Please take a look at the attachments.
THE ASSIGNMENT QUESTION
Develop a paper responding to the following question:
Critically review the situation at RestaurantCo and provide recommendations to the board on the strengths and weaknesses of it approach to managing human resources.
Your answer should include reference to at least the following issues:
A discussion of the links between corporate strategy, HR policy and management practices at the workplace level;
The underlying theories informing EIP (employee influence and participation);
The utility of Management goals, capabilities and development processes.
REQUIREMENTS
Not more than 2,500 words.
Harvard referencing standard. 12-15 sources. E Books, journals, reliable sources such as academic papers. Try not to use ONLINE resources other than Ebooks. Journals have to be professional journals. Reliable magazines. Can use websites but they do not count as references. Have to be supported by the papers. (Use Human Resource Management by Alan Nankervis, Robert Compton, Marian Baird, Jane Coffey – 7th edition book to do some of the refercing.)
Essay format.
PLEASE NOTE: The discussion questions that are in the PDF file, after the case study are just some questions to help with the actual assignment question, which is the one written above. The discussion questions ARE NOT the essay questions!
SOME TIPS:
Only use the case.
Not looking at what Restaurant co is about but looking at all the info given in the case.
References in the case study to support the case.
Another perspective – referencing is to support the arguments that are provided in the case. (Useful for e.g HR policy, culture in company)
e.g talk about standardization then we need to ask ourselves which company will standardize processes like this. Can google and find out about bigger companies, then we can use it to support our and say, for example, this company RestaurantCo is on the right track because standardizing is pretty common. (that can be one source)
Find evidence to support our argument. To demonstrate it, company is e.g short of supplies. We need to find evidence in the case to show like what caused the supply. Cannot just assume e.g they don’t have a proper accounting system. Need to draw conclusion WITH Evidence. Need to recommend a solution e.g what does the company have to do, such as find out the cause of this shortage. E.g supplies not delivering on time, waiters not attentive. Need to give them a recommendation for the likely cause. Then give like solutions based on evidence. E.g A is XXXXX B is XXXX and should do YYYYY. Based on the evidence so far the likely cause is B….. (to demonstrate our analysis) Don’t jump into conclusion without support from our findings.
How to demonstrate analysis and discussion is to have different views of each issue. Can be supported by referencing. E.g in restaurants it is normal to have franchising agreements, followed by the source we got it from.
Different views we must give certain conclusion. E.g what is the best view and this needs to be supported by evidence/ referencing. The shortage of supplies was due to the fact that there was no computerized system. And in order for them to be more efficient they need to get their goods on time and they can do that by having a computerized system. Give reference.
Got to give in text referencing.
Differences between line and staff.
Line are people directly involved with the goods and services. E.g factory the production supervisors, waiters
Staff function e.g warehousing people. Accounting staff, sales manager.
The task
Critically review the situation at RestaurantCo and provide recommendations to the Board on the strengths and weaknesses of it approach to managing human resources.
Your answer should include reference to at least the following issues:
· A discussion of the links between corporate strategy, HR policy and management practices at the workplace level;
· The underlying theories informing EIP (employee influence and participation);
· The utility of Management goals, capabilities and development processes.
A guide to answering the question
1. The question asks you to evaluate the current management practices in the company. To evaluate any management practice we need to have some way of identifying the relevant issues and the way we might ideally organise HR. Theories and models provided in texts and elsewhere provide the basis for this task.
2. The first step should therefore be to identify some relevant and useful theoretical approaches to HR. The course provides some relevant theories and these might be extended with some further background literature searches. Theories will help you;
a. Identify which issues are relevant to HR (e.g. A ‘map’ or listing of HR practices in a typical company perhaps)
b. How the HR practices relate to the overall business objectives of the company the issues relevant (the strategic HR focus)
c. Provide a way of looking at relationships between different policies and practices i.e. how do various policies and practices contribute to a coherent approach to HR. Is recruitment consistent with performance management for example?
3. Clearly identify the overall business objectives and the business situation facing the company. What is it that the managers are expected to be doing and how are they being managed?
4. Summarise the main HR policies and practices you can identify in the case.
5. Look at the ‘facts’ of the case as you have now summarised them against the various theoretical ideas you have found relevant to managing HR:
a. Do the practices in the case fit with the theoretical and academic discussions you have found – where do differ?
b. What do you think should be changed to improve the overall effectiveness of HR practice and its ‘fit’ with the business goals?
6. The assignment should conclude with recommendations which are well founded on the evidence and arguments advanced in the body of the assignment.
There is no limit to the number of references which might be used, but it is expected that the groups will have identified some relevant theoretical materials which can be used. In fact a solid discussion of the strategic management model would be expected as a minimum.
The case also refers to management development, performance criteria and selections standards. There should therefore be some discussion as to how these separate processes should be linked together and whether the company has done that effectively.
There is also the issue of informality in the restaurant management style which is possibly inconsistent with the corporate approach being pursued by the company. Is this a poor match? Can the company expect good Managers to operate in a different manner?
RMIT University
Slide *
Multiple perspectives
Modernism
Ontology: objectivism-there is an objective reality independent of our knowledge of it.
Epistemology: positivism—truth is ‘discovered’ through conceptualisation/theorisation and ‘testing’ our logic against the reality found in the objective world.
Organisations are ‘real’ entities that lend themselves to our senses.
Different ways to write the term ‘modern perspective’
Modern perspective / Modernism: both these terms refer to the modern perspective
Modernist: A person adopting the ideas of modernism
Difference between ‘ism’ and ‘ist’:
‘ism’ – Words ending with ‘ism’ always deal with ideas.
‘ist’ – Words ending with ‘ist’ refers to an individual who adopts a specific set of ideas.
Truth is discovered through developing concepts and theories and testing them against the reality found in the world.
When we apply the above metatheoretical assumptions to the study of organizations, we can then say that from a modernist point of view:
Objectivist: Reality (for example an organization) exists independently of our knowledge of it..
Positivist: assumes that you can discover the truths, laws, properties of organizations through the categorization and scientific measurement of the behaviors and functions of organizational members and organizational systems.
Modernist Theories on organization tends to focus on:
Efficiency
Effectiveness
Predictability and Forecasting
Results
Control
Systems / Structures
Search for General Law (Universal)
Universal Application
Critical Theory
Metatheoretical:
Ontology: there is an objective reality independent of our knowledge of it. It is driven by natural laws.
Epistemology: subjectivist
‘Knowing’ the ‘truth’ is ‘tainted’ by dominant ideology and values of the those seeking ‘truth’.
‘Nature cannot be seen as it ‘really is’ or ‘really works’ except through a value window’ (Guba, 1990: 24).
Slide *
RMIT University
In Critical Theory:
Truth is tainted by dominant ideology (set of ideas) that are produced through:
Traditions (Women must be submissive to men)
Education (Scientific knowledge is more accurate than common sense)
Politics (We are all Singaporeans)
Religion (Heterosexuality is normal) and so on.
Organization Theory (modernism for example)
Think about whose interests these truths serve? Therefore, critical theorists argue that we are already tainted by a value system as we go about seeking out these truths about the reality of our world.
Examples of how a critical theorist would talk about tainted truths produced by the modern perspective in management and organizations (You will learn some of these ideas in future lectures):
Truth A: Organization structures are rational systems designed to maximize control and profit.
Critical Theory response: Not entirely accurate. The truth that is hidden by modernists is that they can also be exploitative systems. E.g. The hierarchy in Foxconn is used as an instrument of control.
Truth B: Work is divided to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
Critical Theory response: Once again, the truth that is hidden here is that division of labor deskills workers. Power is subsequently placed in the hands of management and not workers.