Assignment 1: A Growing Small Business

You made it! You received your master's degree in Human Resource Management, and now it's time for you to start seeking career opportunities. At this point, you may be a little confused as to what areas you should focus on in HR since your experience may be limited.

Imagine that a friend shares with you that he/she has a small but rapidly growing business which is in need of an HR department. He has asked you to be the HR Manager. Your friend mentioned that he / she previously worked with an HR consultant, but now has close to 100 employees with no definite, dedicated HR department, and really needs your assistance. Although you are nervous, you realize that it's now time for you to show your skills and put all your years of studying into action.

Select an existing small company in an industry you are familiar with to be the basis of the small business in this case. Review the company's structure, culture, business strategy, mission, and vision.

Write a five to six (5-6) page paper in which you:

1. Provide a brief summary, in your own words, of your selected company's overall business strategy. Next, determine the direction you visualize the company growing within the next five (5) to ten (10) years. Hint: Review the common business strategies of Cost Leadership, Differentiation and Focus or Niche on p. 50 of your text.

2. Design a human resource management strategy to support your selected company's business strategy. Explain the competitive advantage of your HRM strategy. Hint: Review the following common human resource management strategies of Loyal Soldier, Bargain Laborer, Committed Expert and Free Agent from previous courses.

3. Develop an HR Scorecard table for your selected company. Include the four (4) dimensions (i.e., financial, customer service, internal process, and learning / growth / sustainability). Next, assess the value of your proposal to the small business in each of these dimensions. Hint: Review the video titled "Building the Human Resources Performance Measurement Scorecard" (4 min 1 s) located at for additional guidance in creating an HR Scorecard.

4. Use at least three (3) quality academic resources in this assignment from within the past five (5) years. Note: Wikipedia does not qualify as an academic resource.

5. Format your assignment according to these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.

• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the professor's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.

• Include a reference page. Citations and references must follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Assess the strategic role of human resource management and the components that provide a competitive advantage to the organization.

• Determine the human resource management function of human resource planning and its importance to business strategy.

• Develop work designs that support the human resources strategy.

• Use technology and information resources to research issues in human resource management.

• Write clearly and concisely about human resource management using proper writing mechanics.