Jeffrey Thomas

This course is available on the BSc in Management. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

Students must have completed Organisational Behaviour and Leadership (MG105) or equivalent.

This course is designed to provide insights into Human Resource Management, especially in a way that appeals to students of management who are quite international in their orientation. After setting the global scene of labour markets, Human Resources and organisational change in the twenty-first century, it then proceeds to look at the management of people in different national contexts. The focus then shifts down to the employment relationship – why firms hire workers and how they strategically manage them. Once workers are hired as employees, we begin to explore how the latter might be motivated and rewarded, and how the design of policies varies across organisations of different types. To help us with this, we usefully draw on key ideas and models from the field of organisational studies that are also a prelude to thinking through the implications for HRM in environments where innovation and technology are prone to rapid change. This then allows us to gain an overview of the potential contribution that HRM can make to the dynamic capabilities of firms generally. 

Topic outline

1. The global context of human resources in C21: migration, offshoring, supply chains and MNCs

2. The macro-context (enterprise governance, employer networks, skill and training, and employment relations

3. Stakeholders in firms and employee management (Corporate Social Responsibility and HR)

4. Cross-cultural management of employees: the complexities and opportunities

5. Firm strategy and international HR alignment

6. Identification of talent gap and solutions (expatriation and repatriation)

7. Global Talent Management (selection, training and development, performance appraisal and management, compensation)

8. Motivation and incentives (theories from Economics and Psychology)

9. Innovation, dynamic capabilities of firms and HRM – HR policies to promote diffusion of knowledge within a company

10. Managing HR in cross-border alliances, in particular international Mergers and Acquisitions and Joint Ventures

15 hours of lectures and 13 hours and 30 minutes of classes in the MT. 1 hour and 30 minutes of lectures and 1 hour and 30 minutes of classes in the ST.

Students on this course will have a reading week in Week 6, in line with departmental policy.

A formative assignment will be set consisting of one mock exam question. The purpose of the mock exam is to provide - as realistically as possible - a practise session for the final exam.

Stahl, G. K., Björkman, I. S., Farndale, E., Morris, S., Paauwe, J., Stiles, P., Trevor, J., & Wright, P. (2011). Six principles of effective global talent management. MIT Sloan Management Review, 53(2), 25-32.

Locke, R. M., & Romis, M. (2007). Improving work conditions in a global supply chain. MIT Sloan Management Review, 48(2), 54-62.

Tarique, I., Briscoe, D., and Schuler, R. (2016).   International human resource management: Policies and practices for multinational enterprises (5th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Harzing, A.-W., and Pinnington, A. H. (2015).  International Human Resource Management (4th ed.).  London: Sage Publications.

Deresky, H. (2017).  International Management: Managing Across Borders and Cultures: Text and Cases (9th ed.).  London: Pearson.

Caligiuri, P. M. (2006).  Chapter 9 Performance management in a cross-national context.  In Bennett, W., Jr., Lance, C., & Woehr, D. (Eds.). Performance measurement: Current perspectives and future challenges. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Brown, M. P., Sturman, M. C., and Simmering, M. J. (2003).  Compensation Policy and Organizational Performance: the Efficiency, Operational, and Financial Implications of Pay Levels and Pay Structure.  The Academy of Management Journal, 46, 752-762.

Giangreco, A., Sebastiano, A., and Peccei, R. (2009).  Trainees’ reactions to training: an analysis of the factors affecting overall satisfaction with training.  The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 20(1), 96-111.

The course also draws on additional articles from a variety of international journals in the field e.g. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Harvard Business Review. Student will also analyse multiple cases from Insead and Harvard Business Publishing.

Exam (60%, duration: 2 hours) in the main exam period.
Project (40%) in the MT.

The summative coursework will be a group project. Students will have the opportunity to form their own project groups within their allocated class, but the course teaching team will retain the right to make changes to group membership where necessary.

To view the course guide video, please click the following link: http://richmedia.lse.ac.uk/management/20160606_UGcourse_MG214.mp4