Posted: April 14th, 2015

Individual or Paired Essay

Assignment Topic

Assignment 2: Individual or Paired Essay

Students may choose to do assignment 2 as an individual or in a pair (not in groups above 2 members).

Students who choose to work as a pair are expected to make an equal contribution to the assignment (both students will be awarded the same mark for the essay).

Due Date: Monday, May 4th 2015, 11:30pm (electronic copy to Moodle assignment drop box). Late assignments will be penalised (10% per day).

Length: 2100 words (no leeway) using Times Roman 12 pt font and at least 2cm margins on all sides.

No additional leeway; penalties for over 2100 words apply.

Value: 40% of total available marks

Topic:

Ethics Issues in Contemporary Strategic Human Resource Management

Question: Firstly, identify two or three major ethics issues in contemporary strategic human resource management (SHRM) and why they are important. (This should form the basis of a short introduction.)

Secondly, discuss those issues from the ethical frameworks of utilitarianism, Kantian deontology, rights and Rawlsian justice. You do not have to cover each ethical framework for each issue, but over your discussion of the two or three issues you have selected, you must cover all four ethical frameworks. Your discussion should demonstrate your understanding of core concepts within each framework and how they apply to the issues you have selected.

Thirdly, illustrate your discussion by a considered application to current (i.e., the past 6 – 12 months) SHRM examples reported in the daily news or business/professional magazines regarding the issues you selected. In particular, comment on how the ethical frameworks help to identify potential ethical dilemmas or sub-issues in your SHRM examples and how they ought to be handled to pass the test of ethical integrity.

You should also critique the way the issues were handled in your examples and make appropriate recommendations for future SHRM practice. You should search for relevant articles via the University’s Library electronic database, articles available on e-reserve for this unit, articles listed in this Companion and material from your preferred search engine.

When sourcing material electronically or in hard copy, you must not cut and paste into your essay. This is plagiarism and will result in a failed paper (a mark of zero). You are required to reference using the author / date method. This method is explained in detail in this Companion to the Unit Outline (see below).

You are expected to conform to high standards of literacy and academic practice, including literature research and full documentation of sources. This means you must use references in your essay and you must cite those references both in the text and in an end reference list. Failure to do so is likely to result in a failed paper. Please use the author-date method which is explained in this Companion (p29-31). Be sure to express the ideas you read about in your own words, but acknowledge their source by citing the reference. Avoid direct quotes as they do not demonstrate to the marker your understanding of the concepts and reading material. Direct quotes attract no marks.

Your essay should have a brief introduction (an introduction should be more than a summary in the future tense) and a solid conclusion (note a conclusion is not a summary in the past tense). The conclusion can relate back to the introduction. See page 27 of this Companion.