Aims

This module aims to enable students to understand the dimensions that influence human resource management (HRM) policies and practices internationally, and to gain awareness of how conceptual debates in international HRM translate into practical challenges in organisations in different countries.

HRM is bound and influenced by national context, both culturally and institutionally. Cultural context includes manager/employee relationship, boundaries between work and home life, and preferred approaches to teamworking and remuneration; while institutional factors include employment law, the welfare state, business systems and industrial relation systems. This module will explore how people are managed in different national contexts within the HR fields of recruitment, remuneration, performance management, learning, and working hours.

In addition to the cross-comparative HRM focus of the module, we will also explore aspects of managing work at an international level, including managing expatriates, outsourcing, offshoring and managing diversity. The module will also discuss how multinational companies address global labour market issues.

Outline Of Syllabus

Topics covered will typically include:
- International HRM theory and practice
- National culture and its impact on HRM policies and practices
- Institutional influences on global HRM
- Employment relations at a national and global level
- Employment and the role of the state
- Recruitment, selection and reward
- Performance, development and learning
- Changing demographics as a global issue

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

- Lectures provide basic information which is then used to work through country specific case studies
- Principles will be illustrated and developed by case-study-based seminars.

Ongoing debates about international and comparative HRM highlight the need to discuss its scope and limits in order to shape it as a distinct area of study. As such, combining lectures and seminars is deemed appropriate so that students have the opportunity to engage in discussion of content, which is a good way to promote knowledge and understanding. In addition, given that the module has a group project element, the seminars provide a good opportunity to engage students and monitor their progress in relation to the skills-based outcomes. Providing space for content discussion is a good way to support students advance with their projects as the seminar sessions would be targeting links between themes in the lectures and the project they have to complete for the module.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The formative assessment will assist students in developing their knowledge and understanding of IHRM, which is the aim of the module. The preparation and presentation of seminar tasks will enable students to enhance their critical thinking skills and build upon their presentation skills developed in other modules. In terms of the intended knowledge outcomes of the module, the assessment focuses on critical evaluation; this is central to the analytical approach of the module and its objectives.