Posted: April 16th, 2015

required to answer all for questions which are equally weighted for marking purposes. Your answers should be supported by appropriate case law and statutory references,

 

Further information about general assessment criteria, ARNA regulations, referencing and plagiarism can be found on the module’s site on the e-Learning Portal. Students are advised to read and follow this information.

 

Instructions on Assessment:

You are required to answer all for questions which are equally weighted for marking purposes. Your answers should be supported by appropriate case law and statutory references, where appropriate and the total length of your combined answers should be no more than 4000 words.

 

Q)1

No test on its own is adequate and employment status can only be determined by examining all of the relevant facts and circumstances.

Critically discuss and review this statement.

 

Q)2

Gabrielle is employed as an assistant in the Sunderland branch of a local building society and on Friday, her manager tells her that from the following Monday that she is to work from the Seaham branch, some five miles away.

 

What legal issues are involved here and what would you recommend to the employer in dealing with these issues in terms of both employment law and human resource practice?

 

Q)3

One afternoon when Eve logged onto her computer at work in a large customer service organization, she discovered an offensive e-mail message. It contained some sexist comments and a picture attachment. It appeared that it had been sent to everyone in the department by Ray who had a reputation as a ”character”. She was upset by the message and discussed it with her supervisor. He said that she should laugh it off and forget about it. When Eve mentioned this to other female staff, they told her to ignore it and said that Ray was “just a bit of a lad”. Steve who worked with Eve, told her that he did not like Ray’s behaviour and that something should be done about it. The next day, Eve accidentally met Ray in the lift and he made an offensive personal comment to her and told her that she was a “cry –baby” for complaining about his e-mail. No-one else was in the lift, so this conversation was not witnessed. She went to see Janice in the HR department and told her that she was thinking of leaving. The company had recently adopted an harassment policy as a result of a recent employment tribunal case which had attracted a great deal of adverse publicity.

 

What advice should Janice give Eve about the courses of action open to her? What reasonable steps would you expect the employer to take if Eve lodges a grievance?

 

Q)4

John, 24 has worked as a sales representative at Gerrards, a large retail organization for two years. He is a full time, permanent employee. Working in a team of four, his job involves following up on sales leads and achieving sales. His working hours are from 8.30am to 5.00pm. Over the last four months his performance has been less than satisfactory. He has been 30 minutes late for work on a number of occasions. He had recently separated from his girlfriend and is now back living with his parents and this necessitates a longer commute to work than before. He received an informal, oral warning from his line manager and then a formal, written warning from his line manager after the third and fourth times he was late. He has just been late for work for a fifth time.

In addition to the lateness, in each of the last two weeks, John has failed to stay for an allocated evening shift(from 5 to 7)which all employees are required to do one day a week, explaining that he was “stressed” and needed to go home to rest.

 

As the HR Manager of Gerrards you have been asked to give advice as to how this case should be handled. In particular you have been asked to comment on whether the company may be able to dismiss John for poor performance. What advice would you give to management?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Word limits and penalties for assignments

 

If the assignment is within +10% of the stated word limit no penalty will apply.

 

The word count is to be declared on the front page of your assignment and the assignment cover sheet. The word count does not include:

 

Title and Contents page Reference list Appendices Appropriate tables, figures and illustrations Glossary Bibliography Quotes from interviews and focus groups.

 

 

Please note, in text citations [e.g. (Smith, 2011)] and direct secondary quotations [e.g. “dib-dab nonsense analysis” (Smith, 2011 p.123)] are INCLUDED in the word count.

 

If this word count is falsified, students are reminded that under ARNA page 30 Section 3.4 this will be regarded as academic misconduct.

 

If the word limit of the full assignment exceeds the +10% limit, 10% of the mark provisionally awarded to the assignment will be deducted. For example: if the assignment is worth 70 marks but is above the word limit by more than 10%, a penalty of 7 marks will be imposed, giving a final mark of 63.

 

Students are advised that they may be asked to submit an electronic version of their assignment.

 

Time limits and penalties for presentations

 

The time allocated for the presentation must be adhered to. At the end of this time, the presentation will be stopped and will be marked based on what has been delivered within the time limit.

 

Submission of Assessment:

All assignments must be submitted via the Newcastle Business School Office.  Each assignment must be accompanied by an Assessed Work Form which must be completed in full.  The assignment will not be accepted by the Newcastle Business School Office unless the form is completed correctly.

 

Marked assignments will be returned to students.  It is advisable to retain a copy of your assignment for your own records.  Your mark will be returned on the Assessed Work Form via the Newcastle Business School Office.

 

Mapping to Programme Goals and Objectives:

 

This assessment will contribute directly to the following Postgraduate programme goals and objectives. (Insert an ‘X’ in boxes where applicable, referring to appropriate programme specification for mapping details)

 

Goal One: Be independent, reflective critical thinkers

 

	1.	Demonstrate awareness of their personal strengths and weaknesses through critical reflective practice.
	2.	Understand and challenge personal patterns of thinking and behaving.

 

 

Goal Two: Be culturally and ethically aware

 

	1.	Demonstrate their ability to work in diverse groups and teams.
	2.	Reflect on their own ethical values.

 

 

Goal Three: Have developed leadership and management capability

 

	1.	Demonstrate their personal contribution to team effectiveness.
x	2.	Communicate complex issues effectively.
	3.	Demonstrate decision making and problem solving skills.
	4.	Carry out presentations and lead discussions.

 

 

Goal Four: Have developed and applied knowledge of international business and management theory

 

1.

Acquire, interpret and apply knowledge of international business, management and organisational functions.

 

 

Goal Five: Have developed a range of research skills and project capabilities

 

	1.	Plan and complete a major individual piece of research on a contemporary business, management or leadership topic of their choice.
	2.	Demonstrate skills of analysis and synthesis in the application of research methods to the exploration of contemporary business issues.

 

 

Goal Six: Have developed specialist knowledge about the theory and practice of your programme of study

 

x

1.

Demonstrate specialist functional knowledge in relation to your programme of study.

 

 

 

Assessment Criteria (NBS)

 

Module Specific Assessment Criteria

 

Trait	0 Fail	1 – 39 Fail	40 – 49 Fail	50 – 54 Pass	55 – 59 Pass	60 – 69 Commendation	70 – 100 Distinction
Demonstrate specialist functional knowledge in relation to your programme of study.		Inadequate work which provides minimal evidence of the knowledge and understanding of legal concepts and principles and ability to apply them to the case studies	Work is not acceptable and only provides limited evidence of the knowledge and understanding of legal concepts and principles and ability to apply them to the case studies	Adequate work providing some evidence of the knowledge and understanding of legal concepts and principles and ability to apply them to the case studies	Satisfactory work providing evidence of the knowledge and understanding of legal concepts and principles and ability to apply them to the case studies	Commendable work providing good evidence of the knowledge and understanding of legal concepts and principles and ability to apply them to the case studies	Excellent work providing very good evidence of the knowledge and understanding of legal concepts and principles and ability to apply them to the case studies of evidence

 

 

 

Note:    For those assessments or partial assessments based on calculation, multiple choice etc. Marks will be gained on an accumulative basis. In these cases, marks allocated to each section will be made clear.

 

Students must retain an electronic copy of this assignment and it must be made available within 24 hours of them requesting it be submitted.