HRM Issue Analysis and Recommendation

The assignment requires students to select an organization or sector relevant to their specialism (Travel/Tourism/Airline Management) and identify a significant HRM issue related to fairness, equality, and discrimination. The student must then justify the significance of the issue, summarize the legal duties and rights of companies and employees, and suggest steps to encourage fair dealings in relation to the chosen issue.

Human Resource Mangement CW 1
GUIDANCE
Some guidance to help you obtain the very best mark
Don’t forget that throughout your work, if you make use of evidence from
any source, you must have a CITATION at the point where the material is
used- for example ‘(Steve, 2011)’.
Section 1: Your chosen context:
Select, as a context for your assignment, an organisation or sector relevant to your specialism (Travel/ Tourism/ Aviation
Management).
This can be just a few words long. For example, depending on your course, it might be
Reception work in a hotel, or cabin crew roles, or baggage handling, or the marketing office of a
travel company, or the driver/guide role on a coach holiday- indeed any context.
Section 2: Your chosen issue:
Set out an HRM issue in the context you have selected, which is significant in terms of implications for fairness, equality and
discrimination.
Again this can be very brief. You simply state what the issue is. The chosen issue can cover
anything which impacts fairness, equality, discrimination. In the contexts above, it might be (for
example) harassment of reception staff by a supervisor; organising shift patterns in cabin crew;
arrangements for breaks and absence cover for baggage handlers; inappropriate dealing with a
maternity issue in the marketing office; bullying of drivers by passengers on a coach holiday.
You just need to be sure that:
1. It concerns the industry
2. It is an issue in terms of fairness, equality, discrimination
3. You can find evidence about it, you can justify this as an issue, and you are able to give good
ideas to suggest improvements.
Section 3: Justification of your choice of issue: (sections 1-3 count for 20% of the mark)
Justify your claim that this is a particularly significant issue in this context.
Here you argue that it is a significant topic to consider. Your argument will use evidence, and
your own reasoning and concepts of fairness.
The main point here is that you establish that there is something which needs to be put right/
done better, and that people are being impacted by this.
Often students give one or more example cases here to show that it is a real issue.
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Section 4: The rights and duties of companies and employees: (20% of the mark)
Summarise the legal duties and rights given to companies and employees in relation to the issue.
You might consider here things like the following, from the viewpoint of companies and
employees:
1. The legislation. (Here and elsewhere in your answer, you might make reference to case
examples which occurred under old legislation but if you do so, do also note how the legal
position has changed. Similarly you might make reference to international cases but if you do
so, also give a UK/ European perspective).
2. Company policies and codes. These will help you to set out how companies are interpreting
their obligations
3. Arguments from papers/ books which discuss the issue and suggest obligations/ rights of
employees.
4. Any case examples which have occurred which might help the reader to understand the
position.
Section 5: What can be done to encourage fair dealings: (50% of the mark)
Suggest steps which might be taken by companies and employees to encourage fair dealings in relation to your issue.
NOTE that this gains HALF THE MARKS of the entire work. You should give good ideas which you
LINK to the evidence and arguments made in the earlier part of the answer. These steps should
therefore be written so as to address the problems you have identified.
You can be quite creative here, so long as your suggestions will be helpful in the context.
The total word count up to this point should be between 1,550 and 1,850. Please insert the word
count in the box below:
Word count to this point is:
Section 6: References List: (10% of the mark)
References List in accordance with the advice in Cite Them Right. This section is not included in the word count.
List sources ALPHABETICALLY BY AUTHOR SURNAME, and use the Harvard method as in Cite
Them Right.
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