ILIR News & Notes
For thirty five years, from 1954 to his retirement in 1989, Professor Bernard Karsh was an energetic teacher and researcher at the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations. He had a joint appointment with Sociology, and he served as head of the Sociology Department from 1973-1979. He also helped lead a major restructuring of the Aviation Institute from 1977-1979 and served as Director of the Center for East Asian Studies just prior to his retirement. He will always be remembered as a deeply engaging colleague who bridged many disciplinary boundaries -- a vital part of the UIUC community.
ILIR May 2008 Commencement
(2/25/08) The Class of 2008 cordially invites ILIR students, faculty and staff along with family and friends to attend graduation ceremonies at 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 10 in the auditorium at Wohlers Hall (1206 S. Sixth). Participating graduates should order regalia before 11:59 p.m. Monday, April 21 at http://www1.herffjones.com/college/graduation.
ILIR December 2007 Commencement
(10/4/07) The Class of 2007 cordially invites ILIR students, faculty and staff along with family and friends to attend graduation ceremonies at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday December 8 in Colwell Playhouse at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S. Goodwin, Urbana.
Professor Fritz Drasgow awarded Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award from SIOP
(10/1/07) Congratulations to Fritz Drasgow, Professor of ILIR and Psychology on being awarded the Distinguished Scientific Contributions award from the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychologists (SIOP). This is a lifetime achievement award given to an individuals who make the most distinguished empirical and/or theoretical scientific contributions to the field of I-O Psychology. Such recognition by peers is truely a capstone accomplishment and places Fritz among the luminaries in the field. As part of this honor, he will make a special address at a future SIOP meeting. Congratulations Fritz!
Twenty-Third Annual ILIR Open House
(9/27/07) ILIR will host an Open House from 7-9 p.m. Tuesday, October 23 in the Wagner Education Center. Prosepective students who are interested in human resource management, labor relations, etc. are invited to come check out their options by earning a masters degree in human resources and industrial relations. Featured speaker will be ILIR alumna Kim Warmbier, Vice President Human Resources, Field & National Sales at Frito-Lay. Contact Becky Barker at ebarker@uiuc.edu for more information.
New SocioTechnical Systems Option for Graduate Students
Students: Apply here for the SocioTechnical Program!
(6/11/07) The School of Engineering and the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations are pioneering a new graduate program option that teams students from these schools, merges their skills sets and creates multidisciplinary solutions to real life problems. Students who enroll in this innovative new program will gain valuable new skills and insights so they can be effective at the intersection of social and technical systems in the workplace.
The SocioTechnical Program pilot projects are expected to begin in spring of 2008 after students have completed 2 half semester courses. The courses will provide fundamentals of socio-technical principles, skills for team work between engineers and human resource/industrial relations professionals, and preparation for real life experience solving problems for sponsoring organizations. Sponsors will be asked to provide support for the student teams and each team will have faculty leads that will be available to offer guidance.
Students, faculty, or organizations interested in learning more about the program or participating in the early pilots should contact the Director, Betty Barrett at 217-333-2384. Examining workplace problems from combined technical and social perspectives will increase the effectiveness with which companies can implement innovations.
Rosemary Batt to speak at ILIR Annual Derber Lecture
(4/16/07) Rosemary Batt, Cornell University will speak at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 1 in the Wagner Education Center at ILIR. Her presentation for the ILIR Annual Milton Derber Lecture, will be "Good Jobs, Good Service: Redesigning Service Sector Work in the Global Information Age". Batt is the Alice Hanson Cook Professor of Women and Work at Cornell. Around the world, employers, unions, and governments face fundamental dilemmas in integrating new technologies into the design of employment systems in frontline services. This talk draws on extensive research on the design of work and technology in services from a comparative international perspective.
Professor Jeff Ericksen to be presented Ralph Alexander Dissertation Award
(4/13/07) The HR Division of the Academy of Management has selected ILIR Professor Jeff Ericksen for the Ralph Alexander Dissertation Award, which is given to the author of the best doctoral dissertation in the field of human resource management. Ericksen will be recognized in August at the HR Division's Award Ceremony.
In order to be eligible for this award, a dissertation must address a phenomenon that is of importance to the human resources field and have been completed with 24 months prior to the submission deadline. The award is based on the following criteria:
* The significance and importance of the problem to human resources.
* The extent to which the design, findings, or orientation advances research or theory.
* Given the length allotment, special attention will be paid to the conceptual development of the paper.
According to ILIR Professor Joe Martocchio, the committee that makes this award holds to an exceptionally high standard and has withheld the award more than once when submissions did not meet the high standard of excellence set for this honor. Martocchio is Chair of the HR Division, but was not involved either in the nomination or selection process. This process is overseen by the awards committee chairperson and subcommittee chair for this award and there is a small committee that reviews candidate dissertations.
Professor John Dencker selected to the Center for Advanced Study
(4/11/07) Congratulations to ILIR Professor John Decker for being chosen as a 2007-08 Fellow and Associate of the Center for Advanced Study. His project is "Generational Dynamics in the Workforce and Society" which he is working on with Professor Joe Martocchio, Professor Aparna Joshi, and Ph.D. candidate Niti Pandey.
Generational dynamics are transforming and being transformed by modern societies as aging workforces, increasing longevity, and declining fertility rates place strains on organizational and social institutions. Dencker's research aims to develop and test and multi-level, inter-disciplinary comparative-historical account of two critical outcomes of generational dynamics - life course transitions and itnergenerational conflict.
Dencker's proposal was selected from a large pool of applicants as part of an annual competition. This appointment grants fellows one semester of teaching release time in order to pursue an individual scholary or creative project. With the Professors and Associates, they form the core of the Center for Advanced Study Community. Fellows also participate in a yearly roundtable dicussion of research interests and are inivited to offer a future CAS presentation.
ILIR mourns the death of Professor Emeritus Bernard Karsh (1921-2007)
(3/9/07) Professor Bernie Karsh died Wednesday, March 7, 2007 at Meadowbrook Health Center in Urbana, IL. Memorial services will be held later in May.
Karsh spent his formative years in Chicago. As a young man he worked in a tractor factory in Maywood IL, and was active in the union. He joined the U.S. Army Air Corps just before World War II and trained as a fighter pilot. Afterwards, he attended college on the GI Bill eventually earning a PhD in Sociology from the University of Chicago in 1951.
In 1954, Karsh embarked upon the only job of his career, as professor of sociology and of LIR at the University of Illinois. His expertise lay in the study of American and Japanese trade unions, bolstered by the family's life in Japan in 1960 and 1965. He was author of many articles on the subjects, including a seminal study of a strike, which remains in academic use today.
Karsh’s far ranging interests included airplanes and the airline industry. He was a general aviation pilot and was very interested in the impact of technology on pilot’s behavior. He re-built two WWII era airplanes. One of these was a naval trainer bi-plane, N9N. It was one of about three in the entire U.S. still airworthy. He would fly it on nice weekends out of Frasca Field in Urbana.
Professor Karsh is survived by his wife of over 60 years, Annette, their two sons Paul and Aaron, and a grand daughter.
Labor expert Thomas Kochan to speak at ILIR
(3/2/07)Noted labor expert Thomas Kochan will be presenting "A New Social Contract for Working Families and the Economy" at the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations on the University of Illinois campus on Friday, March 16, 2007 from 12:00-2:00 p.m. This presentation and dialogue features themes from Thomas Kochan's new book, Restoring the American Dream: A Working Families’ Agenda for America, with particular attention to the implications for enabling innovative policy and practice here in Illinois.
Thomas A. Kochan is the George Maverick Bunker Professor of Management at MIT's Sloan School of Management and Co-Director of both the MIT Workplace Center and of the Institute for Work and Employment Research. Professor Kochan is a Past President of both the International Industrial Relations Association and the Industrial Relations Research Association (IRRA). In 2001 he was listed in Who’s Who in America and in 2000 he was listed in Blackwell’s Dictionary of Management Scholars. In 1999 he was awarded Doctor Honoris Cause from the University de San Martin de Porres de Lima. He was elected to the National Academy of Human Resources in 1997, received the Heneman Career Achievement Award from the Human Resources Division of the Academy of Management in 1996, and was named the Centennial Visiting Professor from The London School of Economics in 1995. From 1993 to 1995 he served as a member of the Clinton Administration's Commission on the Future of Worker/Management Relations. Professor Kochan's research spans industrial relations and human resource management in the public and private sector.
Some of Professor Kochan’s recent books include: Management: Inventing and Delivering its Future; Working in America: A Blueprint for the Labor Market, Learning from Saturn; Managing for the Future: Organizational Behavior and Processes, 3rd edition, 2004; An Introduction to Collective Bargaining and Industrial Relations, 3rd ed. 2003; In 1988 his book, The Transformation of American Industrial Relations received the annual award from the Academy of Management for the best scholarly book on management.