HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

MCO202 HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT Task brief & rubrics FINAL EXAM

Final Case Study

Task:

· You are asked to read the case study and prepeare a Report that answers all three questions proposed at the end of the case.

· Your work should come with in-depth reasoning and justification with well founded academic arguments.

· Please refer to authors, models, and concepts learned in class. You may define, evaluate and apply these when needed.

· Critical thinking is welcomed when justyfiying your answers.

Formalities:

· Minimum length of the assignment: 2500 words.

· Relate your answers to the concepts delivered in class.

· Font: Arial 12,5pts. Line-spacing: default. Text-align: Justified.

· Bibliography/References in Harvard style.

· You may use Appendixes. These and the References do not count for the total wordcount.

· Apply the Tips to produce a great report given by the Professor.

Key Criteria for Achieving a High Grade:

· Structure and organization of your answers

· Harvard-style bibliography and referencing

· Use of annexes/appendixes if needed to further develop the theoretical models

· Use and application of key concepts, theories, and models

· Evidence of research undertaken, including relevant, current data relating to the case

· Use of graphics, diagrams and images to help communicate ideas

· Conclusions and recommendations arising from the research undertaken

LAUNCH: WEEK 10 / SUBMISSION: VIA MOODLE ON SUNDAY 20TH MARCH 2022 BY 23:59 H

Weight: This task is worth 60% of your overall grade for this subject.

This task assesses the following learning outcomes:

· Understand and appreciate the construct of employee well-being, social aspects of work, including the key issues which impinge on employee benefits, employee safety & health and employee relations.

Case Study: Parkway Residential Homes

Parkway Residential, located in southern Spain, was originally founded in 1972 to provide skilled and caring support to the elderly. Over the years it became very successful, gaining a number of prestigious awards, especially due its focus on beautiful premises, onsite medical services and comprehensive facilities. It expanded gradually to five residencies with space for 250 patients until 2015. At that point, the company was acquired by a venture capitalist who made a substantial investment in securing 10 further residencies with a total capacity of nearly 1,000 patients.

The focus changed significantly from highly personalized care to ensuring that the residencies were continuously filled to capacity, with profitability being the prime objective. This change has meant that many of the experienced staff have decided to retire or seek work in other places, leaving many staff gaps to be filled, mostly by young, inexperienced and sometimes untrained staff. The market for skilled care of the elderly is growing apace as baby boomers from northern Europe decide to spend their final years in the sun of the Mediterranean and there is no shortage of people seeking a place at one of the Parkway residencies.

However, the rapid expansion of the company has created a number of problems and now, as a newly-hired HR Director for the company, you are interviewing some of the 50 ‘core’ staff to assess the extent of the challenges you are facing:

1. Lilly, a 35-year old licensed nurse from Germany says: “I’ve been here for 5 years and I’ve seen management do what it can to fill positions, but I don’t always agree with who they recruit. Some of the basic skills can taught, of course, but you can’t teach someone to care . So I find myself really stressed out, looking after so many patients who often just want more attention”

2. Daniel, a Belgian carer with a BA degree in Psychology tells you: “I came here a year ago thinking that it would be fun to work in southern Spain – you know, sun, sea and sangria …But it isn’t like that at all. There are constant crises to deal with and I’m the one everyone turns to first it seems, so I’m constantly running from situation to situation dealing with outbursts, arguments and even fights! And this goes on every day, including weekends, so I hardly have any time to myself at all. I’m already applying for other jobs…”

3. Nicola, a German doctor: “Well I’ve been living in this area for over 10 years and I spend most of my time divided either at my surgery in Estepona or one of the Parkway residencies. I visit each residence once a week to check on patients and prescribe medicines and so on. If there’s a medical emergency, then I get called out to that as well. That worked fine until 2015 but now, it’s just impossible to get around all the residencies and see all the patients that need me. It’s totally ridiculous to think that only one doctor can deal with everything! We did have a second doctor, but he left almost as soon as he realized what the workload consisted of and frankly, I’m thinking of doing the same .. “

4. Angela, a 17-year-old recent hire says: “I just started three months ago straight out of school. I’d really like the job if only I had more time to spend with each person. But there are so many patients, I can only clean them up, make the bed, and tidy the room and then I have to run off to the next patient. We’re supposed to be ‘carers’ but we’re just maids on the lowest minimum pay. The conditions are pretty bad and until now, we’ve had nobody to go to – I’m so glad you’re here now. Perhaps you can increase our pay and give us more time to look after the patients properly rather than just chase around until we’re exhausted?”

5. Charles, Director of Parkway Residential: “Welcome to your new role and I’m very happy you’re here! I’ve spent most of my time interviewing people for vacant jobs and I told the owner it’s about time we had a professional HR person to help me out… Yes, we have 50 full-time nurses and carers spread around the various residencies and sometimes we have to shift them from one to the other to fill gaps. We outsource things like the cleaning and the catering because the owner wants to keep the organization as lean as possible. He only comes every now and again to check on things .. he expects us to keep the company going on the minimum possible cost base and he really isn’t interested in how we do it, because there’s a waiting list of over 50 people at the moment and it gets longer and longer every month … we just don’t have the places available. Enough staff, you ask? Well, frankly, there’s always people who want to come and work in this part of Europe and unemployment is high in the area, so we always have lots of applicants for any jobs that come up. Our turnover is 20% a year, which keeps us busy recruiting… and the ratio of carers is 1: 20 patients or so, which is pretty standard for the industry….”

Prepare a Report answering these questions:

1. What do you see as being the primary issues in the way that human resources are managed at Parkway Residential Homes?

2. What theories, models and concepts might apply to this case? Ensure you provide specific examples to justify your selection.

3. What recommendations would you make to Charles the Director as to how improve the HR strategies and processes? What actions or changes would you implement as a matter of priority?

Rubrics

	Exceptional 90-100	Good 80-89	Fair 70-79	Marginal fail 60-69
Knowledge & Understanding (25%)	Student demonstrates excellent understanding of key concepts and uses vocabulary in an entirely appropriate manner. Student uses excellent References properly.	Student demonstrates good understanding of the task and mentions some relevant concepts and demonstrates use of the relevant vocabulary. Student uses good References properly.	Student understands the task and provides minimum theory and/or some use of vocabulary. Student uses poor References.	Student understands the task and attempts to answer the question but does not mention key concepts or uses minimum amount of relevant vocabulary. Student uses no References.
Application (25%)	Student applies fully relevant knowledge (authors, models, concepts, etc.) to the situation provided	Student applies mostly relevant knowledge (authors, models, concepts, etc.) to the situation provided	Student applies some relevant knowledge (authors, models, concepts, etc.) to the situation provided. Some minor misunderstandings may be evident.	Student applies little relevant knowledge (authors, models, concepts, etc.) to the situation provided. Misunderstandings are evident.
Evaluation (25%)	Student evaluates the findings in excellent ways, drawing outstanding conclusions and proposing new paths of work.	Student evaluates the findings in a significant manned, drawing some conclusions and proposals.	Student creates a fair report but misses some elements learned in class	Student creates an incomplete report plan with some important missing elements and/or some irrelevant details
Written Communication (25%)	Student communicates their ideas extremely clearly and concisely, respecting the page limit and other formalities.	Student communicates their ideas clearly and concisely, respecting the page limit and other formalities.	Student communicates their ideas with some clarity and concision. It may be slightly over or under the page limit. Some formalities are missing.	Student communicates their ideas in a somewhat unclear and unconcise way. It is over or under the page limit and formalities are not respected.