LSE Summer School 2004
MG190: Human Resource Management and Employment Relations
Lectures - Prof. David Marsden and Paul Gollan
Classes – Richard Belfield and Niels Wergin
1. Course contents
The course provides a panorama of the key analytical issues in HRM and Employment
Relations, recent theories and controversies, and applies them to cases of current interest.
The focus of the course is international, drawing on the experience of several major OECD
countries including in Western Europe, the US and Japan.
Part 1. HRM strategies and performance
 Human resource management strategy: setting HRM in the wider context of
management strategies and stakeholder interests
 HRM and business and organisational performance
 Organisational core competencies, skills and knowledge management
 The conduct of HRM within different ‘varieties of capitalism’.
Part 2: Employment relations
 Employment relations and the employment contract: the power of individual
bargaining
 Employee participation: from teams to works councils
 Collective bargaining and unions
 Transnational employment relations: the example of the EU
Part 3. Incentives and motivation of employees
 Reward systems, traditional and modern
 Organisational commitment and the ‘psychological contract’
 Motivation and incentives in ‘networked’ organisations
 The impact of societal values on motivation and commitment
Scheduling: Lectures take place in G108. Lectures 1-5 take place in the first week (MonFri), lectures 6-9 in the second week (Mon-Thurs), and lectures 10-12 in the third week
(Mon-Wed). Thursday in week 3 is free for revision, and the exam takes place in Friday
that week. Classes take place in either Z325, Z329, to be announced. David Marsden will
take lectures: 1,2,9,10,11,12, and Paul Gollan: 3,4,5,6,7,8. Richard Belfield will take the
classes for David Marsden’s lectures, and Niels Weregin will take those for Paul Gollan.
Design: The first part of the morning session will be devoted to a formal lecture to
introduce the key analytical tools and to give an overview of the current state of knowledge.
The second part will consist of a presentation of comparative analysis and case study
material, which will then form the basis of the afternoon seminar groups. Each week’s
sessions are designed to progress from general analytical issues towards a more
contextualised understanding in the final lecture of each week.
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Throughout, use will be made of international evidence and international comparisons, and
the case studies will be chosen so as to give a feel for the international diversity of
approaches to HRM and Employment Relations, and guidance as to how to interpret this.
2. Assessment
A 1,000 word essay will be set to be handed in to the class teacher on Wednesday 4 August.
A single essay question will be set relating to the first week’s work.
A two-hour unseen exam will take place on Friday 13 August. It will comprise two
questions, both of which will be done by the students, and they will relate to the second and
third weeks’ work.
3. Lecture materials
Additional lecture materials will be made available on the Outlook public folders, under
Industrial Relations Department/HRM Summer School.
4. Indicative reading (not in the course pack: library references given)
Bamber, G. Lansbury, R., and Wailes N. (eds.) (2004) International and Comparative
Employment Relations, 4th Edition. London: Routledge, [CC HD6961 I61]
Baron J, and Kreps D. (1999) Strategic Human Resources: frameworks for general
managers, New York: Wiley [CC HF5549 B26].
Hall and Soskice (2000) Varieties of capitalism [HB501 V29]
Marsden, D. (1999) A theory of employment systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press
[CC HD5701.5 M36] (OFF PRINT P9319A)
Available online at
http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/economicsfinance/01982942
20/toc.html
Schuler and Jackson (1999) Strategic Human Resource Management. [HF5549 S89]
Boxall, P. and Purcell, J. (2003) Strategy and Human Resource Management, London:
Palgrave Macmillan. [HF5549 B78]
5. Contacts:
David Marsden can be contacted by email on: d.marsden@lse.ac.uk, and the Industrial
Relations Dept Office on l.e.Harrison@lse.ac.uk
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1. Detailed course readings
The course provides a panorama of the key analytical issues in HRM and Employment
Relations, recent theories and controversies, and applies them to cases of current interest.
The focus of the course is international, drawing on the experience of several major OECD
countries including in Western Europe, the US and Japan.
Part 1. HRM strategies and performance
1.1
Human resource management strategy: setting HRM in the wider context of
management strategies and stakeholder interests
Pfeffer, J. (1995): Producing sustainable competitive advantage through the effective
management of people. Academy of Management Executive, 9 (1): 55-72.
Case study: discussion of the Harvard Model and asking students to identify the key
stakeholders in their own countries, and to see whether there are distinct national models.
1.2 HRM and business and organisational performance
Appelbaum E, Bailiey T, Berg P, and Kalleberg A. (2000) Manufacturing advantage: why
high-performance work systems pay off. Chapter 1. Cornell University Press, Ithaca.
HD9725 M29
Boxall, Peter and Purcell, John (2003) Strategy and human resource management. Chapter
1. Human resource management and business performance. Pp. 1-24.
Case study: consideration of different types of high performance work systems.
1.3 Organisational core competencies, skills and knowledge management
Cappelli P. and Crocker-Hefter A. (1996) Distinctive human resources are the core
competencies of firms. Organizational Dynamics, Winter, pp. 7-22. Reprinted in
Schuler R. E. and Jackson S. E. eds. (1999) Strategic human resource management.
Blackwell, Oxford. CC: HF5549 S89
Hansen Morten. T, Nohria, Nitin, and Tierney Thomas. (1999) What’s your strategy for
managing knowledge? Harvard Business Review, 77: 2, March-April, pp. 106-116.
HF5001
Case study: ‘What’s your strategy for managing knowledge?
1.4 The conduct of HRM within different ‘varieties of capitalism’.
Dore, R., Lazonick, W., and O'Sullivan, M. (1999) ‘Varieties of capitalism in the twentieth
century’, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 15, 4, Winter: 102-120
Hancké R. (1999) Varieties of capitalism revisited: globalisation and comparative
institutional advantage, La Lettre de la Régulation, No 30, Sept. pp. 1-4. Paris. This
article summarises.
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Case study: HR policies of German and Japanese firms operation in the UK.
Part 2: Employment relations
1.5
Employment relations and the employment contract: the power of individual
bargaining
Bamber, G. Lansbury, R., and Wailes N. (eds.) (2004) International and Comparative
Employment Relations, 4th Edition. London: Routledge, chapter 1 (‘Introduction’).
[CC HD6961 I61]
Freeman, R. and Medoff, J. (1984) What Do Unions Do?, New York: Basic Books, Ch1.
Kessler, I., Purcell, J. and Coyle-Shapiro, J. (2000), ‘New forms of employment relations in
the public services: the limits of strategic choice’, Industrial Relations Journal,
Vol.31, No.1, pp17-34.
Case study: New forms of employment relations in the public services
1.6 Employee participation: from teams to works councils
Levine D. I, and D'Andrea Tyson L. (1990) Participation, productivity, and the firm's
environment. In Blinder A. S. ed. Paying for productivity, Brookings Institution,
Washington DC.. pp. 183-244.
Rogers, Joel and Streeck, Wolfgang. (1994) Workplace representation overseas: the works
council story. Ch. 4, pp. 97-156, in Freeman, Richard B. ed. (1994) Working under
different rules. NBER, Russell Sage Foundation, New York.
Gollan, P.J. (2004), ‘A live case – Employer strategies and outcomes of employee voice at
Eurotunnel revisited’. Presented at the 16th annual Meeting of the Society of the
Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE), George Washington University,
Washington D.C., July 8-11.
Case study: Eurotunnel
1.7 Collective bargaining and unions
Metcalf, D., Hansen, K. and Charlwood, A. (2001) ‘Unions and the sword of justice: unions
and pay systems, pay inequality, pay discrimination and low pay’, National Institute
of Economic Review, No. 176, April, 61-75.
Gollan, P.J. (2002) ‘So what’s the news? Management strategies towards non-union
employee representation at News International’, Industrial Relations Journal,
Vol.33, No.4 (Sept), pp.316-331.
Case study: News International
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1.8 Transnational employment relations: the example of the EU
Marginson, P. and Sisson, K. (2002), ‘European dimensions to collective bargaining: new
symmetries within an a symmetric process’, Industrial Relations Journal, Vol.33,
No.4. (Sept), pp.332-350.
Scharpf, FW (2002) ‘The European Social Model’, Journal of Common Market Studies 40,
4: 645-70.
Case study: European dimensions of employment relations
Part 3. Incentives and motivation of employees
1.9 Reward systems, traditional and modern
Baron J, and Kreps D. (1999) Ch 11. pay for performance, pp. 243-283, in Baron and Kreps
(1999) Strategic Human Resources: frameworks for general managers, Wiley, New
York.
Fernie S, and Metcalf D. (1999) It's not what you pay it's the way that you pay it and that's
what gets results: Jockeys' pay and performance. Labour, 13: 2, pp. 385-411.
Case study: ‘Safelite’ introduction of performance pay compared with other approaches.
1.10 Organisational commitment and the ‘psychological contract’
Guest, D. E. (1998): Is the psychological contract worth taking seriously? Journal of
Organizational Behavior, 19 (Special Issue): 649-664. {MC: HD6951 557220-1001
or EL: Wiley Interscience}
Rousseau, D. M. (2001): Schema, promise and mutuality: The building blocks of the
psychological contract.. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology.
74: 4, pp. 511-42.
Case study: ‘Old’ and ‘New’ psychological contracts.
1.11 Motivation and incentives in ‘networked’ organisations
Haunschild, Axel (2003) Managing employment relationships in flexible labour markets:
the case of German repertory theatres. Human Relations, 56: 8, August, pp. 899929.
Saxenian A. (1996) Beyond boundaries: open labor markets and learning in Silicon Valley.
Ch. 2, pp. 23-39 in Arthur M, and Rousseau D. ed. The boundaryless career.
Oxford University Press, New York.
Case study: Media or IT sector case.
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1.12 The impact of societal values on motivation and commitment
Hofstede G. (1985) The interaction between national and organisational value systems,
Journal of Management Studies, 22: 4, pp. 347-357. (summarises Hofstede’s four
cultural dimensions). HD28
Lam, Alice (1997) Embedded Firms, Embedded Knowledge: Problems of Collaboration
and Knowledge Transfer in Global Cooperative Ventures. Organisation Studies,
18:6, pp. 973-996.
Case study: ICL/Fujitsu collaboration.
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