Postgraduate Course: Human Resource Management in Context (CMSE11680)
Course Outline
| School | Business School |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course provides a broad introduction to, and understanding of, the principal internal and external environmental contexts of contemporary organisations. This covers both the managerial and business context, within which Human Resource Management (HRM) professionals, managers and employees must learn to interact, often under challenging conditions of environmental turbulence, change and uncertainty. |
| Course description |
The course examines how leading organisations in various sectors and industries respond to trends and features of their dynamic internal and environmental contexts. It indicates how those working in the HR function need to work with the rest of the organisation and its stakeholders to recognise and acknowledge how corporate decisions are shaped by various forces, and how these decisions might be made most effectively given the business environment.
This means learning to identify and evaluate a range of internal and external forces, often beyond the immediate or direct control of the HR function itself. Having studied this course, students will therefore be aware that HR professionals and managers in different types of organisations (small, large, national, global) not only have opportunities and choices when taking organisational decisions, but also face some constraints on their autonomy in determining their futures.
The course explores the implications for professional HR policy and practice of engaging with broader business environments and trends and provides opportunities for applied learning and continuous professional development.
Outline content
1. Introduction to HRM in Context
2. Context of Managers, Professional, and Employees
3. Strategic HRM and Organisational Strategy
4. Regulatory and Legal Context
5. Global and IHRM Context
6. Workforce Context Demographic Trends
7. Changing Nature of Work
8. Technology: Digitisation and AI
9. Ethics, Sustainability, and ESG
10. Course Recap and Revision
Student learning experience
This course provides students with a wide understanding of the boundaries and key areas of concern across the field of HRM, through examples and topics addressed in class sessions.
Students use class exercises and case study examples to facilitate interactive student discussions applying HRM frameworks to contemporary business problems, with formative feedback provided to individuals and groups where appropriate. One to two guest speakers with established backgrounds in the HR profession will also deliver sessions in the course on cutting-edge areas of HR strategy and practice that have been, and can be, applied to client organisations where HR is making a real difference to success.
Analytics reports and case assessments provide opportunities for students to analyse HRM issues and topics by critically and in more depth, summarising multiple viewpoints and making related recommendations for policy and practice, and receiving further formative and summative feedback on completion of this assessed work.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | For MSc Human Resource Management only. |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2025/26, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
166 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
65 %,
Coursework
35 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
65% Written examination (Individual) - Assesses all course Learning Outcomes
20% Case study analysis (Individual) - 1,500 words -Assesses all course Learning Outcomes
15% Video assignment (Group) - Assesses all course Learning Outcomes
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| Feedback |
Formative: Students will be encouraged to email the course organiser/lecturer for some formative feedback ahead of their first assessment (summative work), based on their topic choice. Students will also be given formative feedback on their first assignment alongside their summative Assignment-1 mark, in time for it to be of potential use for them in successfully completing their examination (summative work).
Feedback on formative assessed work will be in time to be of use in subsequent assessments within the course.
Students will gain feedback on their understanding of the material when they discuss their answers in class concerning cases, debates and other types of exercise. Students may also ask questions directly before, during, and after Lectures to assess their own individual levels of knowledge and understanding in a timely fashion.
Summative: Summative marks will be returned on a published timetable, which has been made clear to students at the start of the academic year. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand and critically evaluate how organisations fit into their principal environments.
- Understand and critically evaluate the managerial and business environment within which HR professionals work.
- Critically evaluate how organisational and HR strategies are shaped by and developed in response to internal and external environmental factors.
- Summarise key globalisation and international forces and discuss how they interact with organisational HR strategies and practices.
- Analyse economic, political, demographic/social, legal/regulatory and technological trends in terms of how they interact with organisational and HR strategies and HR practices.
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Reading List
Studying Human Resource Management: A Guide to the Study, Context and Practice of HR Paperback 3 Sept. 2022
Parry, Emma, Michael J. Morley, and Chris Brewster (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Contextual Approaches to Human Resource Management (2021;online edn, Oxford Academic, 14 Apr. 2021), https://doi-org.eux.idm.oclc.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190861162.001.0001 |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Practice: Applied Knowledge, Skills and Understanding
After completing this course, students should be able to:
Work with a variety of organisations, their stakeholders, and the communities they serve - learning from them, and aiding them to achieve responsible, sustainable and enterprising solutions to complex problems.
Knowledge and Understanding
After completing this course, students should be able to:
Demonstrate a thorough knowledge and understanding of contemporary organisational disciplines; comprehend the role of business within the contemporary world; and critically evaluate and synthesise primary and secondary research and sources of evidence in order to make, and present, well informed and transparent organisation-related decisions, which have a positive global impact.
Identify, define and analyse theoretical and applied business and management problems, and develop approaches, informed by an understanding of appropriate quantitative and/or qualitative techniques, to explore and solve them responsibly. |
| Keywords | HRM-HRM in Context |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Susan Murphy
Tel: (01316)51 5548
Email: Susan.Murphy@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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