Advanced Studies in Labour, HR and Employment Relations

We are pleased to announce the 2019 program for the International Summer School in Advanced Studies in Labour, HR and Employment Relations at the University of Montreal's School of Industrial Relations (ÉRIUM). This is the 9th edition of the Summer School. Join with other students and professionals from around the world in this unique international experience.

What is ÉRIUM?

ÉRIUM is the French acronym of the School of Industrial Relations at the University of Montreal. We are a leading school in labour, human resources and employment relations in North America. Our academic reputation extends nearly 70 years. We offer a full range of undergraduate and graduate programs to roughly 700 undergraduates and 300 graduate students, making us one of the largest schools in the field of labour and employment relations.  Learn more about us by visiting https://en.eri.umontreal.ca/home/

Dates

Classes start Monday, July 8th, 2019 and end Thursday, August 8th, 2019. Each course typically has 2 sessions per week over the 5-week program. Some students will elect to stay an extra week to complete their final assignments and have time to enjoy the city.

Language of instruction

Although the University of Montreal is a French-speaking institution, all three of our courses scheduled for the 2019 International Summer School will be offered in English to allow for the participation of students from a range of countries. Assessed work can be submitted in either English or French.

Course Program for 2019

Detailed course descriptions are available at the end of this announcement.

REI 6611 – International Human Resource Management
Prof. Tania Saba, PhD Université de Montréal

REI 6629 – Globalization and Labour Relations
Prof. Ian MacDonald, PhD York University

REI 6631 – International Perspectives on Employment Policies
Prof. Umut Riza Ozkan, PhD Carleton University

Who should take these courses?

• Graduate students and undergrads entering their final year of studies who want to add a stimulating international experience to their learning portfolio in labour and employment relations.
• HR and employment relations professionals who want to upgrade their skills and gain university level graduate school credit in an intensive but friendly learning format over the summer period.
• Students from our ÉRIUM partner schools and universities who are participating in our international summer school program in a planned bi-lateral exchange for credit from their home institution.
• Anyone interested in taking a first step towards postgraduate qualifications in labour and employment relations, health and safety, labour law, human resource management, and public policy.
• Current ÉRIUM students as all courses are a part of the regular ÉRIUM curriculum

Teaching methods

Courses feature a dynamic and interactive approach to teaching with an emphasis on intercultural exchange, team-building and advanced learning in a supportive and stimulating environment. Summer School students can take 1 or 2 of the 3 courses offered. The summer schedule is designed to allow students to take any combination of the 3 courses on offer.

Course Recognition

Courses are a regular part of the graduate program in industrial relations at the University of Montreal and are credited in our postgraduate programs. They are also recognized by the Inter-university Mobility Program (BCI) in Quebec. Students from other universities are encouraged to secure advance recognition from their home school or department if they are seeking credit equivalencies in their home university programs.

Why Montreal?

Montreal is a city made for students. Thousands of students choose to study abroad in Montreal every year.  The city offers a vibrant and safe environment with a wide range of summer activities and a quality of life that will make for an unforgettable experience. From summer festivals to international cuisine, Montreal regularly tops the list of international travel destinations in North America and was listed No. 1 on the BOCOM Sea Turtle Index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit ranking global international education destinations.

Accommodations and Medical Insurance

The student residences at the University of Montreal, Zum Hotel, offer participants accommodation at reasonable prices. Prices and booking conditions are to be verified with the Zum Hotel services.

Non-Canadian students are automatically signed up for mandatory group medical insurance. Insurance costs are $78 per month according to 2019-2020 medical insurance coverage policy, thus $156 for July and August. These expenses are added to the tuition fees. Please confirm the applicable fees with the International Students Office.

How to Register

Register as soon as possible before our classes reach their maximum enrollment. Our registration period for independent international students this year ends on March, 31st, 2019. The registration period for Canadian candidates is extended to May, 1st, 2019. Registration may also close once the courses are full. Students may register one of two ways:

1.        Independent Auditor (étudiant libre in French)

Students outside the Quebec university system register with independent status and may complete courses for a regular letter grade and receive an official university transcript. These students are not considered admitted to a degree program.

The tuition fees for independent students depends upon residence status. The following fee scale is listed here as a general guide and should be verified with the university registrar’s office.

The eligibility requirements for determining Quebec resident status can be found online here:

http://www.etudes.umontreal.ca/etudes/rq-att-res-an.pdf

2.        Registration through the Quebec Interuniversity Mobility Program

This registration status is for students currently registered in other universities in Quebec. Students in other universities in Quebec can enroll through this program. Visit the website of this program called the Bureau de Coopération Interuniversitaire in French.

To register for the 2019 ÉRIUM International Summer School, send an email to:

Kassy Moua, M.Sc., CHRP                                              

China Student Exchanges and ÉRIUM International Summer School coordinator

School of Industrial Relations                
University of Montreal                           

E-mail:                       kas.nonz.moua@umontreal.ca

Office:                       +1 (514) 343-6111 extension 2584

2019 ÉRIUM International Summer School

Advanced Studies in Labour, HR and Employment Relations

Course Descriptions

REI 6611 – International Human Resource Management
Prof. Tania Saba, PhD Université de Montréal

REI 6629 – Globalization and Labour Relations
Prof. Ian MacDonald, PhD York University

REI 6631 – International Perspectives on Employment Policies

Prof. Umut Riza Ozkan, PhD Carleton University

REI 6611 – International Human Resource Management

Professor Tania Saba

Globalization and the increasing presence of multinational corporations (MNCs) and multinational enterprises (MNEs) highlight the importance of understanding how people are managed in different cultural and regional contexts. This has implications for many stakeholders in global business today, including employees, managers, HR practitioners, unions, policy makers and academic researchers. The course introduces students, through theory and case studies, to the complexity of international human resource management, and cross-cultural issues within global management.

This course aims to:

• Introduce the field of international human resource management (IHRM) and the concept of cross-cultural/global management
• Present key theoretical concepts and examples of IHRM issues in practice today
• Explore the impact of national culture within organizations and how HR practitioners and managers can develop key global competencies
• Provide an opportunity for students to understand their own potential as an effective global leader and to consider building a future global career

Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to (1) Understand HRM in an international or global context and implications for policy in multinational or global organizations, (2) Understand different forms of global work and implement this knowledge for strategic global HRM, (3) Implement effective managerial strategies and HR activities for a global workforce, (4) Analyze the impact of cultural dimensions on people’s behavior in work settings, and cultivate a global mindset for effectively managing staff worldwide, and (5) Conduct research in the international HRM field by investigating and networking within a multinational or global organization.

Course themes. The following topics will be covered (subject to change):

• Introduction to International HRM and the Global Context of Work/Business
• Interpreting culture (Country-level, Organizational)
• Knowledge management across MNEs -
• Global Leadership and Global Talent Management (Staffing, Sourcing) -
• Global Organizational Development -
• Global Compensation and Performance Management -
• Global Careers and Diverse Global Workers -
• Global Mobility and Work-Life Issues -
• Global Business Ethics and Global Governance Issues 

Tania SABA is a Professor in the School of Industrial Relations at the University of Montreal and holds the BMO Chair in Diversity and Governance of the Université de Montréal. She has a PH.D in Industrial Relations (UdeM) and has conducted postdoctoral research at Cornell University in the field of International Human Resource Management. She is an affiliated researcher at the Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT) and at the Center for International Studies and Research at the Université de Montréal (CÉRIUM).

Since 1996, Professor Saba teaches Human Resource Management with a focus on international dimensions, employee relations and strategic management. Her research interests include international human resource management, globalization processes, development of international talent, new employment relations, knowledge management, HR management in the private and public sectors, older worker’s management, intergenerational differences and the organization of the human resource function.  Tania Saba has published extensively and her research on aging and retirement has received awards on a number of occasions, including a citation in "Nature", a "Citation of Excellence Award" from Emerald Management Reviews, and the "Verity International" recognition from the Canadian Association of Administrative Sciences.

In addition to her professorial career, Tania Saba has held important executive and officer positions at the Université de Montréal. From 2008 to 2010, she became the first female director of the School of Industrial Relations. She also served as Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies and then Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and External Affairs at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of the Université de Montréal between 2010 and 2015. She acted, from 2015 to 2017, as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science.

REI 6629 – Globalization and Labour Relations

Professor Ian MacDonald

Globalization is one of the major forces restructuring the world of work. Technological change and international trade and investment agreements have allowed multinational corporations to stretch production networks across the globe in order to access a massive increase in the world’s workforce as well as rapidly expanding consumer markets in the developing world. Meanwhile, financialization and new forms of corporate organization have squeezed workers and unions and forced nation states to adjust labour policies, both in the Global North and in the Global South. A critical and carefully empirical account of these changes will reveal that labour market actors – including corporations, nation states, and labour unions – face not only challenges in this period, but also choices between alternative strategies. Are multinational corporations free to move production to lowest cost locations, or are unions and local states able to influence investment decisions and industrial relations practices? What varieties of labour relations regimes are being developed to adjust to global competitive pressures, and which achieve better social and labour market outcomes? What forms of global regulation will be adequate to re-balancing power relationships in the world economy?

This course is an advanced introduction to the issues and debates that arise in the globalization of labour relations. We begin with a critical and concrete examination of the contours of the world economy, paying attention to the key structures and agents. We turn in a second section to a comparative analysis of how labour relations are being globalized in the major centres of the world economy, including Europe, North America and China. Here we develop an understanding of how domestic labour relations are being globalized as countries adopt new laws and domestic firms respond with new IR strategies to competitive pressures, while domestic labour movements, states and multinational firms seek to transfer labour relations from one context to another. Building on our understanding of the structures of global production and the strategic options confronting labour market actors, a final section turns to the emergent global relationships between unions, multinational corporations, and international institutions which will shape the future of globalization, with particular attention to current debates on global labour standards, labour strategies and labour policy.

By the end of this course, students will have mastered the key debates surrounding globalization and will have a strong understanding of how labour relations are adjusting in the majors centres of the world economy. Students will have gained a command of the main contributions to the academic literature in the field, as well as national-level policy options and implications for local industrial relations practices in the global economy. They will be prepared to apply this knowledge as workplace professionals or develop their understanding in further graduate study.

Course themes include:

• Contours of the global economy
• Globalization and labour in long historical perspective
• Globalization and shifting employment structures and relationships
• Multinational Corporations (MNCs) as strategic and embedded actors
• The state, free trade agreements and labour law
• Labour relations and the globalization of finance
• Labour relations and economic development in global production networks (GPNs)
• Varieties of capitalism, varieties of IR regimes
• The globalization of labour relations in liberal market economies (US, UK, Canada)
• The globalization of labour relations in coordinated market economies (Europe)
• The globalization of Chinese labour relations
• Restructuring and collective bargaining in MNCs
• The social regulation of MNCs and global value chains
• Transnational labour alliances and global union federations
• Global debates on labour policy reform after the crisis

Ian MacDonald is a professor in the School of Industrial Relations at Université de Montréal.  His research interests include labour politics, organization and union bargaining strategies, comparative political economy, labour geography, urban policy, labour relations in Latin America and globalization. His research has already resulted in numerous publications and scientific outreach activities. Ian has a PhD (Political Science) from York University. He has recently been a Visiting Scholar at the Worker Institute of Cornell University's ILR School and an adjunct professor at the Murphy Institute of the City University of New York. An edited volume under his direction, Unions and the City: Negotiating Urban Change, published by Cornell ILR Press in 2017.

REI 6631 – International Perspectives on Employment Policies

Professor Umut Riza Ozkan

The course is an advanced introduction to the contemporary labour market policy issues in the face of globalization and post-global economic crisis. It discusses a wide range of policy instruments, including unemployment insurance, redundancy pay, training and re-training, the regulation of atypical contracts, minimum wage, and job placements, etc. The course has an international scope with a focus on employment policies in developed countries, as well as emerging economies that face different challenges in labour market and social policies.

The course also concentrates on the formulation of employment policies at the national and international level. At the national level, it aims to identify the various factors and actors that influence the outcomes of employment policies. At the international level, it examines policies of international organisations (such as the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the International Labour Organization and the European Union) and whether and how these organisations convey their policies to the national contexts.

By the end of this course, students will have acquired a concrete and strong understanding of the employment policies implemented in different contexts and they will have developed fundamental benchmarks to compare and contrast different policy tools.

In particular, students will have an understanding of basic concepts of employment policy and indicators that are essential for comparing different aspects of employment policy. Moreover, students will have gained an in-depth knowledge of theoretical frameworks that are used to analyze the origins and reforms of employment and social policies. Overall, students will be prepared to apply this practical and theoretical knowledge to grasp employment and social policy issues in the workplace, as well as at the national and international levels.

Course themes include:

• Employment policy instruments and their measurement;
• Welfare state programmes;
• Theories on the politics of employment and social policies;
• Comparative methods used to study employment and social policies;
• Active labour market policies;
• The origins and development of unemployment compensation systems;
• Flexicurity debate;
• Alternative instruments to social policy such as guaranteed minimum income, negative income tax, and living wage;
• History and development of employment and social policies in emerging economies (including     Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC));
• Employment policies of international organisations;
• New forms of employment in platform economies; and,
• Challenges to employment policy in the face of rapid automation and artificial intelligence.

Umut Riza Ozkan is a professor in the School of Industrial Relations at Université de Montréal.  His research interests include unemployment compensation policy and labour legislation reforms in developed countries and emerging economies, social and employment policies of international organisations, as well as foreign qualification recognition processes in immigrant-receiving countries. Umut holds a PhD (Public Policy) from Carleton University. His work appeared in various international journals including International Labour Review, Labour History, Social Policy and Administration, International Journal of Social Welfare, Social Indicators Research, Global Social Policy, International and Comparative Social Policy, and Journal of International Migration and Integration.

2019 ÉRIUM International Summer School

Advanced Studies in Labour, HR and Employment Relations

For general information about studying at the University of Montreal,

visit the website of the International Student Office

www.bei.umontreal.ca/english/accueil_coordonnees.htm