Welcome to IRE2001

Kourtney Koebel
kourtney.koebel@utoronto.ca
 Course Introduction
& The Academic Study of IR/HR

Week 1: January 11, 2024

 Interactive Group Exercise

• What do we all have in common (besides being students at

the CIRHR)?
• I will display 5 statements. Use the “raise your hand” button
if your response to the statement is “yes.”
 • Foundations = theoretical concepts
• Focus on the theoretical
contributions of IR scholars by
juxtaposing them against economists
and HR scholars

ABOUT • The discipline you draw theory from

to explain the world matters a lot
IRE2001 for policy-making both in and outside
of the workplace
• Using theory to make sense of
current employment issues and the
policies/practices that we can use
to address them
 The Academic Study of Work &
Employment Relations

Work is a multidimensional concept:

• Workers have complex economic, social, psychological, and
political motivations
• People hold different values, conceptualizations, and ideas
about work and why we work
• These perspectives or frames result in different assumptions
about employment relationships, and the most appropriate
mechanisms to govern work and employment relationships
• Requires knowledge of multiple disciplines and research
approaches to understand
 Reality

History Sociology

Psychology Economics

Management Law

Anthropology Political Science

 The Study of Work &
Employment Relations

Employment Relations:
• Employment relations is the interdisciplinary study of all
economic and social aspects of people at work, their
employment relationships, and how these relationships are
regulated / governed (e.g., markets, laws, unions, etc.)
• A field that arose in the late 19th and early 20th century –
coincided with the industrial revolution and the rise of
capitalism – to study the dynamics of work in industrialized
capitalist systems, and to resolve the problems that arose
because of the development of these systems
 The Study of Work &
Employment Relations
( K auf man , 2008)

• The field of industrial relations arose in the late 19th and early
20th century – coincided with the industrial revolution and the
rise of capitalism
• Emerged to study the dynamics of work in industrialized
capitalist systems, and to resolve the problems that arose
because of the development of these systems
• I.e., the ‘Labour Problem’ à violent conflict between workers and
management; absenteeism and strikes, etc.
• Prevented further worker revolt and the deterioration of
capitalism
• IR scholars proposed policies that gave workers more
voice/power/protection in the employment relationship which
ultimately preserved capitalism
What is Work?
 Types of Work
( Budd, 2011: 3)

Sphere of Activity Renumeration

Paid Unpaid
Outside the Wage/salaried jobs Volunteering
home/household Casual employment Civil service
Self-employment
Within the Household-based farming Subsistence farming
home/household Family-run businesses Housework
Home-based contract work Elder and childcare
 Types of Work
( Budd, 2011: 3)

Sphere of Activity Renumeration

Paid Unpaid
Outside the Wage/salaried jobs Volunteering
home/household Casual employment Civil service
Self-employment
Within the Household-based farming Subsistence farming
home/household Family-run businesses Housework
Home-based contract work Elder and childcare

Which types of work would be considered occurring in the context of an

“employment relationship?”
 Actors in the
Employment Relationship
( Go dard, 2017: 3 -4)

Employees/Workers/Labour
• All working people who are in an employment relation and do
not exercise substantive authority, but are instead in a position
of subordination to those who do
• Manual workers, but also service workers, and professional
workers (excludes entrepreneurs)
• Both union and no—union workers, but also includes
workers’ organizations, such as unions, employee and
professional associations
 Actors in the
Employment Relationship
( Go dard, 2017: 3 -4)

Management
• All working people who exercise substantive authority over
others in the workplace, but also authority regarding
organizational decisions in general
• Managerial authority is derived from legal rights attached to
the ownership of work organizations (i.e., property rights)
• Managers are also employees (agents) of capitalists
(principals), but they exercise substantive authority over
employees on behalf of those who legally own or control
the employer
 Actors in the
Employment Relationship
( Go dard, 2017: 3 -4)

Employers/Owners/Capitalists
• Own the factors of production and invest capital stocks
(i.e., money, other assets) into trade and industry for the
purposes of generating a return on investment (profit)
• Primary owners of means of production

Government
• Sets the institutional “rules of the game” that structure the
relationship between the other actors
 Why Study
Work & the
Employment
Relationship?
( Go dard 2017)
Course Overview
(Syllabus & Quercus)
 Instructor Expectations

• Be on time for class

• Turn of cellphones
• Laptops to be used for course-related purposes only
• Complete assigned readings/videos in advance (see syllabus)
• Come prepared to be an active learned/teacher
• Raise questions/concerns/issues as they arise
• Be respectful, or at least tolerant, of different ideas, opinions,
and experiences
• Assess and evaluate arguments, evidence and behaviours,
rather than individuals
 A Note on Feedback

• Expectations placed on you in graduate school are higher than

when in undergraduate school
• The changing peer dynamic in graduate school can be
overwhelming and intimidating
• It can be difficult to digest negative feedback, but constructive
criticism is important for personal development and mastering
the material (in all your courses)
• Please remember that your grades and/or the constructive
feedback you receive on your assignments are not a reflection
of your self worth
Questions?
 Next Class

• Barry, M., & Wilkinson, A. (2016, August 23). The HR

literature won’t give you a complete picture of
employee voice. LSE Blogs.
• Godard, J. (2017). Foundations: Concepts, issues, and
debates. Industrial relations, economy, and society (5th ed.).
(pp. 1-20). Captus Press.
• Howell, J. (2021, January 27). CEO secrets: ‘We tried
paying everyone the same salary. It failed’. BBC News.
 References

• Budd, J. W., & Bhave, D. P. (2019). The employment

relationship: Key elements, alternative frames of
reference, and implications for HRM. In The SAGE
handbook of human resource management (2nd ed.). A.
Wilkinson, N. Bacon, S. Snell & D. Lepak (Eds.).
SAGE Publications Ltd, pp. 1-10.
• Budd, J.W. (2011). Introduction. In The thought of work.
ILR Press, pp. 1-13.
• Godard, J. (2017). Foundations: Concepts, issues, and
debates. In Industrial relations, economy, and society (5th
ed.). Captus Press, pp. 1-9.