School of Business

Department of Management and International Management

Spring 2019/2020

Course Code: BMGT315

Course Name: Human Resource Management

Assessment: Assignment 1 (Case Study)

Submission Deadline: Click or tap to enter a date.

Instructions:
Read the case study below, and then answer the questions that follow.

Kamal, the HR manager at Sapco Company has recently identified a job vacancy that
needed to be filled in the IT department. Therefore, Kamal, and in the hopes of attracting
suitable candidates for the job, has decided to post a job description for the job entitled “IT
Specialist”.
The job description was already available in the HR department’s files and developed five
years ago.
Following recruitment, several shortlisted candidates went through a selection process,
which resulted in Kamal offering employment to Layla, the candidate whom he believed
was the most qualified as per the job description.
However, a while later, Kamal started realizing that Layla’s performance and skills did not
quite match certain requirements of the job even though she acquired all of the
specifications and necessary qualities posted in the job description. In this sense, Kamal
decided to improve Layla’s performance by providing her with professional assistance in
developing the necessary skills needed to successfully carry out her job, especially in
repairing and maintaining the hardware and software associated with the company’s
computer systems.
Later on, top level managers at Sapco Company have realized that it would be more
effective to hire external HR professionals to perform the majority of HR activities that
were previously done in-house. This decision was the result of Kamal’s failure in selecting
the right candidate for the vacant position.
Questions:
1. Identify and briefly explain the two HR functions carried out by Kamal.
Use evidence from the case to support your answer (25 marks).
2. What is the major problem behind Kamal’s inadequacy in selecting the
right candidate? What conclusion can be drawn in this regard? (25 marks)
3. What solution did the company adopt in order to prevent such oversight in the
future? Discuss the advantages of this approach in performing the HR functions
(25 marks).
4. In your opinion, what is the importance of the content of the job description?
And how does it affect the recruitment process? Elaborate (25 marks).