Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations' Update
Issue #16                                                                                                                                          March 2014
In This Issue
From left, Professor Dave Ferio is seen with SMLR MHRM students and Ohio State Competition Red Team members Deboleena Bose, Frederick Feller, Maham Mukhtar, and Claudis Hanke.
Feature

February 22-23:
Rutgers SMLR's Red Team gave an outstanding presentation at the Ohio State Invitational Graduate HR Case Competition. The case problem, presented by Pepsi HR and Operations Executives, was to analyze and recommend ways to reduce a 12% turnover of hires (Millenials/recent college graduates) in first level roles. This is a critical operational and strategic issue for Pepsi.

"I was extremely proud of the analysis and presentation by our team. While we did not garner the top win, the recommendations were well-founded and represented an incredible effort translating to a first-class outcome," said Professor Dave Ferio, director of the master's program in human resource management and the graduate chapter of Rutgers Society of Human Resource Management (RU SHRM).

RU SHRM is holding its 10th annual business conference on March 28.
Click here to RSVP to this event.
Presentations & Events

From left, NJ Republican Committeeman Veny Musum, Professor Joseph Blasi, and NJ General Assembly Deputy Speaker Upendra Chivukula.
November 20:
New Jersey General Assembly Deputy Speaker Upendra Chivukula and
New Jersey Republican Committeeman Veny Musum, former senior vice president of Paul Mitchell Products, were guest speakers in Professor Joseph Blasi's "Corporate Governance" class. Chivukula and Musum shared their views on employee ownership. Assemblyman Chivuluka has introduced a bill into the New Jersey Legislature to provide modest tax incentives to small business owners who wish to sell their businesses to the workers and managers of the firms that they founded when they retire.

 

January 12-14:
SMLR welcomed over 70 scholars from across the country and the globe as the school hosted the annual, Mid-Year Fellows Workshop in Honor of Louis O. Kelso at the Heldrich Hotel in New Brunswick. The researchers--professors from many universities and SMLR faculty and doctoral students and fellows--addressed broad-based employee stock ownership and profit sharing in a global economy. The goal of the workshop was to encourage feedback, discussion, mentorship, and collaboration among researchers in a variety of fields. ... Read more

 

Professor David Bensman is standing to the left of, in order, Olivier Giraud (Paris-CNAM), Donna Kesselman (Paris-UPEC), Susan Bisom-Rapp (Thomas Jefferson School of Law), Christian Aza�s (Paris- Daupine), and Richard Hyman (LSE, emeritus).

January 17:
Professor David Bensman presented his paper in Paris at the research colloquium entitled, "Normes diemploi et situations de travail face aux regulations marchandes et politiques," which addressed how work and employment relations were changing around the world and how employment laws, labor unions, and social protections were failing in their attempts to protect workers. The researchers who gathered at three Paris area universities for the meeting came primarily from Brazil and France. Professor Bensman's paper was on "Misclassification of Independent Contractors."  

Awards & Achievements

Professor Richard Beatty

Professor Richard W. Beatty was recently named as one of HR's Most Influential International Thinkers in 2013 by HR Magazine (UK). According to the magazine, "these are the people whose ideas and actions are shaping practices in HR both in the UK and globally." ... Read more


Professor Adrienne E. Eaton, chair of the Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations is the principal investigator of an award totaling $767,284. The award titled Opportunity4Jersey Training Grant is being supported by the N.J. Department of Labor and Workforce Development and administered by the New Jersey Health Care Talent Network, which is funded by the state's Department of Labor and Workforce Development and based at Rutgers' SMLR. The Opportunity4Jersey Training Grant program is designed for eligible training providers to train qualified, displaced unemployed workers in occupational demand skills, which connect to immediate job openings with partnering businesses.

Professor Stan Gully

 

Professor Stan Gully will be inducted as a Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) Fellow at the SIOP Conference in Hawaii on May 15-17. SIOP Fellows are distinguished industrial and organizational psychologists who have made an unusual and outstanding contribution to the field. ... Read more

 

Karen White, director of Working Families Programs at the Center for Women and Work (CWW), was honored at this year's New Labor gala on December 14, 2013. Ms. White was recognized for her work as a researcher and advocate for work/family balance. In 2013, she worked tirelessly for raising the minimum wage in New Jersey and municipal ordinances requiring earned sick days for workers in Jersey City and Newark. ... Read more 

 


Developments

 

SMLR recently established the Education and Employment Research Center (EERC), a division that will focus on advancing workers' access to community colleges and provide research on workforce development. The center offers research, evaluation, and technical assistance. Heather McKay is EERC's director. For more information, visit smlr.rutgers.edu/eerc.

 

SMLR's Center for Work and Health was recently established to conduct research on healthcare work organizations, labor relations in healthcare organizations, human resource management in healthcare organizations, and the impact of the aforementioned on organizational performance. Professors Adrienne Eaton and Rebecca Givan are the center's directors. For more information, visit smlr.rutgers.edu/center-for-work-and-health.

 

Student News

 

Rutgers Director of Women's Basketball Operations Michelle Edwards, a current MLER student, is among the 2014 inductees into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.  Edwards played for Rutgers Hall of Fame head coach C. Vivian Stringer at the University of Iowa from 1984 - 88. ... Read more. 
Michelle Edwards
Michelle Edwards, current MLER student

  

Brandon Coleman, former Rutgers wide receiver and current LSER student, is delaying his studies in order to attend the NFL Draft. He plans to finish his degree next spring. Coleman says his experience in the classroom was as valuable as his time on the field at Rutgers. "It was top of the line," Coleman said. "It was one of the reasons that I chose Rutgers in the first place because the academic progress rate and the graduation rate was so high. I knew that I was going to leave there with a good degree and a good education. I just thought if I put in the work it was going to pay off, and it's good to see that it's starting to pay off." ... Read More.  

Alumni News

William Dwyer BALS '93 and MLER '97
William Dwyer BALS '93 and MLER '97

William Dwyer, BALS '93, MLER '97 joined SMLR's faculty in fall 2013. Dwyer is a former manager of PSEG's labor and employee relations and former president of the SMLR Alumni and Friends Association, a position he held for six years. He shares the benefits of earning a well-rounded education from Rutgers SMLR's world-class faculty. ... Watch a video about his experiences. Learn more about SMLR's alumni.

Dr. Aparna Joshi,
IRHR '02

 

 

Dr. Aparna Joshi, IRHR '02, has been selected as the 2014 recipient of the Academy of Management Organizational Behavior Division's Cummings Scholarly Achievement Award, recognizing the outstanding scholarly achievement of an early-to-mid career scholar in the field of organizational behavior. ... Read more.  

Ruchi Sinha, MHRM '09 and MLER '10, has been appointed president of the Alumni and Friends of the School of Management and Labor Relations. Ruchi is an active member of the Rutgers Chapter of the Society of Human Resources Management and has over seven years of global HR experience. 
Research & Publications
Rutgers' study,
Overlooking Oversight

 

Professor Janice Fine is co-author of a new study on how the state of New Jersey is placing some of its most vulnerable people - children, the disabled, and the elderly - at unnecessary risk by lacking oversight of its third-party contractors. The study, Overlooking Oversight: A Lack of Oversight in the Garden State is Placing New Jersey Residents and Assets at Risk, shows how this state of affairs came to be over many years, under both Democratic and Republican leadership, and makes policy recommendations to remedy the situation. Read more about the report in The Star-Ledger and NJSpotlight or listen to the audio on NJ101.5.

 

Professor Doug Kruse, a senior economist on the White House Council of Economic Advisers, helped to create the White House's recently released poverty report. The study addresses U.S. poverty levels and its relation to education and the minimum wage, among other topics. Their key finding challenges the conventional wisdom that there has been little progress in fighting poverty over the last 50 years. Read more about the report in the New York Times. Click here to view the full report.

 

Professor Kruse edited a volume titled, Sharing Ownership, Profits, and Decision-making in the 21st Century, which was published by Emerald Publishing as part of their longstanding "Advances in the Economic Analysis of Participatory and Self-managed Firms" series. It contains chapters by SMLR Professors Joseph Blasi and Charles Heckscher, Ph.D. Student Dan Weltmann, and Ray Carey Fellow Chris Mackin. The book contains several chapters by young scholars who are part of the Rutgers Fellowship program, along with chapters by some of the most senior figures in the field. View the table of contents.  

In The News

 

 

December 4:
Danielle Lindemann, CWW's research director and assistant research professor, co-authored an op-ed in the Times of Trenton that addresses New Jersey's paid sick time policy. ... Read more.   

 

December 31:
Carla Katz, SMLR instructor, was featured on Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto. Ms. Katz spoke about issues surrounding the country's minimum wage. Watch the interviewCarla Katz was also interviewed twice by Fox News regarding Walmart's Black Friday protests and "what these protests say about the American dream."   

 

January 4:
CWW's Karen White was quoted in the Press of Atlantic City's article on "Businesses Pressured To Pay For Sick Leave." The article references a recent CWW study. "The fact is that close to 40 percent of New Jersey workers don't have it. Most are in low-wage jobs, those who could least afford taking time off," said Ms. White. ... Read more.

  

January 13:
Dr. Mary Gatta, a part-time lecturer and senior scholar at Wider Opportunities for Women, wrote a blog entry on the US Bureau of Labor Statistics Jobs Report that was released in January. She discusses why all the job gains in December were made by women. ... Read more.  

 

January 28: 
Professors Joseph Blasi and Doug Kruse's book, The Citizen's Share: Putting Ownership Back into Democracy, was mentioned in Thomas Edsall's New York Times op-ed on capitalism vs. democracy. ... Read more 

 

Save The Dates!

 

MARCH 14

TAKE THIS JOB AND CHANGE IT: HEALTH CARE TRANSFORMATION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR EMPLOYMENT
Featuring Susan Dentzer, renowned health policy expert, journalist, and commentator
12:00 p.m.
Labor Education Center

Join us for a discussion on the various changes taking place in the health care system--including payment and delivery systems and technology--that are driving changes in work, employment, and employment relations in the industry. Lunch will be provided to those who RSVP. Email lawalkoviak@work.rutgers.edu or call 848-932-9503.  Read more about this event. 

 

This event is part of the Employment Relations in Health care Conference held on March 14-15. It is sponsored by Rutgers Centers for Global Advancement and International Affairs, Rutgers SMLR's Center for Work and Health, and the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois.

 

MARCH 28

RU SHRM 10th ANNUAL BUSINESS CONFERENCE:
HR ANALYTICS--THE WAY FORWARD
8:30 a.m.--4:00 p.m.
Livingston Student Center

Join us as we bring together present and future HR leaders to focus on strengthening HR's strategic positions within organizations and get insight on how companies are leveraging HR Analytics as the upcoming trend to stay competitive in the second decade of the 21st century. Click here to register for this event

 

APRIL 7-11 

NEW JERSEY HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY WEEK
Opening Cerermony: April 7 at Busch Campus Center 

8:30 a.m.--4:30 p.m.
Get free health screenings, attend a job fair, and discover educational opportunities.

This week-long, state-wide event will promote awareness and job opportunities in mental health. You can also learn about New Jersey's growing health care industry. Events will be held across the State of New Jersey. For more information, visit hctn-nj.org/industry-week.

 

APRIL 26

RUTGERS DAY
10:00 a.m.--4:00 p.m.
Location: TBD

Rutgers SMLR is looking forward to welcoming current students, alumni, and friends during Rutgers Day! Details on specific SMLR activities can be found at smlr.rutgers.edu/rutgersday. To volunteer email rwalker@smlr.rutgers.edu.

 

Share Your News!
If you have news that you'd like to share, e-mail Ren�e Walker, director of communications, at rwalker@smlr.rutgers.edu. For more information on the School of Management and Labor Relations, visit us at smlr.rutgers.edu.

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