Individual Coursework: How can YellowStarr Financial improve employee engagement (70%)
Objective
The objective of this individual coursework is to give students an opportunity to apply knowledge from the module to analyse a business case and provide practical solutions with good support of relevant HR theories and practices.
Requirements
Read the Case “YellowStarr Financial: Refocusing on Employee Engagement” and write an essay (a case report, 1500 words) about how YellowStarr Financial can improve employee engagement and become an employer of choice for new hires and long-time employees. On this basis, write an individual reflection (500 words) summarising your core learning from the module and how the learning you gain from this module can support your future academic and career development.
Part A. Case report (1500 words)
The length of the essay: 1,500 words; i.e. 1,350 – 1650 words are allowed, excluding the references. Please indicate the total words at the end of the case report. A report template will be provided in the first workshop – assessment preparation.
The case report shall contain the following components:
A. Introduction, including a brief background introduction of the company (150 words)B. Case Analysis (1200 words)a. Case Problem(s) b. Driving factors that contribute to/overcome the problem(s)c. Current solutionsd. Your solutionse. General recommendations
Your solutions must address at least one of the following HR theories/practices:
Talent recruitment/selection
Learning and development/talent development
Performance management
Reward management
You may add other talent management/employee engagement enhancement initiatives and practices to strengthen your solution package.
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C. Conclusions (150 words)
You MUST include at least one core reading from the preparation reading list related to
Employee Engagement and your chosen HR topic(s) and demonstrate your understanding of the theoretical perspectives provided in this scholarly work.
Part B. Individual Reflection (500 words)
Students shall include a module reflection (500 words) in the coursework. The reflection post shall cover the following key aspects:
What is your core learning of this module
How can the learning you gain from this module support your future career development
Students shall include their personal development plan before and after completing the module in the appendix. Contents in the appendix shall be excluded from the 500-word count.
The Part A (case report), Part B (individual reflection) and Appendix (personal development plan) shall be put into one file to submit.
Deadline Date for Submission of Coursework
December, 14th 2023
Five marks will be deducted for each working day (or part thereof) if coursework is submitted after the official deadline date without an extension having been obtained. Except in exceptional circumstances, late submission penalties will apply automatically unless a claim for extenuating circumstances is made within five calendar days following an assessment deadline. If you need a deadline extension, contact the Business School Student Support Officer before the deadline date. The Student Support Officer will provide you with an Extension of Deadline for the Submission of Coursework form. This form must be signed by the Officer and attached to your coursework when it is submitted. Extensions will only be given in exceptional circumstances such as illness (which needs verifying evidence from a doctor) and in the case of significant personal/family problems. Short-term illness (less than 7 days) is not normally regarded as an extenuating circumstance for coursework. Late
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penalties will not be implemented if a claim for extenuating circumstances is retrospectively approved.
You are required to submit one online copy of your coursework through Turnitin. A hard copy will NOT be required for this module.
Online submission through Turnitin in Moodle
The format of your document should be in either MS Word or PDF (PDF is more desirable). It should be less than 20mb, less than 400 pages and more than 25 words in length. PDFs must not be scans (images).
Further information on preparing your document is available at the Student Moodle Help site:
http://bit.ly/studentmoodle
*NOTE ABOUT PLAGIARISM*
Plagiarism includes referring to the work of other people or other authors without proper citation as well as self-plagiarism (i.e., reusing your own work from another module or using the same material in the oral presentation and the coursework).
Your coursework must be ORIGINAL (i.e., it is YOUR work and it is not reproduced from your previous work).
ALWAYS cite your references, no matter if you use the exact words of another authoror are repeating in your own words what another author said
When re-using the exact words of another author, use ‘ ‘.
GENERAL GUIDANCE
As a starting point, students shall comprehensively understand the case and can analyse the problem(s) with the support of relevant theories/theoretical perspectives (esp., theories related to employee engagement). Students need to critically analyse the problems and driving factors that contribute to/overcome the problem(s). Students need to assess the current company solution/management practices and provide theory-driven HR solutions with a close connection with the case context. It is highly recommended that students include relevant HRM theories as well as company examples/research evidence/empirical findings to strengthen their arguments. Students shall provide recommendations to improve managerial practice.
The sources of literature include textbooks, journal articles, practitioners’ articles, and leading industrial reports. Important: You MUST include at least one core reading from the preparation reading list related to employee engagement and your chosen HR topic(s).
It is expected that you will engage in reading and research. Useful sources include both business and quality mainstream newspapers and periodicals (e.g. Financial Times, The Economist, Business Week, Management Today, Sloan Management Review, California Management Review, Harvard Business Review, New York Times), industry reports from leading firms (e.g., Deloitte Insights, Mckinsey Insight Report), practical articles published by international HR
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associations (e.g., Society of Human Resource Management, CIPD), as well as academic journals (e.g., Human Resource Management, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Management, Personnel Psychology, Business Horizons).
Good papers demonstrate an accurate understanding of theoretical knowledge, and connect the theory and the case(s) comprehensively and accurately. They are well-written and systematically structured, and reflect appropriate scope and engagement with published literature. In addition to the aforementioned qualities, the best papers will reflect the student’s capacity for critical thinking –they provide a clear, analytic discussion, argue succinctly for a particular position, and consider and rebut potential objections. These papers also provide theoretical or empirical evidence to contextualize and justify their arguments, reflecting a sophisticated engagement with scholarly resources.
Papers which present personal opinions unsupported by theory or research or that are not relevant to the case and/or module/discipline will get a low-range mark. Papers that reflect misunderstandings about theoretical knowledge, that are incoherent, lack structure, and/orappropriate scope will score poorly.
PARTS OF THE COURSEWORK
The coursework should be arranged in the following order:
1. Title page
2. Main text
3. References
4. Appendixes
5. Tables (optional)
6. Figures (optional)
Do not use footnotes or endnotes, but incorporate all the relevant information into the text.
