Module Catalogue 2024/25

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

To provide students with a broad critical understanding of the variety of responses being made by employers, management, and the state in different national settings. To provide an opportunity for students to gain an in-depth knowledge of developments and issues in a particular regional or national setting. To equip students with frameworks which will enable them to engage in comparative analysis of HR/employment relations systems.

Outline Of Syllabus

The syllabus will cover six main areas:

Topic 1: Theoretical Perspectives in comparative and international HRM
Topic 2: Global Staffing and Expatriate Management
Topic 3: Global Careers and Modern HRM
Topic 4: International HRM and the Human Mind
Topic 5: IHRM in Cross-Border Merger and Acquisition
Topic 6: Emerging Issues in HRM and the Global Value Chain

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

At the completion of this module students will:
- be able to understand contemporary trends in HR and employment relations in a comparative context and in relation to forces of globalisation and technological development.
- relate this to the forces of globalisation and technological development; in particular, you will gather knowledge on national and regional responses and patterns of HR and employment across borders from a global perspective.
- have acquired knowledge of national and regional responses and patterns of HR and employment relations, especially Asia-Pacific, Western European and 'developing' nations and regions.
- have been introduced to the ethical challenges and tensions that are inherent to cross-border employment and the implications of “managing cultural differences”.

Intended Skill Outcomes

Critical analysis of trends, patterns, variations and their causation in key HR and employment relations variables e.g. management style, unionisation, strikes and industrial conflict, work organisation etc. Capacity to use basic concepts and theories (e.g. industrial relations systems and other tools of comparative analysis) to critically analyse contemporary trends in HR and employment relations.

In particular, this module intends to improve the following skills:

Intellectual Skills
- critically evaluate and apply relevant HR theory to practice; critically analyse trends, patterns, variations, and causation in key HR topics, such as management styles, intercultural management, global staffing, global organisation, etc.
- interrogate complex and ambiguous problems from multiple perspectives (i.e., management, HR, global mobility, employee, society).
- apply a relevant knowledge base to address strategic and operational IHRM needs.

Practical Skills
- gather, synthesise and evaluate qualitative and quantitative information for decision-making in global staffing and people management on a global level.
- manage information and communications in a digital world with a special emphasis on the challenges coming along with managing a global work force.

Transferable / Key Skills
- develop the skills required of leaders for a dynamic by creating a fundamental understanding of challenges and trends in international HRM.
- function as an independent learner, critical thinker and reflective practitioner.
- work effectively in diverse cross-cultural organisational settings.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

To enable the students to assess international HRM theories and practices, with an emphasis on how people management across national borders works and how this is different to domestic HRM. An introductory lecture block will prepare students for what is to come before each main topic will be covered in one lecture. All lectures will also discuss the forms, effects, and contradictions of international HRM. These lectures will also explore how HRM is affected by "the people element", which is informed by a combination of organizational psychology and intercultural research. The whole lecture series also refers regularly to the different institutional environments in which the respective HRM takes place and accounts for the challenges and pitfalls of transferring HR practices that proved to be successful in one domestic setting into another country. Each lecture block and supporting activities will also enable the students to discuss the role of different stakeholders, experts, authorities and institutional arrangements in shaping the practice of international HRM. The workshops will be specifically useful here. Throughout the classes, students will be enabled to assess the possibilities and problems of alternative arrangements for managing people across borders by discussing various cases and examples. The lecture content will be very much research-informed, implementing the latest findings in international HRM into the class room.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The essay will be handed in at the end of term and enables students to develop and demonstrate an advanced understanding of the challenges and opportunities that implementing international HRM strategies and practices represents. It will be supported by the content of the lectures, the case study workshops, as well as the seminars and the drop-in sessions.

General Notes

N/A