1. Employer and employee expectations; Unitarism, pluralism and radical theories; Legal, economic and psychological contract perspectives; Power, authority and managerial legitimacy; Voluntarism; Regulation; Beneficial constraints; Justice and fairness; Structural contradictions and structured antagonism; Cooperation and compliance; Indeterminacy; The contested nature of work; Good employment relations.
2. The impact of organisational and external factors, including workforce diversity, ownership, size, technology, fragmented organisational hierarchies, globalisation and international and political developments; Labour and product markets; Liberal-market economic influences; Coordinated market influences; The European Union.
3. Management and managerial functions of corporate governance; Management styles and ideologies; Union and non-union management strategies; Employer groups and associations (at national and European levels); Trade unions and other collective employee associations (at national and European levels); Models of union growth and decline; Strategies for union organising and union servicing; Impact of the parties on employment relations climates.
4. Natural justice; Differences between discipline and grievance; The contents of discipline and grievance policies; Factors that influence effective discipline and grievance handling; Legal aspects of discipline and grievance to mitigate organisational risk; Dismissal and redundancy policies; Legal aspects of dismissal and redundancy to mitigate organisational risk; Collective redundancy consultation.
5. Employee voice, including communication, involvement and participation (formal and informal) and Collective bargaining; Negotiation and persuasion skills; Pay determination; Incentive, individual and collective pay systems; Employee engagement (informal and formal.
6. Interconnections between employment relations processes; Impact of employment relations processes on organisational climate, performance and employee engagement; Implementation plans for the effective integration of employment relations processes to improve organisational effectiveness.

1. Understand, analyse and critically evaluate different theories and perspectives on employment relations
Application
Communication

2. Understand, analyse and critically evaluate the impact of local, national and global contexts shaping employment relations climates
Problem Solving

3. Understand, analyse and critically evaluate the roles and functions of the different parties to control and manage the employment relationship
Knowledge & Understanding

4. Understand, analyse and critically evaluate the importance of employment relations processes that support organisational performance, including the design and implementation of policies and practices in the areas of employee engagement; diversity management; employee communication, involvement and participation negotiation and bargaining; conflict resolution; and change management and management control.
Communication

5. Understand, analyse and critically evaluate the importance of employment relations procedure that help mitigate organisational risk, including the design and implementation of policies and practices in the areas of discipline, grievance, dismissal and redundancy.
Analysis
Enquiry

6. Understand, analyse and critically evaluate the integration of employment relations processes and how they impact on policy, practice and organisational outcomes such as performance and employee engagement
Analysis
Enquiry

Journals
British Journal of Industrial Relations
Employee Relations
Industrial Relations Journal
European Journal of Industrial Relations
Work, Employment and Society
International Journal of Human Resource Management

Useful websites
http://www.bis.gov.uk/whatwedo/employment/index.html http://www.tuc.org.uk http://www.cbi.org.uk http://www.equalities.gov.uk http://www.equalityhumanrights.com http://www.eurofound.europa.eu
http://acas.org.uk
http://etuc.org
http://berr.gov.uk

FOR CIPD STUDENTS

Ackers, P., and Wilkinson, A. (2003) (Eds), Underestimating Work and Employment, Oxford University Press.

Bamber G., Lansbury R., and Wailes, N. (Eds) (2004). International and Comparative Industrial Relations, 4th ed, Allen and Unwin: London.

Colling, T. & Terry, M. (2010), Industrial Relations: Theory and Practice, Chichester, Wiley & sons.

Dibden, P., Klerck, G., and Wood, G. (2011), Employment Relations: A critical and international approach, London: CIPD.

Dundon, T., and Rollinson, D. (2004), Employment Relations in Non-Union Firms, Routledge: London.

Edwards, P. (2003) (Ed.) Industrial Relations: Theory and Practice, 2nd ed. Blackwell: Oxford.

Gennard, J., and Judge, G. (2010) Managing Employee Relations, 5th ed. CIPD Publishing: London.

Johnstone, S. and Ackers, P. (2015), Finding a voice at work: New perspectives on employment relations, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dundon, T. & Wilkinson, A. (2009), Employee Participation, in Redman & Wilkinson, Contemporary Human Resource Management: Text and Cases, Harlow Pearson.
Van Wanrooy, B., Bewley, H. Bryson, A., Forth, F., Freeth, S., Stokes, L., and Wood,S., (2011), The 2011 Workplace Employee Relations Study: First Findings.

The learning strategy for this module is based around students committing a total of 150 hours of activities towards achieving the learning outcomes. These will be split between 39 hours of direct contact with a tutor and 111 hours of directed, guided and self-study, together with preparation for and completion of the assessment tasks. Learning support material will be provided for the module.
The module will draw upon a mixture of activities including lectures, web-based activities, case study analysis, relevant videos and in-class discussions, individual and group problem solving and self-directed learning.

A ‘briefing guide’ for negotiators, of 1,000 words (weighted at 40%). (LO 1,3 & 6)
A 2,000 word Assignment (60%) (LO 2, 4, 5 & 6)