Arab Open University, Faculty of Business Studies B120 – An Introduction to Business Studies TMA - Summer Semester 2013 - 2014 Cut-off date: 10th August 2014 Word limit: 1500 words About TMA This TMA is a short report about an aspect of HRM practice within business. It requires students to carry out a simple information search on the Internet to support their findings. It is marked out of 100 and is worth 20% of the overall assessment component. It is intended to assess students’ understanding of some of the learning points within Book 2: • to develop report writing skills • to develop basic ICT skills such as searching for, selecting, managing and presenting information found on the internet. The TMA This TMA requires you to: (i) review various study sessions of Book 2 and apply some of the ideas within it to the questions asked (ii) conduct a simple information search using the internet Case Study BMA Induction Program BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA), is Australia’s largest coal mining company and at project commencement had a workforce of approximately 5000 permanent employees and 4500 contractors across more than 300 roles on seven operating mines (five open-cut and two underground operations), one port and corporate offices. For BMA, induction should have been an opportunity; a means of engaging their in-coming workforce and contract partners, demonstrating and reinforcing desired culture and safe behaviors while also meeting legislative requirements. Instead, it was content heavy for the delivery of any information employees might need to know during their time with the company; was structured around days of PowerPoint delivery and was focused on ‘ticking off’ compliance requirements; a company only gets one chance to make a good first impression and BMA was not succeeding. Approach The purpose of the induction project was to create an engaging, standardized and systemized approach to induction across BMA, aligned to business drivers and systems (particularly risk management and company culture) and compliant against legislative requirements. The solution also needed to overcome the long established drawbacks of their (and the wider mining industry’s) traditional induction processes. A blended delivery approach allowed Babblewire Learning Group to create an induction that captures the hearts and minds of Participants using the benefits of a personal, face-to-face group delivery experience, while still providing individual relevance and context by creating online modules for specific sites and work areas – an approach that was summarized during the Project as ‘just in time, just enough’. To complete the Induction, learning outcomes are validated within seven days of arrival in the workplace through a practical assessment. BMA SAP Training BMA needed a learning solution for the latest release of SAP where the focus was on risk management. Previous training experiences had been widely criticised as boring and lacking in context and relevance which led to widespread confusion about risk management processes and low employee engagement with SAP implementation. Babblewire was engaged to design an effective and engaging learning process and then develop the required courseware. Our approach began with determining the business outcomes required and then discerning the behaviours needed by employees to deliver those results. The learning solution delivered consisted of interactive and scenario based eLearning modules which were role based in a ‘choose your own adventure’ format. This structure allowed users to make incorrect choices in a safe environment to clearly demonstrate the impact of cause and effect, shifting the learning from ‘instruction’, to ‘exploration’; from a case of ‘right or wrong’, to instead a ‘this is what will happen if you….’. An eLearning solution also meant that learning could now take place within the workplace instead of offsite, thus ensuring relevance and context and saving the company the direct and opportunity costs of workers being offsite. The final solution aligned to the Babblewire philosophy that learning should be simple, fun, engaging, relevant and accessible. (Source: adopted from babblewirelearninggroup.au/case-studies/bma-induction-case-study/) Questions Question 1 Define the term induction and socialization. Bring out some of the differences between these two concepts. Provide examples to substantiate your answer. (30 marks) (400 words) Question 2 Discuss what types of induction information the managers might find it useful to give to the new appointees when they start in the company at the (Individual level, Job/task level, departmental level and Organizational level). Provide examples to support your arguments (30 marks) (500 words) Question 3 Discuss the different types of training methods that a company like BMA can use to train their employees. Provide relevant examples (40 marks) (600 words) General Instructions: Format: students are expected to write your answers in an essay format: introduction, body paragraph(s) and a conclusion. Poor format could result in the deduction of up to 5 marks from students’ total TMA mark. Word count: Not adhering to the specified word count could result in the deduction of up to 5 marks of students’ total TMA mark. Referencing: students are expected to use the Harvard referencing style for in-text referencing and list of reference at the end. Not following Harvard style referencing could result in deducting up to 5 marks of students’ total TMA mark. E-library: A minimum of 2 sources is required. Lack of using the E-library could result in the deduction of up to 5 marks of students’ total TMA mark. End of TMA
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 17:06:53 +0000