Compare and contrast an aspect of employment relations in any two Southeast Asian countries. What are the causes of the differences between the two? 

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Assessment 1: Individual Essay  Due date: Week 6 (subject to confirmation at class in first week)Maximum length: 2,000 words Weighting: 50%

Essay question:

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