MG518      Half Unit
Employment Relations and Human Resource Management Seminar

This information is for the 2018/19 session.

Teacher responsible

Prof David Marsden NAB 4.22

Availability

This course is compulsory on the MRes/PhD in Management (Employment Relations and Human Resources). This course is available on the MRes/PhD in Management (Organisational Behaviour). This course is not available as an outside option.

This course is available with permission to students on other tracks of the MRes/PhD in Management where regulations permit.

Course content

The MRes seminar in Employment Relations and HRM draws upon Employment Relations, Human Resource Management and organisational theories to advance an understanding of individual, group and firm behaviour, as well as that of representative organisations of workers and management. The course covers a number of issues at an advanced level, and introduces students to emerging topics in various related topics including employment systems, employee voice, status, trust, social exchange theory, organisational justice, ethics and ethical climate, and corporate social responsibility. The seminar discussions will be led by a combination of faculty at the ER/HR group within LSE and prestigious visiting faculty. Throughout the course, students will be exposed to the methodological issues related to conducting research in up-and-coming areas where the research questions may be less known.

The course also involves attendance of the Employment Relations and Human Resources Group research workshops. This serves to familiarise students with the normal process of presenting and discussing academic papers with experienced faculty, and to integrate them more into the faculty.

The course will spread over the Michaelmas and Lent terms so that students build up a progressive understanding of the research process from the works of established scholars in the field, including both LSE faculty and academic visitors.

Teaching

20 hours of seminars spread across the Michaelmas and Lent terms.

Indicative reading

The seminars will follow a variety of formats, including discussing recent work of academic colleagues, and so include the following indicative reading.

Ashwin, Sarah and Isupova, Olga (2014) “Behind every great man…”: the male marriage wage premium examined qualitatively. Journal of Marriage and Family, 76 (1). pp. 37-55.

Boodoo, Muhammad Umar (2017) Do heavily-unionized companies compensate their CEOs less in periods of financial distress? Evidence from Canadian companies during the financial crisis. ILR Review

Booth, J. E., Budd, J. W., & Munday, K. M. (2010). First-timers and late-bloomers: Youth-adult unionization differences in a cohort of the U.S. labor force. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 64, 53-73.

Donnelly, Eddy and Dunn, Stephen (2007) Policy directions for transforming states: labour relations reform in the new South Africa. South African Journal of Labour Relations, 31 (1). pp. 6-24

Frege, Carola M. and Godard, John (2014) Varieties of capitalism and job quality: the attainment of civic principles at work in the United States and Germany. American Sociological Review, 79 (5). pp. 942-965

Kleiner, Morris and Krueger, Alan B. (2010) The Prevalence and Effects of Occupational Licensing, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol.48:No. 4 December 2010.

Liu, Mingwei and Li, Chunyun (2015) Corporate social responsibility and labor standards in supplier factories: does global value chain structure matter? In: British Journal of Industrial Relations Special Issue Workshop, 23 - 24 April 2015, London, UK

Kuruvilla, Sarosh and Ernesto Noronha. 2016. From Pyramids to Diamonds: Legal process Offshoring and Law labor Markets in the US and India. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol 69, No. 2, pp. 354-378

López-Cotarelo, Juan and Nicolini, D. (2015) Achieving consistency: a practice-based approach to HRM. In: Academy of Management Annual Meeting, 11-13 Nov 2015, Vancouver, Canada.

Marsden, D (2013), Individual Voice in Employment Relationships: A Comparison under Different Forms of Workplace Representation. Industrial Relations, 52: S1. pp. 221-258.

Pepper, Alexander and Gore, Julie (2015) Behavioral agency theory: new foundations for theorizing about executive compensation. Journal of Management, 41 (4). pp. 1045-106

Woodcock, Jamie (2017) Working the phones: control and resistance in call centres. Pluto Press, London, UK.

Assessment

Essay (80%, 4000 words) in the LT.
Other (20%) in the MT and LT.

The other assessment will be based on a compilation of a fortnightly Learning Log designed to build up a systematic reflection on what has been learned from the seminars and faculty workshops.

Key facts

Department: Management

Total students 2017/18: Unavailable

Average class size 2017/18: Unavailable

Value: Half Unit

Guidelines for interpreting course guide information