7HURM001W Global Employment Relation C2 Comparative Research Report 2024 | UM

Assessment Brief

The Assessment

The module assessment is designed to give students an opportunity 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, assessed 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