7HURM001W Global Employment Relations Coursework 1 Assessment Brief Semester 1 | UoW

7HURM001W Assessment Brief

The Assessment

The module assessment is designed to allow students to demonstrate their ability to systematically analyse, explain, and critically discuss similarities and differences between employment relations systems across the world, as well as their comprehension of key conceptual, methodological, and empirical frameworks of analysis. To achieve this, the assessment has been broadly designed as a module-long mini comparative research project in which students choose a topic to compare across a pair of countries and are required to work on the same comparison throughout the module. This mini comparative research project is organised into three stages, which are assessed, in turn, by three distinct in-module pieces of assessment.

• Coursework 1 – 5-10 minute class presentation, slides and notes, where students present their choices to the class and their research and essay plans.
• Coursework 2 - 1200-word comparative research report, where students examine the main similarities and differences found across their chosen countries.
• Coursework 3 - 2000-word essay, where students explain, assess, and discuss the similarities and differences found across their chosen countries.

This assessment brief is about Coursework 1 - 10-minute class presentation and notes. For coursework 2 and 3, please refer to their specific assessment briefs.

5’-10’ Class Presentation, Slide, and Notes

You are required to choose ONE employment relations actor (either employers, trade unions or the state)

You are required to choose TWO comparable countries (out of a list provided by the module leader, including, but not limited to, the US, the UK, Germany, and Japan)

You are required to justify your above choices, making use of relevant employment relations models, tools and concepts, and empirical evidence where appropriate.

You are required to:

• Produce one slide in which you present and justify (i.e., explain why) your choice of actor and countries, and
• Write a linked set of notes in which you will write a 600-800 word script for the slide (this should be done in the ‘notes’ section on PowerPoint).
• Present your work to the class in a 5 presentation
• Submit your slides and notes in one PowerPoint document via Blackboard before 23 October at 13:00 hrs.

You must provide references to your reading in the form of in-text citations and a list of references. This is excluded from the word count. Failure to do this may constitute plagiarism. Read on:

As you will have access to resources to complete your assessment any content you use from external source materials will need to be referenced correctly. Whenever you directly quote, paraphrase, or summarise someone else’s ideas, you have a responsibility to give due credit to that person for their work.

For example:

a) When citing material taken from the module’s textbook, use: 

Bingham (2016) or (Bingham, 2016) or (Bingham, 2016: pp) where appropriate.

b) When citing material taken from the module’s mini lectures, use: 

Duran-Palma (2020) or (Duran-Palma, 2020) where appropriate.

c) If citing a source within a source (e.g. in the above sources), use:

Smith (2000 cited in Bingham, 2016), or (Smith, 2000 cited in Duran-Palma, 2020), etc, where appropriate.

d) In the list of references at the end (for the above examples), only include the sources that you have read and used (not the sources within sources):

Bingham, C.A. (2016), Employment Relations: Fairness and Trust in the Workplace, London, Sage.

Collusion. This is an individual piece of work, so do not collude with others on your answers as this is an academic offence.

7HURM001W Learning Outcomes

• Compare the nature of employment relations systems across selected countries and supra-national and sub-national regions of the world.
• Systematically analyse the variety of employment relations systems across selected countries and supra-national and sub-national regions of the world.
• Convincingly explain the variety of employment relations systems across countries and supra-national and sub-national regions of the world.
• Critically evaluate the diversity of employment relations across selected countries and supra-national and sub-national regions of the world.

Students are required to have attended and genuinely engaged with the module material, i.e., read weekly essential reading, homework, etc., to tackle this assessment successfully. 

Additional materials or links to useful resources for this assessment can be found on Blackboard.

7HURM001W Assessment criteria

The assessment criteria and weightings show you what is important in the assessment and how marks are shared across each criterion. When you are completing your assessment, remember you need to fulfil the assessment criteria below. 

Presentations will be assessed in Terms of the following Assessment Criteria:

Each of the above criteria will be assessed using the following ranges:

70+: Distinction (Excellent)
60-68: Merit (Good)
50-58: Pass (Satisfactory)
40-48: Fail (Unsatisfactory)
30-38: Bad Fail (Bad)
-28: Poor (Poor)

Important: Please note that your mark reflects the markers’ academic judgement on your overall performance, and it is not the result of an exact computation between levels of attainment in each set of criteria. Academic judgement, and thus the mark and feedback given, cannot be challenged by students. However, requests for feedback clarification are always welcome for developmental purposes.

Referencing Requirements for the Assessment

Statements, assertions and ideas made in coursework should be supported by citing relevant sources. Sources cited in the text should be listed at the end of the assignment in a reference list. Any material that you read but do not cite in the report should go into a separate bibliography. Unless explicitly stated otherwise by the module teaching team, all referencing should be in the Westminster Harvard format. If you are not sure about this, the library provides guidance (available via the library website pages). 

The deadline and submitting your Coursework - checks

The deadlines for this assessment are Monday, 23rd October 2023, at 10:00 hrs (Presentation) and 13:00 hrs (Slide and Notes).

The University will treat your submission as late if you are absent by 10:00 and/or your work has not been fully uploaded and stored on the server before 13:00. To avoid your submission being marked as late, you should upload your work as soon as possible before the deadline and must not wait until or just before the deadline to start uploading your work.

At busy times, the coursework submission process may run slowly. To ensure that your submission is not recorded as a late submission, avoid submitting very close to the deadline.