MBA Dissertation Module: HRM and Governance at CK Infrastructure

This project proposal focuses on the relationship between Corporate Governance and Human Resources Management (HRM) within CK Infrastructure Holdings Ltd. The proposal highlights the external pressures the company faces, including competition, tax regulations, and Brexit impacts, leading to employee demotivation. It emphasizes the importance of aligning corporate governance with HRM to improve organizational productivity and prevent crises. The project aims to investigate the factors of corporate governance, evaluate human resource capabilities, and explore the relationships between them within CK Infrastructure Holdings Ltd, utilizing secondary data and existing literature to understand these dynamics and propose improvements.

MBA DISSERTATION MODULE – Formative Assessment 1
PROJECT PROPOSAL
Project Background:
Rationale for selection – importance and potential impact of the strategic project
for an organisation or business sector. Word Guide approximately 500
The project examines the case study organization of the CK Infrastructure
Holdings Ltd. The organization is facing external pressure due to the competition
in the global infrastructure business. The company headquarter in Hong Kong;
the suitable and experienced candidate is not good enough from the local Hong
Kong market. Moreover, there is tightness in the overseas tax regulations and
along with that, the business is located in UK, Canada, Australia and New
Zealand…etc, in UK the Brexit impacts are there already. It has been found that
the employees of the organization are suffering from loss of motivation. Since
there is the customer demands are changing always and there is work pressure
too, the work life balance of the employees is being hindered up to greater
extent. On the other hand, there is the responsibility to understand and follow the
relationship between Corporate Governance and Human Resources
Management. The corporate governance is something that understands and
operates according to relevant legislation including industrial laws, leads to the
improvement of the productivity of organizations from a critical viewpoint for
preventing them from falling into the crisis due to the weak management which
can further worsen the administrative and financial corruption. Lead and
influence a collaborative, innovative and values based culture. More aptly, the
corporate governance appeared as the management method which is founded
on a set of principles along with the procedures which govern the administration
along with the parties of deals. It has been also found that corporate governance
as a subject has been limited to the financial side at the expense of the human
resource side. The basics of the theory and corporate governance models are
based on the human resources which is the most important target of the
corporate governance. The human resources are expected to provide value,
commitment and ethics which can be possible only through the factors such as
motivation, training, participation and job satisfaction. The project will form
objectives on investigating the relationships between corporate governance and
Human Resources Management in the CK Infrastructure Holding Ltd. Hence, in
this manner, the fulfilment of the objectives become of higher practical value.
Further, these management concerns contribute to the intellectual knowledge
and the academic ideas which are employed particularly in this dissertation
project. Therefore, this dissertation project carries some academic values. The

conceptual framework below provides a pictorial view on the relationship
between the corporate governance and the human resource.
Theoretical framework
Literature Review:
Identification of the key aspects of the business literature (e.g. service quality) to
be underpins the study. This review should briefly cover the main ideas and
business practice that will be considered. It should locate a sample of the some
of the main sources and identify key critical issues that might arise. – Word
Guide approximately 750.
Corporate governance- The corporate governance is the compilation of the
processes, rules and laws, through which the businesses are operated,
controlled and regulated, understand and operate within the internal and external
political environment. The term corporate governance encompasses the external
and the internal factors which affect the interests of the stakeholders of the
company such as the shareholders, suppliers, customers, the government
regulators and the management, actively scan the external environment and
monitor the context in which the organisation operates. The board of directors of
a company are responsible for the creation of a framework of corporate
governance which aligns best the objectives and the business conducts. There
are specific processes which can be outlines in the corporate governance
consisting of the action plans, the performance measurement, the executive
compensation decisions and procedures for reconciling the conflicts of interest
and implicit contrasts between the stakeholders of the company. The corporate

governance has some of the specific principles such as all the shareholders must
be treated fairly and equally. The shareholders have to be aware of the rights
and ways of exercising them. All the contractual, legal and social obligations to
the non-shareholder stakeholders should be upheld.It consists of communicating
the pertinent information to the investors, the employees, the community
members and the vendors. On the other hand, the board of directors should
maintain their commitment in ensuring the fairness, accountability, transparency
within the corporate governance. The corporate governance policies and the
procedures must be transparent to the relevant stakeholders.
Human resources- Shape and mange a people strategy aligned with whole of
government objectives. Identify and communicate potential issues and setbacks
that will affect workforce design, culture and performance. Monitor and analyse
internal and external influences and their impact. The human resource is the
staffs and the people who operate an organization and can be placed as a
contrast to the material and financial resources of an organization. The human
resources function to actively identify economic and demographic trends and
factors that may influence HR plans and goals. A single employee can also be
considered as the human resource of a company. It is the function of an
organization which deals with people along with issues which are related to them
such as the recruitment and hiring, compensation and benefits, on boarding
employees, the performance management, and lastly the organizational culture
and development.
Tax regulations in Hong Kong- There are various reasons behind the foreign
investors and the entrepreneurs choosing Hong Kong to be the preferred
jurisdiction for establishing the business as well as expand it. Some of the top
factors are easy setting and operating a business in Hong Kong, the proximity to
mainland Chinese market and extremely attractive tax regimes. There is no
capital gains in tax, no value added tax and no withdrawing tax.
Employee motivation- It is the level of energy, creativity and commitment that is
brought about by the workers of a company to their respective jobs (Ahmed et al,
2010). The employee motivation always stays as a management concern
irrespective of whether the company is growing or shrinking. The competing
theories always keep stressing on the incentives or the employee involvement.
The entrepreneurs should always stay mindful about the effects of low employee
motivation as it can lead to disinterest, complacency and widespread
discouragement.
Employee satisfaction- Employee satisfaction can be used by the HR industry
for describing the way employees are content with the job, their payments, the
experience they gain and the organization they work for. Focus on delivering the
quality outcomes. It is a key metric which can determine the health of the
organization. It is linked to the emotions and mood in the workplace. The moods
can be temporary but the emotions are permanent and way more powerful. The

impact of the motivating factors on the satisfaction of the employees is strong
and visible too. The existing literature finds that there has been a substantial
relationship among the motivating factors such as professional goals,
responsibilities, recognition and employee job satisfaction.
Employee Retention- It has been found from study that motivation has a
significantly positive effect on the retention. Be accountable for own decisions
and actions and those of direct reports, take personal responsibility to meet the
role, the team and the organisational objectives. The future researchers are
recommended to include the job satisfaction to the effects of retention and
motivation in the private sector. Sajjad etal, has also pointed out that in Pakistan,
the workers tend to leave jobs due to loss of motivation in the financial segment
specially. This indicates that motivation enhances the retention of the employees.
Environmental Drivers
Salary/ incentives -The studies on the employee perception on the payment
system drag many other variables such as control, behaviour, reward,
restrictions, motivation and Mendes, (Lunkes, Flach and Kruger 2017). It is
an instrument of controlling and managing the workforce which also leaves huge
impact on the employee motivation. .
Communication- One of the biggest aspect in the organizational context is the
communication. It plays an important role in the employee motivation through
various ways. When there is effective communication in the organization, staff
retention becomes easy and smooth. Communicate clearly and confidently
across all levels of the organisation. Make sound, rational and ethical decisions.
The Customer contentment also increases along with the motivation (Sylvester
2016).
Employee involvement- It has been explored that the organizational
performance is affected by the employee involvement. The employees feel more
respected and valued when they are made a part of the organizational decisions,
seminars and meetings (Qiand Wang 2017).
Training and development –The employee training and development programs
are required for retaining the right people and gain profits. With the growth of the
companies, the war for talent increases. The training and development helps in
providing a strategic path for the organization. The high-impact training and
development programs are the result of a sincere planning and alignment
process. The steps for creating high-impact employee training are evaluating the
effectiveness, layer training, analyzing the skill gaps and identifying the business
impacts. Build and apply HR knowledge and expertise to deliver value to the
organisation. Deliver HR services and tools that improve workforce performance.
Provide coaching, mentoring and development for managers to develop people
management expertise.

Outcomes or solutions
Job security- Job security is an important area of concern for the staffs of an
organization. It is noted that those employees who work in an organization where
there are no diminution of pay, seniority, pension rights and other factors have
less motivation towards the work they do. As per the views of Boella and Turner
(2013), it is seen that job security functions through associating the employees
with the organization. Staffs usually tend to leave a job that does not provide job
security to them. The job insecurity initiated from the thought that their Job and
position is not certain in the organization
Recognition and Appreciation- It is evident that people like to be respected,
motivated, acknowledged and evaluated. It can be achieved by the recognition
and reward provided by the organization an employee works for. There is a
strong relationship between the organizational rules, impacts of staff rewards, the
organizational regulations, the staff maintenance and the work contentment. The
organizational reward systems with proper planning leads to the enhancement of
the staff retention rate (Abu Baker 2014). Additionally, the proper human
resource policies and work satisfaction have an affirmative relation with the
retention of the workers. The HR policies must include the remuneration based
on performance, employee appraisal and huge career development scopes
Objectives:
Identify 3-4 objective outcomes from the dissertation in terms of what the
dissertation seeks to achieve for the organisation or business sector. These
objectives should reflect outputs not tasks to be completed and should
emphasise the areas for improvement to business performance the dissertation
will concentrate on.
1. To understand the factors of corporate governance such as statutory duties
and employee behavior in the CK Infrastructure Holdings Ltd.
2. To evaluate the human resource capabilities in the CK Infrastructure
Holdings Ltd.
3. To explore the relationships between corporate governance and Human
Resources Management in the CK Infrastructure Holdings Ltd.
Methodology:
Candidates should include a brief statement as to what they consider the main
methods of primary and secondary research are likely to be the most useful to
achieving the project outcomes – Approximately 300 words.

Objective 1-To understand the factors of corporate governance in the CK
Infrastructure Holdings Ltd :In order understand the factors of corporate
governance in the CK Infrastructure Holdings Ltd. the project will take help of
various secondary data and the existing literature. The previous literature and
studies will be explored to come to a specific conclusion. The secondary data will
be used as the background work is already carried out through this. The
secondary data is useful for the data enrichment and improves its precision
through adding the values and attributes. Moreover, the secondary data also
provides baseline for the primary research for comparing the collected primary
data results which can be helpful in the research design. The previous literature
and studies will be explored to come to a specific conclusion.The theories and
models will be then linked to the CK Infrastructure Holdings Ltd situation and
employee conditions. In order to find information on that, the annual reports of
the company will be accessed and minutely analysed.
Objective 2-To evaluate the human resource capabilities in the CK Infrastructure
Holdings Ltd :In order to evaluate the human resource capabilities in the CK Infrastructure
Holdings Ltd. 100 employees will be taken for the conducting a survey and gain the quantitative
data for research. The survey questionnaire will be formed with 50 objective type questions. The
data will be collected and analysed to give a proper result of the findings.The survey method will
be used as there are various benefits of this method. Firstly, survey method provides a high
level of general capability in representing a large population. It helps to gather data from a large
sample size, within minimum cost and minimum time-period. Moreover, the survey
questionnaire will be circulated online thus nullifying the expenses. The survey method will be
used for the analysing multiple variables in short time.
Objective 3-To explore the relationships between corporate governance
and Human Resources Management in the CK Infrastructure Holdings Ltd:
In order to understand the relationships between corporate governance and
Human Resources Management in the CK Infrastructure Holdings Ltd. 5
managerial personnel will be interviewed to collect the quantitative data for the
research.The interview method will be helpful for investigating issues in a
detailed way. This method will also help in discovering the way the individuals
feel and think about a particular topic and the way they hold specific opinions.
The interview method will be used as it is useful for obtaining information
regarding the perceptions of people having a high response rate. The interviews
are refrained from influences of others in a particular group and some of the
queries can be clarified during interviews
MBA Dissertation
Key Activities Time-scale Resources required

(Milestones) (Plan of
action)
(Equipment, software, personnel
etc)
Selection of the topic
1st to 3rd week Notepad, excel sheet, survey
questionnaire , spss tool, consent of
the interviewees,
Data collection from primary and
secondary sources
4th to 6th week
Layout creation
7th to 9th week
Analysis of collected data
8th to 12th week
Finding formation
6rd and 12th
week
Conclusion 13th week
Submission 14th week
First Line Supervisors confirmation that the project has been discussed at a
supervisory meeting and inclusion of any comment:
Name …………………………….....................……..date of
meeting…………........................……………

SUPERVISOR FEEDBACK SHEET
Feedback on Project Proposal:
Quality of the Strategic Project overview and objectives
Literature review synopsis and methodological synopsis
Supervisor Signature……………………. Date:
………………………………