senior human resource specialist, who
had joined the plant some years earlier, explained to Mike:

“When you join this plant you quickly come to realize that it’s not managed properly.
There are no basic rules and professional human resource standards in place that
managers should be working to, and, because of this, workers have become ill
disciplined”

This manager believed this problem was due to the poor leadership skills of the
Plant’s first-line managers, who were not respected by the workforce. What this
manager didn’t fully explain to Mike, however, was that prior to their attempts to
introduce team working, workers had not only enjoyed a considerable amount of
autonomy from “direct management control”, they had actually been encouraged to
manage themselves!

This was because of the extremely strong market demand for the company’s
products. Northern Plant was a leading competitor in a rapidly expanding world
market. Meeting customer demand had been extremely difficult. Even with 24-hour
production, shipments of products to customers were seldom dispatched on time.
This ‘problem’ gave rise to an “informally negotiated” arrangement between first-line-

managers and shop floor workers. In exchange for management “turning a blind eye”
to how they organised themselves, and how they chose to spend their time once
output targets had been met, workers would deliver their production quotas in the
fastest way possible. Workers valued this arrangement because it gave them
autonomy from direct management control. As long production targets were met and
Page 2 of 6
products were dispatched to customers on-time, they were allowed to take as many
unofficial rest times as they liked during the working day, and enjoy as much ‘free
time’ as they liked at the end of each shift. This was acceptable to the first-line
managers, who believed that meeting production targets was far more important than
more formally managing the workforce. This allowed workers to spend part of their
working day, while still being paid, reading books or newspapers, chatting to friends,
or playing cards, etc.

Although many of the first-line managers pretended not to know this was happening,
and could not afford to be seen to openly condone this behaviour, they went along
with the arrangement for the sake of production!
In other words, without giving workers ‘responsible autonomy’ from direct

management control in this way, and without encouraging them to complete
production quotas in the fastest time possible, and rewarding their efforts with time
off for “good behaviour” during working hours, targets would not have been achieved
as quickly. Ironically, the workers themselves also saw this as “poor” first-line
management, and it is for this reason that they had lost workers’ respect.
Questions begin on the next page.
Page 3 of 6
Question 1
Explain the reasons for the key challenges facing Mike’s human resource
management team?
(10 marks)
Question 2
What HRM practices could be introduced to help the first line managers to re-
establish the authority and regain the respect of the workforce?
(10 marks)
Question 3
Identify the kinds of performance management principles that could be introduced to

support the development of a more professional first-line approach to managing
Northern Plants workers?
(20 marks)
SECTION B BEGINS ON THE NEXT PAGE
Page 4 of 6
SECTION B - Answer any TWO of the following four questions.
Support your answers with examples from the academic literature and from
the case study if you wish to.
Question 5
Discuss the key content and process theories of motivation, and why they are
important to HRM
(30 marks)
Question 6
Using theories/scholarly perspectives where applicable, critically discuss the link

between HRM and performance:
(30 marks)
Question 7
The role of line managers in the delivery of HR is becoming increasingly important.

What are the key benefits and challenges of this trend for organisations?
(30 marks)
Question 8
Critically evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing the HR function.

(30 marks)
Page 5 of 6
Example Feedback Form
The York Management School
Module code: MAN00072M
Module Title: Human Resource Management in Context
Generic marking criteria
G1: Presentation
G2: Theory and literature review
G3: Analysis and problem solving
G4: Structure and argument
G5: Conclusions
G6: Accuracy of referencing
Module specific learning outcomes relevant to this assessment
[module leader please insert from module specification]
S1:
S2:
S3:
S4:
S5:
S6:
Comments on assessment criteria:
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specific learning outcomes.
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Page 6 of 6

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Module Code: MAN00072M

Module Title: Human Resource Management in Context

Answer ALL questions in section A, relating to the case study.

This ‘problem’ gave rise to an “informally negotiated” arrangement between first-line-

In other words, without giving workers ‘responsible autonomy’ from direct

Questions begin on the next page.

Identify the kinds of performance management principles that could be introduced to

SECTION B BEGINS ON THE NEXT PAGE

Using theories/scholarly perspectives where applicable, critically discuss the link

The role of line managers in the delivery of HR is becoming increasingly important.

Critically evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing the HR function.

The York Management School

Module code: MAN00072M

Module Title: Human Resource Management in Context

Generic marking criteria

Comments on assessment criteria:

Suggestions for improvement:

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