100% Weighted INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
3000 WORDS (excluding references, +/- 10%)
A Case Study of Employee Engagement
Background: Problems such as ‘the great resignation’, ‘quiet quitting’, and ‘moonlighting’
are very real challenges for today’s organisations. Employee Engagement is increasingly
important for supporting employee retention and maximising employee value in an
increasingly fluid, boundaryless, complex and global employment marketplace.
Assignment: This assignment requires you to select an organisation and write a critical
case study that discusses employee engagement strategies adopted by your organisation
and discuss their strengths and highlight any challenges they still face.
Key content: Your assignment must draw on key theory from HRM and OB and focus on
employee initiatives (individuals & teams), culture, leadership and HRM policies and
practices.
It is strongly recommended you use McKinsey’s 7S as a framework for breaking down this
discussion across key OB/HRM elements:
1. HRM Strategy,
2. Organisational Structure,
3. Management & Leadership Style,
4. Employee Skills, Training & Development,
5. ICT and other Systems,
6. Employees or Staff inc recruitment, retention, reward, relations etc
7. Culture or Shared Values
You must also critically reflect upon how insight from this assignment has changed and
improved your own management, leadership & HRM practice.
Company Selection: You may select one of the organisations below or choose a different
one. The organisation must be a recognised organisation with plenty of information available
on the internet.
• Admiral (UK) Insurance Company
• Intuit India [Subsidiary Business Software Company]
• Patagonia (USA) [Retailer]
• Southwest Airlines (USA) [Airline carrier]
• Xiaomi Technology (China) [designer and manufacturer of consumer electronics
2
Suggested Structure of Case Study
1. Introduce your critical case study, linking to the assignment question & terms of
assessment that you have been set and describe how you intend to answer the question
through your case study.
2. Introduce and outline your selected organisation, including basic key statistics and
organisation overview.
3. Drawing on an appropriate definitions, theories and models (and using McKinsey’s 7S
model as a structure); critically describe employee engagement strategy in your chosen
organisation using examples at individual, group and strategic levels.
4. Critically discuss your selected company’s strengths at engaging their employees but also
some of the weaknesses/challenges they face, based on evidence you can find
5. Critically reflect on how your own understanding on managing, leading and resourcing for
improved employee engagement has been shaped through completing this assignment and
the module
6. Conclude your essay with a meaningful summary referring to the assignment question &
terms of assessment, and also offer some direction/ recommendations as to how
challenges could be addressed.
Additional Important points
• Please ensure you include your name, Banner ID and email on the first page
• Please ensure all pages are numbered
• Please include key theories from the HRM & OB module/ Textbook and ensure that
these are cited to their original author (not me & my power point slides!)
• Use Mckinsey’s 7S as a helpful framework
• Don’t forget a paragraph that critically reflects on how you have changed!
• End references are NOT included in the word count.
• Any figures must be drawn yourself and not cut and pasted from the internet.
• You are reminded not to copy material from any sources without properly referencing
it, as this constitutes plagiarism: cases of plagiarism will be referred to the Business
School Academic Integrity Officer and will be subject to a deduction of marks, which
can result in an overall mark of 0%.
Assessment Mapping
This assessment maps to the following learning outcomes
U1: Critically evaluate key human resource management and organisational theory and
practice.
U2: Critically assess the human resource management and organisational behaviour processes
involved in managing in an increasingly complex, global, changing environment.
U3: Critically reflect and relate theories of human resource management and organisational
behaviour to personal experiences (of being an employee, manager, working in a group etc)
U4: Understand the individual & group/ team complexities inherent within organisational
behaviour and human resource management
U5: Appreciate the strategic, change and leadership elements of OB and HRM
3
Suggested Reading
Specific Journal and Web Articles relating to the assignment question are available in the
assignment folder on Blackboard
Module Textbooks
Option 1: Combined textbook of HRM and OB topics covering the essentials of key topics
Sutton, A (2018) People, Management and Organizations Palgrave Macmillan; London
Option 2: Two in-depth textbooks covering HRM and OB comprehensively.
• Bratton, J and Gold, J (2017) HRM Theory and Practice (6th ed) Palgrave Macmillan;
London
• Bratton, J (2016) Introduction to Work and Organizational Behaviour (3rd edition)
Palgrave Macmillan; London
Option 3: Two streamlined ‘essential’ texts books covering the essentials of HRM and OB separately
• Henderson, I (2017) Human Resource Management for MBA and Business Masters,
CIPD 3rd Edition London
• Robbins, S.P., and Judge, T.A., (2017) Essentials of Organisational Behaviour, Global
Edition, Pearson; London
General Journals:
HRM Journal
https://whelprimo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/19r260k/44BAN_ALMA5181521470002422
Journal of HRM
https://whelprimo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/19r260k/44BAN_ALMA5181521210002422
Human Resource Management Review
https://whelprimo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/19r260k/44BAN_ALMA5181386490002422
Organization Studies
https://journals.sagepub.com/home/oss
Human Relations
https://journals.sagepub.com/home/hum
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