7HURM001W Global Employment Relations Coursework 2 Assessment Brief Semester 1 | UoW

7HURM001W CW2 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 - 10-minute class presentation 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 2 – Comparative Research Report. for coursework 1 and 3, please refer to their specific assessment briefs.

Coursework 2 – Comparative Research Report

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 determine and justify your choice of 2 key variables to compare, making use of relevant employment relations scholarship/evidence.

You are required to deliver a comparison by identifying and interpreting key similarities/differences in such variables.

You are required to deliver the above as a 1,200-word Comparative Research Report.

A typical structure will look something like this:

• Introduction
• Section 1: Topic 
  
• Section 2: Countries
• Section 3: Comparison 
  
• Conclusion 

You must provide references to your reading in the form of in-text citations and a list of references. 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.

Duran-Palma, F. (2020) ‘Title of Mini Lecture’, Mini Lecture, Contemporary Employment Relations, Westminster Business School.

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

7HURM001W CW2 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. 

Reports will be assessed in terms of the following assessment criteria:

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

First Class Honours (70+): Excellent
Upper Second Class Honours (60-68): Good
Lower Second Class Honours (50-58): Competent
Third Class Honours (40-48): Satisfactory
Fail (30-38): Unsatisfactory
Bad Fail (-28): 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.

Academic integrity

What you submit for assessment must be your current work. It will automatically be scanned through a text-matching system to check for possible plagiarism.

Do not reuse material from other assessments that you may have completed on other modules. Collusion with other students (except when working in groups), recycling previous assignments (unless this is explicitly allowed by the module leader) and/or plagiarism (copying) of other sources all are offences and are dealt with accordingly. If you are not sure about this, then speak to your class leader.