Compare and contrast an aspect of employment relations in any two Southeast Asian countries. What are the causes of the differences between the two?
You may choose any aspect of employment relations for this essay. Two suitable aspects of employment relations would be the state and trade unions.
The Journal of Industrial Relations devoted a whole edition in 2016 (vol. 58, no. 2) to employment relations and the state in Southeast Asia, with articles on
Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Cambodia and Myanmar. Two of those articles would provide a solid basis for your research for this essay. You
would also need to find additional materials to supplement those JIR articles.
Benson and Zhu (2008) has chapters on unions in Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Any two of those chapters would provide a good foundation for an essay on unions –
again, those two chapters would need to be supplemented with additional materials of your own.
Benson, J & Ying Zhu,Y (eds) 2008, Trade unions in Asia: An economic and sociological analysis, Routledge, London.
Other suitable topics for comparison in the essay could include:
Collective bargaining
Contingent or precarious work
Strikes or industrial conflict
HRM
Regulatory standards and minimum wage
Management style
Maternity leave
Gender equity
Work-life balance
Teleworking
You would need to ensure there is sufficient relevant academic literature available on that topic in your two preferred Southeast Asian countries.
Essential materials for the essay
You must use a minimum of six scholarly sources in your essay.
Assignment marking criteria
The assignment is an essay question and your answer must be in essay format; that is, it must be structured around an argument that answers the question.
The essay will be marked according to the following criteria: understanding of the issues raised by the question and comprehensiveness; written expression; structure;
use of sources; originality; and presentation. A Marking Criteria table setting out the standards of these criteria in detail will be available on the course
Blackboard.
Other requirements
Use 12 point font, 1.5 or double line-spacing and 2cm wide margins. Number your pages.
Referencing style
Harvard Referencing Style
Plagiarism
In academic writing it is important that you acknowledge the sources of your ideas, words and material. The reader of your essay must be able to discern what ideas and
words are your own and what has been obtained from other sources. To avoid plagiarism you must cite your sources.
The School’s Policy defines plagiarism as follows: the presentation of the work, idea or creation of another person as though it is your own. It is a form of cheating
and is a very serious academic offence that may lead to expulsion from the University. Plagiarised material can be drawn from, and presented in, written, graphic and
visual form, including electronic data, and oral presentations. Plagiarism occurs when the origin of the material used is not appropriately cited.
The Policy gives the following examples of plagiarism:
• Copying sentences or paragraphs word-for-word from one or more sources, whether published or unpublished, which could include but is not limited to books, journals,
reports, theses, websites, conference papers, course notes, etc. without proper citation;
• Closely paraphrasing sentences, paragraphs, ideas or themes without proper citation;
• Piecing together text from one or more sources and adding only linking sentences;
• Copying or submitting whole or parts of computer files without acknowledging their source;
• Copying designs or works of art and submitting them as your original work
• Copying a whole or any part of another student’s work; and
• Submitting work as your own that someone else has done for you
