International Week at North-West University
The seminars for the 2023 International Week, organized by the School of Industrial Psychology and Human Resource Management from North-West University (NWU) took place at the NWU Potchefstroom Campus (South Africa) on May 29 & 30.
Researchers from NWU and Kedge have worked on several projects in previous years and Johannes Kraak has held several Visiting Professor appointments at the University.
An international expert panel participated in this event (in alphabetical order):
- John Delery (Walton College of Business; University of Arkansas)
- Yannick Griep (Behavioural Science Institute; Radboud University)
- Johannes Kraak (Centre of Excellence for Sustainability; Kedge Business School)
- Anthony Nyberg (Darla Moore School of Business; University of South Carolina)
- Kgomotso Mopalami (Head of Research & Innovation at SABPP)
- Jaap Paauwe (Tilburg University)
- Denise Rousseau (Carnegie Mellon University)
- René Schalk (Tilburg University)
The international panel members participated in three sessions. Each session took approximately 3 hours and had several breaks in order to facilitate more informal discussions with participants as well.
Ask the editors: NWU students and staff engaged with the international delegates on trends in publishing, journal data handling, journal standards, methodological aspects, review processes, and so on. The discussions during these sessions were insightful for participants as all delegates are currently or were recently active as (associate) editors in top tier academic journals. This provides students and staff with unique insights regarding the expectations of the journals as well as the variety of elements that authors will have to consider before submitting to one of these journals.
Practice of HR: During this second session the focus was on trends in HR practice. Kgomotso Mopalami from the SABPP gave an overview of current challenges and trends of HR in South Africa and neighboring countries such as Botswana and Lesotho. Jaap Paauwe discussed specific topics such as the use of data analytics and AI in the HR landscape. This session was particularly rich in impactful examples as Kgomotso Mopalami and Jaap Paauwe work with many different companies in various countries.
Research in HR: The final session was dedicated to trends in HR research. Johannes Kraak started the session of with a discussion on Sustainable HR, where it comes from, where we currently are, and where the field is likely to move towards in the near future. This discussion part was followed by a discussion on what Sustainable HR could mean and how these concepts could be translated and/or used within the South African context. The remainder of the session consisted of discussions with NWU Master and PhD students. Each student presented their research topic before discussing questions and challenges with the audience and the panel.
The rest of the international week was dedicated to informal exchanges and discussion with NWU students and staff, tours around the NWU facilities, meetings with various NWU members such as the associate Dean for Research, and opportunities to discuss future research projects.
