HR Assignment.

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NIZWA COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY

BUSINESS STUDIES DEPARTMENT

SEMESTER -2 / ACADEMIC YEAR 2019-2020

FINAL EXAM (ASSIGNMENT) COURSE CODE

BAHR3208

COURSE NAME International Issues in HR Management

LEVEL Advance Diploma

TUTOR(S) Ms Rajani James

SECTION(S) 1

DURATION:

DATE TIME

START 13th May 2020 9:00AM

END 15th May 2020 8:00AM

MARKS BREAK UP:

No. of Questions Marks for Each Question

1 25

2 10

3 15

TOTAL MARKS 50

INSTRUCTIONS:

1) The Final Assignment will be available in Moodle at 9:00 am on the date of examination.

2) This is an open resource examination; there are (05) pages. Students are allowed to refer any digital materials (Internet, Proquest, Masader, and OER) with proper referencing and citation for each answers.

3) Students has to answer the questions typewritten in the word (.docx) format. Figures / Diagrams, equations and solving of problems can be written by hand and added to the document as a picture/image.

4) Save the assignment file using the student ID & Course code.[ Eg : 22s1234 – BAHR3208]

5) Students should submit the answers through the turn tin link provided in Moodle page. If any problem occurs, send it to the staff email [Email address: [email protected]]

6) Students are encouraged to upload the answers in the Moodle at least two hours before the deadline to avoid any technical issues.

7) In case of any technical problem in opening or submitting your assignment please contact your course tutor through email and copy the Department Head

8) Any form of cheating is punishable. Students involved in cheating will be treated according to the Plagiarism and Academic Integrity Policies.

9) Students are advised to write the answers in their own words. Based on the plagiarism policy and the department approved similarity level, the marks will be deducted for the plagiarized [Copied] answers.

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10) Students should complete their assignment within the given time. Assignments submitted after the deadline will be marked 0.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY & PLAGIARISM POLICY: The student should be ready to prove the authenticity of the work done. If any form of plagiarism/reproduction of answers are

discovered, student will be awarded zero marks.

DECLARATION:

I declare that the Final Exam (assignment) submitted is original and acknowledge that I am aware of the NCT’s Integrity and

Plagiarism Policies (January 2011) mentioned in moodle, and the disciplinary guidelines and procedures applicable to

breaches of such policy and regulations.

I AGREE TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

STUDENT NAME STUDENT ID DATE OF SUBMISSION

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Analytical/Case study/Scenario based questions. (50 Marks)

(There are 3 main questions in this assignment paper. Read the instructions carefully for

each question and answer accordingly.)

Question 1: (25 Marks)

ABC hotel chain has more than 70 hotels in Germany. One of the strategic objective of ABC hotel

is to expand the organization slowly, and ensure that the new ventures are opened on time and

supported. Keeping this strategy, they obtained another small hotel chain headquartered in

Switzerland. ABC hotel’s President decided that they will rebrand half of the new hotels under

ABC brand in Switzerland and other half they will sell. The guests were a combination of business

and leisure travelers who stayed two-three nights. The primary reason the tourist were attracted

to these hotels as there are many local attractions which also means that they will not be

spending much time in their hotel rooms. The organization has decided to use an ethnocentric

approach and send some of their existing parent country managers to Switzerland if this new

overseas venture is successful, ABC may decide to acquire other small hotel groups in other

European countries. The organization would like to own 120 hotels in the next five years and in 10

years another 340 hotels. This is an ambitious target, so it is important that the organization

friends an effective formula to operate successfully in other countries.

The organization has never owned any hotels outside Germany before, and has hired a team of

independent management consultants to advise them on how to proceed. They provided the

consultants the following information during their initial meeting: A majority of their existing

managers said they would like a chance to work abroad. None of their existing managers speak

Swiss fluently. They will allow four weeks to rebrand the hotels. The new hotels must be ready to

open after that time. They expect to recruit a large number of staff for the new Swiss hotels,

because more than 70 percent of the employees from the acquired organization left. They will

require their managers to be flexible and move between countries if any problems arise. ABC

management decided that because this is their first venture into a country outside the Germany,

they want to use PCNs to set up the new hotels and that only internal candidates should be

considered. They think that this is important so they can incorporate the organization’s values.

However, they believe that once the hotels are up and running, HCNs could be hired. They have

to ensure that that the management vacancies should be filled as soon as possible. In their

company literature, the organization states that their core values are to: Provide excellent levels

of customer service to all guests, provide a clean and comfortable environment for guests and

staff, Recruit and retain excellent staff, Support and develop staff so they can reach their full

potential, Continuously strive to improve all aspects of the business, Ensure that all hotel

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buildings, fixtures and fittings are well-maintained in a proactive manner. It is important that the

management consultants for this project take these core values into account when making their

recommendations. Since the organization has never hired managers to work outside the Germany

before, they do not know how to start determining the compensation. When they did a

compensation survey they found that the existing salary for managers is 30000 Euros. The

average salary for hotel managers in Switzerland is 60,000 Euros with no opportunity to earn

bonuses. The directors want to have a consistent approach as to how they compensate

expatriates because they expect their overseas business to expand in the future. They also want

existing employees to be enticed into working abroad and want to have a good range of

incentives. Finally the management approves the compensation package. Interested candidates

are asked to write a letter to the CEO to explain why they think they are the best person for the

job. Thirty managers apply for one of the new positions (there are 10 positions available), which

means there will be 20 unsuccessful candidates still working for the organization. The

management team acknowledges that the application letters were not helpful with making

decisions and that they need a more robust selection process. There must be a strong sense of

fairness in the selection process because they do not want to de-motivate any of these existing

employees. They want to select the right candidates because it is essential that the new hotels

are successful and up and running quickly and efficiently. The senior managers know all of the

candidates quite well (personally and professionally).

The management hires six candidates to work overseas because they did not feel that the other

candidates were qualified. The success of these managers is vital to the success of setting up the

new business, so management wants to ensure they provide effective support for them in terms

of training and development. They believe that the best option is to divide training into two parts:

pre-departure training and on-the-job training in the new country. The organization is unsure

about what components should be included in the training programs. The only mandatory area

that must be included is an introductory language section (including basic business Swiss) so that

the managers have a basic idea of the Swiss at the time of opening hotels. However, they hope

that the managers will enjoy their introductory language course and will continue to attend more

advanced language classes when the new hotels are open.

(A) As a management consultant for ABC Hotel chain, support the management in preparing

the international strategic objectives for the new hotel chain opened in Switzerland?

(Answer in 100 words.) (10 Marks)

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(B) When dealing with cross cultural management in the Switzerland hotel chain,

a) Identify all the Geert Hofstede Theories that can be applied for the employees.

(Answer in 75 words.) (7.5 Marks)

b) Identify Trompenaar and Hamden Turner Theories that can be applied for the

employees. (Answer in 75 words.) (7.5 Marks)

Question 2: (10 Marks)

(A) In what ways would the role of a manager working in a non-standard international

assignment arrangement differ from that of a typical expatriate manager?

(Answer in 50 words.) (5 Marks)

(B) Why is it important to include hard, soft and contextual goals when assessing managerial

performance? (Answer in 50 words.) (5 Marks)

Question 3: (15 Marks)

You are the HR director of a medium sized firm manufacturing children’s clothing. Management

has decided that to maintain competitiveness given the flood of cheaper imports coming into the

country, the company has to manufacture offshore. However it lacks resources for manufacturing

and decides to use international contracting agreements with a Singaporean manufacturer.

(Q) You have been asked to analyze the cost-benefit analysis of the alternate mechanism

available. (Answer in 150 words.)

ALL THE BEST