Questions for Each Case:

Case 1: Fatima Al Jaber at Al Jaber Group: Traditions and Transitions in a UAE Family Enterprise

a. How did Fatima's upbringing and education prepare her for her current role? To what extent was Fatima's experience different from other women in the UAE?

b. What future development do you see for the AL Jaber Group? How do you see the current role of the father Obaid Al Jaber? What should be his primary objective be in the coming years?

c. What future developments do you see for Fatima in particular? What will be the major challenges for Fatima?

d. Do you believe Fatima could become the CEO of Al Jaber Group? Would she like to be the CEO? What would that mean as individual and for AL Jaber as a family business in this region?

Case 2: The Portman Hotel Company - Strategic HRM Case:

In analyzing Portman make sure you thoroughly understand the design of the original system(s), or how plans/processes/people were supposed to work. Also, carefully review the business context (environment) and Portman's business model and strategy. Finally, what are the options for improvement? More specifically, and to assist with your review and analysis, the following questions should focus your attention:

a. What is the Portman business model and what was the personal valet arrangement trying to accomplish?

b. Why isn't the system working and, what are the problems?

c. How did the 5-Star system deal with the problems? Did it work, or were improvements experienced following implementation of 5-Star?

d. Develop three alternative solutions to address the problems discussed above.

e. Select the best solution and describe how you would implement it.

Case 3: Southfield Packaging - Performance Management Systems Case:

a. What are the sources of the problems in performance reviews at Southfield Packaging?

b. What is your evaluation of the appraisal process (or "SPR") at Southfield? Is the instrument well-designed? Is the required performance interview a good idea? What changes, if any, could be made to improve its effectiveness?

c. What is your assessment of Belby's definition of performance? Belby clearly wants to be promoted in the coming year, will he reach his goal? Why or why not?

d. Should Belby's physical look and personal health habits play a role in his performance appraisal?

e. Suggest some of the best practices in performance appraisal for Southfield.

Case 4: Flaxo Exports: Managing People in Small- to Medium-Sized Enterprise

a. Identify the key factors that determine the typical HR model of an SME. Describe the HRM policies, functions and practices at Flaxo.

b. Discuss whether it is necessary for SMEs to adopt the Western HRM techniques.

c. If this case is in UAE, what would be the legal implications of the way in which employees are being managed?

d. How should Abishek go about attending to business issues involved in his plans and how he can go about restructuring the people-management systems and processes in order to facilitate the implementation of his business styrategy?

3. Critique of an Article

Each student is required to submit a critique on an article entitled "Strategy, Policy and Practice in the Nationalization of Human Capital: Project Emiritization" by Kasim Randeree which appeared in the journal Research and Practice in Human Resource Management, 2009, 17(1) pp.71-91. In your critique you should include the following:

- Summary of the article as you understand it (do not copy-and-paste the abstract)
- Nature of the article (conceptual/descriptive or empirical) - provide the evidence
- State your agreement and disagreements on the issues raised by giving your justification
- Your opinion on his recommendations and conclusion.

4. Strategic HRM Project Paper

Your task will be to examine the human resource management strategy, policies and practices of an organization of your choice. The purpose of this exercise is to give you experience using the course concepts in an actual field situation, help develop your clinical and analytical skills, provide you the opportunity to "road test" some of the ideas from the course, and to get some understanding of barriers and issues in the implementation of the course concepts. When choosing the organizations be sure that it will be possible for you to have access to that organization. You will need to be able to interview top HR executives of these organizations and perhaps obtain data of some organizational records and documents (some of which may be confidential) from this organization.

In doing the research for this project, assume the role of an independent management consultant required to prepare a written research report about the organizations studied. Your report should examine all of the various HR systems in place in the organizations (human resource planning, staffing, performance management, training and development, compensation, labor relations, legal compliance, etc.) and assess their fit with the organization's strategy. I have prepared a questionnaire that you must use in collecting this information, and the completed questionnaire must be submitted together with the final report.

To complete the questionnaire, which should be used as the basis for the requirement of this project paper, you will need to interview people who can give you information and to observe some things for yourselves in order to check on the accuracy of the data you are given. It is very important to be specific in obtaining your answers and to ask for evidence to substantiate their assertions by citing specific examples of events and behaviors within the organization.

It will be fatal to wait until the end of the semester to work on the paper. Instead, you should do a little work on it each week, preferably gathering data on the material we have just studied. Applying yourself to this assignment can provide you with two benefits: allowing you to develop proficiencies in systemic organizational analysis by collecting and evaluating data, and allowing you to develop insights about these organizations that can be of significant benefit to you as you progress in your career. Past students have found this assignment to be a good deal of work but also extremely beneficial and rewarding.

Points to Be Included in Your Analysis

- Describe the organization's short and long-term strategy. What impediments to success exist within these organizations? What specific changes would you recommend to these organizations to assist them in facing the future?

- Analyze and describe the organization's current HR systems (i.e., planning, compliance, staffing, training and development, performance management, employee/labor relations, separation, etc.). To what extent do existing HR systems assist or hinder these organizations in their performance? What evidence do you have to support this?

- Does the organization evaluate its HR systems, programs, policies, etc.? How? How should / could it? Are these organizations effective in meeting its goals and objectives? How do you know? How does the organization know? Does HR appear to contribute to the organization's effectiveness or lack thereof?

- Does senior management value the role of HR in the organizations? What evidence do you have of this? What role does the senior HR manager play within the top management circles? Do line managers in these organizations see themselves as HR managers?

- What ongoing or new challenges from the organization's environment are on the horizon? Is the organization prepared for these changes from a corporate strategic perspective? From an HR perspective?

- Assess the extent to which the current human resource policies and practices are aligned with the strategy of each firm, the degree of internal consistency and consistency with the strategy, and what changes you would recommend.

- Most importantly, what recommendations would you make to these organizations concerning their HR systems in order to improve performance? Are these recommendations feasible and practical (meaning likely to be implemented), given the organization's history, culture, resources and management team?

Requirements:

a. This report should be professional in appearance, neatly typed, grammatically correct, and show evidence of thorough proofreading. Careless errors in presentation will be severely penalized.

b. Your paper should have an introduction in which you describe the organizations' background (identify products/services, size, location(s), number of years in operation, etc.), its strategy and objectives and the larger environment in which it operates, and then state what you plan to do in the paper. It should have a methodology section explaining what you did, with whom you spoke, and how you obtained your information. If you quote anyone directly, you should footnote these quotes. It should also have a conclusion with recommendations. If you use outside references, you should have a bibliography arranged in a standard format. Pages must be numbered.

c. More specifically your paper should utilize the following headings to report your findings and discuss these organizations' HRM:
- Introduction
- The Organization's Corporate Strategy
- HR functions in the Organization
- HR Strategy
- HR Planning
- Staffing
- Training and Development
- Performance management
- Compensation & Benefits
- Employee Relations and Employee Discipline
- Internal Corporate Communication
- Challenges
- Recommendations

d. Please turn in a brief proposal (1-2 pages) detailing the organization you will be analyzing, and a brief statement about the focus of your project. This is due no later than the second week of class. If you do not do this by that deadline, you may proceed at your own risk! Every two weeks you are to submit progress reports on your project paper. The completed paper is due the first day after the midterm break. The project may be submitted any time prior to the due date.

e. Report Format

Your paper should be typewritten, double-spaced, 12 font-size, and follow proper report writing procedures (proper spelling, grammar, etc.). If you are in doubt about proper report writing procedures obtain a copy of one of the many guides to writing research papers. The length of the paper should be between 10 to 15 pages excluding the appendices. The use of headings, subheadings and summary lists is encouraged. All written work submitted by an individual implies that it was his/her work. All assistance received or references obtained from others should be documented in accordance with good reporting practice. You must cite the source/references in accordance to accepted format. Papers will be graded on content, format and grammar.