The assignment questions + Tips/Guidance
- Question (taken from the Assignment Brief
- Relevant Assessment Criteria (available in the Programme Specification on the Hub)
Section One
• Review emerging developments to inform approaches to employee voice and engagement.
AC 1.1 There’s a couple of things to note here.
Firstly, you are required to review emerging developments. These are
developments that are newly formed or just coming into prominence, so your
research should be looking at publications / studies from the last couple of
years or so.
Secondly, you are required to review how these developments are informing
approaches to employee voice and engagement. For example, you might
review how the move to towards hybrid working is informing approaches to
employee voice and engagement.
• Differentiate between employee involvement and employee participation and how it builds relationships.
AC 1.2 This section is in two parts.
Firstly, you should differentiate between employee involvement and
employee participation. To do so, you might want to look at how employee
involvement and employee participation are defined in literature / studies,
and then consider the similarities and differences in terms of scope, depth,
and so on.
Secondly, you should consider how employee involvement and employee
participation build relationships. You might, for example, consider how the
concepts link to unitarism and pluralism, and what this means for how
relationships are built.
• Assess three employee voice tools and two approaches that might be used to drive employee engagement.
AC 1.3 Firstly, note the numbers here. You must assess three employee voice tools
and two approaches that might be used to drive employee engagement.
An employee voice tool is a resource, or mechanism that an organisation uses
to enable employee voice. For example, a town hall meeting or a suggestion
scheme.
An approach is a broader way of handling an issue underpinned by a set of
principles or theories. For example, an organisation might encourage
employee autonomy by adopting a democratic leadership style.
• Critically evaluate the interrelationships between employee voice and organisational performance.
AC 1.4 Here, you’re required to critically evaluate the interrelatedness between
employee voice and organisational performance. To critically evaluate means
to consider the arguments that support the link and those that don’t, assessing
the strength of the evidence on both sides.
Your critical evaluation should be supported by referring to relevant academic
research / studies, for example, high performance work practice research. The
CIPD journal database is a good place to start.
• Explain the concept of better working lives and how this can be designed.
AC 1.5 This section is in two parts.
Firstly, you should explain the concept of better working lives. This concept is
multifaceted, and you’re likely to refer to elements such as ‘good work’, fair
and decent work, job quality, and terms that improve working circumstances.
Secondly, you should explain how better working lives can be designed. This
might include, for example, focusing on the quality of jobs, supporting
employee wellbeing, and so on.
Section Two
• Distinguish between organisational conflict and misbehaviour, and between informal and formal conflict.
AC 2.1 This section is in two parts.
Firstly, you should distinguish between conflict – such as an individual
grievance – and misbehaviour – such as dishonesty – in the workplace.
Secondly, you should distinguish between informal and formal conflict. Use
examples to support your explanation.
• Distinguish between official and unofficial employee action.
AC 2.2 In distinguishing between official and unofficial industrial action, you should
outline the conditions that must be met for industrial action to be regarded as
official. Also, be sure to explain the potential consequences for those taking
part in the industrial action, depending on whether the action is official or
unofficial.
• Assess emerging trends in the types of conflict and industrial sanctions.
AC 2.3 The assignment brief requires you to assess emerging trends in the types of
conflict and industrial sanctions.
Emerging trends are those that are newly formed or just coming into
prominence, so you should be looking at recent trends. Websites such as
Personnel Today and HR Magazine are good starting places to explore
emerging trends. Also, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) website
publishes a range of data on workplace disputes, including strikes and
lockouts, number of days lost in the public and private sectors, and number of
workers involved.
• Distinguish between third-party conciliation, mediation and arbitration.
AC 2.4 Here, you’re required to distinguish between three different dispute
resolution methods – third-party conciliation, mediation, and arbitration. To
do so, you should define each method, give examples of when each method
might be used, and explain how each method is different to the others.
• Explain the principles of legislation relating to unfair dismissal in respect of capability and misconduct issues.
AC 3.1 This should be a relatively straightforward section. However, a couple of points to remember:
– make sure that you identify the relevant legislation, as well as any relevant
codes of practice.
– you must explain the principles of legislation relating to unfair dismissal in
respect of capability and misconduct issues, so be sure to highlight where
the approach might differ depending on the nature of the issue.
• Analyse key causes of employee grievances.
AC 3.2 Here, you’re required to analyse key causes of employee grievance. To
analyse means to examine something in detail and to draw conclusions.
Therefore, this is more than simply listing the causes of employee grievances.
Employee grievances can be individual or collective and might arise from a
variety of reasons. Therefore, be sure to carry out research to determine the
key causes.
• Explain the skills required for effective grievance and discipline-handling procedures.
AC 3.3 This should be a relatively straightforward section. Just note that you are required to explain the skills required for effective grievance and disciplinehandling procedures, so this is more than simply listing the skills.
• Advise on the importance of handling grievances effectively.
AC 3.4 There are many reasons why grievances need to be handled effectively. In this section, you might want to advise of the importance from different perspectives – such as the employee, the team, the manager and the
organisation – and consider the consequences of doing so over both the short
and long term.
• Explain the main provisions of collective employment law.
AC 4.1 This section should be relatively straightforward. The provisions are likely to include:
– statutory recognition procedures
– disclosure of information for collective bargaining
– legal enforceability of collective agreements
• Compare the types of employee bodies, union and non-union forms of employee representation.
AC 4.2 You have lots of choice here on the employee bodies / forms of employee representation that you compare. However, do note that you must compare union and non-union forms of employee representation.
When comparing, you should consider the extent to which the employee
bodies / representation are alike and the extent to which they are different. A
key factor to consider is the differences in their power.
• Evaluate the purpose of collective bargaining and how it works in practice.
AC 4.3 This section is in two parts.
Firstly, you should evaluate the purpose of collective bargaining. This might
include, for example, the joint determination of rules and industrial governance.
Secondly, you should explain how collective bargaining works. The process
might differ slightly from union to union, so you should explain what the
process typically looks like.
Finally:
A few miscellaneous points:
- Your assignment should be submitted as one Word document. It should have a header (or footer!) that includes your name, the assignment reference (i.e.,
for this assignment, 5HR01) and the wordcount. - Your assignment must include a complete Declaration of Authentication. If your assignment does not have this, then it will not be marked.
- Your assignment should be submitted via Turnitin by 23:59hrs on the published date, in your Study Planner.
