Human Resource Management

Taught modules

Compulsory modules

• People Resourcing and Talent Management

  This module will give you an understanding of the principal internal and external environmental contexts of contemporary organisations and how these affect both organisational and HR strategies.  You will engage with leading edge practices for planning and recruiting organisational workforces, including the risks and benefits of using technology, and learn how to create an integrated people plan.

• Employee Engagement, Performance and Reward

  This module will provide you with a critical understanding of how contemporary organisations can elicit employee engagement and performance, and the challenges associated with doing so. It presents theoretical perspectives on the individual and collective employment relationship as the basis by which you can understand the challenges of managing employees – drawing on the key themes of authority, power, and control - and how the levers at management’s disposal, notably, those associated with reward and performance management can be deployed to best effect. The module also explores dysfunction and conflict in the employment relationship from both theoretical and practical standpoints, and the role of the HR professional in managing the relationship between stakeholders.

• Learning, Development and Coaching

  You will gain a critical understanding the contribution that learning and development can make to individuals and organisations, together with practical skills in designing and implementing leading edge Learning & development programmes.  You will develop the critical understanding required to develop a coaching programme in the workplace and to participate in a coaching style of management.

• Employment Law

  It is essential for everyone working in HR to develop knowledge, understanding and skills required to brief organisations on how current and future developments in employment law (British Jurisprudence) impact on HR practices,  and to give up-to-date, timely and accurate advice concerning the practical application of employment law in the workplace.  The module promotes critical reflection on theory and practice from an ethical and professional standpoint, and provides opportunities for applied learning and continuous professional development.

• Understanding Organisations and Managing Change

  This module provides a framework for understanding and analysing organisations with a particular reference to group processes, cultural dynamics, leadership and change. Organisations and the processes of organising are analysed from different theoretical perspectives.  Knowledge and skills are developed to enable students to manage and support change more effectively, ethically and professionally.

• Contemporary Issues and Challenges for HRM

  This module introduces contemporary themes associated with critical management and organisation theory, with the objective of creating an in-depth and critical understanding of some of the challenges posed in work and organisations today. Such challenges include work intensification, increasing inequalities, algorithms, managing ethically, changing patterns of work such as the gig economy, crises and the employment relationship, digital transformations, and alternative organisational forms.

  The module draws on the multiple and often competing perspectives on the study of organisations (e.g. capitalist political economy, diverse economies and post-capitalist work organisation) to explore current debates and reflect on the latest developments and what they mean for HR practitioners and future HRM practice.

• Developing Skills for Business Leadership

  You will investigate a HR management or organisational practice issue using primary and secondary data, justified and supported by detailed reference to relevant theories and concepts from literature. You will make recommendations for implementation and practice. A number of skills workshops throughout the course are designed to develop your thinking and skills and you will be assigned an individual supervisor to support you. One of the key skills for professionals in HR is to be able to investigate, diagnose and report on relevant business issues and make practical recommendations for change or improvement within an organisation. During this module you will be taken through the key areas required to successfully complete the management research report. The applied nature of the report develops a critical evaluative approach, your empirical investigation and analysis skills, and your academic research and business report writing skills.

• Critical investigation skills

  This module provides students with a framework for understanding and researching organisations. Students encounter organisation theory and research methods, learn to deepen their organisational knowledge and develop valuable research skills. The module shows students a range of theoretical perspectives, providing critical awareness of the complexity of organisations & organisational processes.  Students are introduced to the stages of research, (research design, data collection and analysis methods, & research ethics).  Armed with knowledge of organisational theory and research methodologies, students develop a viable research proposal. In semester 2, students take part in a pilot project, which gives hands-on experience of ‘doing’ research. Based on this, students produce a reflective essay designed to inform their own research projects. Sessions on quantitative and qualitative data analysis, the use of computerised analysis packages, and dissertation writing complete the module.