Performance and Reward

1. Performance and Reward Elective Unit: MSc/PG Diploma in Human Resource Management

2. Performance and Reward • Unit Leader - Dr Ben Lupton • Unit Tutors - Professor Carol Atkinson - Dr Ben Lupton Taught in Term 2 - January to March (10 weeks) – three two-hour sessions per week

3. Unit Summary • Outline • The unit provides comprehensive coverage of the key strategic activities of managing performance and reward. You will apply theoretical frameworks to evaluate contemporary practice in both area. • Assessment • There will be two written assignments (each 3000 words), one on the performance half of the syllabus, one on the reward half

4. Approach to teaching and learning • We will combine • Tutor-led input • Student-centred learning • Self-directed learning • In workshop sessions, tutors will deliver theoretical inputs and provide opportunities for you to apply to these to real life situations and problems • You will undertake independent study and complete assignments • In combination, these activities will provide opportunities to give you formative and summative feedback

5. Performance • Key issues that organisations are grappling with: • How to use HR practice to improve the ‘bottom line’ – and how to demonstrate this • How to set meaningful objectives that will both direct and motivate employees • How to develop cultures that promote learning and engagement • How to review performance in a supportive way • How to manage performance across international boundaries and cultures

6. The Syllabus • The HR/performance link including human capital measurement • Performance management frameworks • Setting and reviewing performance expectations • Performance management and individual/organisational development • Managing underperformance • Designing and implementing performance management systems • Comparative performance management

7. Reward • Some contemporary issues for businesses and society • Should people be paid on the basis of the job that they do, or on the basis of how well they do it? • What is wrong, if anything, with bankers (and other executives) receiving huge and ever-increasing salaries and bonuses? • Is it a good idea for people to receive a share of the profits of the company they work for? • Why are men (still!) paid – on average- considerably more than women? • What are the consequences for organisation for getting their reward decisions wrong?

8. What we’ll cover • The answer to the last question indicates that reward management is of crucial importance to organisations’ success • so we’ll look at the a various ways in which reward systems can be designed to support organisations’ strategies • We’ll also look at the different types of reward and the role that they play. Not all of the rewards in organisations are money/pay! • We will also look at the issue of reward in its social context – those issues around banker’s bonuses, low pay, pay inequality demand it!

9. The syllabus • The context for reward – social, economic, political • Trends in reward • The theoretical basis for reward– psychological, economic, justice-related …. • Setting base-levels of pay, job evaluation • Incentives • Benefits and Pensions • Equality and Justice in Reward • Reward in an International Context

10. So, come and join us! • The unit offers a chance to become expert in these two important and related area of HR practice • And offers the opportunity to examine and debate some interesting and topical issues in work and society