Fifth Innovative Teaching in Human Resources and Industrial Relations Conference

More than 110 human resources educators convened on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis on April 25-26, 2008 for the Fifth Innovative Teaching in Human Resources and Industrial Relations Conference. The conference, the fifth in a series that dates back to 1996, was organized by John Budd and hosted by the HRIR faculty at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, and attracted participants from as far away as China, Korea, Britain, and Italy.

Lynn Shore, Professor of Management at San Diego State University, and Michael Byungnam Lee, President of LG Academy and the former Executive Vice President for Human Resources at LG Corporation (Korea), delivered stimulating keynote addresses on the state of HR education from academic and corporate perspectives. Over 30 presentations, including a video-conferencing presentation from Dubai, on a variety of curricular and pedagogical issues provided additional opportunities for learning about exciting new teaching tools and for discussing curricular standards and innovations. Five demonstration sessions gave instructors an in-depth look at HR teaching cases developed by HR instructors and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Throughout the conference, academics and professionals who share a passion for HRIR education and practice were able to network and exchange ideas about the status and future of HRIR education and the professional field of HRM. Click here to see the final conference program.

The conference would not have been possible without the untiring administrative and logistical efforts of Anne Obst and Megan Evans, and without the generous backing of the University of Minnesota's Industrial Relations Center and Carlson School of Management, and the generous financial support of the HR Division of the Academy of Management, SHRM, and the SHRM Foundation.