Course content

Our study programme consists of five core modules and two elective modules, plus a project & dissertation. You will explore the future of work and employment, from the rights and interests of employees to the relationship between people management and organisational competitiveness. The programme starts in October 2012, and extends beyond the normal undergraduate term dates.

Core modules

Complete the first four modules, then choose one of the remaining two to complete your core studies.

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.
Managing Human Resources: Explore and critically evaluate approaches to managing people in different contexts. Study key issues including: the nature of the employment relationship and the implications of this for the management of human resources; employee resourcing and development; the links between how people are managed and organisational performance.
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.
Employment Relations in Britain: Study the key processes and institutions of employment relations in the UK. Examine the development and impact of legal intervention in the employment relationship, compare systems of employment regulation in union and non-union establishments, and examine the consequences of all of this for patterns of inclusion and exclusion in the labour market. This module is compulsory if you are taking the CIPD professional qualification.
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.

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:

Employment relations and recession in the West Midlands
Andrew Forrest, HR and Legal Leader, Engineering Employers Federation, West Midlands, and Cheryl Pidgeon, Regional Secretary, Trades Union Congress, West Midlands
Global union structures, the ILO and responses to global crisis
Sam Gurney, Trades Union Congress, European Union and International Relations Department
The cooperative perspective
Bob Cannell, Suma
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
Arbitration of employment dispute
Peter Harwood, Acas
The HR role in the financial world
Barclays Capital
From Rhubarb The Clown to Sir Ian McKellen - Organising In the Entertainment Industry
Stephen Spence, Assistant General Secretary, Head of Live Performance Department, Equity

Elective modules

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

Transnational Employment Relations

Multinationals & Employment Relations: Study the significance of multinational enterprises as international economic actors and the specific nature of their role as employers which this implies.
Global Governance of Employment Relations: Discuss the main supra-national/transnational institutions of employment relations at global and regional (EU and North American) levels.
European Integration & Employment Relations: Focus on analysis of European Union institutions, their development and implications for employment regulation.

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 of dissertations by previous students include:

Expansion of small businesses & the relevance of a human resources function
The real determinants of high turnover among IT workers: a case study of a Japanese IT company
The effects of stress within the HR department of a young telecommunications company
Aesthetic labour and brand culture - aesthetic discrimination
Communication components: the role of corporate communication and employee affiliation during a transition exercise
"We aren't going away": British and Spanish unions' responses to relocation and perceptions of solidarity in the automotive sector
Assessing the performance appraisal process through employee perceptions - the case study of state owned enterprise in China.

A double qualification: gain Graduate CIPD membership

If you want a career specialising in the management and development of people, you'll benefit from a qualification from the CIPD.

If you take some specific modules and undertake some additional skills training, with a fee supplement, while studying for our MA in Industrial Relations & Managing Human Resources, when you graduate from us you can at the same time obtain Graduate Membership of the CIPD to give your career a real boost.