The title of the course:
International and Comparative Human Resource Management and Employment Relations
This course provides students with an understanding of the cultural and national factors that affect people management issues in organisations that operate across national borders. It also examines the efficacy of different employment policies and practices within the world economy. The course explains the reasons for the development of different forms of employment practices and the extent to which these differences are sustainable
Course Aims
To provide students with an understanding of the various purposes and principles underlying contemporary International and Comparative Human Resource Management and Employment Relations (IHRM and IER). To provide students with an understanding of the scope of contemporary and emerging issues in today’s HRM and ER in a global setting, the impact of the changing HR and ER environment on organisational effectiveness, and the implications for managing people and their work.
To enable students to plan and apply an effective IHRM and IER strategy for today’s contemporary organisation. To enable students to plan the staffing of global organisations, to plan the work of a group of employees to optimise productivity, to manage individual and group work performance, and to establish effective workplace staffing practices.
To provide students with a working knowledge of some contemporary approaches to International IHRM and IER, as opposed to domestic HRM and ER, and how to optimise the management of people in an organisation that exists within an ever-changing environment.
Advice on Structuring your Critical Essay
The following notes are intended to assist you with structuring your critical essay. Essays must have a title and be written in paragraphs without subheadings Avoid use of dot points. The essay structure should comprise an introduction, a body and a conclusion followed by a reference list. For further information see Assessments on the unit site.
• Begin the introduction by briefly describing the topic you have chosen and stating why you consider it important. Next provide a thesis statement. The thesis statement is a short but complete statement of your overall position or line of argument in relation to the topic that you plan to present in the essay. The thesis statement should be brief – just one or two sentences. End the introduction with a brief outline of the structure of the essay, including the key individual points/arguments you plan to make in sequence.
• In the body of the essay allocate one paragraph for each key point/argument, and support the point with one or more academic references. Each key point should be logically linked to your thesis statement and should briefly describe and analyse one key idea or subtopic and present your argument relating to it, based on the evidence you have obtained. The last sentence of each paragraph should lead the reader to the next key point/paragraph so that the essay flows smoothly.
• The conclusion should start with a restatement of the thesis statement. Do not repeat the original thesis statement word for word but restate it using slightly different words. This should be followed by a concise summary of the main points of the essay and what you see as the key implications. End the conclusion with a brief final comment or note of significance- something important you wish the reader to take away having read the essay. If relevant you can also briefly highlight any important outstanding questions or issues that you feel could be usefully addressed by future research. You should not introduce any new information in the conclusion.
Proof read your essay. Remember to check punctuation, spelling and accuracy of citations. A good idea is to get someone else to read it to make sure that sentences make sense and ideas are in a logical order.
Note that the reference list at the end of the essay must be in strict alphabetical order by author surname/family name.
you should choose the two companies and the third country based on the amount of relevant information you can find. You will need to do some exploratory research via the Library and via the Web to determine this. You may modify your initial choice of companies and/or country later if necessary- just let me know if you do.
When searching the available academic and business literature and looking on the Web please note that to be relevant for this assignment the information you find should be about the companies’ operations in the third country, specifically how each company has aligned its ER and HR policies practices to match those of the third country and the extent to which each has imported its own ER and HR ideas and practices. If you cannot find enough information of this type on the two firms you have chosen you can refer to more firms e.g. 3 or more firms from country A and 3 or more from country B. If you do this you should aim to keep the samples as similar as possible i.e. firms from the same country and industry, and firms of roughly the same size.
please note that you can supplement firm-specific information with industry information. For example if you were comparing one or more automobile manufacturers from Germany and one or more from Japan operating in China, then to supplement firm-specific information you could use information on ER and HR practices commonly used in auto firms in Germany and discuss the similarities and differences with ER and HR practices commonly used in auto firms in China
Critical Essay
2500 word argumentative essay on an IER/IHRM topic involving critical comparative analysis of evidence from academic and other literature. See Critical Essay Question below
Critical Essay Question
Choose two major MNEs from the same industry (e.g. supermarkets) with headquarters in different countries that both have well established foreign subsidiaries in a third country for example Tesco (HQ -UK) and 7-Eleven (HQ-USA) in S. Korea.
both must be chosen from the same industry and both must be operating in the same third country.
(1) Analyse the extent to which each company through its foreign host country subsidiaries has:
(a) aligned with the host nation’s culture and institutions and adopted the host nation’s ER and HRM systems
(b) attempted to introduce its own organizational culture and its own ER and HRM systems
(2) Compare and contrast the approaches adopted by the two companies, noting the issues they have faced, how they have dealt with them, and how the approaches they have taken have affected their business operations in the host country.
The two companies I have chosen are:
1. Starbucks (USA)
2. Coffee club (Australia)
MY host country is China
THE ARTICLES THAT COULD OR SHOULD BE USED IN MY ASSIGNMENT :
The most important article to be used:
1.Exporting a north American concept to asia (starbucks in China)
(Jeffrey S. Harrison, Eun-yong Chang, Carina Guthier)
2.Comparing Human Resource Management in China and Vietnam: An Overview
(Malcolm Warner, Judge Business School ,University of Cambridge)
3.CAFÉS/BARS IN CHINA
(EuromonitorInternational,August 2014)
4.A Profile of Human Resource Management in Multinational Enterprises Operating in Australia
(Anthony McDonnell, Helen Russell, GitikaSablok, John Burgess, Pauline Stanton, Timothy Bartram,)
THE REST OF THE articles to be used:
1. Human resource strategies in post-WTO China
2. Strategic human asset management: evidence from North America
3. Institutional theory and MNC subsidiary HRM practices: evidence from a three-country study
4. Human resource management and the performance of Western firms in China
5. Human resource management in foreign-owned subsidiaries: China versus India
6. An integrative framework for understanding cross-national human resource management practices
7. A decade of transformation of HRM in China: A review of literature and suggestions for future studies
8. Devolvement of HR practices in transitional economies: evidence from China
9. International HRM: national business systems, organizational politics and the international division of labour in MNCs
10. Expatriate performance management and firm internationalization: Australian multinationals in China
11. Expatriate performance management and firm internationalization: Australian multinationals in China
12. Human resource management in US subsidiaries in Europe and Australia: centralisation or autonomy?
13. CEO background and the adoption of Western-style human resource practices in China
14. Introducing Western-style HRM practices to China: shopfloor perceptions in a British multinational
15. National embeddedness and calculative human resource management in US subsidiaries in Europe and Australia
16. Human resource management and firm performance in China: a critical review
17. Strategic human resource management and MNEs’ performance in China
18. A study of the impact of Western HRM systems on firm performance in China
19. International human resource management structures and their effect on the Australian subsidiary
20. Multinational enterprises in Australia: two decades of international human resource management research reviewed
21. A review of human resource development trends and practices in Australia: multinationals, locals, and responses to economic turbulence
22. International human resource management: diversity, issues and challenges
23. Cross-cultural training and expatriate adjustment in China: Western joint venture managers
24. Factors affecting international staffing in Chinese multinationals (MNEs)
25. Internationalization and HRM strategies across subsidiaries in multinational corporations from emerging economies: a conceptual framework
26. Career development for host country nationals: a case of American and Japanese multinational companies in Vietnam
27. The effect of individual factors on the transfer of human resource management knowledge in Chinese subsidiaries
28. Management by values: a theoretical proposal for strategic human resource management in China
I need 15 references
The information from Starbucks and Coffee Club’s website could be used.
