ASSESSMENT: Group coursework

Date issued: Wednesday 12th October

Date for submission of coursework: Friday 11 th November by 4.00 pm Point of submission: All reports should be uploaded electronically onto the MG926 MyPlace Turnitin function.

Date by which the coursework will be marked with feedback: No later than Friday 2 nd December 2016

Name of markers: Professor Dennis Nickson and Jo Butler

Length of coursework: 3,500 – 4,000 words (note: this does not include references, bibliography or appendices).
Students exceeding the word limit by more than 10% will be subject to penalties.

Format: Group-based academic report. The coursework should be word processed with line spacing set at 1.5. The contribution of each group member in compiling the various sections of the report, should be listed in the appendix.

Contribution of coursework to overall module assessment: 50%

Your task

You are a group of HR consultants who have been commissioned by the UK Government to review the most recent research that has been conducted on HR issues in the NHS. In order to help your investigation a number of key recent research articles and other related reports have been highlighted as essential to your review (and these are listed below). More specifically, having assessed this material the Government wants you to highlight what you
think the most pressing HR issues are facing the NHS. Having outlined these issues you are then tasked with suggesting a number of recommendations for how these issues might be addressed. Without wishing to be too prescriptive it is felt that the use of PESTLE and SWOT analysis will be useful to begin to highlight the key people management issues facing the NHS. Use of these tools allows you to take account of key contextual/environmental
factors that are impacting on the organisation and the manner in which they may shape people-related/HR aspects within the NHS.

Further guidance:

As is highlighted above the use of PESTLE and SWOT analysis is likely to be helpful in thinking about how you develop your report. To get some further ideas about how this might be used within a HR context have a look at the factsheets produced by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, which is the professional association for HR in the UK. These can be found on the MyPlace page. In addition, the Society for Human Resource
Management’s (SHRM) guide to practicing strategic human resource management, is also a useful resource in thinking about how to identify and discuss the HR issues facing the NHS and your groups will be provided with a copy of this document.

Plan your focus, argument and academic rationale. Please note: there is no ‘one best way’ to prepare this critical report. It is possible to examine the key HR issues in the NHS from a number of perspectives. You simply need to decide upon your approach and argument, but then you must defend it with academic evidence and also make clear links to how this discussion informs your later recommendations.