Our team also received a feedback from tutors. The process of this kind of appraisal can be seen as ‘top-down’ process which involves tutors providing feedback to our team about our whole performance (Gilmore & Williams 2009). The main problems of our team working showed by tutors are we were lack of research. For the presentation, we did not provide enough detailed information and there is no focus or key points within the presentation. These made listeners to be confused with our proposition. Moreover, we ran over our time slightly which means we were not good at time management, and also it shows we did not co-operate well during the presentation. These negative feedbacks on our team working performance could motivate us to try to do better next time as it helps us to recognise what kind of efforts are required to achieve our objectives. The negative feedback is also essential for our learning as we need to know what is incorrect in order to avoid it next time. On the other hand, the tutor highlighted our key strength which was the provision of handouts for the group. It is also necessary for us to know our strength as we need to know what we did was correct in order to repeat it next time. Furthermore, the positive feedback from tutors also gives us confidence to perform better next time.
My long term career objective is to become a HR manager working within a large national or international company that demands high standards from its employees. Prior to this, I aim to complete the undergraduate study in a related field. At present, I am particularly interested in employee motivation and performance management in this area which would be an advantage when applying to a HR manager for employment. I believe that by gaining a broader knowledge and understanding of research my ability will increase as I will be able to offer a better command of methods that are often used in dealing with staff issues. The reason why I plan to work within a large company that demands high standard employee is because I enjoy working under pressure, finding that this increases my motivation.
Nowadays, business is gradually adopting the human resource management rather than the personnel approach because the personnel approach is bureaucratic, not flexible and it focus on recruitment and selection without considering the need to adopt to be flexible and to train (Beardwell, Holden & Claydon, 2004). HRM is a pro-active, strategy, flexible, aware of the importance of evaluation and training and so more appropriate in a world changing constantly. Therefore, a good human resource manager is necessary in any modern business.
There are several essential abilities that the post requires. Firstly, HR managers are responsible of the recruitment and selection process. Without a clear and agreed profile of the type of skills and so on that the firm is seeking, the selection process is likely to be unsatisfactory and will contribute to later problems like dissatisfaction, high staff turnover and a failure to make optimum use of resources. Therefore the HR manager will not only plan recruitment requirement but also will adopt the appropriate techniques to attract best candidates and choose the right one (Foot & Hook, 2008). During my degree year, I have learnt how to place the recruitment and selection process within a wider context of HR planning and the options organisations have to choose from when vacancies occur. I also learnt several practices used by organisations when recruiting and selecting employees, such as interviews, testing and assessment centres, as well as the importance of these activities to business performance and the attainment of organisational goals.
Secondly, HR manager is responsible for the motivation and performance management of the workforce. Motivation is defined as an influence that causes employees to want to behave in a certain way, motivation combined with ability results in performance (Wilson, 2004). Good HR manager is able to find out what encourages individuals to perform their job more effectively and efficiently in order to help a business to achieve its goals. Furthermore, a good HR manager should be able to define performance management and describe its application as a management intervention for improving organisational performance (Armstrong, M, 2001). During my study, I learnt some important motivation theories, such as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, McGregor’s Theory X and Y, McClelland’s Need for Achievement Theory. I also learnt the importance of these theoretical contributions towards the development of performance. For the performance management area, I learnt the role of HR management in managing performance and some relevant methods, such as Appraisal, Self Evaluation and Peer Evaluation.
Thirdly, the HR manager is responsible to ensure a good communication network among all the workers of the company to avoid the problem of ineffective communication. Communication refers to the exchange of information, ideas, opinion and feelings. HR manager should have ability to set the appropriate communication network because communication failure has devastating effects in the company (Wilson, 2004). In level 2, I gained a lot of communication skills and learnt how to co-operate with different type of people through my own team working experience. These give the positive effects for my future post.
Furthermore, HR manager is responsible for the negotiation among workers and directors for the good functioning of the business. Therefore good HR manager could find ways and solution about work that will benefit both workers and directors so as to avoid useless conflict like go-slow, strike among others. Therefore the HR manager acts as a link between the administration of the business and the workers (Gilmore & Williams 2009). In level 2, I did not gain enough skills and knowledge within this area. I hope I could learn more about the negotiation during my further study.
For the final year I am still uncertain about my career and job options as I would like to explore all the opportunities that are available to me, however as for the skills, I have improved in most of the areas after this module but there are always room for improvement. This would be the reason why I did not choose the sandwich course. I had chosen the modules for the final year during my second year. Two core modules are contemporary human resources and management studies, new perspectives in organisation and management. For new perspectives in organisation and management module, I am going to learn a range of contemporary academic perspectives on management and organisation as well as dealing with some contemporary organisational issues. In detailed, I would gain a lot of knowledge in areas such as the nature of organisation, modernism and postmodernism in the study of organisation, The body and organisation, Power and resistance and so on. This module would provide a wide outlook of organisation and management perspectives which suits the module business requirements. I had learnt another core module contemporary human resources and management studies during my second year. The continuing study of this module in final year will deepen my understanding of it.
I also had chosen three option modules which are creativity innovation and design, international marketing communications and retail marketing management. For creativity innovation and design, I will learn the managerial aspects of innovation, such as the strategies for innovation, risk management, project management and so on. As what I had mentioned above, I am lack of the skills for creation and innovation which are required in my future career. I think I could gain this HR skills and knowledge during my further learning of this module. For international marketing communications, I mainly will learn the developments in world trade and the background to international marketing, the SLEPT factors that affecting organisations in international and global marketing, and also I will learn the ethical issues which affect international marketing. All the knowledge that will be learned in this module is related to international. I recognise that the global market we now operate in requires internationally talented people and I am eager to deepen my understanding of international marketing at this module in order to pursue a career in management operating internationally. Finally, for retail marketing management, I am going to learn the growing significance of retail marketing and the need to develop a competitor orientation. I will also learn some methods, models and strategic tools for developing competitive and how to make the retail marketing planning and so on. The knowledge in this module allows me to be a muti-skilled HR manager in the future and also provide me advantages if I would like to work within retail areas.
In conclusion, my plan is pretty flexible which allows room for change over the coming years as my life changes concurrently. It gives me a broad outline of what to aim for and draws to my attention the need for the skills I identified in the future career requirements. I am looking forward to the challenge of studying HRM at final year. Even though this module will be a demanding one, I am confident in my abilities and believe that my enthusiasm and curiosity for the subject gives me the force to succeed.
Reference List
Gilmore, S. and Williams, S. (2009) Human Resource Management, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Beardwell, Holden & Claydon (2004) Human Resource Management – A contemporary Approach (4th edition), FT Prentice Hall.
Foot & Hook (2008) Introducing Human Resource Management (5th edition), FT Prentice Hall
Wilson (2004) Organizational Behaviour and Work, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Armstrong, M (2001) A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice (8th edition), Kogan Page.
Marchington & Wilkinson (2005) People Management and Development (3rd edition), CIPD.
