International and Comparative Human Resource Management

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• operate with appropriate sensitivity and responsiveness in cross-cultural situations; assert viewpoints in a culturally sensitive way, avoiding offence or misunderstanding, and exercising influence and persuasion in situations where communications are difficult;
• identify how employment law and joint regulation shape strategic HR choices in different countries;
• manage HR departments with different nationally or internationally textured identities.
• assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of HR support resources and mechanisms in subsidiary/associated companies and gain acceptance for making appropriate constructive adjustments;
• consider the impact of cross cultural issues for communicating and operating across national boundaries;
• deal with matters of HRM practice, around e.g. reward, work organisation, training and development and work-life balance in an international context;
• manage or professionally influence HRM practices with knowledge of notions of ‘best practice’ and their limits;

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• manage ambiguities arising in international contexts, for example in people management, effectively;
• operate effectively in terms of international/cross cultural awareness;
• pursue individual work-related goals effectively;
• undertake searches for both qualitative and quantitative information using a range of information sources.

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• the role and effects on organisations of social regulation by social actors, i.e. nation states, employment and labour law, unions, employers’ associations and international bodies such as the EU and the ILO;
• the differing potential roles of HR departments in different countries and in international organizations e.g. in pursuing notions of ‘best practice’ which might be applied internationally;
• the constraints and opportunities offered by differing national infrastructures of employment relations.
• aspects of national cultures and their implications for organisations;
• differing HRM practices across countries, in terms e.g. of reward, work organization, training, flexibility and work-life balance;

• International HRM: the state of the employment relationship
• Comparative HRM: convergence and divergence
• Comparative HRM: communication
• Comparative HRM: joint regulation
• Comparative HRM: training and development
• Comparative HRM: work organization and teamwork
• Comparative HRM: reward, pay systems and benefits
• Comparative HRM: from flexibility to work-life balance and sustainability
• Comparative HRM: national HR management
• International HRM: MNC choice and national infrastructures of HRM
• International HRM: the role of the international HR function
• International HRM: promoting best practice from corporate HQ

Teaching methods include:

• Lectures, case studies, directed reading, small and large group discussion

Learning activities include:

• An individual assignment
• Case study problem solving
• Directed Reading

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Set exercises - non-exam

• Assessment Type: Formative
• Feedback: Exercises during the module sessions allow for lecturer guidance on the progress of students’ thinking in response to their individual and group comments, questions and answers.
• Final Assessment: No
• Group Work: No

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.