Pre-requisite: 51379
It is essential that human resource managers and other managers have an understanding of the industrial relations framework within which they operate. This is especially so in Australia in the current era of enterprise bargaining, human resource management and other profound shifts in the labour market and economy. Today, most large organisations remain unionised, and all are bound by employment law. This unit provides students with an understanding of the parties, processes, rules and institutions of the Australian industrial relations system in this context. It examines issues such as the economic consequences of trade unions and state regulation. The unit also examines industrial relations in the Asian region, focussing particularly (but not exclusively) on Malaysia and Japan. Some of the key issues examined are the role of cultural factors and the state in shaping industrial relations in Asia, and the contribution of employment relations factors to the phenomenal economic growth in much of Asia in recent decades. Assessment in the unit is structured to enable students from other countries to investigate and learn about their own industrial relations systems.