MSc Human Resource Management
Year: 2014/15
Module Handbook: HR4 S41
Managing Employment Relations
Lecture/Teaching Programme
1 The Subject of Employment Relations: Introduction and Overview.
2 The Employment Relationship and the field of Employment Relations.
3 The Legislative Framework: The State and the EU.
4 Managing Employment Relations: Employers and Management.
5 Trade Unions: Objectives, Methods and Functions.
6 Employee Engagement: Contemporary Themes, Theory and Practice.
7 Managing Employee Voice: Participation and Involvement.
8 Information and Consultation at Work: Regulation and Practice.
9 Reassessing Partnerships at Work.
10 Negotiations and Bargaining in Employment Relations.
11 Managing Discipline and Grievances.
12 Managing Redundancy.
13 Conflict and Disputes in Work and Employment.
14 Managing and Resolving Conflict and Disputes in the Workplace.
Written Assignment:
Theme: The UK Productivity Puzzle – is employment relations the missing piece?
Recently published data by the Office for National Statistics has established that output per hour in the UK was 17 percentage points below the average for the rest of the major G7 industrialised economies in 2013, the widest productivity gap since 1992. On an output per worker basis, UK productivity was 19 percentage points below the average for the rest of the G7 in 2013. (ONS, International Comparisons of Productivity, 17th October 2014).
According to one major authority Sisson (2014) it’s difficult to exaggerate the importance of productivity. It is productivity that is the source of a society’s wealth and prosperity. It is productivity that accounts for differences in living standards over time and between countries, reflecting the skills of the workforce, the capabilities of organisations and the technology they use accounts for the differences in living standards. Productivity also has a crucial bearing on company or organisational performance.
Although a live issue, poor productivity has dogged the UK for decades. For many years economists have been looking at the UK productivity angle. Perhaps, however, they have missed the most obvious and most tangible dimension – the workplace. Indeed, compelling evidence for focusing on employment relations at the workplace can be found in a number of influential studies. Reports of the work of the Involvement and Participation Association (IPA), Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Services (ACAS), the more recent Engage for Success Movement and new research published by Dromey (2014) and Sisson (2014) provide a strong body of evidence between improved productivity and workplace management approaches.
Assignment task:
Taking into consideration the relevant theoretical and empirical considerations write an essay of not more than 3000 words in which you address the following question which is in two parts:
Part 1: Why has there been, according to Sisson (2014), a persistent problem of poor productivity in the UK?
(30% of the marks)
Part 2: Focusing on the work of ACAS, IPA and the more recent Engage for Success Movement explain how management approaches and the role of employment relations could improve performance and productivity in UK workplaces.
(70% of the marks)
Learning Objectives:
This assignment is intended to develop your knowledge, theoretical and critical understanding of employment relations.
To encourage critical reflection on contemporary employment practices and the management of the employment relationship in the UK.
To enable you to provide advice on different forms of employment relations practices and make better decisions about the design of employment relations policy and procedures.
In addition, Assignment A is intended to develop your knowledge of and capacity to analyse your own organisation and its approach to employment relations. Assignment B is intended to develop your ability to integrate theory and practice in an informed and comprehensive way in a range of settings.
Assessment Criteria:
Marks will be awarded for the following:
• Focus of assignment (how the question has been addressed).
• Use of literature/research germane to the topic.
• Knowledge, understanding and insight.
• Synthesis: integration of theory and practice.
• Analysis, debate, argument and reflection.
• Quality of presentation, structure and length. Please note, you will be penalised if you go above the set word limit for either the report or essay.
Last Completed Projects
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