In Your Shoes - Dr. Norin Arshed

Chicago

Today is the penultimate day of The 78th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AoM) which I have been attending in Chicago since Thursday of last week. This international conference has over 2,000 sessions and activities to choose from, involving more than 10,000 of the top scholars and researchers from more than 90 different countries. The theme of this year’s conference explored issues such as whether (and why) organisations have a responsibility for improving the lives of individuals in society with questions like: How can organisations contribute to the betterment of society through elevating the health and well-being of those who live in it? What role can organisations play in positively affecting the physical, psychological, social, and financial health of individuals, groups, communities, countries, regions, or global society?

I had my presentation at 4pm today, it was nerve-wracking and I spent the morning in sessions which related to my research area of interest and expertise, after lunch I sat and read over my paper as well as practiced my presentation one last time. I gave it my best shot and the nerves evaporated as soon as I stood in front of the audience and saw their encouraging faces! I finished the presentation and decided to go and meet my friends who are also my co-authors for dinner and a walk around Chicago downtown.

Millennium Park

The final day saw my co-authors present the second paper which we had accepted for the conference. The morning was spent attending sessions of interest, a walk along to Millennium Park for lunch before taking a back seat to watch my co-author present our paper. I was relaxed as I wasn’t presenting and all I had to do was sit back and watch. As soon as the paper finished we had to make a dash to the airport for our flight back to Glasgow but before the mad dash, a quick picture with the AoM banner was needed. I persuaded my co-author Dr Russell Matthews (Strathclyde University) and Professor Graeme Martin (Director of Research, University of Dundee) to smile for the camera!

Glad to be back home

After a day of travelling back to the UK and managing to use part of the flight time to catch up on work, I was glad to be back home. Once we get into August, planning for the new academic year really ramps up. This involves finalising student assessments, module structures and teaching content. So some free time on a flight back from the US was a welcome opportunity to focus. As part of this I also managed to get caught up on some emails with colleagues from industry who will be coming on-campus later this year to support some of our teaching and various other interactions with students. Industry support is a huge advantage to our students and something we appreciate greatly. Writing this in mid-August, I still don’t know for certain the number of new students we will have starting with us in September. We know recruitment has been strong this year so now we wait and see how many students start.

Academic Research

As part of my role, I am Programme Director for our extremely popular MSc Management degree. This essentially means I am responsible for the design and delivery of the degree, the student experience and the quality of offering that we deliver. Today has been about finalising changes that I have made to this degree for September 2018. Students can choose to study a range of what we call pathways. Think of them as specialisms. A new pathway that I have introduced this year is MSc Management with Entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial skills, enterprise and innovative thinking is a set of skills welcomed by all business. Our Centre of Entrepreneurship (in partnership with Elevator) will play a part in this new pathway and I have been spending time with them today to finalise a few key aspects. Mainly the exciting opportunity that students will have to start their own business whilst on the degree.

Academic research is a major focus for me and my future career, as it is with the majority of academic staff at the University of Dundee. Working on my research is a year-round activity but the summer period offers the opportunity to focus a little harder and I have found time today to progress some of my work. A significant milestone for the University sector is when we submit and then see the results of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021. This system in the UK is used to assess the excellence of University research. I am working on a number of research papers at present: understanding the knowledge exchange between business advisors and businesses; comparing enterprise policy processes of governments between Japan, Canada and Brazil; exploring how and why businesses scale-up and; looking at the collaborative economy as a disruptive model for the global economy.

New Students

When we welcome new students in September, we place a great emphasis on their induction and their introduction to UK higher education. This September, we are trialling a new induction programme for our Master’s students. As well as getting a thorough introduction to the University, facilities and systems, the students will have a full week of team building, team working and competitive workshops. These will be supported by the Centre of Entrepreneurship, Institute of Sport and Exercise, Scottish Institute for Enterprise, careers and employability staff, and the other Postgraduate Directors at the Business School. We also have a number of local businesses signed up to support us this year. Anything new however requires a lot of planning and I have been meeting with colleagues today to try and finalise elements of the week. As many of the students are from overseas, we are treating them to an end of week Ceilidh, so pipers, ceilidh bands and haggis has been discussed at length today. After a very interesting and tiring, but great week, I am ready to have a quiet weekend! Every week is different and exciting in academia.