Critical Review of Human Resource Management - Lesson Plan: 1 x 1 hour lesson

A series of 'off the shelf' lesson plans and resources for use in the classroom. This lesson deals with Critical Review of Human Resource Management and is relevant to the following specifications:

• AQA: Module 5, 14.3
• Edexcel: Unit 4, section 8; Unit 5, section 3
• OCR: Module 2876

Aim:

The Activity is designed to encourage students to bring their knowledge of different areas of human resources to bear on a specific scenario. The intention is that students are able to critically evaluate the scenario and develop a coherent argument to make recommendations to the head of HR about the processes involved in the recruitment and selection of an employee.

The scenario is based on a true event. Students are asked to review the process and to consider what lessons the firm might learn about its recruitment processes. A series of questions is provided to prompt students to think about some of the issues. In addition, it may be useful for students to look at the issues relating to employment legislation to assess the equal opportunity issues that could arise.

The Activity can form part of a fairly simple lesson structure where students could work on the task individually or discuss the issues in small groups. It is suggested that a 500-word report is the outcome - although this could be amended - and the students asked to provide a short summary presentation of the key points from their group discussions as a precursor to a discussion between the whole group about the issues arising.

One important aspect to stress is the meaning of 'critical analysis'. It should be pointed out that 'critical review' means looking for the positive things that come out of an event such as this as well as the negative, and looking to weigh up the relative importance of these issues in making future decisions on, in this case, recruitment and selection processes. It is also suggested that the outcome of the scenario may have some motivational and training and development implications - presumably, appointing the 'second best' candidate might mean that there are some deficiencies in that candidate compared to the first choice and the circumstances of the appointment are not ideal in terms of motivating the eventual appointee!

Learning Objectives:

At the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate knowledge of different recruitment methods
• Comment on the advantages and disadvantages of different selection processes including interview, presentation and psychometric testing
• Identify and explain some of the advantages and disadvantages of the process described in the scenario
• Produce a coherent, well argued and presented written report on the issues arising as a result of the scenario

Resources:

• PowerPoint Presentation - Human Resource Management [364K] (basic version also available for quicker download [315K])
• Mind Map - Critical Review of Human Resource Management
• Activity - Critical Review of Human Resource Management

Lesson Structure:

• Introduce the aim of the lesson and outline the objectives. (5 minutes)
• Introduce the issues by showing the PowerPoint Presentation (10 minutes)
• Give out the Activity and go through the scenario with the students. Outline the way in which the lesson will be conducted - either in pairs, groups or individually. (5 minutes)
• Set students on task - the remaining lesson time will depend on the desired outcome - group or individual. If individual and a written report is the aim, then it may be necessary to allow students the opportunity of completing the task for homework. (35 minutes)
• Review the main outcomes of the lesson. (5 minutes)