QUESTION
BUHRM 5912 Human Resource Management
Semester 1, 2012
Assessment Task No. 1 Essay (Worth 20%)
Marking Criteria
Student Name: Student ID No.:
Assessment Criteria
Demonstrated understanding of the HRM topic (4 marks)
demonstrated understanding of the necessary
concepts/theories
Quality and completeness of the analysis and discussion (6
marks)
interpreted the instruction/question appropriately.
the introduction is appropriate to the type and format of
response and clearly outlines the focus.
the body of the response is well structured, with coherent and
logical development of key ideas in appropriate
sections/paragraphs.
the conclusion is appropriate to type and format of the
response, successfully summarising the key
ideas/issues/findings
Ability to analyse critical incidents and to apply HRM solutions
(5 marks)
demonstrated the ability to analyse critical incidents
demonstrated ability to apply HRM solutions
Written expression & Correct presentation (format, completed
and signed cover page, word count, line spacing, spell check
etc.), and clarity of expression (2 marks)
the writing style is appropriate to the task.
the writing is fluent, exhibiting grammatically correct sentences
that are appropriately punctuated.
there are no spelling or typing errors and due regard is given to
rules of capitalisation and abbreviation, etc.
key ideas from the literature are effectively paraphrased and
cited, and direct quotes are appropriately incorporated
the response conforms to the appropriate style guide advice
and the requirements of the specified format (font, margins etc)
Evidence of appropriate reading & research (academic and
other relevant journals, text and reference books), Use of intext
reference,
completion
of
a
full
reference
list
at
the
end
(APA
style)
(3
marks)
used sufficient and appropriate material from relevant and
credible sources to effectively support the key points
in-text citations and direct quotes follow referencing guide rules
reference list and/or bibliography appropriately compiled
HD
80100%
D
7079%
C
6069%
P
5059%
TOTAL MARKS OBTAINED
Grade
Comments:
Lecturer:
Location & Date:
MF
4049%
F
0-
39%
BUHRM 5912 Human Resource Management
Semester 1, 2012
Assessment Task No. 2A Presentation (Worth 5%)
Marking Criteria
Student Name: Student ID No.:
Assessment Criteria
Appropriate introduction and
conclusion (.5 mark)
Demonstration of platform
skills (posture, gesture, eye
contact)
(.5 mark)
Logical arrangement and
presentation of material (.5
mark)
Demonstration of
understanding of the
presentation material
(1.5 mark)
Handling questions and
answers
(1.5 mark)
Time Management
(.5 mark)
Total Marks Obtained
Comments:
Lecturer:
Date:
HD
80-100%
Excellent
D
70-79%
Very good
C
60-69%
Good
P
50-59%
Fair
MF
40-49%
Poor
F
0- 39%
Very poor
Marks
obtained
BUHRM 5912 Human Resource Management
Semester 1, 2012. Assessment Task No. 2B Report (Worth 25%).
Marking Criteria
Group:
Assessment
Criteria
The presence of an
introduction to the
organisation (1 mark)
The description of a
suitable problem for
analysis
(1 mark)
Effective use of
material from two
subject topics (5
marks)
Use of analysis in
developing ‘change
program’ and apparent
efficacy of ‘change
program’ (5 marks)
The extent to which
the presentation
content is effectively
reported
(1 mark)
Over-all quality and
completeness of
response to the
presentation topic
(5 marks)
Clarity of expression
and correct
presentation:
format, completed and
signed cover page,
word count, line
spacing, spell check (2
mark)
Use of in-text
reference, completion
of a full reference list
following APA style
(sufficient and
appropriate material
from relevant and
credible sources to
effectively support the
key points (5 marks)
HD
80-100%
Excellent
D
70-79%
Very
good
C
60-69%
Good
P
50-59%
Fair
MF
40-49%
Poor
Marks Obtained
Comments:
Lecturer, Location &
SOLUTION
Introduction:
Work life balance is a very sensitive issue in management and has been seen from different perspectives in different times. It could be better saying that work life balance concept is not very old in being practiced in modern HRM and it can also be said that this concept this gaining importance day by day. Although there is a discussion that Work-life balance is just a slogan. Most employees would prefer to be at work in a full-time job, rather than spending more time with their families. This statement may sound simple and justifying but is a very big claim to be made on present day corporate world.In the world of human resource management it is said that work life balance is a state of multiple role plays by the employee and the employee manages with a variety of work life dimensions. There exist many journals and scholarly articles about work life balance but somehow it remains an elusive concept that just has a virtual existence in the world, although it could be very difficult justifying an statement of such concern. [Manfredy and Holliday, 2004]
Greenhaus says work life balance is satisfaction of good functioning at work and at home with minimum role conflict. Work demands time management and family life also demands appropriate time being spend, it becomes very difficult saying that high work intensity will not make any role conflicts in the life of the manager or employee. In human resource history, it has been seen that work life balance is often treated as a subjective phenomenon rather than something which could be defined and measured. To some extent some scholars agree that it is just a concept, a hypothetical situation where presumption is made that balance between work and family life could be attained but the real concept is far more intricate than it looks. [Delecta, P., 2011]
Determinants of work life balance are: Individual – the individual plays the major role in determining the complexity of work life balance as individual is the one who has to determine the intensity of activeness he could dedicate to whichever account whether be work or personal life. Family is other determinant which decides the demand of time and self of an employee in family life. It has been seen that single individuals can dedicate more passion and activeness on the job than that of married guys or gals and family pressures and issues also effects work life balance of an individual. Organization is a key determinant deciding the work life balances of an employee because the firm where the employee is working has to have a perfect human re4soucrce management so that employees could be motivated to work fully and also be on time at their home. Social surrounding also plays an important role in deciding work life balance of the individual. Socially collectivist countries have more influence on their employees towards family life, socials life and lesser concentration on work life and organizational responsibilities.
For current times, it is however seen that employees spend most of their time in work management and work life balance is limited to not more than a motivating slogan which is not being followed and adopted properly. Although it would be inappropriate to say that most of the employees would like or prefer spending time in office rather than spending time with family. It is a very judgmental statement which could not be justified without subjective ideas and survey. It could in indirect ways be said that employees are so much burdened with work load that they get induced to spend their time in offices for long rather than enjoying with their families. Another reason could be increased modernization and flow of money in the economy which lucrates the employees to work more and achieve high monetary rewards. In companies nowadays the work load is at its peak due to extensive competition and employees are forced to perform well so that they could prevent themselves from being separated from their firm. Such factors are genesis to negligence of work life balance. However it’s also true that in modern human resource practices, more and more efforts are being taken to inbuilt work life balance in employees, for example Narayan Murthy himself asks all employees to leave the office on time in the evening despite of pending works and enjoy the rest of time with their family so that employee motivation and branding be strong in the employees. [Kalliath and Brough, 2011]
An article mentioning work life balance as just a myth was written which conveys the real picture of work life balance implementation in corporate world and says that there is no concept as work life balance but in actual sense the thought is work life related choices which you make in life and they have consequences as well. In a very blunt manner the former CEO of General Electric said the fact that women who have to make or maintain work life balance actually make choices about which one to consider as priority and they also face unavoidable consequences for the same, there is no person who can say that he or she is maintaining work life balance but actually they compromise one factor for the other. Many a times some top level managers do not agree to the above statement and they argue that work life balance could be reached wisely if you do perfect time management and be prepared for managing with the desired gap which may come in job life or family life. In case of people who opt for long holidays due to some family issues or prerogatives and then when they manage with the extra load of work after rejoining their firm, this is actually a state where one has to keep on doing proper time dedication and allotment depending upon prioritization. “Women make better managers” it’s a statement more often heard in present times of workforce diversity, it is because of the fact that women have quality of managing with their responsibilities very well. On the contrary it is also said that most of top officials in any firm are men as men are more dedicated to their work than women employees, therefore it can be reached that women dedicate more concentration on life balance than men. Therefore it can be said that it’s basically about your managerial skill which comes out in concern with work life balance management.
At times, some HR practitioners and scholars have also said that work life balance is nothing but a corporate responsibility on the firm to be made on the employees, it is not the employees who have to do work life balance but the management who must be concerned about work life balance of the employees so that their personal life also flourishes together with the corporate life thereby making the employee more motivated towards the organization. If this state is reached in future where organizations will consider work life balance of employees as a corporate responsibility, then balance could be practically reached and it could also be a strategic management of human resource of the firm. The more the employee is free from internal personal pressures the higher will be his or her work efficiency and vice versa. It must be considered organizational responsibility to focus on employee time management in such a way that employees could spend good time at home as well and consequently come at work with full zeal and energy. [Dow Jones, 2012]
Another perspective is that multinational companies have increased the load of work on employees to the extent that work life balance seems merely to be a concept which has no practical existence. When work pressure and stiff competition prevails, employees will be so baldy indulged in work pressures that family life becomes a secondary thought, people who are highly motivated towards monetary rewards are more motivated towards work life and spend more time on the job than family, this situation arises mostly because of more and more privatization where every extra effort of the employee is rewarded with high monetary and non-monetary rewards. [Alberta, 2004] The culture of the organization motivates employees to compromise the family life on every step and move forward in work life and achieve success. One of the factors promoting this problem could be nuclear family structure nowadays and percentage increase in women employees on the job. Both the things are interlinked though they seem to be not affecting work life balance extensively. Nuclear family structure makes people aloof from their family and builds a concept of self engagement in the person. This motivates the employee to spend more time on work and with colleagues rather than with family. The core reason is that joint family structure is very uncommon nowadays where the person is always surrounded by many relatives thereby increasing the value of family life in the person. Another reason is women high involvement in work, as the women force is a driving force for people to get involved highly in family life, for example children being highly attached with their mother or person being highly attracted towards spending quality time with wife and children. Nowadays percentage of women on the job has increased which indirectly motivates the men to spend more time on work life as their mother or wife or sister with whom they could spend time are also engaged in work life, this factor motivates the male employees to spend more time in office than home. These are indirect factors affecting work life balance of male employees.
Conclusion:
Thus it could be said that as we saw that for present times, work life balance is just a concept which is being tried to get implemented but it gets restricted to just being a slogan and no practical approach to it. For practicality of this concept many things needs to be changed on very large scale like organizational culture needs to be revised, firm must consider time management of all employees as corporate responsibility and especially in case of female employees, more holidays or timely leave from office must be promoted so that family life misbalance could not be seen. [Joshi et al, 2002] All these factors are indirect factors that may to some extent affect work life balance of employees and uplift the concept from being just a slogan to an instrument of strategic human resource management. Achieving a good work life balance is an ideal state to attain, however it has been seen that in multinational organizations it is a matter of concern for many stake owners like CEO’S, HR directors that employees must be motivated to maintain work life balance eventually promoting strategic HR management.
References:
1. Delecta, P., 2011, work life balance, international journals of current research, vol-3, issue-4, pp-186-189, retrieved from http://www.journalcra.com/sites/default/files/Download_361.pdf
2. Thomas kalliath and Paula Borough, 2012, achieving work life balance, journal of management and organization, page no-224-226, retrieved from http://jmo.e-contentmanagement.com/archives/vol/14/issue/3/article/2290/achieving-work%E2%80%93life-balance
3. Simonetta Manfredy and Michelle Holliday, 2004, work life balance, Oxford Brookes University, retrieved from http://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/hr/eod/wlb/wlb_report.pdf.
4. Dow jones, 2012, no such thing as work life balance, Wall street journal, retrieved from <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124726415198325373.html>
5. Alberta, 2004, better balance better business, retrieved from http://alis.alberta.ca/pdf/cshop/betterbalance.pdf
6. Sunil Joshi, John Leichne, Keith Melanson, Cristina Pruna,
Nicolai Sager, Cathi Jo Story, Kevin Williams, 2002, work life balance, retrieved from http://www.worklifebalance.com/assets/pdfs/casestudy.pdf.
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