Course content

Our study programme consists of five core modules and two elective modules, plus a project & dissertation. You will thoroughly explore the nature of employment relations in an international context. Your dissertation will enable you to take a country-specific viewpoint on a transnational issue of your choice. The programme starts in October 2012, and extends beyond the normal undergraduate term dates.

Core modules

Introductory module: Your first module has two elements: an induction week to introduce you to the style of the course, followed by a short foundation programme covering understanding and researching employment relations. This will introduce you to key concepts and features of industrial relations and current controversies in the regulation of employment.
International Context of Employment Relations: Explore current thinking about the implications of economic internationalisation for employment and the conduct of industrial relations. Engage in debates on globalisation, on the convergence/divergence of national business systems, and on the productivity and growth of economies.
Comparative Employment Relations: Examine the employment relations systems of a number of countries and explore the implications for major themes, such as economic performance and technological change. Develop your understanding of how national employment systems have evolved and how they are responding to contemporary challenges.
Transnational Employment Relations: Study the significance of multinational enterprises as international economic actors and the specific nature of their role as employers. Discuss the main supra-national/transnational institutions of employment relations at global and regional levels, and focus on analysis of EU institutions, their development and implications for employment regulation.
Researching Industrial Relations & the Management of Human Resources: Develop an appropriate research design for your dissertation through studying a variety of epistemological approaches and the quantitative, qualitative, and documentary research methods used in the study of employment.

General & practitioner seminars

Take the opportunity to listen to senior practitioners in industrial relations and personnel management talk about their work and discuss contemporary issues.

These non-assessed events are a vital part of the course, developing your general skills and competencies, and broadening your exposure to practice. Workshops are run on general academic issues, as well as personal career development strategies.

Recent seminars included:

Global union structures, the ILO and responses to global crisis
Sam Gurney, Trades Union Congress, European Union and International Relations Department
Exploring HR directions - Generalist, Specialist & Consulting
Reman Singh, Human Resources, Hewitt Associates, New Delhi
HR in the National Health Service
Kevin Croft, HR Director, North Middlesex Hospital
Ethical choice-making by managers
Aidan McQuaid, Anti-Slavery International
European Works Councils - transnational consultation - myth and reality
Peter Reid, HR Consultant to European Works Councils
The HR role in the financial world
Barclays Capital
Dispute Resolution in Britain: Employers' Perspectives
Andrew Forrest, HR and Legal Leader, Engineering Employers Federation

Elective modules

Choose two modules from one of two streams, Managing Human Resources or Critical Issues in Managing Human Resources. In previous years we have offered the following electives in these streams:

Managing Human Resources

Approaches to Managing Human Resources: Develop an informed critical understanding of how the management of human resources is undertaken, why, and with what effect.
Employee Resourcing & Development: Expand your understanding of how different approaches to managing HR can to be applied to particular areas and explore international variations.
Managing Performance: Focus on performance management as an aspect of managing human resources and consider the link between how people are managed and organisational performance.

Critical Issues in Managing Human Resources

Organisational Behaviour: Study how psychology, organisational psychology, organisational sociology, and management science can help you understand people's behaviour and their experience of work in organisations.
Employment Law & Practice: Gain a critical understanding of the role of law in regulating the employment relationship in different national contexts.
Equality & Diversity: Discuss current thinking and debate in the area of researching equality and diversity in organisations and the labour market.

Dissertation

Your 10,000 word dissertation will be based on comparative research which may involve your own country, or cover a topic in a country other than your own. You will complete it in your third term and over the summer, with a member of staff as an academic supervisor.

Example titles from our previous MA in European Industrial Relations include:

The attitude of employee representatives towards the European Works Councils experience: a comparative research between Italy and the UK
Flexicurity: a useful tool to battle the recession? A comparative study of the Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish labour markets
What is the impact of the 35-hour week upon the hospital sector in France?
British and Spanish unions' responses to relocation and perceptions of solidarity in the automotive sector
Towards the Europeanisation of human resource management? The IBM case study

A double qualification: Master Européen en Sciences du Travail

To give your CV an international dimension, double up your qualification by studying for the MEST alongside our course. This degree is awarded by a consortium of European universities who have coordinated their study programmes. It requires a formal period of study at one of our partner institutions. EU funding covers typical travel and living costs to study outside the UK.

Each participant institution offers a comparable programme. The method of assessment for this part of the programme is agreed between the home and host universities. Usually you will remain at WBS until the end of your second term, do a small amount of coursework overseas and concentrate primarily on transnational research for your dissertation.

Consortium members

These are the current consortium members at time of writing. Membership is subject to review.