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UniSA Online BUSS 3092 Strategic Human Resource Management: Assignment 1 

1. What do you need to do?

For Assessment 1, you are asked to produce an essay using information gathered from an interview you have conducted with a human resource manager.

This guide will assist you with finding relevant ideas, facts and concepts within academic sources for your Assessment 1: Essay. It also includes guidance on interviewing and essay writing.

Note: For full assessment details read the assessment details in your course website and course outline.

2. Prepare and conduct your interview

For this assessment, you are asked to produce an essay using information gathered from an interview you have conducted with a human resource manager. You are also instructed to read the document 'Things to think about' in your learnonline site to help you plan a rough set of questions.

See below resources to help you prepare and conduct a research interview:

3. Plan your search

Before you start searching for academic sources, plan your approach. 

Start by:

  1. Identifying the key concepts to search for your topic.
  2. Then brainstorm alternative terms that may be used.
    Consider:
    • plurals and various word endings (e.g. work, workplace, workplaces) 
    • common acronyms (e.g. HR)
    • different word spellings (e.g. organisation, organization)

A mind map or table can be a good strategy for organising ideas. As you search you will identify more terms which you can add to the table.

In this example, we explore COVID-19 AND human resources:

Key concepts COVID-19 Human resources
Alternative terms

COVID

coronavirus

"coronavirus disease"

pandemic

HR

"human resources management"

HRM

"personnel management"

Once you've identified your business and/or HR issue, you can then search for literature review materials.

Link to Strategic Human Resources Management (SHRM) Approaches

You should discuss SHRM approaches/perspectives. Try adding one or more of the following terms to your search:

  • The terms: theory OR theories
  • The name of a specific approach: "universalist" OR "best-fit" OR "developmental", etc.

Tip: Encyclopedias or handbooks can be helpful in identifying SHRM approaches/perspectives.

More help

4. Choose where to search

As well as referring to your readings for ideas, facts and concepts for this assessment you can also find academic sources to support your report. Academic sources are sometimes referred to as scholarly or peer reviewed sources. Watch this video (2 min 22 sec) to learn about scholarly sources.

Tip: Googling is not considered as a legitimate search method for this assignment nor is it a substitute for reading relevant course material.

We recommend searching the following:

Getting started  Key databases
Library Collection  Business Source Ultimate
  Scopus

The guide below can help you to determine whether a resource is scholarly:

5. How to search

The Library Collection is a useful starting point for locating academic references. It contains books, DVDs, journal and newspaper articles and more.

To perform a search, add:

  • double quotes (" ") for phrases
  • truncation (*) to find the plural and other forms of a word

Connect your terms using AND, OR and NOT

  • Use AND to combine different concepts (all terms must appear in results)
  • Use OR to combine alternative words (any term can appear in results)

For example, a search for: "human resources" AND COVID-19

Sample search in the Library Collection: "human resources" AND COVID-19

From the results list you can:

  • Limit to articles from Peer Reviewed publications 
  • Limit by Date eg 2019 to 2024
  • View the full text for many items

More help:

Business Source Ultimate provides information covering all areas of business including accounting and finance; banking; finance and insurance; construction; computer science; economics and more.

How to search Business Source Ultimate:

  1. Type each of your different concepts into a search field. Using the connector AND will include both concepts in your search results.Sample search using the connector AND: "human resources" AND covid-19
     
  2. You can broaden your search by adding synonyms or alternative concepts using the connector OR.

Sample search highlighting the connector OR: "human resources" OR "personnel management" AND covid-19 OR coronavirus OR pandemic

From the results page, the limits menu on the left will allow you to refine by date range and to scholarly (peer reviewed) journals.

Library search filters: peer reviewed

Scopus is one of the largest multidisciplinary bibliographic databases. Scopus covers peer reviewed journals, trade journals, books and book chapters, conference papers and patents. Material chosen for inclusion meets strict selection criteria such as type of peer review and significance to the field. 

Watch this video tutorial (3 min 10 sec) on the Scopus website to learn how to conduct a basic search.

6. Write your essay

Once you have all your information it is time to put everything together and write your essay.

Study Help is an online hub packed with resources to help with assignments and study skills. Watch the short video (2 min 22 sec) below on writing an essay.

Cite using APA

When you have finished preparing your assignment, you will need to cite your references using the APA 7 style.

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