Contemporary Issues and debates in Human Resource Management

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

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

• the global workforce and related challenges facing HR practitioners.
• changing notions of career and career development, with an emphasis on boundaryless careers and career self-management;
• differences between a range of theoretical perspectives suitable to analyse and review “theories in use”, taken for granted assumptions and approaches to HRM in contemporary organisations;
• corporate social responsibility (CSR) and HRM implications, including ethical and responsible leadership;
• principles and main challenges of diversity management, and implications for policy makers and HR specialists;

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• manage or professionally influence management of human resources in organisations of different size, scope and ownership structure;
• evaluate the relative strengths and weaknesses of HR function in terms of diversity management in contemporary work organizations;
• plan for and organise recruitment, selection, appraisal, training and career development of employees, taking into account the contemporary issues of diversity, career management, and ethical and responsible leadership;
• develop and maintain up-to-date knowledge of contemporary themes and issues associated with HRM, with their implications at strategic, policy and operational levels;
• operate with appropriate sensitivity and responsiveness in managing global workforce and changing needs of employees in terms of work-life balance and flexible work arrangements.

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• recognise the limitations of contemporary organisations in managing challenges involved in diversity management, ethical and responsible leadership and how to tackle those limitations;
• develop your personal skills including, academic and reflective writing, reflective and problem based learning skills, and knowledge sharing.
• develop effective HRM policies and practices with appropriate sensitivity and responsiveness to diversity management, pursuit of CSR as a part of the HR function in addition other strategic areas of organisational management;
• work in, and contribute effectively to, contemporary organisations in terms of awareness of contemporary issues involved in HRM;
• develop in-depth and critical evaluation skills using multiple and competing perspectives in constructing written and oral arguments;

Setting the context

Theoretical approaches for critical thinking – what are organisations?

HRM in the Contemporary workplace

Contemporary Career Perspectives

Flexibility and the Flexible firm

The future of work & HRM: The Gig economy

Diversity at the Workplace

Crisis Management: The Role of HRM

Workplace ethics & Sustainable HRM

Work-life balance (WLB) & the Future of Work

Teaching methods include:

Lectures, case studies, directed reading, small and large group discussion, debating, learning tasks and mini- presentations during lectures, and practitioner involvement.

Learning activities include:

• Critical understanding of key issues and debates in the field
• Directed reading
• Individual reflexive report

Formative

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

Assessment

• Assessment Type: Formative
• Feedback: You will be given feedback throughout the module within lectures after case study assignments and discussions on each topic within your action learning sets which will be based on your individual learning styles.
• 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.