The fourth International Conference of the Academy of Management (AOM) HR Division (HRIC) took place in Sun City, South Africa from May 31st until June 2nd. HRIC is always held at a different location around the world and has a very international character.
This edition of HRIC was actually planned for 2021 but had to be postponed due to COVID. The theme for HRIC 2023 was “Bridging the gap: Aligning human resource theory and practice”.
Besides a Doctoral Colloquium and traditional paper presentations, there were also key notes, workshops, and seminars by practitioners and academics. One of the main goals of the conference was to bridge the gap between practice and theory.
There were therefore many activities that focused on the impact of academic research and the collaboration between universities and organizations.
KEDGE Business School was highly involved in the organization of HRIC 2023:
Johannes Kraak (head of the Centre of Excellence for Sustainability) was a member of the organizing and scientific committees that started working on this event over three years ago. He was also in charge of the “sustainable HR” track, which regrouped 12 paper presentations from all over the world. Furthermore, Johannes presented a paper in the Psychological Contract track on destructive employment relationships.
Dorra Yahiaoui (head of the IB Centre of Excellence) was responsible for the “International HR” track at HRIC, which saw 8 presentations from international delegates, and was also on a panel discussion with editors from renowned academic journals such as Human Resource Management Journal and Group & Organization Management. She also presented an academic paper on how to cope with informal networks in human resource management in emerging markets.
Arnaud Lacan organized a special workshop on Sustainable employment and also presented an academic paper on why employers should care about the health problems of their employees.
Frederic Prevot (head of the Marketing Centre of Excellence) presented an academic paper on the past, present, and future of research on emotions in cross-cultural management.
Laurent Bompar presented an academic paper on how constructive humor reduces manipulative interference.
HRIC 2024: The next HRIC will be hosted by the Department of Management at the University of Otago in Ōtepoti Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand. The conference will take place on 10 to 12 January 2024 in the Otago Business School, with a series of presentations, professional development workshops and a doctorial consortium. Next year’s theme is "Common Good HRM".
