Human Resource Management

I. Details of Assignment

1. Background

Your boss just came back from a HRM conference. He is keen to learn more about the latest application of people management theories and concepts in organisations. Over lunch, he asked you to prepare a Report on “The Impact of Organisational Culture on Corporate Performance”. Generally speaking, corporate performance (or corporate health) refers to how well an organisation performs in different key areas such as financial, market, human resource management, reputation, and innovation.

2. Your Task

For this assignment, you are to conduct a literature review on the subject matter to write the Report. The number of articles to examine is THREE (3). Each selected article must not be (a) less than 2,000 words and (b) must not be published before 2010.

A direct link to each of the three articles should be embedded in the Report. If this is not feasible, provide web links or append copies of the articles as appendices at the back of the Report. There is no restriction on the particular management or business journals that you can choose. Below are some suggestions:

• Academy of Management Review

• Academy of Management Perspective

• Academy of Management Journal

• Journal of Applied Psychology

• Personnel Psychology

• Industrial and Organizational Psychology

• Harvard Business Review

• Leadership Quarterly

• Journal of Management

• Journal of Organizational Behaviour

• Group & Organization Management

• Human Resource Development Review

• Human Resource Management Review

• Human Resource Management Journal (UK)

• Human Resource Management Journal (US)

3. Literature Review

(a) What is a Literature Review? A literature review is about digging into the body of knowledge that previous researchers have generated. Hence, it is a written account of what has been published on a topic in periodicals, research monographs, serials and magazines. In writing the review, your purpose is to convey what knowledge and ideas have already been established on the topic, and what are their strengths and weaknesses. Your literature review will be defined by your research objective, the problem or issue you are investigating. It should not be a few citations of the materials available, or a set of summaries. An important skill for any researcher is the ability to review the work of others and evaluate their methods, results, and conclusions.

(b) How to go about it? You should organise your search of the literature around the key concepts you are going to examine. The first step is to assemble a list of probable key words related to what you are researching in. You can start your search using more general terms before limiting it to more specific terms. You can also look out for articles that list the relevant keywords for your topic, which you then use to conduct more searches. Another way is to conduct a simple web search using a search engine, e.g. Google Scholar or Researchgate. However, online searches tend to generate huge number of entries. You will need to “separate the wheat from the chaff.”

II. Report Format

4. Organisation of Report. While there is no fixed format that you must follow to organise or structure your literature review, you are required to cover the following elements:

(a) Introduction (no more than 350 words) - Describe and provide an overview of the subject or issue under consideration, and explain why it is of importance to managers.

(b) Main content (no more than 1,200 words in total; around 400 words for each article) – You should focus on one article at a time. Illustrate each piece of work by identifying and examining key points or ideas brought up by the writers. Relate the findings from the articles to organisational culture and corporate performance. Discuss these findings in relation to Figure 3-1, A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Organisational Culture, in your textbook.

(c) Your conclusion (no more than 650 words) – Conclusion is opinion based on your findings. You should not take other people’s findings at face value. Do you agree with the authors’ interpretations? Evaluate and determine for yourself whether their conclusions are justified based on the data and arguments they presented.

In addition to restating the main idea of your essay, you will be required to propose feasible solutions and develop human resource policies and practices based on organisational behaviour, management, and work psychology concepts.