ILRIC 5300

Human Resource Management and Employment Relations in the Networked Firm

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2015-2016.

Examines the human resource implications of managing workers across firm boundaries in increasingly complex production networks.  Outsourcing, offshoring, spin-offs, and the use of temporary staffing agencies all create distinctive challenges for human resource management. Firms face issues of retaining employee knowledge and skills, coordinating HR policies across multiple subcontractors, and motivating workers on a variety of employment contracts – who in some cases work together within a workplace or virtually.  Worker representatives find it increasingly difficult to negotiate or enforce collective agreements as the boundaries between firms and sectors become increasingly blurred.  We will analyze these challenges and evaluate strategies to address them from a comparative and international perspective, using industry- and firm-based case studies from the US, Europe, and Asia.

When Offered Spring.

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