NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMICS

BTEC HIGHER NATIONAL DIPLOMA IN BUSINESS (RQF)

ASSIGNMENT BRIEF

Unit Code, Number and Title J/618/5035 - Unit 3: Human Resource Management

Semester and Academic Year Semester 1 / Academic year 2023 - 2024

Mr. John Andre, Mr. Nguyen Duc Nhan,
Unit Assessor(s)
Dr. Nguyen Huy Trung
HRM1: Research into current practice
Component Number and Title
(Assessment 1 of 1, Individual assignment)
Issue Date Monday, September 11th 2023
Submission Date To be announced

Student name

NEU Student ID Pearson ID

I certify that the evidence submitted for this assignment is my own. I

Learner declaration have clearly referenced any sources used in the work. I understand that
false declaration is a form of malpractice.

Student name / Signature Date:

Submission format

This is an individual assignment.

Name of the file includes Student ID_Unit name_Assessment no. (E.g. “1010001_HRM_WS1.1”)
Plagiarism is unacceptable. Students must cite all sources and input the information by
paraphrasing, summarising or using direct quotes. A Referral Grade is given when Plagiarism is
identified in your work. There are no exceptions.
Your evidence/findings must be cited using Harvard Referencing Style. Please refer to Reference
guiding posted on Moodle. The Reference page is compulsory to upload on Turnitin.
This assignment should be written in a concise, formal business style.
The word limit is 1,200 – 2,000 words.
 You MUST complete and submit a softcopy (hardcopy is not required) of your work on the due
dates stated. No late work is allowed to submit. This rule is not waived under any circumstances.
 Read ALL Instructions on this page and review the Pass, Merit and Distinction criteria carefully. To

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 pass the assignment, you must achieve ALL the Pass Criteria outlined in the marking sheet. To
achieve a Merit, you must achieve ALL the Merit criteria (and therefore the Pass criteria). To
achieve a Distinction, you must achieve ALL the Distinction criteria (and therefore the Pass and
Merit criteria).
The workshop presentations are expected to be presented professionally, as one would expect in an
office workplace. Students will work individually and should use LibreOffice Impress or Microsoft
PowerPoint for their slides. Slides must be submitted before your scheduled presentation
date and time. Presentation notes must accompany the slides (they should be included on
additional slides after the reference slide). Please see Task 1 below for more details.
The submission format of the individual written report is as follows. It should be written in a concise,
formal business style using double spacing and font size 12. The student is required to make use
of paragraphs, section headings, etc. as appropriate and must be supported with proper research
and referenced using the Harvard referencing system. Please also provide a reference list of all
cited resources using the Harvard referencing system. The word limit is 1,200 - 2,000 words. If the
student exceeds the word limit (excluding references and administrative sections) the student’s
grade will be lowered.
The form of evidence includes the student’s presentation, presentation slides, presentation notes, and
the individual written report.

Unit Learning Outcomes

LO1 Explain the impact of the role of HRM in creating sustainable organisational performance and
contributing to business success
LO2 Assess the contribution of HRM in recruiting and retaining talent and skills to achieve business
objectives
LO3 Examine how external and internal factors can affect HRM decision making in relation to
organisational development
LO4 Apply HRM practices in a work-related context for improving sustainable organisational
performance.

Vocational Scenario, Assignment activity and guidance

You have been selected by the Vietnamese government to produce a series of presentations and write
a short report about how an organization manages human resources in Vietnam. This information will be
used to help foreign and domestic companies improve operations here in Vietnam.

The student will need to choose one organization to report on for the duration of the semester. Each
student must choose a different firm. If a firm is very large, such as VinGroup, the student should
choose a division of that firm, such as VinFast or VinSchool. The selection of firms will be done through
the Moodle forums on a first come, first serve basis. Generally, any business with at least 100
employees in Vietnam will be acceptable.

Task 1: Workshop Presentations

Each workshop includes a series of questions for the student to answer. Presentations will be made
individually and should be delivered professionally as if presenting to your manager at a company.

Slides must include the full name, issue number, date, etc. of the journal in which supporting research
was published (also include the DOI of the article if one exists) on a separate slide containing all
references. Please note that journal articles or books must be used as proper supporting research.
Websites will not be accepted.

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Slides must be submitted to Moodle for each workshop (before the start of the workshop) for each
Student Group (each student will be in one of three groups). If the student is in Student Group 1, the
student must submit in WS01.1, WS02.1, etc. If the student is in Student Group 2, the student must
submit in WS01.2, WS02.2, etc. Failure to submit the student’s slides and presentation notes properly
and on-time will lower the student’s score on that workshop and could cause the student to fail. Slides
are to be submitted in original format (for example .odp and .pptx are acceptable but .pdf is not).

Failure to submit slides and presentation notes in the proper format before the deadline will result in
the student’s workshop score being lowered by one grade level. Failure to submit slides before the
end of the day of the presentation will result in the student’s workshop score being lowered to
zero/fail.

WS01 Questions (P1, M1, D1)

1. Explain how the functions of HRM can help a company’s long-term profitability.
2. Which functions are most likely to have the biggest impact? Explain.
3. What is unique about how HRM in your company helps the company’s long-term profits?

WS02 Questions (P2, M2)

1. How are changes in the way businesses operate changing the required skills and knowledge of
the workforce?
2. Analyze how HRM should change in order to support changes in company needs.
3. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your company’s HRM adapting to current needs.

WS03 Questions (P3, M3, D1)

1. Explain how the different parts of the hiring process can lead to greater firm profitability.
2. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your company’s hiring process considering the strength
of the labor market.

WS04 Questions (P4, M4, D2)

1. When HR decisions are being made by a company, what factors (internal and external to the firm)
should be considered in that process and how does that process help the firm to improve over
time? Which are the most important factors?
2. Evaluate the strengths and weakness of your company’s HR decision-making process with regard
to the most important factors they consider. What is the expected impact on the firm’s
development?
 On your references slide, provide the name, title, and email address (must be company email, not
@gmail, etc.) of your contact at the firm. Also include if that person is willing to receiving HRM
research questionnaires in English, Vietnamese, or not at all.

Important: Evidence of analysis, evaluation, etc. and supporting journal articles must be made
clear on the student’s slides.

Task 2: Final Report

(P5, M5, D3)

After all workshop presentations have been delivered, the student will have a final report to submit
(filename must not have any diacritics - symbols which are common in Vietnamese and not used in
English). Your filename should follow the standard written above. In this final, individual, report, the
student is to answer the following questions about the company the student has been researching this
semester:

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 1. Identify at least two improvements that your company could make to its HRM practices to improve
the firm’s long-term performance.
2. Explain in detail how those practical improvements should translate into improved firm
performance. Be very clear here.
3. Explain what practical improvements you considered but do not think would lead to as much
improved long-term performance for the firm compared to the improvements you recommend.
Explain why.
4. What does the company most need to worry about (in terms of HRM) in the near future?

Note: The following questions should be added as an appendix

5. Provide the name, title, and email address of your contact at the firm. Also include if that person is
willing to receiving HRM research questionnaires in English, Vietnamese, or not at all. (WS04)

The student’s answers to questions 1, 2, 3, and 4 must be supported by proper industry and/or
academic research. Failure to include proper industry or academic research where required will require
rework and may cause the student to fail the module. The word count limit is 1,200 to 2,000 words.

Important: When you submit your final report, you need to append to the end of the report all of your
slides for all of your workshops, including your presentation notes for each workshop. That is, the report
file you submit to TurnItIn should have your report, all slides, and all presentation notes. You can merge
(combine) everything into one PDF but it is your responsibility to ensure that TurnItIn can read the PDF
(this should be fine as long as you can highlight and copy the text from your PDF and then paste that text
into any text editor.

There are five assessments (4 workshops and 1 final report). Failure to attempt any assessment will
lower the student’s grade and could cause the student to fail as a score of zero will be receive for missed
assessments. It is up to the student to manage the student’s time and health to complete the student’s
assignments properly and on time.

Failing any presentation will limit the student’s maximum grade to pass. Students may be “compensated”
for one failed workshop, if other grades are high enough. Other than this, student must pass all
workshops and the final report to pass the module.

Note: Any plagiarism in the final report will limit the student’s maximum grade to pass for the module.
Recommended Resources
Please note that the resources listed are examples for you to use as a starting point in your research –
the list is not definitive.
Textbooks
1. University of Minnesota (2016), Human Resource Management (Note: This text is
open access so you can share it freely)
2. Itika, J.S. (2011) Fundamentals of Human Resource Management: Emerging experience
from Africa, African Studies Centre (Note: This text is open access so you can share it freely)
3. Price, A.(2007), HRM in Business Context, 3rd Ed, Thompson Learning
4. Pynes, J.E. (2009), Human Resources Management for Public and Nonprofit Organizations,
3rd Ed, Wiley and Sons
5. Dauten, D. (2006); For (Great) Employees Only; Wiley and Sons
6. Mejia, L.R.G.; Balkin, D.B.; Cardy, R.L. (2012) Managing Human Resources 7th ed;
Pearson
7. Reece, B.L.; Brandt, R; Howie, K.F. (2008) Effective Human Relations 11th ed; South-
Western, Cengage Learning
8. Benson, P.G. (2011) Emerging Themes in International Management of Human
Resources; Information Age Publishing

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 See LMS for additional resources

Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria

Pass Merit Distinction

LO1: Explain the impact of the role of HRM in creating sustainable

organisational performance and contributing to business success

P1 Explain the main areas of

M1 Compare areas of HRM to
HRM in their contribution to
create sustainable organisational
creating sustainable performance
performance

P2 Review the effects of the

M2 Examine HRM in relation to
changing nature of organisations D1 Critically evaluate the strengths
the changing nature of the
on human resources skills and and weaknesses of HRM in relation
modern business organization.
knowledge. to creating sustainable
organisational performance and

LO2: Assess the contribution of HRM in recruiting and retaining achieving business objectives

talent and skills to achieve business objectives

P3 Review relevant HRM

M3 Evaluate the use of HRM
practices in relation to recruitment
practices in recruitment and
and retention of employees for
retention in relation to the
the achievement of business
importance of the labour market
objectives

LO3 Examine how external and internal factors can affect HRM
decision making in relation to organisational development

M4 Discuss the key external and

P4 Investigate the external and internal factors that affect HRM D2 Evaluate key factors affecting
internal factors that affect HRM decision making, using relevant HRM decision making to make valid
decision making to support organisational examples to recommendations
organisational development illustrate how they support
organisational development

LO4 Apply HRM practices in a work-related context for improving D3 Determine strengths and

sustainable organisational performance. weaknesses of HRM practices to

make recommendations for

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P5 Apply HRM practices in a M5 Illustrate how the
work-related context, using application of specific HRM
specific examples to practices in a work-related
demonstrate improvement to context can improve
sustainable organisational sustainable organisational
performance. performance.

* Please note that grades are provisional. They are only confirmed once internal and external verifiers
have taken place, and the final decisions have been agreed by the assessment board.

Pearson Education 2016