Human Resorce

The task

Critically review the situation at RestaurantCo and provide recommendations to the Board on the strengths and weaknesses of it approach to managing human resources.

Your answer should include reference to at least the following issues:

· A discussion of the links between corporate strategy, HR policy and management practices at the workplace level;

· The underlying theories informing EIP (employee influence and participation);

· The utility of Management goals, capabilities and development processes.

A guide to answering the question

1. The question asks you to evaluate the current management practices in the company. To evaluate any management practice we need to have some way of identifying the relevant issues and the way we might ideally organise HR. Theories and models provided in texts and elsewhere provide the basis for this task.

2. The first step should therefore be to identify some relevant and useful theoretical approaches to HR. The course provides some relevant theories and these might be extended with some further background literature searches. Theories will help you;

a. Identify which issues are relevant to HR (e.g. A ‘map’ or listing of HR practices in a typical company perhaps)

b. How the HR practices relate to the overall business objectives of the company the issues relevant (the strategic HR focus)

c. Provide a way of looking at relationships between different policies and practices i.e. how do various policies and practices contribute to a coherent approach to HR. Is recruitment consistent with performance management for example?

3. Clearly identify the overall business objectives and the business situation facing the company. What is it that the managers are expected to be doing and how are they being managed?

4. Summarise the main HR policies and practices you can identify in the case.

5. Look at the ‘facts’ of the case as you have now summarised them against the various theoretical ideas you have found relevant to managing HR:

a. Do the practices in the case fit with the theoretical and academic discussions you have found - where do differ?

b. What do you think should be changed to improve the overall effectiveness of HR practice and its ‘fit’ with the business goals?

6. The assignment should conclude with recommendations which are well founded on the evidence and arguments advanced in the body of the assignment.

There is no limit to the number of references which might be used, but it is expected that the groups will have identified some relevant theoretical materials which can be used. In fact a solid discussion of the strategic management model would be expected as a minimum.

The case also refers to management development, performance criteria and selections standards. There should therefore be some discussion as to how these separate processes should be linked together and whether the company has done that effectively.

There is also the issue of informality in the restaurant management style which is possibly inconsistent with the corporate approach being pursued by the company. Is this a poor match? Can the company expect good Managers to operate in a different manner?