Micki Kacmar, University of Alabama
Taking over the role of chair immediately after the
Division passed its 5-year review with flying colors
placed me in an enviable position. With little to “fix”
we were able to focus on innovating. As a result, I
am happy to announce three new Division awards.
The first was designed to recognize the unique
contribution made in the area of international human
resource management (IHRM). Specifically, the HR
Division’s IHRM Scholarly Research Award will be
given to the scholar or scholars who have advanced
IHRM in some significant way through a single piece
of published work. I would like to thank the Division’s
International Committee for developing this award
and Juan Sanchez for chairing the selection
committee. The second award that is new this year
is the Mahoney Mentoring Award designed to
highlight an individual who has distinguished
himself/herself by mentoring PhD students. This
award is given in memory of Tom Mahoney, who
himself provided so much guidance to developing PhD
students over his long career. My thanks to Mary
Watson for spearheading this award and for serving
as the chair of the selection committee. The third
and final new award is the Innovative Teaching
Award. The three finalists for this award will be
showcased in a PDW workshop on Saturday from 1-
3. My thanks to Judy Tansky who has done a great
job developing this award as well as chairing the
selection committee.
An award that was started last year that will be of
particular interest to doctoral students is the SHRM
Foundation Dissertation Grants. These $5,000
awards are given to four promising researchers in the
field of human resource management at the
dissertation stage of their doctoral education.
Thanks fort Bob Liden for chairing the selection
committee for the grants.
We also made some advancements in the area of
member communications. I am confident that you
have been receiving periodic emails from James
Hayton, our newsletter editor. James and Ken Brown
spearheaded an effort to purchase a package that
allows the HR Division to send attractive, tailored
electronic messages to our members. The newsletter
is just one example of how these messages are
delivered. Ken Brown also took charge of redesigning
the Division’s website. Testing of the new platform is
underway as I write this and the new and improved
website will be unveiled very soon. I hope you will
find to useful and that you will visit it often.
Two other initiatives I would like to report on arose
from the results of our 5-year review. The first is
that the Division’s mission and constitution needed to
be updated. Thanks to Joe Martocchio for chairing
the committee that revised these documents for us.
A second task force, headed by Steve Werner,
examined the issue of member retention. The
findings of their report will be shared with the
membership in August.
In closing, I would like to invite each and every
member of the HR Division to become involved in the
Division’s activities. A good way to start would be to
attend the following Division sponsored events at the
Academy Meetings in Atlanta. I hope to see you
there!
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