Human Resource Management - BA (Hons)

This module aims to enable you to build a strong understanding of the legal issues that impact on the “people” aspects of the business within the context of the wider employment relationship. Studying this module will provide you with a deep insight into the practical steps employers need to consider when dealing with employment issues in order to minimise the risk of employment tribunal claims.

In this module, you are given opportunities to develop a deeper understanding of the development of soft skills, necessary for a manager, to prepare you for the for placement activities and for modern working life. During the module, you are given the opportunity to record your competencies using online recruitment platforms.  

Getting the right person in the right role at the right time is a key priority for organisations as they look to recruit and select new staff. Recruiting and selecting employees are usually seen together in practice and academia, however they are really separate HRM activities. You will learn the meaning of the two constructs and explore the two processes underlying them and how they inter-relate.

This module looks at the important contribution that an efficient and effective human resource management capability can add to an organisation. The purpose of this module is to introduce you to human resources (HR) activity and to the role of the HR function in organisations in general terms. It focuses on the aims and objectives of HR departments in contemporary organisations and particularly on the ways that these are evolving. Different ways of delivering HR objectives and emerging developments in the management of the employment relationship are explored, as well as the methods that can be used to demonstrate that the function adds value for organisations. 

There are many similarities between the roles of managers and management consultants.   In fact, managers are often considered to be ‘internal consultants’, as Butler (2010) comments “An effective manager is increasingly an effective consultant”.  

In this module you will explore the role of entrepreneurship and small business management with the view of sustainability. You will investigate and explore how organisations firstly form, then how they begin to evolve and be introduced to the planning required to establish the feasibility of a new venture, firstly with the idea and then how it will operate. You will use the opportunity recognition process to identify potential ideas either as a business start-up, a new venture in an existing business or a social enterprise, and taken forward as a solution to a contemporary issue.

In today’s complex and highly dynamic global business environment, managers are expected to possess and utilise the requisite skills and sound application of knowledge to set and meet goals.  This module takes a practitioner based, blended learning approach towards embedding key management and leadership principles in the global context, as well as intercultural competency and a range of transferable employability skills. Consequently, it provides a progressive conduit for you to gain a broad understanding of global issues affecting managers today as well as preparing you to be global managers of the future. 

Management is no longer seen as emerging from, or directed to a single culture. While much management theorising has for the last century or more emerged from ‘the west’, increasingly theorists and practitioners recognise that what management is, is highly conditioned by the culture within which it is carried out. Equally, management theory is itself recognised as being culturally conditioned.  This gives rise to the interesting issue of how to manage in an increasingly globalising world.   

This module, where a programme of study enables it, is open to Business School students, who choose to undertake an international Study Abroad mobility experience within their second year of study. The aim of this module is to enable you to explore your mobility experience through a cross-cultural lens that focusses on the key themes of your discipline in an international context, together with your personal development. This is achieved by activities that draw on research enquiry, creativity, culture, reflection and professional development.    

This module is designed to provide you with the opportunity to undertake a credit bearing, 40- week Professional Placement as an integral part of your Undergraduate Degree.    The purpose of the Professional Placement is to improve your employability skills which will, through the placement experience, allow you to evidence your professional skills, attitudes and behaviours at the point of entry to the postgraduate job market.  Furthermore, by completing the Professional Placement, you will be able to develop and enhance your understanding of the professional work environment, relevant to your chosen field of study, and reflect critically on your own professional skills development within the workplace. 

This module will to provide you with a broad understanding of how HR professionals work to ensure that once employees are hired they stay in their organisations and do not leave. You will learn that this is a strategic matter for any type of organisation in all sectors and it is closely related with increased performance. Employee turnover and retention is managed not only by HR specialists, but all organisational members, so you will learn how HR professionals facilitate the right actions of everyone who manages people. Retaining employees is an orchestrated concern which begins from the time an employee joins an organisation. You will be introduced to theories of Person-Organisation fit and Job Embeddedness.

This module will provide you with a critical understanding of the concepts, frameworks and approaches for the effective management of strategic change and its leadership. Consideration will also be given to the complexity of business operations, the rapid pace of technological innovation, and globalisation of businesses.You will explore drivers and challenges of strategic change in an organisational context as well as approaches for successful implementation of various change interventions.

This module enables you to build an in-depth understanding of the fundamentals of learning and development within the workplace. Studying this module encourages you to offer critical insight into the practical uses of Learning and Development (L&D) and Human Resource Development (HRD) interventions, specifically coaching, mentoring and reflective practice. The module facilitates the considerations employers need to make when planning, delivering and evaluating coaching and development activities as part of delivering L&D strategy within organisations.

This module will provide you with the foundation and understanding of the function of Performance and Reward Management and its role in promoting organisation competitive advantage. In it, you will examine various performance management systems and total reward approaches in an organisational and international context and, through this examination, you will gain a strong understanding of specific tools and practices.

This module provides a framework with which to undertake a substantial, disciplinary-relevant, research project. This is dependent on the subject you are studying or degree pathway you are pursuing. For example, it may be a study into marketing and public relations, human resource management, accounting and finance, or strategy. The module provides a framework for integrating the principles, tools and methods of your programme, developing your practitioner skills via research methods, analytical tools and techniques. The project requires a high degree of professionalism in time management and managing the supervisory relationship. It is a requirement that the project adheres to the framework of ethical approval applied in the Business School in the year of study.