Jeffrey Thomas

This course is available on the BSc in Management, International Exchange (1 Term) and International Exchange (Full Year). This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

This course is not capped, any student that requests a place will be given one.

Students must have completed Organisational Behaviour and Leadership (MG105) or equivalent.

This course is designed to provide insights into Human Resource Management, especially in a way that appeals to students of management who are quite international in their orientation. After setting the global scene of labour markets, Human Resources and organisational change in the twenty-first century, it then proceeds to look at the management of people in different national contexts. The focus then shifts down to the employment relationship – why firms hire workers and how they strategically manage them. Once workers are hired as employees, we begin to explore how the latter might be motivated and rewarded, and how the design of policies varies across organisations of different types. To help us with this, we usefully draw on key ideas and models from the field of organisational studies that are also a prelude to thinking through the implications for HRM in environments where innovation and technology are prone to rapid change. This then allows us to gain an overview of the potential contribution that HRM can make to the dynamic capabilities of firms generally.

Topic outline

1. Motivation and incentives (theories from Economics and Psychology)

2. The macro-context (enterprise governance, employer networks, skill and training, and employment relations

3. Stakeholders in firms and employee management (Corporate Social Responsibility and HR)

4. Cross-cultural management of employees: the complexities and opportunities

5. Firm strategy and international HR alignment

6. Identification of talent gap and solutions (expatriation and repatriation)

7. Global Talent Management (selection, training and development, performance appraisal and management, compensation)

8.. Managing HR in cross-border alliances, in particular international Mergers and Acquisitions and Joint Ventures

9. Negotiations in relation to human resource management

Teaching hours in the MT will be commensurate with a usual half unit undergraduate course but note that teaching may take a different format and/or structure in 2021/22.

Students on this course will have a reading week in Week 6, in line with departmental policy.

The formative assessment will help students to prepare for the summative assessment.

Caligiuri, P. M. (2006). Chapter 9 Performance management in a cross-national context. In Bennett, W., Jr., Lance, C., & Woehr, D. (Eds.). Performance measurement: Current perspectives and future challenges. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Cappelli, P. (2015). Why We Hate HR and What HR Can Do About It. Harvard Business Review, July – August.

Giangreco, A., Sebastiano, A., & Peccei, R. (2009). Trainees’ reactions to training: an analysis of the factors affecting overall satisfaction with training. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 20(1), 96-111.

Randall S Schuler, Ibraiz Tarique, Susan E Jackson (2004), Managing Human Resources in Cross-Border Alliances, in (ed.) 3 (Advances in Mergers & Acquisitions, Volume 3), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.103-129.

Briscoe, D., Schuler, Randall S, & Tarique, Ibraiz. (2016). Chapter 6 International Employment Law, Labor Standards, and Ethics. In (Eds.) International human resource management: Policies and practices for multinational enterprises (5th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Brown, M. P., Sturnam, M. C., & Simmering, M. J. (2003). Compensation Policy and Organizational Performance: The Efficiency, Operational, and Financial Implications of Pay Levels and Pay Structure. The Academy of Management Journal, 46, 752-762.

Lewicki, R.J., Barry, B. and Saunders, D.M.2010. Negotiation. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Chapter 1 –The Nature of Negotiation, pp. 1-31.

The course also draws on additional articles from a variety of international journals in the field e.g. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Harvard Business Review. Students will also analyse multiple cases from Insead and Harvard Business Publishing.

Project (20%), presentation (20%) and class participation (10%) in the MT.
Essay (50%) in the LT.

The project (20%) and presentation (20%) will be group work. Students will have the opportunity to form their own project groups within their allocated class, but the course teaching team will retain the right to make changes to group membership where necessary. Peer review will be conducted and will provide context for the marker of the group projects, while allowing students to develop the skills of peer review.

The essay (50%) will be a "multi-media" essay. It requires a written text essay, complimented by another form of media: either a  video, or an audio interview, or a graphic - illustrating the effects of HR theory and research on the practice of each students' target job after graduation. 

The class participation grade (10%) will be assessed upon the quality of the student’s contribution to class discussions.

Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.