Before you commence this assessment, you must read and follow all the instructions as per the assessment guidelines (including the assessment rubric) available from the Moodle site.

This is an individual assessment that requires you to prepare a PowerPoint presentation and a recorded voice-over for Oz Industries based on the case study titled – Board Women.

Instructions:

You are to assume that you are an external consultant and have been asked by Gail Wilson, HR manager, to make a presentation to the Executive Management team of Oz Industries. Read the case study below and then respond to each of the case study discussion questions that is to form the basis of your presentation.

Case Study - Board Women

‘I see there is a push to get more women on boards’, says Gina Zigomanis, Company Secretary for Oz Industries, to no-one in particular.

‘A good thing too’, responds Gail Wilson, HR manager for Oz Industries. ‘Gender inequality in the workplace should not be tolerated. I think the number of women appointed to the board of directors of Australian companies is a disgrace.’

‘I agree Gail, there should be more women on boards’, adds Gina.

Mark Douglas, Oz Industries CEO, turns in his chair to directly face the two women sitting opposite.

‘Everyone agrees with that providing the appointments are made on merit’.

‘Hear hear’, adds Todd DeVries, Marketing manager for Oz Industries. ‘If women are appointed on the basis of merit, no-one will object. But to appoint someone to the board just because they are a woman is wrong’.

‘Agreed’, interjects Britney Pearson, CFO for Oz Industries. ‘A company is in the business of making profit. It does not exist to implement some feminist agenda. Its responsibility is to its shareholders’.

‘I can’t believe this. Everyone knows that Australian boards are simply clubs for old boys. Without legislation to enforce quotes nothing will change’, says Gina.

‘I’m with you Gina’, Gail says enthusiastically. ‘It’s time for companies to “walk the talk” – change the gender mix of boards or face a quota.’

‘I disagree’, says Britney. ‘I believe it is possible to achieve a better gender balance on boards without quotas’.

‘How can you say that, Britney?’ All the evidence shows that the representation of women on boards is so low it’s embarrassing’.

‘Quotas are a short-term fix. They are cosmetic. If you force women on to boards, you risk having marginalised “token” directors instead of “real” directors who make the decisions.’

‘What about the fact that a high proportion of female directors is related too company share price performance?’

‘Correlation is not causation’, interjects Mark.

‘It is also a fact’, adds Todd, ‘that not all women favour quotas because they see them as demeaning their own achievements’.

‘I agree, Todd’, says Britney. ‘Quotas are political correctness gone mad.’

‘This is not about political correctness, it is about fairness’, Gail responds.

‘Come on Gail’, says Britney. ‘All quotas do is reinforce the stereotypical view that we women are not as good as managers as men.’

‘If you legislate for quotas – what about a board quota for those with disabilities, gays and lesbians, Asians, elderly workers...? Quotas are a bit of social engineering designed to help white, middle-class females.’

‘Mark, how could you say that?’ says Gail. ‘It is well recognised that most boards are made of white, middle-aged men with a private school education – they don’t call it an old boys’ club for nothing.’

‘I am in favour of targets, not quotas. What quotas do is put women down and promote mediocrity. Too many women believe they deserve it – why should they be appointed to a board if they are not prepared to earn it? says Mark. ‘The number of female directors is increasing. I agree gender diverse boards add value, but I am strongly opposed to quotas. Companies should set targets and formulate clear policies on how they plan to meet them.’

‘Makes sense’, adds Britney. ‘To me, quotas treat the symptoms, not the cause.’

‘I’m sorry, but I cannot accept that point of view – nothing will change without mandatory quotas,’ replies Gail. ‘Failing to recruit from a more diverse talent pool is bad for the company, its shareholders and the public in general.’

‘Well’, says Gina, ‘I am tired of the stalling, women have been too patient for too long. It’s time that the government introduced quotas for women.’

‘You and Gail are entitled to your viewpoint but I don’t want to be patronised. I want to be appointed on the basis of my ability’, says Britney.

‘Okay Gina, if one accepts your argument then you must also favour setting quotas to increase ethnic diversity, religious etcetera, etcetera – where does it all end?’ asks Todd.

‘With tokenism and more government red-tape, that’s where’, retorts Mark. ‘Quotas are just an agenda item for white middle-class women’.

‘When will you get it?’ says Gina. ‘Board diversity means improved organisational performance and the fair treatment of women. There are no excuses. Quotas are needed and needed now’.

Adapted from: Stone, R. J. (2017). Human resource management. (9th ed.). John Wiley and Sons. (pp.264-265)

Case Study Discussion Questions:

1. Critically review the points raised by the following:

a. Mark Douglas, CEO, Oz Industries

b. Gina Zignmanis, Company Secretary, Oz Industries

c. Gail Wilson, HR manager, Oz Industries

d. Britney Pearson, CFO, Oz Industries

e. Todd DeVries, Marketing manager, Oz Industries

2. Which manager(s) do you agree with? Which manager(s) do you disagree with? Explain your answer.

3. Identify the various stakeholders involved and their likely viewpoints.

4. Make a recommendation about what Oz Industries should do about board women.

Your PowerPoint Presentation will be assessed on the extent to which it meets each of the following criteria:

Introduction (10%)

Knowledge of Content (30%)

Presentation Delivery (30%)

Conclusion (10%)

Visual Aids (20%)

Further details on each assessment criteria are outlined in the assessment rubric.

Penalty for late submission without approval if applicable [(-5%× 35)/day = -1.75 marks/day]

Important: Plagiarism will be reported to the Academic Services Centre of the University and may result in a “zero” mark.

Before you commence this assessment, you will need to read and follow all instructions as per the assessment guidelines (includes the assessment rubric) available on the Moodle site.

This is an individual assessment that requires you to prepare a portfolio. You need to submit your portfolio online through the Moodle site as an MS Word doc (no PDF files) using Times Roman 12 point size font with 1.5 line spacing.

A portfolio can be seen as both a product and a process:

• As a product, it holds the work records and documents what you have produced during the course, and represents an edited collection of your learning achievements.

As a process-oriented tool, it enables you to monitor your own learning systematically, reflect on your learning performance, present a coherent account of your achievements and obtain feedback on your learning.

Instructions:

1. Read and respond to all of the five (5) parts for the portfolio as outlined below. Note: the approximate number of words for each part is listed as a guide.

2. Include a title page and a table of contents page as part of your portfolio.

3. Ensure that each part starts on a new page.

Part 1: Position Description and Job Analysis (500 words)

Interview a person who is an employed graduate (a graduate may be a member of your family, professional network or a friend).

Then complete a job analysis of their position as a graduate in their current position.

From the job analysis, develop a position description and provide this in your portfolio. The position description should follow the construction of p. 65 of the prescribed textbook.

The Job Analysis should contain the following subheadings:

• Tasks and Responsibilities;

• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs);

• Tools and Equipment; and

• Relationships.

You should outline any training needs of the graduate in order to perform the ‘Tasks and Responsibilities’ detailed above. This part should be written in the third person passive grammatical style. No referencing is required for this part.

Part 2: Job Analysis Benefits (500 words)

This part requires you to critically discuss Job Analysis and its benefits and costs to an organisation hiring professionals (degree qualified employees). It is important that you understand exactly what is required when you have to 'critically discuss..'.

Part 3: Resume (800 words)

You are to assume you have read a job advertisement on Seek.com for a 'HR Recruitment Consultant'. This could be at a graduate level. Assume you are a student about to graduate from CQUniversity and are applying for your first job in Australia.

For this part of your portfolio, you are to prepare a resume for this job application. There are a lot of resume styles. You may need to undertake some research and a Google search to determine the choice of styles available and the one that you believe is representative of all your learning in this course to Week 10.

An aspect of this part is that you will need to make a judgement call (otherwise known as 'critical analysis') on what is the best resume style and formatting to apply for this job. This part should be written in the first person grammatical style and no referencing is required.

Part 4: Resume Self Reflection (200 words)

In this part of your portfolio, you will need to justify your choice of resume style that you used in part three. This part should be written in the first person grammatical style and requires references to support your thinking.

Part 5: References list

This part of your portfolio is for you to provide a reference list (unlimited word count as it is not included in the word count for the portfolio). You should include at least five (5) sources of information, excluding the prescribed textbook, from a combination of scholarly academic journal articles. This is a minimum requirement and would ensure a pass mark for the portfolio. All sources should be listed in alphabetical order and be cited in the main body using the American Psychological Association (APA) referencing style.

Your portfolio will be assessed on the extent to which it meets each of the following criteria:

Analysis and Justifications (35%)

Integration of Literature (20%)

Research (20%)

Self-Reflection (5%)

Presentation, referencing, organisation, structure, communication (20%)

Further details on each assessment criteria are outlined in the assessment rubric.

Penalty for late submission without approval if applicable [(-5%× 45)/day = -2.25 marks/day]

Important: Plagiarism will be reported to the Academic Services Centre of the University and may result in a “zero” mark.

The online quiz is scored out of 20 marks.

Each question is worth 1 mark.