Assignment title Working with and Leading People
Purpose of this assignment:

The assignment is designed to provide learners the opportunity to demonstrate the skills and knowledge gained from the unit to work with and lead others, through the use of effective recruitment, selection and retention procedures; leadership skills; the ability to work effectively in a team and assessing the development needs of individual and their performance.

Scenario 1:
LSBF needs to recruit a Business tutor for its HND Business programme for the next semester. As a Recruitment Manager, you were asked to prepare the Recruitment Procedure, job description and person specification to be followed to guide the other members of the Team and for documentation purpose. As part of the recruitment, you need to select two CVs from any job portals or website and analyse them in terms of candidates’ suitability for the job. This example will illustrate the Recruitment procedure details which cannot be all written down.

Task 1 : (LO1)
1.1 Write the Recruitment Procedure, job description and person specification to select and recruit a new Business tutor. (AC 1.1)

1.2 Assess the impact of legal, regulatory and ethical considerations to the recruitment and selection process for above case if applicable. (AC 1.2)

1.3 Write a report demonstrating the selection process that took place in order to recruit a new Business tutor. (AC 1.3)

1.4Evaluate your contribution as the Recruitment Manager in the above selection process. (AC 1.4)
Scenario 2

Right Boss, Wrong Company

Brenda Hogan was continuously on top of things. In school, she had always been at the top of her class. When she went to work for her uncle’s shoe business, Fancy Footwear, she had been singled out as the most productive employee and the one with the best attendance. The company was so impressed with her that it sent her to get an M.B.A. to groom her for a top management position. In school again, and with three years of practical experience to draw on, Hogan had gobbled up every idea put in front of her, relating many of them to her work at Fancy Footwear. When Hogan graduated she returned to Fancy Footwear. To no one’s surprise, when the head of the company’s largest division took advantage of the firm’s early retirement plan, Hogan was given his position.

Hogan knew the pitfalls of being suddenly catapulted to a leadership position, and she was determined to avoid them. In business school, she had read cases about family businesses that fell apart when a young family member took over with an iron fist, barking out orders, cutting personnel, and destroying morale. Hogan knew a lot about participative management, and she was not going to be labelled an arrogant know-it-all.

Hogan’s predecessor, Max Worthy, had run the division from an office at the top of the building, far above the factory floor. Two or three times a day, Worthy would summon a messenger or a secretary from the offices on the second floor and send a memo out to one or another group of workers. But as Hogan saw it, Worthy was mostly an absentee autocrat, making all the decisions from above and spending most of his time at extended lunches with his friends from the Rotary Club.

Hogan’s first move was to change all that. She set up her office on the second floor. From her always-open doorway she could see down onto the factory floor, and as she sat behind her desk she could spot anyone walking by in the hall. She never ate lunch herself but spent the time from 11 to 2 down on the floor, walking around, talking, and organizing groups. The workers, many of whom had twenty years of seniority at the plant, seemed surprised by this new policy and reluctant to volunteer for any groups. But in fairly short order, Hogan established a worker productivity group, a “Suggestion of the Week” committee, an environmental group, a worker award group, and a management relations group. Each group held two meetings a week, one without and one with Hogan. She encouraged each group to set up goals in its particular focus area and develop plans for reaching those goals. She promised any support that was within her power to give.

The group work was agonizingly slow at first. But Hogan had been well trained as a facilitator, and she soon took on that role in their meetings, writing down ideas on a big board, organizing them, and later communicating them in notices to other employees. She got everyone to call her “Betty” and set herself the task of learning all their names. By the end of the first month, Fancy Footwear was stirred up.

But as it turned out, that was the last thing most employees wanted. The truth finally hit Hogan when the entire management relations committee resigned at the start of their fourth meeting. “I’m sorry, Ms. Hogan,” one of them said. “We’re good at making shoes, but not at this management stuff. A lot of us are heading toward retirement. We don’t want to be supervisors.”

Astonished, Hogan went to talk to the workers with whom she believed she had built good relations. Yes, they reluctantly told her, all these changes did make them uneasy. They liked her, and they didn’t want to complain. But given the choice, they would rather go back to the way Mr. Worthy had run things. They never saw Mr. Worthy much, but he never got in their hair. He did his work, whatever that was, and they did theirs. “After you’ve been in a place doing one thing for so long,” one worker concluded, “the last thing you want to do is learn a new way of doing it.”
Task 2(LO2)

Answer the following questions:

2.1 Explain the skills and attributes needed for leadership. AC 2.1.
2.2 Explain the difference between leadership and management. AC 2.2.
2.3 Compare the leadership styles of Mr. Worthy and Ms. Hogan. AC 2.3.
2.4How do you think the people under Ms. Hogan can be motivated? Explain how Ms. Hogan can motivate the staff to achieve the objectives. AC 2.4.
Scenario 3

You currently work as a customer service officer in a busy customer service department. At the moment the company is looking to recruit a Department Manager who can effectively run the department in order to improve the customer satisfaction by 15% by the end of 2014. As part of the selection process, the candidates should demonstrate their ability to work in a team. Therefore you were asked to answer the following questions:
Task 3 (LO3)

3.1 Assess the benefits of team working for the above mentioned organization. AC 3.1.
3.2. Discuss how working in a team as a leader would differ from working as a team member. Your answer should include working towards specific goals, dealing with any conflict or difficult situations. A.C 3.2
3.3. Suggest how you will review the effectiveness of the team in achieving the above goal.
AC 3.3.

Scenario 4

You are the HR Manager at LSBF and need to prepare a report to the board of directors regarding the progress of the members of the Vocational School.
Task 4 (LO4)

4.1 Explain the factors involved in planning the monitoring and assessment of work performance for the above member. AC 4.1.
4.2 Make a plan to assess the development needs of individuals and how to implement it. AC 4.2.
4.3Evaluate the success of the assessment process. How will you assess the success of the assessment process with respect to the goals? AC 4.3.

Evidence checklist Summary of evidence required by student Evidence presented
Task 1 • Learner has produced recruitment and selection procedure and documentation, assessed the legal context of R and S and evaluated own contribution as well as a report demonstrating a selection process.
Task 2 • Learner has explained skills and attributes of a leader, explained the difference between leadership and management, compared different leadership styles in different situations and explained how Ms Hogan can motivate its staff.

Task 3 • Learner has Assess the benefits of team working for customer service team, discussed how working in a team as a leader differ from working as a team member and suggested ways on how to review team effectiveness to achieve organisation’s goal.

Task 4 • Learner has explained the factors involved in planning the monitoring and assessment of work performance for vocationalschool staff, made a plan to assess the development needs of individuals and evaluated the success of assessment process.
Sources of information:

Books:

Michael Armstrong (2009) Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice, 11 edn.: Kogan Page, Limited.
Pg.81-98

Ian Beardwell (2003) Human Resource Management: A Contemporary Approach, 4 edn., : Financial Times Management. Pg. 205-212

Laurie J. Mullins (2005) Management and Organisational Behaviour, 7 edn., England: Financial Times/Prentice Hall. Pg.281-287.

Vivien Martin (2006) Managing projects in human resources, training and development, London: Kogan Page, Ltd..Pg. 139-150.

Journals:

Jewell B — Hackman and Oldham’s Job Characteristics Model, Business Review, Volume 10, Issue 4, April 2004, pages 28-29
Bruce Tuckman forming storming norming performing model.
Jewell B — Meredith Belbin and Teamworking, Business Review, Volume 6, Issue 2, November 1999, pages 16-17
Swift I — Personnel Performance Indicators, Business Review, Volume 4, Issue 1, September 1997, pages 4-5.
Harrison S — Maslow, Business Review, Volume 11, Issue 3, February 2005, pages 8-9
Wray T — Does Money Motivate?, Business Review, Volume 1, Issue 2, November 1994, pages 9-13

Websites:

Times 100 case study: Health and Safety, Equal Opportunity and Diversity: www.Times100.co.uk

Business case studies:www.businesscasestudies.co.uk

Business balls: www.businessballs.com

ACAS: www.acas.org.uk

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development: www.cipd.co.uk

Criminal Records Bureau: www.crb.gov.uk

Legislation: www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk

http://www.equalityhumanrights.com