Paul Thompson, Professor of Organisational Analysis in the Department of Human Resource Management, has recently received a prestigious award and invitation. The former involves the appointment as the Hooker Distinguished Visiting Professor at McMaster University, which was established to 'support a number of distinguished visiting scholars whose research and teaching interests enhance the quality of academic life'. As well as giving faculty and public lectures, Professor Thompson will lead a conference in October organised by The School of Labour Studies, McMaster University and the Canadian Association for Work and Labour Studies - Dissent and Resistance in the Workplace in the Context of Neoliberalism – stimulated by his work.
The Sociology Department at Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main is one of the most famous in the world due to its association with the 'Frankfurt School'. This year – 2014 - marks its centenary and Professor Thompson will give a plenary address on Capitalism at Work: Connections, Disconnections and Misapprehensions at a conference - Critical Sociology: Current Issues and Future Challenges - to mark the occasion in June.
Professor Spiros Gounaris has had five papers accepted for presentation in the upcoming European Marketing Academy (EMAC) 2014 conference which takes place in Valencia, Spain, in June. He has a further two papers accepted for publication in the Industrial Marketing Management journal (3* in ABS), entitled "Implementing key account management: Key dimensions and outcomes" and "Relational Key Account Management: Building Key Account Management effectiveness through Structural Reformations and Relationship Management Skills".
Professor Gounaris also successfully delivered the Marketing Management class in Madrid for Strathclyde Business School's MBA programme for Iberdrola and delivered two guest lectures in services marketing at the University of Valencia International MBA course.
Dr Ron Bradfield, Associate Dean, Global MBA, gave a talk on human resource management at a conference in Romania on February 25. The agenda issue to be discussed was 'Outsourcing HRM'. His presentation included how the results of the research he had done on outsourcing HRM showed that there were mixed results in terms of its effectiveness, and more importantly, contrary to the rhetoric and popular belief, it did not result in significant costs savings.
He also highlighted how there were a lot of changes going on in the world, not least of which was the changes in the values, beliefs, demands and expectations of the new generation workforce (along with the issue of aging populations in Europe), all of which meant that perhaps before a decision was made to 'outsource', they should perhaps do some scenario thinking i.e. develop some scenarios about the future of the workplace. Dr Bradfield gave some examples of what the scenarios looked like and how this had helped other companies.