UNSW Handbook Course - Managing Workplace Conflict & Change

Managing Workplace Conflict & Change - LAWS8058


	Faculty: Faculty of Law
	School: Faculty of Law
	Course Outline: See below
	Campus: Kensington Campus
	Career: Postgraduate
	Units of Credit: 6
	EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)
	Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 2
	Enrolment Requirements:
	Prerequisite: Academic Program must be either 9200, 9210, 5740, 9230, 9211, 5211, 9235, 5235, 9231, 5231, 9220 or 5750.
	Equivalent: JURD7558
	Excluded: JURD7558
	CSS Contribution Charge:Band 3 (more info)
	Tuition Fee:See Tuition Fee Schedule
	Further Information: See Class Timetable

Description

This course aims to provide students with a theoretical framework and especially practical insights relating to the negotiation of change and the management of conflict in the workplace. Australian IR has tended to institutionalise conflict on the assumptions of the conventional adversarial model, while the alternative mutual gains perspective has received little serious attention or application. The course will take students through some of the classic texts in the field such as Walton & McKersie's A Behavioural Theory of Labour Negotiations and Walton et al's Strategic Negotiations and then into a series of contemporary overseas and Australian case studies. The impact of the Fair Work Act on the negotiation of change and dispute resolution will also be critically examined.

LLM specialisation(s)

Corporate and Commercial Law
Corporate Commercial and Taxation Law
Dispute Resolution
Human Rights & Social Justice

Course Objectives

A candidate who has successfully completed this course will:

Have gained a good appreciation of the competing models on workplace change and conflict;
Have critically examined the approach of the key piece of federal legislation on point, the Fair Work Act;
Have had the opportunity to consider a number of instructive case studies;
Be better equipped to deal with or advise on the negotiation of change and the management of conflict in the workplace

Main Topics

Approaches to the negotiation of change and the management of conflict in the workplace: a comparison of the adversarial and mutual gains (interest-based) models.
Change and conflict resolution in social context
The makings of the great workplace
Understanding information-sharing, consultation and negotiations in the workplace
Competing, different and shared interests in the workplace
The assumptions and architecture of the Fair Work Act in relation to negotiation and dispute resolution
Case studies on change and conflict resolution in the workplace
Prospects for a fresh approach to change management and conflict resolution in Australian workplaces

Assessment

Class attendance and participation (20%)
Class presentation (20%)
Essay (60%)

Course texts

Prescribed
No prescribed textbooks. The course will draw on a collection of journal articles, case studies and other sources. These will be made available to students electronically through Blackboard.

Recommended:

Walton & McKersie, A Behavioural Theory of Labour Negotiations (Cornell University Press, 1965);
Walton et al's Strategic Negotiations - a Theory of Change in Labor-Management Relations (Harvard Business School Press, 1994);
Bamber et al, Up in the Air - How airlines can improve performance by engaging their employees (Cornell University Press, 2009);
Anstey, Managing Change, Negotiating Conflict(Juta, 2006);
Kochan & others, Healing Together - the labor-management partnership at Kaiser Permanente (Cornell University Press, 2009).

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Further Information

The course commences with an initial introductory and framing session of two hours, followed by four full days spaced a week apart (usually Fridays).