AC1.1 Critically evaluate different perspectives on employment relations.
- Explore unitarist, pluralist, and radical perspectives.
- Analyze power, authority, and managerial prerogatives.
- Understand influences on people, professionals and their work.
AC1.2 Contrast examples of cooperation and conflict within the employment relationship in different organisational contexts.
- Examine the mix of conflict and cooperation.
- Consider indeterminacy and the contested nature of work.
- Analyze how this varies between workplaces and different issues.
AC1.3 Critically evaluate employer strategies towards trade unions and whether they are fit for purpose.
- Evaluate partnership with unions.
- Examine 'traditional' adversarial relationships with unions.
- Analyze sophisticated paternalism without unions.
- Consider low-cost non-unionism.
- Explore employee-owned firms.
AC1.4 Review ways in which people professionals can foster positive employment relations at work.
- Define the meaning of good employment relations.
- Work with line managers, employees, and their representatives.
- Understand challenges to good workplace relations.
AC2.1 Critically evaluate the extent to which globalisation and other international influences have shaped and transformed employment relations within organisations.
- Analyze globalisation and international developments.
- Examine the role of the state in regulating employment relations.
- Analyze how these institutions shape employment relations at the organizational level.
AC2.2 Review the practice of employment relations at organisation level, including how it is being shaped by short-term competitive pressures.
- Understand technological change.
- Analyze labour market and product market pressures.
- Consider political developments.
- Understand how these factors shape organizational strategy, culture, and employment relations.
AC2.3 Critically appraise the advice that external bodies can provide in order to help professionals make appropriate decisions for their organisation.
- Understand the role of Acas, the CBI, and TUC.
- Explore equivalent bodies in your own country.
- For professional support: Utilize employers’ organizations and sector bodies.
AC2.4 Analyse the changing nature of work in different parts of the economy.
- Analyze the growth of precarious work.
- Consider zero-hours contracts.
- Analyze the hollowing out of skilled manual labor and routine roles.
- Consider the role of robots.
- Analyze the notion of high- and low-quality jobs.
AC3.1 Review evidence of external sources of advice that contribute to people management decisions, including which forms of voice are appropriate for different types of organisation.
- Utilize resources from the CIPD, TUC, IPA, and Engage for Success.
- Utilize academic research and policy advice.
- Benchmark against other organizations in relation to voice.
AC3.2 Critically analyse how different forms of indirect voice could contribute to improved levels of organisational performance and employee outcomes.
- Analyze works councils, joint consultative committees, and partnership agreements.
- Examine how indirect voice contributes to organizational performance and employee outcomes.
AC3.3 Critically analyse how different forms of informal and direct voice could contribute to improved levels of organisational performance and employee outcomes.
- Implement formal voice mechanisms like team briefings and surveys.
- Foster informal voice between line managers and teams.
- Understand how these contribute to organizational performance and employee outcomes.
AC3.4 Evaluate how people analytics and research supports the fact that voice enhances both organisational performance and employee outcomes.
- Identify key measures like productivity and quality of ideas.
- Identify key measures like satisfaction and engagement.
AC4.1 Critically analyse the role of collective bargaining in determining pay and other contractual issues in organisations.
- Analyze the role, purposes, and outcomes of collective bargaining.
- Understand the nature and extent of collective bargaining in different sectors.
- Explore mechanisms for determining wages and resolving differences in non-union firms.
AC4.2 Assess the impact of negotiations between employers and employee associations/trade unions aimed at problem resolution.
- Understand the dynamics of negotiations.
- Understand the roles of the parties in negotiation.
- Understand the stages of negotiation.
- Analyze potential outcomes from agreement to industrial action.
AC4.3 Review the advantages and disadvantages of third-party options in resolving disagreements at work.
- Understand arbitration, conciliation, mediation, and ADR.
- Understand the value of external advice.
- Analyze the disadvantages of third-party intervention.
AC4.4 Examine the design and implementation of grievance, disciplinary and other procedures and their fitness for purpose in the organisation.
- Design and implement grievance, disciplinary, and other procedures.
- Understand the value of agreed procedures.
- Review the design, operation, and review of joint procedures.
