<Student Name>
<Professor Name>
Response to Question 1’s Answer
While the response nicely and succinctly encapsulates all key functions of an effective HR department, it would have been better if it had taken account of specificities of the cinema chain industry. All departments of a cinema chain are dedicated towards ensuring maximum customer satisfaction. However, there are many technical departments that need not to decidedly have a customer orientation. By virtue of not having to face and deal directly with cinemagoers, these very important (but with considerably less visibility) departments require skill-set that goes beyond simply being customer oriented. In my opinion, vocational and technical training of key personnel (especially, the ones working “behind the scene”) is an equally important HR function in addition to recruitment, reward, and maintaining employee satisfaction.
Response to Question 2’s Answer (1)
The response rightly mentions the importance of effective recruitment and selection policies in order to only let in suitable employees. It, however, focuses almost entirely on how important customer orientation of cinema chain employees is to the job requirement. I think that a cinema chain would employ a diverse set of employees with different skill sets. As such, it would need technical personnel to handle the hi-tech and sophisticated equipment that is now considered essential for enhanced and more real movie-watching experience. I am talking 3D technology here, for one. Similarly, the daily viewer traffic also entails large cash handling and accounts management. Not everyone who is employed with the cinema chain would be evaluated on his/her propensity to be friendly to strangers. A good number of jobs will require specialized skill-set.
Response to Question 2’s Answer (2)
The analysis seems to suggest that jobs offered by cinema chains are largely akin to ‘McJobs’: As such, they are easy to secure but not offer a viable, durable career choice. Moreover, these jobs are usually taken up by international students who might not have access to ‘regular’ job market due to certain legal constraints. It also makes use of research findings suggesting that young and casual workers are not deeply committed to their jobs. While these assertions may be valid for the kind of cinema chain employees we as moviegoers are likely to interact with, there are other departments that make a cinema work, and they are probably staffed with people whose reasons to like or dislike their job might be very different from the ones mentioned in the answer above. Therefore, we cannot generalize high turnover and lack of commitment of rank-and-file ushers as indicators of whether or not all employees like working with cinema chain.
