Sustaining the Employment Relationship PG (11417.2)

The aim of this unit is to introduce students to 'better practice' research on the employment relationship. The unit focuses on a small number of key contemporary issues relating to the challenges of creating and sustaining a positive employment relationship and a healthy and safe work environment. The unit examines the theory and practice of how an organisation's performance may be influenced by the relationship with the workforce, unions and other stakeholders. The unit also examines in detail four specific contemporary issues areas such as the challenges presented by sustainable human resource management, precarious employment, the dynamics of employee voice and flexible working arrangements.

Learning outcomes

After successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
1. Critically analyse a complex body of theoretical knowledge relating to the challenges managers fact in sustaining the employment relationship in a variety of organisational contexts including developments in this field of study;
2. Evaluate and apply dimensions of the competencies and behaviours to the role of a HR professional or senior manager that enable organisations to sustain a positive relationship with the workforce and other relevant stakeholders;
3. Reflect critically on relevant theory and the characteristics of effective practice for sustaining a positive workforce relationship and identify how this relates to employee wellbeing and effective individual performance life;
4. Assess elements of sound ethical principles and critique the use of basic HR metrics in evidence-based decision-making associated with sustaining a positive employment relationship with the workforce;
5. Critically review a complex body of knowledge including recent developments in relation to factors driving organisational change, changes in the future of work and the workforce that have implications for workforce management;
6. Integrate industry research on sustaining a positive employment relationship with the workforce in selected organisational contexts that enhances employee wellbeing and job performance;
7. Select and apply high level cognitive, technical and creative skills in communicating the results of research and analysis of organisational HRM capability in a dynamic business context; and
8. Demonstrate a high level of personal autonomy and accountability.

Graduate attributes

1. UC graduates are professional - employ up-to-date and relevant knowledge and skills
1. UC graduates are professional - communicate effectively
1. UC graduates are professional - use creativity, critical thinking, analysis and research skills to solve theoretical and real-world problems
1. UC graduates are professional - take pride in their professional and personal integrity
3. UC graduates are lifelong learners - adapt to complexity, ambiguity and change by being flexible and keen to engage with new ideas
3. UC graduates are lifelong learners - be self-aware
3. UC graduates are lifelong learners - reflect on their own practice, updating and adapting their knowledge and skills for continual professional and academic development
4. UC graduates are able to demonstrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing - apply their knowledge to working with Indigenous Australians in socially just ways

Prerequisites

None.

Corequisites

None.

Assumed knowledge

None.