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HRM3704 Assignment 2 Semester 1 Memo | Due 24 April 2025. All questions fully answered. QUESTION 1 [16]
Read the following case study and then answer questions 1.1 to 1.4.
Zelensky
Ivan Zelensky was a civil engineer and a South African who emigrated from Ukraine
long before the war between Russia and Ukraine started. He established a
successful civil engineering business in South Africa in early 1990 and named it
‘Zelensky’. His company grew to have branches in most provinces of South Africa.
Apart from studying engineering he also acquired an HR degree from a local
university to strengthen his knowledge of people management. He then created a
strong HR department that would support employees of Zelensky and also appointed
a strategic HR business partner to represent HR at senior management levels.
He tragically passed on at the beginning of 2021 because of COVID-related
complications. Maksym, his youngest son, an electrical engineer took over as CEO
after his father’s death. Immediately after taking over, he concentrated on investing
in physical capital resources because he added the electrical engineering component
to the business. His focus on the unplanned addition of the electrical engineering
component of the business caused the company to start incurring debts because of
the size of the electrical engineering unit. The finance unit disagreed with Maksym
about the addition of the electrical engineering unit citing not having enough funding
to start the unit as a challenge. Their advice was that the unit could be implemented
gradually from the year 2026 but Maksym started it in 2022. HR was also critical of
the fact that because of financial challenges, it would be difficult for the company to
attract well-qualified people to start working in the electrical engineering unit.
The HR unit was a well-recognised component of strategic management at Zelensky
and an HR representative in the form of an HR business partner participated in the
top-level meetings of Zelensky. However, when Finance complained about the lack
of funds, Maksym criticized his late father’s emphasis on investing ‘too much’ in
human capital resources and as a result, he cancelled the position of an HR
business partner from senior management. He said that HR representatives may not
be necessary at the senior management level because of their specialised
background in people management which makes them not understand the serious
business matters that are discussed at senior management meetings.
The company culture, structure and even reputation started to collapse
under Maksym’s leadership. He also temporarily cancelled a training and
Development subdivision of the HR function because of temporary funding
challenges. He used those funds to strengthen the physical capital resources of the
new electrical engineering unit. He said that he did not see training and development
as benefitting Zelensky because they had trained many people in the past who had
left the company and their training and development was a waste of resources.
When the HR function was no longer prioritised, talented people started leaving the
organisation. Quality had also become a challenge in their newly added electrical
engineering unit because of the failure to attract correctly skilled individuals. Two of
the buildings in which they did electrical installations burned down because of faulty
installations. The company started to run short of customers because of reputational
damage. After all these challenges the board was no longer happy with the
leadership of Maksym and as a result, they removed him as the CEO. Oleksandra
Zelensky, a brother of Maksym was temporarily asked to take the position of CEO.
On his first day in office, he said that the company needed to conduct serious
leadership training and development to strengthen Zelensky. He organised monthly
training for all managers and leaders to improve their skills.
Source: Gumede (2025)
1.1 Explain the basic principles of strategic human resource management (SHRM)
and apply them to the case study. (6)
1.2 Critically discuss the relationship between strategic management and strategic
human resource management at Zelensky. (2)
1.3 Discuss the resource-based view as one of the foundational theories that informs
contemporary strategic human resource management concerning the challenges of
cost-cutting that resulted in the temporary closing of the training and development
unit. (4)
1.4 Discuss two techniques of leadership training and development that could be
used to empower Zelensky’s leaders. (4)
QUESTION 2 [34]
Read the following case study and then answer questions 2.1 to 2.5.
Hlala Properties
Zonke was the HR director at Hlala Properties. She and the CEO, Londi, and also
the COO, Pam, were always in agreement even where they should disagree, as per
one senior employee, ‘they had too much power’.
Londi, at one point, asked the managers of all business functions, such as
marketing, HR, and so forth, to think of ways to cut costs because the company was
under dire financial stress due to an increase in property maintenance fees. The HR
director, in her exaggerated cost-cutting mission with no support from the finance
unit, made a decision that all managers of various buildings had to pay full rental
fees for their stay in the buildings they manage. Finance suggested that the change
may be gradual, such that managers are made to start paying the full amount in a
year and a half so that they have time to prepare for the change. In Zonke’s desire to
make the CEO, Londi, happy, ignored the advice from finance.
Managers had always paid only half the rental fee; this change, whose rationale had
never been discussed beforehand, upset managers. They then decided to continue
staying in their residence but only paid half the rent, just like they used to. In an
unprecedented move, Zonke suspended all managers for gross insubordination and
defiance. The buildings became chaotic in the absence of managers; temporary
managers who were hired were not able to manage the buildings well, and people
started to cancel their lease agreements. There were severe financial losses for the
company. Zonke argued that the agreement for managers to pay half the rental price
was only verbatim and not on paper.
Suspended managers said that the previous HR director would always have
meetings with them if there were changes to be made that would affect either them
or their customers. He would want their opinions on various matters of
business. Zonke does not want meetings. She sends emails. One manager was
heard saying, ‘The previous HR director never created such disunity in my 16 years
of working for Hlala Properties.
In another unprecedented move, Londi suspended Zonke and asked the finance
manager and the COO to handle the situation of suspended managers through
negotiation and agreements. The finance manager, the CEO, and the COO decided
to talk with the suspended employees to try and resolve the impasse. Management
communicated their reasons for cutting costs, but employees also told them that this
was never discussed and also affected their lives as they had not received their
salary increase for the past two years. However, the gesture of allowing talks
by management also proved to be a positive sign for both parties.
A chance for bargaining and making agreements was created where employees
agreed that they would be happy if the change could be implemented gradually and
may start in a year and a half as management had suggested. Management also
agreed that they would be working on a plan to ensure each individual’s pay is
connected to performance. In the future, management promised that there would be
continuous and constant sharing of information so that employees would always
know what was going on in the business. The suspension was also cancelled
with immediate effect. Management promised to work on the issue of increment that
had not happened for two years. The engagement was a success, and further
losses in company profits were avoided.
Source: Gumede (2025)
2.1 Distinguish between successful and unsuccessful leadership styles and apply
that to the case study. (6) .
2.2 Discuss the competencies of leadership that an HR practitioner such as Zonke
needs to efficiently manage her directorate. (6)
2.3 Discuss the leadership management role that Londi performed in the suspension
of Zonke and the temporary deployment of the finance manager and the COO to
handle the situation. (4)
2.4 Debate the merits of a relevant best-practice approach to strategic
human resource management at Hlala Properties in relation to the conflict that
caused the suspension of managers. (3)
2.5 Critically analyse managerial-based leadership as one organisational model of
leadership and apply it to how the CEO, the COO, and the finance manager handled
the matter of the suspended employees. Provide relevant case study examples to
support your answer. (15)
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