BA (Hons) Social Policy and Human Resource Management Bachelor's degree at Strathclyde

This class is designed to introduce you to some of the major issues confronting Scottish society and to provide an accessible introduction to some of the key concerns of Social Policy. It will examine a range of issues, including questions of poverty and inequality, social divisions, health, housing, education, and criminal justice.

In this module we'll ask why and how certain issues become defined as 'social problems' and what impact this has on the social policy that we make in response.

In recent years the task of managing employees has been made more challenging by rapid changes in the business environment. This class focuses on the contemporary and practical issues of how people are organised and managed in the workplace and examines theoretical perspectives which help our understanding of the complex relationship between the employer and employee in facilitating the organisation and production of goods and services.

This class explores some of the different ways in which social policy has evolved in Scotland in response to a variety of social problems since the introduction of the Scottish Poor Law Act in 1845. It covers all the main areas of social policy, including health, housing, education and poverty, and also explores the changing boundaries between individuals, families, communities, voluntary organisations, commercial welfare and state over the course of this period.

This class explores some of the most important concepts in the academic study of Social Policy, including such concepts as equality, justice, need, happiness, poverty and wellbeing. It also examines a number of different ideological perspectives on these issues, such as liberalism, conservatism, socialism, social democracy, Marxism, feminism and the New Right.

This class examines the ways in which social policies are 'made' at both a national and international level. It examines the roles played by different actors, institutions and ideas. It also looks at the ways in which evidence is used to inform policy-making, and at the ways in which we are all involved, as citizens, in the policy process. These themes are explored with the aid of a series of case-studies.

This class develops understanding of managing people from a psychological perspective through understanding behaviour, attitudes, motivation and wellbeing of people at work. Areas covered include what leads to positive employee work attitudes like job satisfaction, organisational commitment, and their outcomes in terms of work behaviour, such as job performance, withdrawal, absenteeism, turnover, fair treatment and trust.

This class looks at applying psychological theories explaining effectiveness and well-being of people at work to Human Resource Management as an approach to managing people and the employment relationships. Areas covered include organisational and individual decision-making relating to the recruitment and selection process, the impact of performance management on employee perceptions, team working, and the impact of leadership on attitudes and trust.

This class will help you to develop your knowledge and understanding of some of the key methods used by researchers in the field of social policy. It will introduce you to a number of different qualitative and quantitative methods, and to some of the basic principles of research design. It will provide an essential foundation for your final-year dissertation.

Why are some societies more unequal than others? Why do many women participate in the labour market in some countries, and less in others? Why do health care, education and housing policies differ across developed societies? The answers to these questions are all related to the study of Comparative Social Policy. In this third-year module in the Social Policy programme you'll be introduced to the key theories, methods and data sources employed in comparative and international social policy resea

This class critically explores changes in the nature of work, employment and society through investigating the extent to which current developments in the workplace can be seen to represent a fundamental shift in the nature of workplace regulation. It'll provide contrasting and complementary perspectives on workplace behaviour to those provided in year 2.

You'll be introduced to the British system of employment relations, and the general principles, processes and outcomes. It'll consider different theoretical approaches to the study of employment and industrial relations and then examine the role and objectives of trade unions, employers and the state, and their interactions in collective bargaining, employee participation and industrial conflict.

Global Social Policy is all about the global challenges of the 21st Century and about how we can think differently for building a safer, healthier, more prosperous world for all. A global perspective encourages you to think critically about the global causes of poverty and inequality and climate change, for example, and the possibilities of global social policy, global social governance and the role of international organisations play in shaping the GSP agenda.

Many students find that the dissertation is the most fulfilling part of their degree. It will provide you with the opportunity to undertake your own in-depth investigation into a topic of your choice, and to develop skills as an independent researcher.

This class draws on current themes in work and organisational psychology, and HRM understood from the perspective of micro-organisational behaviour theory and research.