MIDLANDS STATE UNIVERSITY
BSC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
HRM 101 – Management and Labour
Lecturer: P. Chadambuka (/)/Office: G5
Preamble
The module serves as a basis for introducing students totheories and concepts in the evolution of management and labour issues. At the end of the module, students are expected to understand the hostilities that exist between management and labour and be able to think critically, analyse the innate conflict between the two groups and come up with solutions of managing conflict. Students will appreciate the origins of various approaches and models that shape the discipline of people management.
Learning and Assessment
Delivery
This course is delivered through lectures to provide guidance on critical concepts around management and labour, coupled by group presentations which will provide a platform to discuss critical issues in the subject area. Students are encouraged to prepare adequately for both presentations and lectures and some selected readings may be provided during the learning period.
Assessment
Continuous assessment (CA) constitutes 40% of final assessment and is based on at least one essay and one presentation. Written essays should be structured and referenced according to the prescribed University rules on academic writing. The Final Examination constitutes 60% of the final assessment. The exam is a 3-hour paper and normally structured as follows; there are 5 questions on the exam paper. Question 1 is compulsory and then the student selects any other two essays from the remaining four questions.
AREAS OF STUDY
1. Defining Management
§ What is management?
§ Types and levels of management
§ Functions of management
§ Management and planning
§ Management and organising
§ Management and leadership
§ Management and the human nature
2. Historical features of labour management
§ Classical schools of management
§ Behavioural school
3. Management and the labour process
§ Defining the labour process
§ History of the labour process
§ Labour process theories
§ Karl Marx and alienation
§ Braverman’s deskilling thesis
§ Burawoy’s’ labour process
§ Worker Mobilisation
4. Motivation at work
§ Definition of work motivation
§ What motivates employees to work?
§ Types of employee motivation
§ Theories of employee motivation.
5. Emerging Trends in labour management
§ Informalisation/Casualization of labour
§ Technology and the management of work
§ The rise of precarious forms of work
§ The erosion of traditional sources of power among workers
§ the increased use of contingent and contract labour, reliance on volunteer employees, and other forms of relationships that challenge the traditional notion of the employee-employer relationship
§ The knowledge worker in perspective
Reading List
Bennis, W. (1990).On Becoming an leader. New York:AdsonWesley.
Burawoy, M. (2015). Forty Years of Labour. Michigan Sociological Review Vol.29, 1-21.
Dessler, G.(2005).Human Resource management. Prentice Hall.
Dye, (2005).Understanding Public policy.New Jersey:Prentice hall.
Edwards, P. (1995) Industrial Relations: Theory and Practice in Britain; Oxford, Blackwell.
Jones, C. (2003). As if business ethics were possible, ‘Within such limits’. Organization, 10 (2), 223-248.
Kreitner, R. (2001); Management, Boston:Houghton Mifflin Company.
Pfeller, J. (1994).Competitive Advantage Through people:Unleashing the Power of the workforce. Boston Harvard Business School Press.
Pough, D,S and Hickson, D.J.(1989). Writers on Organisations.Hammondsworth.Penguin Books.
Sadler P, (1997).Leadership; Kogan Page; London
Seifert, R. (2011). On Having A Grievance, Feeling Aggrieved and Grieving. London: Institute of Employment Rights Conference.
Tutorial Questions
1. What is management? (20 Marks)
2. Outline the roles of lower and middle level management (20 Marks)
3. Effective managers should be able to delineate where and where not to control and how. Identify and explain factors which management should consider when effecting control in organisations. Cite relevant examples. (20 marks)
4. What are the causes of precarious employment and what are its possible effects to labour. (20 Marks)
5. (a) Distinguish between intrinsic and extrinsic employee motivation. (10 Marks)
(b) Outline challenges that inhibit employee motivation in organisations (10 Marks)
6. (a) Distinguish between a leader and a manager. (12 Marks)
(b) Explain how trait theories help in understanding leadership and management. (8 marks)
7. (a) Bureaucracies are a death nail to democracy. Discuss. (14 Marks)
(b) Outline the characteristics of Weber’s ideal type democracy. (6 Marks)
8. Outline Karl Marx’s analysis of the labour process. How applicable are his arguments in understanding contemporary labour relationships between management and workers?
9. (a) Distinguish between standard and non-standard employment. (12 Marks)
(b) What are the effects of non-standard employment to management- worker relationship and employee mobilisation. (8 Marks)
10. Analyse how Schein’s (1988) three views of human nature (Rational-Economic Man, Social Man and Complex Man) influence management of people at work. (20 Marks)
11. Outline the contributions of the behavioural school of management to our understanding of management. (20 Marks)
12. Explain how Tailorite labour management strategies may be used in deskilling the labour process of workers as employers seek to cheapen the cost of labour while intensifying work.
13. Using Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Herzberg’s two factor theory, justify the need for employee motivation. (20 marks)
14. (a) What factors have facilitated the importance of knowledge workers according to Drucker (10 Marks)
(b) How does the emergence and dominance of knowledge workers challenge traditional sources of management control over workers (10 Marks)
15. (a) Outline the main arguments of the labour process theory as outlined by Burawoy and Braverman (12 Marks)
(b) To what extent are their ideas applicable in the contemporary world of work? (8 Marks)
16. (a) Management is “a practice, rather than a science or a profession, though containing elements of both” (Drucker, 1954). Discuss this assertion. (12 Marks)
(b) Compare and contrast between Drucker and Taylor’s conceptualisation of management . (8 Marks)
17. Briefly explain the following terms that relate to the labour process;
(a) Work intensification (4 Marks)
(b) Work extensification (4 Marks)
(c) Division of labour (4 Marks)
(d) Alienation (4 Marks)
(e) Deskilling (4 Marks)
ESSAYS (Choose any one question)
1. Analyse the impact of technology on the management of work citing examples from Zimbabwe. (20 Marks)
2. Why do managers plan? (20 Marks)
3. (a) Outline the contributions ideas of scientific management to our understanding of management. (12 Marks)
(b) What are its weaknesses? (8 Marks)