News and events

HRM news and events

Award of CIPD Academic Fellow

Professor Dennis Nickson, Head of the Department of Human Resource Management, has been recognised by the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD), the professional association for HR, as an Academic Fellow, the highest academic grade within CIPD. The award of Academic FCIPD came after a rigorous assessment process and recognises the contribution made to the HR profession by individuals engaged in teaching, lecturing and research. An Academic Fellow is seen as being a key contributor who is recognised nationally and beyond in at least two HR areas and a key contributor to policy or strategic decisions and initiatives at an organisational level. Professor Nickson expressed his delight at the recognition, ‘I am very pleased to be recognised by CIPD for my contribution to HR thinking in education and research and also in terms of my leadership contribution to the Faculty and University. I also intend to use the Academic FCIPD award to continue to enhance our relationship with the HR community in Scotland in support of the Department’s activities’.



ILO Report Published

Professor Tom Baum's report for the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on 'International Perspectives on Women and work in Hotels, Catering and Tourism' has just been published. The study was jointly commissioned by the ILO's Bureau for Gender Equality and the Sectoral Department for Hotels, Catering and Tourism. The comprehensive report draws on sources from all regions of the world in order to assess gender equality issues in the tourism sector. The study also includes a survey of gender equality practices in major companies within the sector and the steps they take to support opportunities for women within their workforces. The report concludes with a range of recommendations for the ILO's tripartite stakeholders of governments, trade unions and employers with respect to enhancing opportunities for women in the tourism industry. This is the third study that Tom has completed for the ILO, following reports on migrant labour in the hotel industry and the impact of technological change on the hotel and tourism workforce.



The Department of Human Resource Management has announced three scholarships for its MSc in International Human Resource Management programme this year.

The scholarships - worth £3,000 each - are to mark the recent naming of Strathclyde as Times Higher Education (THE) UK University of the Year, which praised Strathclyde as a 'bold, imaginative and innovative institution', noting its close links with business and industry.

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New HRM Report indicates potential problems for care sector

Professor Ian Cunningham has reported that measures designed to give people who use social care more choice about the support they receive could destabilise Scotland's voluntary sector, impacting the workforce and service quality, according to a new report published by Strathclyde Business School's department of Human Resource Management.  Click here for further information.

Invitation to India Call Centre for Migration

Professor Tom Baum from HRM was invited by the India Centre for Migration to participate as a Panelist in the National Consultation Workshop on "Women and international Migration: Opportunities and Challenges", held in New Delhi. The workshop is part of a 'think-tank' process, designed to address wide ranging issues relating to migration between India and the EU. The India Centre for Migration, an NGO that operates under the auspices of the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, is implementing an EU-funded project designed to help formulate bilateral policy on migration.

Tom's contribution addressed 'Opportunities and challenges for women migrants in the low-skills workplace' and built on his two recent reports for the ILO on migration and gender issues in the international tourism sector.

Winning MSc HRM Students at HR Network Dinner

The Department of Human Resource Management recently partnered with The Ghost Partnership, a leading-edge HR consultancy, to give their students the opportunity to attend the HR Network Dinner. The dinner is the premier event for HR professionals in Scotland, attracting over 700 attendees. The students were given the opportunity to attend the dinner by entering a competition devised by The Ghost Partnership. Teams had to choose a UK based organisation with 500+ employees and develop a business case to support the corporate rhetoric that ‘people are our greatest asset’. As part of the challenge students had to consider issues such as how to promote HR as a driver of value rather than a cost centre and identify and prioritise the core skills and behaviours required in senior HR roles for the future. The teams presented their findings to senior partners from The Ghost Partnership, John Nicholson and Alan Crozier, in a Dragons-den style meeting. The winning team of Laura Hall and Caitlin Simpson are pictured above with Andrew Cooksey (from The Ghost Partnership) and Nick Prentice (a communications consultant who works with The Ghost Partnership).

Professor Dennis Nickson, head of the Department of Human Resource Management was full of praise for the students’ efforts in engaging with the competition. ‘This is the second year that we have run this competition in conjunction with The Ghost Partnership and it presents a fabulous opportunity for our students. We are very grateful to The Ghost Partnership for providing this unique opportunity and also for engaging so enthusiastically with the students who enter the competition. Several teams entered the competition and it was a very difficult task for John and Alan to pick a winning team, such was the quality of the presentations. All in all it’s a great learning experience for all the students who entered the competition as well as allowing the winning team to not only enjoy the dinner but to network with a range of leading HR figures’.

Tourism Workshop for the MENA

Professor Tom Baum of HRM was invited by the World Bank to participate in a Tourism Workshop for the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region in Tunis. The purpose of the workshop was to address the re-emergence of tourism as a major economic sector within the region in the light of recent (and, indeed, on-going) political and social change. The audience included government and private sector leaders from across the region together with a range of participants from the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation. Using video links, the meeting ran simultaneously in Tunis and Washington DC.

Tom's contribution was to address the theme of 'Tourism Skills and Capacity Building - Strategies to Increase the Participation of Youth and Women' and, in addressing this theme, he was able to draw on recent studies for the ILO on the impact of structural and technological change on employment in tourism; on tourism employment and migration; and, most recently, on gender participation in the international tourism sector. The MENA region, of course, faces particular challenges in providing opportunity for its growing youth population and Tom challenged a common mantra that tourism's largely low skills job opportunities are necessarily a panacea to solve this problem. In relation to encouraging the wider participation of women in tourism work, MENA's changing political and cultural landscape is particularly challenging but discussion focused on geographical and employment contexts in the region where opportunities for greater gender equality could be fostered. 

2nd Edition of Textbook for Business School Professor

 Professor Dennis Nickson, Head of the Department of Human Resource Management has recently completed a second edition of his textbook, Human Resource Management for the Hospitality and Tourism Industries. The second edition is published by Routledge.



Keynote Speaker to the XVII AECIT International Congress

Professor Tom Baum was invited as Keynote Speaker to the XVII AECIT International Congress, in the town of Carballiño in Galicia, Spain. AECIT is the Spanish Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism.The theme for the Congress was "Creation and development of tourism products: innovation and the experiential approach”. Tom’s presented thoughts on Changing times, changing people: the impact of economic and technological change on human resource management in tourism, a theme that generated considerable interest and debate at a time when Spain grapples with unprecedented levels of unemployment across all sectors of the economy.

Keynote Speaker to the XVII AECIT International Congress

Professor Tom Baum was invited as Keynote Speaker to the XVII AECIT International Congress, in the town of Carballiño in Galicia, Spain. AECIT is the Spanish Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism.The theme for the Congress was "Creation and development of tourism products: innovation and the experiential approach”. Tom’s presented thoughts on Changing times, changing people: the impact of economic and technological change on human resource management in tourism, a theme that generated considerable interest and debate at a time when Spain grapples with unprecedented levels of unemployment across all sectors of the economy.