Human Resource Management MA/PG Dip (part-time)

Core modules

Year One

• Developing Skills for Business Leadership – seeks to develop and improve a range of definable skills that are pivotal to successful management practice and effective leadership. These include thinking and decision making skills, the management of financial information, managing budgets, a range of team working and interpersonal skills, and others associated with developing personal effectiveness and credibility at work

• Investigating a Business Issue from an HR Perspective – provides an opportunity to undertake a live consultancy project in order to produce an individual management research report for the client organisation. This module will also encourage individual reflection on personal and professional development during the research process, and will enable the mapping of individual skill acquisition an future development needs

• Leading, Managing and Developing People – introduces the principal issues facing organisations in the 21st century in leading, managing and developing people. This module develops critical skills and competencies relevant to generalist HR practitioners and those wishing to enter the profession. Attention is paid to key features of the internal and external operating environments that influence the manner in which employees are led and developed in organisations
• Employee Resourcing – introduces you to the principal employee resourcing issues facing organisations in the 21st century, and aims to develop critical skills and competencies relevant to resourcing specialists. This module pays attention to the key factors of the external operating shape labour markets and impact employee behaviour and attitudes. It develops knowledge and understanding in managing resourcing practices, following the employee journey from recruitment through to exit

Year Two

• Investigating a Business Issue from an HR Perspective – provides an opportunity to undertake a live consultancy project in order to produce an individual management research report for the client organisation. This module will also encourage individual reflection on personal and professional development during the research process, and will enable the mapping of individual skill acquisition an future development needs

• Employment Relations - The subject of Employment Relations is concerned with the changing nature of work and how the terms and conditions under which people work are determined. Because employers and workers have different interests as buyers and sellers of labour, power is central to the subject. The power of employers and workers to exercise control over the terms and conditions of employment is influenced by a range of factors that operate at various levels - the workplace, the wider organization, and the national and international environment in which employers, managers, workers, trade unions and governments operate. Employment Relations studies how these parties to the employment relationship engage with each other and how this engagement is shaped by wider economic, social, political and cultural/ideological forces. This means that although the module focuses on British institutions and practices, it is of much wider relevance because it provides a theoretical framework for analysing employment relationships in a variety of national contexts with their different institutional arrangements.

• Human Resource Management in Context – enables you to identify, understand and analyse the major internal and external environmental contexts within which HR professionals operate in the private, public and voluntary sectors. It develop insights into the creation and delivery of effective HR strategies, practices and solutions in different national and global organisational contexts
• Human Resource Management in a Legal Context – this module seeks to analyse the role played by legal reputation in the management of human resources. It explores how managers perceive this role and their ability to understand the different consequences of legal developments in varying conditions and situations.

• Research Methods and Dissertation (MA students only) – provides the academic framework and principal approaches to management research and design to equip you to carry out an independent piece of research, leading to the submission of a master’s dissertation. This module consists of two linked elements. The first is a guided programme of study to enable you to understand the key processes involved in identifying a topic for research. The second is designed to help develop awareness of ethical issues in the context of management research

Note: All modules are subject to change in order to keep content current.

Teaching is delivered through formal lectures, informal seminars, tutorials, workshops, discussions and e-learning packages.

This is a part time course with one evening class per week.