HR profession

Learning Outcome 1) Understand what is required to be an effective and efficient HR professional.

Assessment Criteria

1.1 Evaluate what it means to be an HR professional with reference
to the CIPD’s most current Profession Map.
1.2 Describe the elements of group dynamics and conflict resolution methods.

 

Learning Outcome 2) Be able to perform efficiently and effectively as an HR professional

Assessment Criteria

2.1 Apply project management techniques.
2.2 Apply problem-solving techniques.
2.3 Apply a range of methods for influencing, persuading and negotiating with others.

 

Assessment Criteria

3.1 Undertake a self-assessment of HR professional practice
capabilities to identify continuing professional development
needs.
3.2 Produce a plan to meet personal development objectives based
on an evaluation of different options.
3.3 Reflect on performance against the plan, identify learning points for the future and revise the plan accordingly.

 

 

Learning outcomes:

1. Understand what is required to be an effective and efficient HR professional.
2. Be able to perform efficiently and effectively as an HR professional.
3. Be able to apply CPD techniques to construct, implement and review a personal development plan.

Assessment brief/activity

You are asked to develop an electronic portfolio of evidence which includes four sections that respond to the following tasks:

Activity 1

Evaluate what it means to be an HR professional, making reference to the current CIPD Profession Map. This can be accessed at https://www.cipd.co.uk/learn/career/profession-map

Activity 2

Briefly describe the elements of group dynamics and give at least two examples of conflict resolution methods within an HR context.

Activity 3

With reference to a recent or current project (large or small) which you have led (or been part of a project team):

• Provide evidence of using project management and problem-solving techniques in the course of the project.
• Explain how you successfully influenced, persuaded and negotiated with others in the course of the project (or other related activity).

Activity 4

• Undertake a self-assessment of one area of your practice to identify your professional development needs in that area and options to address these.
• Produce a professional development plan (PDP) plan to meet your professional development needs which includes a justification of the option(s) chosen.
• During your programme, provide a reflective summary of your performance against the plan. You should also identify any future development needs and record these in your PDP.

(Note: If required, CPD plan and record templates for students are available at https://www.cipd.co.uk/learn/cpd/about )

Evidence to be produced/required

A portfolio of evidence of approximately 2600 words in total (excluding the PDP) that responds to each of the four tasks.

You should relate academic concepts, theories and professional practice to the way organisations operate, in a critical and informed way, and with reference to key texts, articles and other publications and by using organisational examples for illustration.

All reference sources should be acknowledged correctly and a bibliography provided where appropriate (these should be excluded from the word count).

All submissions should be in the region of 2,600 words plus or minus 10% and references should be added in the Harvard Referencing Format. There is a Harvard Referencing tutorial in the Resources Area which outlines the formatting required.

 

Harvard Referencing

2.4. Harvard referencing rules – books and reports

Books and Reports 

The items of information and the order in which to use them when writing your citation for a Harvard reference is:

1. Author(s) or editor(s) or organisation(s) responsible for writing or compiling the book
2. Year of publication
3. Title and sub-title
4. Edition, if not the first
5. Place of publication
6. Publisher

It should look something like this:

Last name, First initial. (Year published). Title. Edition. (Only include the edition if it is not the first edition) City published: Publisher, Page(s).

Remember:

• In the Harvard system the year of publication appears after the name of the author.
• Always cite the author(s) surname in the form in which it appears on the title page.
• Use initials for the author’s first name(s).
• Where there is more than one author, cite them in the order in which they appear on the title page.
• Where there are more than three authors, include only the first three.
• Sometimes the author is an organisation or government department. This is known as a corporate author. Always cite the corporate author(s) in the form in which it appears on the title page.
• Always cite the title which appears on the title page – sometimes this is different from what appears on the cover!
• Always give the full title, including any sub-title information which should appear after a colon eg First line management: a practical approach.
• Always use italics for the title.
• Always use lower case for the title and the subtitle. Only use a capital letter for the first word of the title and for any proper nouns.
• Always record the place of publication as it appears on the item. Where a publisher has more than one office, this is usually the first named place.
• Always cite the publisher in the form it appears on the title page or back of the title page.
• Always make sure that you cite the publication date for the edition that you wish to refer to and include an edition statement eg 2nd ed where appropriate.
• If the author and the publisher are the same and the publisher is a corporate body also known by its acronym eg TUC you can use the acronym for the publisher as long as you put the corporate author‟s name in full eg Trades Union Congress. (see Books with authors section for examples).
• If the author is a corporate body with a sub-body, the sub-body should be entered in lower case eg DUNDEE UNIVERSITY. Department of History.
• If you can‟t find the place of publication on the document but you know where the publisher/body is based it is customary to put the place in square brackets:- [London].
• Put “no date” when the publication date is not available.
• For electronic documents always include the URL of the web page where the document appears and include the date that you accessed the document on a website as material on websites is often removed.

2. What is Harvard referencing?

2.5. Harvard referencing rules – Journal articles

Journal Articles

The pieces of information you need and the citation order for a Harvard reference for a journal article is :-

1. Author(s)
2. Year of publication
3. Title and sub-title
4. Title of journal
5. Volume and issue number or month
6. Pages numbers of the article

Depending if the article was accessed in print or online the references will read something like these two below:

Printed Articles or Journals:

• Last name, First initial. (Year published). Article title. Journal, Volume (Issue), Page(s).

Online Journal Articles:

• Last name, First initial. (Year published). Article Title. Journal, [online] Volume(Issue), pages. Available at: URL or website address [Accessed: E.g.15/05/2016].

Remember:

• In the Harvard system the year of publication appears after the name of the author.
• Always cite the author(s) in the form in which it appears in the article.
• Where there is more than one author, cite them in the order in which they appear.
• Where there are more than three authors, include only the first three.
• Always give the full title, including any sub-title information which should appear after a colon.
• Always use lower case for the title and the subtitle. Only use a capital letter for the first word of the title and for any proper nouns.
• Always use italics for the title of the journal.
• Always give the full reference to the item including volume, part number and/or month and year.
• And don’t forget the pages!

 

2.6. Quoting references in the text

General Rules to Remember

In the Harvard system, the year of publication is given after the name of the author:

In a recent report (Taylor 2002) it was suggested that…

If there are two authors:

In a recent report (Taylor and Brown 2002) it was suggested that…

If there are more than two authors:

In a recent report (Taylor et al 2002) it was suggested that

If you wish to cite individual pages, quote or paraphrase the content of a document, the page number(s) should be included after the date and separated by a comma:

In a recent report (Taylor and Brown 2002, p236)

In a recent report (Taylor and Brown 2002, pp236-238)

Where you need to cite more than one work published in the same year by the same author, you can indicate this as follows:-

In a recent report (Taylor 2002a)

In a recent report (Taylor 2002b) etc

 

2.7. Examples of book references

The information gathered from a book to create your reference:

Page 25 to 50 of Understanding Children written by Dr Richard C Woolfson. Published by Caring Books, Glasgow

Harvard reference:

Woolfson, R.C. Dr (2004). Understanding Children. Glasgow: Caring Books. p25-50.

Examples of books with two and three authors

BURKEMAN, O. (2012) The antidote: happiness for people who can‟t stand positive thinking. Edinburgh: Canongate.

CORFIELD, T. (1998) An evaluation of the introduction and application of personal development plans at Commercial Union. [Unpublished MSc dissertation]. Sheffield: Sheffield Business School.

DEPARTMENT FOR WORK AND PENSIONS. (2006) Security in retirement: towards a new pensions system. [London]: DWP.

GRAYLING, A.C. (2002) The meaning of things: applying philosophy to life. London: Phoenix.

MACLEOD, D. and BRADY, C. (2008) The extra mile: how to engage your people to win. Harlow: FT Prentice Hall.

PINK, D. (2010) Drive: the surprising truth about what motivates us. Edinburgh: Canongate.

TRUSS, C., MANKIN, D. and KELLIHER, C. (2012) Strategic human resource management. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

2.8. Examples of Harvard referencing – Referencing chapters

Information for a chapter reference:

Page 25 to 50 of Understanding Children written by Dr Richard C Woolfson. Published by Caring Books, Glasgow

Harvard Reference:

De Cruz, P. (2007). The civil law system. In: Comparative Law in a Changing World. 3rd ed. Oxon: Routledge.Cavendish. p47-50.

 

2.9. Examples of Harvard referencing – Website references

Probably, you will make use of websites, and online materials the most in your assignment, however depending on the type of website it may be very tricky to locate the information you need to complete your reference in your assignment and in your bibliography.

Below is a selection of websites and the information you will need to find in order to create your Harvard references for these sources.

Example:

CIPD Employment Law Factsheet, Author, Website Address, When you accessed the source.

Harvard reference:

CIPD Staff. (2014). Employment law developments in 2013 and 2014. Available: http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/factsheets/employment-law-developments.aspx#link_0.

Last accessed 30th July 2014.

 

2.10. Examples of Harvard referencing articles in journals

Example Journal:

Journal – English Profile Journal Volume 3, Part e4, Cambridge University Press, 2013

Author – Jane Evison, School of Education, University of Nottingham

Harvard Reference:

Evison, J. (2013). A corpus linguistic analysis of turn-openings in spoken academic discourse: Understanding discursive specialisation. English Profile Journal. 3 (e4), p1-24.

Further Examples:

• CHIARONI, D., CHIESA, V. and FRATTINI, F. (2011) The open innovation journey: how firms dynamically implement the emerging innovation management paradigm. Technovation. Vol 31, No 1, January. pp34-43.
• BARRETT, S. (2011) Economical ways to increase awareness. Employee Benefits (Financial Education supplement) [online]. April. pp3-4.
  Available at: http://www.employeebenefits.co.uk/download/4824/EBS_FinancialEducation.pdf[Accessed 23 July 2012].
• LUBKE, G. H. and MUTHEN, B. (2005) Investigating population heterogeneity with factor mixture models. Psychological Methods. Vol 10, No 1. pp21-39.
  Available at: http://www.statmodel.com/download/psymeth.pdf[Accessed 26 February 2013].
• SAMMER, J. (2012) Financial education – stress = improved productivity. HR Magazine. Vol 57, No 6, June. pp71–76.
• SHANTZ, A., ALFES, K. and TRUSS, C. (2012, forthcoming) Alienation from work: Marxist ideologies and 21st century practice. International Journal of Human Resource Management.

 

2.11. Examples of Harvard referencing an entire journal

Sometimes you may wish to cite a journal without specifying a particular article. If so you will need to include the International Standard Serial Number or ISSN. ISSNs have been used since the 1970s and are a universally accepted way of identifying serials. Do bear in mind that a printed journal will have a different ISSN from the online version of the same journal.

Examples:

• Employee Benefits. ISSN 1366-8722 (print format).
• Competency and Emotional Intelligence Quarterly. ISSN 1469-333X (print format).
• Competency and Emotional Intelligence Quarterly. ISSN 1469-3321 (electronic format).

 

2.12. Examples of Harvard referencing articles from newspapers

Example articles with authors:

• PEACOCK, L. (2013) Premier Inn to create 500 apprenticeships. Telegraph. 14 March.
• PERLROTH, N. (2013) Researchers find 25 countries using surveillance software. New York Times. 13 March.

Example articles with no authors: 

• Civil servants may transfer to private sector. (2012) Irish Times. 26 July.
• Howlin faces public pay battle as unions reveal guarantees. (2012) Irish Independent. 1 June.
• UK austerity in a world awash with money. (2013) Guardian. 14 March.