Students will be assessed on the following learning outcomes:

1. Understand the process of Critical Reasoning and employ that understanding in the support of the student's personal development as a learner

2. Be able to use cognitive skills to apply a given range of techniques and concepts to more effectively analyse, evaluate, retrieve and organise information relating to issues in the management of organisations

3. Be able to orally communicate ideas effectively and develop sound arguments in a discussion, and make informed judgments upon the issues in management

4. Be able to effectively express ideas through the structured use of verbal and written formats

5. Continue the maintenance and development of a Personal Development Plan

Assessment Details:

Your task is to choose one topic given on page 4 and to get the approval from the module leader. Then you have to submit the following two assignments/tasks

1. Essay:

At the end of the semester you will be required to submit a 1500 word essay that will tackle the same question as your group presentation; it must however, be an individual piece of work. Be very careful, the University rules concerning plagiarism will apply to the essay. Hence, although you will have worked together to prepare you must not copy each other's work in the essay.

You will be required to produce a coherent, sound argument in answer to your chosen question. This should be presented in a normal' essay form. In other words, this does not require any special formatting or layouts, or unusual sections. It is not necessary, for example, to have sub-headings within your essay for the 'evidence' or the 'assumptions' and the other parts of your arguments. The process of applying critical reasoning and constructing sound arguments should be followed in your essay.

Choose one of the following topics

1 Improving employee engagement is at the top of a list of human resource challenges being faced by businesses. Flextime is one of the schemes used by management to address the issue. Critically evaluate and discuss its advantages and disadvantages for the company in the employee's performance and commitment.

2. Organisational change can have a severe impact on a business. However, while the change may be necessary for the future of the company, you are likely to face certain barriers and challenges. Anticipate the possible barriers and challenges to organisational change and critically discuss the impact on the organisation. Formulate. justify and discuss possible strategies to avoid them before they become a major issue.

3. work diversity is becoming an international issue on human resource management. Manpower outsourcing leads to pooling various nationalities into an organisation. Introduce a scheme which you have to consider addressing the issue. Critically evaluate and discuss its advantages and disadvantages for the organisation.

4. The recent trends and challenges in personnel selection can have a significant effect on a business. Identify recent trends and challenges in the selection of personnel and critically assess/evaluate their impact to a business in this modern corporate world.

5. Remote workers and those who avoid the office are often more productive than those who work there day in and day out. However, the improbability of being promoted when working remotely is one of the most debated issues in this modern corporate world. Critically identify the odds and evaluate their implication in connection with smaller chance of promotion.

Group Presentation:

Each group is required to deliver a group presentation. If there are four in your group, you should be speaking for no more than about 10 minutes in total. We would suggest that each member of your group should produce at least one slide to practise and demonstrate that they have mastered the production and use of visual presentation material. Your group's slides should include:

a) An introduction and overview slide which allows you to explain what the question is that your group is tackling; what material/issues you are going to be looking at and how you intend to answer the question. You may be able to use this slide at the end of your presentation in your conclusion also.

b) Some slides employing empirical data such as a tables or graphs.

NB: the presentation should be designed in order to achieve the learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4.