THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2021/2022

Information in the Degree Programme Tables may still be subject to change in response to Covid-19

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Business School : Common Courses (Management School)

Postgraduate Course: Multinational Enterprises & Comparative Employment Relations (CMSE11286)

Course Outline
SchoolBusiness School CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits15 ECTS Credits7.5
SummaryThis course aims to provide students with an integrated overview of the key conflict underpinning international HRM - that is, how the world of employment relations is becoming increasingly internationalised while differences in the employment systems of different countries continue to persist.
Course description The course investigates several key and inter-related features of the changing global business environment and their impact upon HRM and employment relations. First, it explores the impact of globalisation and different MNC variants (in terms of organisational structures and strategies) primarily from an institutional/business systems perspective. Second, it explores how diverse institutional arrangements interact with the variety of structures and strategies of multinational companies (MNCs), drawing on both international business and international HRM literature. Of prime interest is the interaction of home and host country effects in shaping HR practices of MNCs, as well as the potential for variation across industry sectors. Third, students undertake a more in-depth, comparative analysis of 'national employment systems' - key areas of study include differences in production regimes, welfare provision, training and education systems, and the organisation of trade unions.

This course unit has the objectives of enabling students to understand and explain:
1. the implications of the growing internationalisation of business and trade both for the human resource policies of companies and for the organisation of labour and employers;
2. the characteristic features of country systems of employment and industrial relations across a range of principally developed, and to an extent, less developed countries;
3. how country differences in employment systems shape and constrain human resource policies of multinational companies;
4. the various ways multinational companies manage labour to meet complex cross-national operations in the production and delivery of goods and services;
5. the challenges to labour posed by the increasing presence of multinational companies.

Syllabus:
Globalization & MNCs ¿ The impact on HRM and employment systems
Methodological approaches to International & Comparative ER/HRM
Multinationals & the transfer of HRM I ¿ Isomorphism & home/host country effects
The transfer of HRM II - Political processes, benchmarking & coercive comparisons
Comparative systems of collective bargaining & pay negotiations
Comparative analysis of production regimes & employment systems
Comparative analysis of welfare state systems & employment patterns
International & comparative employee voice mechanisms
International comparison of training & education systems

Student Learning Experience:
The course is taught using more traditional content-based lectures, individual and small group flipped classroom activities, and more formal assessed groupwork (based on organisational case analysis) during tutorials.

Tutorial/seminar hours represent the minimum total live hours - online or in-person - a student can expect to receive on this course. These hours may be delivered in tutorial/seminar, lecture, workshop or other interactive whole class or small group format. These live hours may be supplemented by pre-recorded lecture material for students to engage with asynchronously.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2021/22, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  None
Course Start Semester 2
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 150 ( Seminar/Tutorial Hours 15, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 3, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 132 )
Additional Information (Learning and Teaching) Seminar/Tutorial hrs are the min total live hrs, online or in-person, students can expect to receive
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 60 %, Practical Exam 40 %
Additional Information (Assessment) 60% coursework (individual) - assesses course Learning Outcomes 1, 3, 4, 5
40% presentation (group) - assesses all course Learning Outcomes
Feedback Not entered
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. be able to discern and comment critically upon the chief institutional and cultural premises underpinning managerial approaches to HR/employment relations;
  2. critically identify the range of internal/organisational and external/environmental factors impacting HRM in multinational firms;
  3. demonstrate ability to understand and synthesise a wide range of complex issues in the field of international HRM and comparative employment relations;
  4. demonstrate skills of comparative analysis of national employment/industrial relations systems;
  5. display in written, and oral, work developing abilities to digest, synthesise and critically evaluate contrasting perspectives from the literature in reaching sustainable/practical conclusions.
Reading List
Lucio, M. M. (Ed.). (2013). International human resource management: An employment relations perspective. Sage.

Key journals:
International Journal of Human Resource Management
European Journal of Industrial Relations
Human Resource Management Journal
Journal of World Business
Journal of International Business Studies
Work, Employment & Society
Journal of Industrial Relations

Resource List: https://eu01.alma.exlibrisgroup.com/leganto/public/44UOE_INST/lists/26181455710002466?auth=SAML
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills On completion of the course students should:

1. have secured an understanding of comparative employment relations' processes that impact MNCs- performance, including the design and implementation of policies and practices in a range of employment areas such as collective bargaining and pay negotiations, international HRD, and employee voice;
2. have critical awareness of the international transfer of HR policies and practices both effecting and affected by multinationals - considering both external/structural variables as well as internal/micro-political factors;
3. have the ability to locate appropriate academic and practitioner resources on comparative and international employment relations issues;
4. be able to competently communicate and exchange ideas in both large and small group settings;
5. be able to gather, analyse and use information in order to present a balanced argument;
6. be able to plan, organise and prioritise work effectively;
7. have improved their analytical, writing and presentation skills according to accepted disciplinary conventions.
KeywordsIHRM-MEC
Contacts
Course organiserDr Ji-Won Song
Tel:
Email: Ji-Won.Song@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Lauren Millson
Tel: (0131 6)51 3013
Email: Lauren.Millson@ed.ac.uk
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