Managing Workplace Relations

Overview

This unit considers the legislative/structural, ideological, ethical, political and practical issues for human resource management in Australian and global contexts. It analyses implications and explores resolutions to manage workforces in an Industrial Relations context.

Unit learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

1. Identify and analyse the key elements of various pieces of legislation related to work in Australia
2. Explore, understand and apply the major industrial relations theories to assess the nature of the employment relationship with its key stakeholders
3. Conduct a comparative analysis of global labour market trends and labour market flexibility
4. Describe, evaluate, and utilise negotiation models
5. Undertake research individually or in groups, to investigate changes in collective and alternative agreements, at the workplace level

Teaching methods

Hawthorn

Assessment

Content

• Current Australian developments in workplace reform
• Industrial relations changes that have occurred at both the macro level and micro level
• Current legislation related to Australian workplaces in particular the Fair Work Act 2009, Equal Opportunity Act (Vic) 2010, OH&S
• Privacy and other relevant pieces of legislation
• Problem solving approaches to Enterprise Bargaining: distributive, integrative and intra-organisational bargaining
• Models of flexibility: functional, numerical, temporal locational, financial and the impact on key stakeholders
• Alternative theoretical approaches to understanding and problem solving in industrial relations