Modulhandbuch (Module manual)

​The module helps to understand employment or HR practices from a long-term perspective and both a managerial and public policy point of view. Employment practices are understood to be embedded in various ways. They must be examined as part of employment relations – the multi-level economic and social nexuses linking workers and employers. They cannot be understood in isolation but must be analyzed within the firm’s employment systems – the systematic and holistic combinations of practices. Finally, employment relations and systems are influenced – and in turn influence – the institutional environment in terms of employment and labor law, industrial relations, and the education and training system. In the first part of the module, basic building blocks are introduced: employment relations at individual and collective levels; legal, economic, and psychological contracts; typologies of employment systems; the importance of knowledge, skills, and abilities (human capital); and inequalities produced by employment systems and asymmetric employment relations. The second part of the module discusses more advanced aspects and looks at different examples of employment systems, their dependence on institutions, their efficiency in different circumstances, their fairness for particular groups of employees, and implications for broader society.

During the first half of the semester, we will have regular lectures and tutorials, which need to be prepared in advance. After the first half of the semester, we will have the interim examination. In the second half of the semester, we will have a guided reading class; scientific papers must be prepared in advance. We will have the final examination in the semester's final week(s).

Further details and a schedule will be published in advance on Professor Schneider and/or Professor Thommes's homepage.

Students...

Students...

​Students...

​Students...

​Module is in English.

Assessment by 2 written tests during the semester.