HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT BEM2021

business school

Department of

Management

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

BEM2021

TutorTeam

Stephen Taylor

Graham Perkins

Sian Robinson

Amir Mehralian

Francesca Andreescu

Rossana Guttilla

The School reserves the right to change or revise the programme if necessary

Module level: 2 Credit value: 15 ECTS value: 7.5

Module co-ordinator: Stephen Taylor

Tutor e-mails: F.Andreescu@exeter.ac.uk

r.guttilla2@exeter.ac.uk

g.mehralian@exeter.ac.uk

g.perkins@exeter.ac.uk

s.robinson6@exeter.ac.uk

stephen.taylor@exeter.ac.uk

Introduction

This module provides a practical and critical introduction to the major HRM activities carried out in organisations both by human resource management specialists and by line managers. We will be introducing you to some key contemporary topics and debates in HRM, while also giving consideration to the ways in which this area of work is likely to evolve in the future. While our focus will be on practice in the UK, we will also give consideration to some of the ways in which it differs from country to country and to the ongoing impact of globalisation on HRM activities.

Aims:

• To introduce you to the context, theory and practice of human resource management

• To develop a critical orientation toward the subject matter and an awareness of the complexity of managing people.

Intended learning outcomes

On completion of the module, students should be able to:

1. understand the theoretical underpinnings of HRM

2. apply HR theories to HR practice with sensitivity to context

3. actively engage with debates of aspects of HR practice

4. critically analyse HRM rhetoric

5. produce appropriate theoretical and practical solutions to organisational problems

6. demonstrate the ability to critically evaluate concepts, theories and techniques

7. develop effective arguments

8. think analytically

9. apply reason and justification within discussion

10. demonstrate the ability to work independently and be self- motivated

11. present a persuasive argument

12. demonstrate effective independent study

ELE

You will find extensive material on the BEM2021 ELE pages which contain all the core information you will need with examples, short exercises and activities, as well as recommended reading. A great deal more material is provided here than we will be able to cover in our timetabled sessions, so please make full use of it when preparing your assignments and exam answers. Wherever possible this content will be made available on the Friday before the relevant week. Please contact the tutor team if you have any questions regarding this material or would like to discuss it in more detail.

Our lecture sessions this term will take place on Thursdays at 4.30 in Harrison 004 and on Fridays at 10.30 in the Alumni Auditorium Lecture Theatre in the Forum Building. You only need to attend one of these as the second is a repeat of the first.

The topic areas we will be covering are as follows:

1) January 16th /17th Introduction to HRM (ST)

2) January 23rd / 24th Employee resourcing (ST)

3) January 30th / 31st Reward management (ST)

4) February 6th / 7th Employment law (ST)

5) February 13th /14th Employment relations (SR)

There will be no taught sessions in Week 6

6) February 20th / 21st HR Development (GP)

7) February 27th / 28th International HRM (GP)

8) March 6th / 7th Performance management (GP)

9) March 13th /14th Equality & Diversity (SR)

10) March 20th / 21st The HRM contribution (GP)

11) March 27th /28th Revision session (GP, SR & ST)

Seminars

You will have been allocated to one of our seminar sessions that will be running at different times during the week, starting in Week 3. You will see from your individual timetable which seminar group you have been allocated to. In these sessions we will be discussing a significant contemporary issue or challenge in HRM which builds on and supplements the material covered in a previous week's lecture session. There are six seminar sessions. All timetable queries should be directed to the SID team at:www.exeter.ac.uk/students/sid/

The seminar schedule is as follows:

Week 3 Skills shortages

Week 4 AI in recruitment and selection

Week 5 Executive pay

Week 7 Protected characteristics

Week 8 Monitoring and surveillance

Week 9 Greening HRM

Seminars are scheduled to take place as follows:

TimeTutor

Tuesday 8.30 Sian

Tuesday 9.30 Sian

Tuesday 10.30 Francesca

Tuesday 2.30 Francesca

Wednesday 8.30 Stephen

Wednesday 12.30 Stephen

Thursday 8.30 Amir

Thursday 1.30 Sian

Friday 12.30 (1) Amir

Friday 12.30 (2) Rossana

Friday 1.30 Rossana

Friday 2.30 (1) Amir

Friday 2.30 (2) Rossana

Friday 4.30 (1) Amir

Friday 4.30 (2) Rossana

Recommended Reading

Additional reading about specific topics will be recommended during the lectures. The following list comprises books about HRM in general which we recommend:

Torrington, D., Taylor, S., Hall, L. and Atkinson, C. (2025)Human Resource Management.Twelfth Edition.Pearson.

Marchington M Wilkinson A, Donnelly R and Kynighou A. (2020)Human Resource Management at Work: People Management and Development. Seventh Edition. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Wilkinson, A. Redman, T & Dundon T (2021)Contemporary Human Resource Management: Text and Cases. Sixth Edition. Pearson.

Gold J, Bratton J & Steele L (2022) Human Resource Management: A Critical Approach. Seventh Edition. Bloomsbury.

Wilton, N. (2022)An Introduction to Human Resource Management. Fifth Edition. Sage.

Useful journals include:

Academy of Management Journal

Academy of Management Review

British Journal of Industrial Relations

Employee Relations

Harvard Business Review

Human Resource Management Journal

Human Resource Planning

Journal of General Management

Journal of Management Development

Journal of Management Studies

Personnel Review

People Management

Module Assessment

The module is partly assessed by an examination which contributes 50% of your marks. The exam will consist of eight questions from which you must attempt three. These will all be based on material we have covered in our lecture and seminar sessions.

Marks will be awarded according to how far you write full, direct, original and well-informed answers to the questions we have asked, and the extent to which your work is appropriately referenced and professionally presented.

• A full answer addresses all parts of each question, providing a substantial and considered response in each case.

• A direct answer provides an unequivocal response to the question we have asked, focusing wholly on points that are relevant.

• An original answer contains an argument (or arguments) that has been developed and justified by you after thinking and reading about the subject.

• A well-informed answer contains strong evidence that you have read widely and appropriately when preparing your response to the question, including where possible robust, research findings that have been published in peer reviewed journals.

• An appropriately referenced answer attributes the sources of literature you have used when preparing it, citing points and quotations in the text using the APA system.

• A professionally presented answer is clearly expressed using well- constructed sentences and paragraphs, has a clear structure and is grammatically accurate.

Blog assignment

The remaining 50% of your marks will be awarded for your assignment. This is due for submission at the latest on Monday 24th March.

Your task is to write a blog consisting of three separate articles and a total word count of 1500 - 2000 words (+/- 10% excluding references).

You are free to write about any topics from across the field of HRM that you find to be interesting and worth exploring. The purpose is for you to explain what you have learned on the module and to reflect thoughtfully and critically on your studies. We want you to set out your own ideas and arguments and to justify these as persuasively as you can.

We expect that you will draw upon the lectures, seminars and, most of all, your own wider reading. Please draw on authoritative references, examples and statistics when developing and justifying your arguments.

Importantly, this is not an exercise in describing what has been discussed in the lectures, but instead your critical analysis and reflection of your learning about HRM from a good range of sources.

You can use both text and images to convey your learning and thinking about the subjects you write about. The best blogs will draw-upon unique examples (i.e. not ones provided in the lecture) and will demonstrate both depth and breadth of knowledge pertaining to the themes discussed on the module.

We would strongly advise you to work on your blog articles as you are studying and not to compile it all retrospectively at the end of the course.

Assessment Criteria:

• Topic choice three distinct subject areas from the field of HRM are discussed effectively

• Research - shows understanding of contemporary human resource management thinking, practice and debates gained from studying the subjects;

• Persuasiveness - demonstrates a capacity to develop and justify original ideas and perspectives; includes a range of original arguments and examples in insightful ways;

• Presentation - is well written and professionally presented throughout; written for its intended audience

• Referencing demonstrates broad, thoughtful reading from both academic and practitioner sources; appropriate referencing is used following the APA style.

Purpose:

Our main purpose in setting this assignment is to provide you with the opportunity to develop your knowledge and understanding of HRM in the areas which you find most interesting and which you consider will be most useful to you as you apply for jobs and start your career.

We were also keen to devise an assignment brief which allows you to start working early on in the term and even potentially to complete well before other assignment deadlines build up.

Finally, given that this module is also assessed via quite a traditional, academically oriented end-of-term examination, our aim is to provide you with some variety.

In previous years the feedback from students about this assignment has been very positive. Hence our decision to set it again in 2024.

Students must include the following checklist when submitting piece of summative assessment. This checklist will be provided in advance, and students must paste this into their work as a cover page, completing it prior to submission on ELE.

AI usage:

Within the Business School we support the responsible and ethical use of GenAI tools, and we seek to develop your ability to use these tools to help you study and learn. An important part of this process is being transparent about how you have used GenAI tools during the preparation of your assignments.

The below declaration is intended to guide transparency in the use of GenAI tools, and to assist you in ensuring appropriate referencing of those tools within your work.

The following GenAI tools have been used in the production of this work: [please specify]

• I have used GenAI tools for brainstorming ideas

• I have used GenAI tools to assist with research or gathering information

• I have used GenAI tools to help me understand key theories and concepts

• I have used GenAI tools to identify trends and themes as part of my data analysis

• I have used GenAI tools to suggest a plan or structure of my assessment

• I have used AI tools to give me feedback on a draft

• I have used GenAI tool to generate images, figures or diagrams

• I have used AI tools to proofread and correct grammar or spelling errors
• I have used AI tools to generate citations or references

• Other [please specify]

I declare that I have referenced use of GenAI tools and outputs within my assessment in line with the University referencing guidelines.

If you have not used any generative AI when writing your assignment, please just insert a blank form at the start of your assignment so that the markers can take that into account.

Advice and some FAQs:

Because the brief, by its nature, is somewhat less structured than most, inviting you to demonstrate that you are developing the capacity to thrive as an independent learner, module staff have invited you to discuss your initial thoughts with us during our advertised office hours.

During these sessions a number of questions are regularly asked, so we thought it might be helpful to set out our advice on these as follows:

Q) Can I really write about any HR-related topics at all?

A) This is the whole point. Most people get some initial idea from attendance at our lectures and seminars, but we would actively encourage you to read more widely and to write about the subjects that you find most interesting. The only restriction is that the subject must be focused in the field of HRM. So it must relate directly to workplaces, employment relationships, labour markets or to relevant regulations / theories / debates.

Q) Do the blogs need to be of equal length?

A) No, but it is probably wise if you wish to maximise your mark for you to ensure that you do full justice to each subject you write about.

Q) Do the blogs / can the blogs be written in an informal style?

A) We would prefer you to write a good, professional standard of English and to avoid slang. It is a blog article, not a tabloid newspaper article we are asking you to write. That said, we would like you to aim these at a general readership rather than an exclusively academic one. So we have no difficulty at all with you writing in the first person or drawing on personal experience / observations when writing your blogs.

Q) Can I write more than 2000 words?

A) The normal +/- 10% rule that applies across the Business School applies here too. Lists of references can be excluded from the final count, but not in-text citations.

Q) How many references should I include?

A) This is always difficult to answer because ultimately it is the quality of the referencing and the way you use your reading to justify arguments that matters much more than the In this respect this assignment is no different from any other of 2000 words or so. As a broad guide we would suggest that around 20 references across all three blogs would be appropriate. A good balance between academic, professional and journalistic sources is something to aim for.

Q) Do I have to write critically?

A) We would advise you to write analytically and critically. This means avoiding passages which are essentially descriptive in nature or do little more than summarise what you have read. To score high marks as you will see from the guidance set out above we are looking for you to develop and justify original arguments. We want to know what you think about the big HR debates of our time and why you have reached these In short, we want to see evidence that as your second year proceeds you are developing intellectual confidence.

Q) Should I format my final submission like a blog?

A) As a general rule we are more concerned about the substance of your argument than the style in which you present it. So there is no need to include any special features. That said, if you would like to include pictures, sub-headings, clip-art or interesting fonts etc we have no Provided these do not obscure the meaning of your arguments they can sometimes add some value.

Q) I still have doubts about my ability to score well in this assignment / I am still confused about what you want me to do?

A) Please come and see us. We are very happy to give you advice and to talk about your concerns. We would just ask that you do not leave it too late as with the best will in the world we simply do not have the time available to see dozens of students in the few days leading up to the submission

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