Sharing tips and experiences about having a sustainable academic career

At the recent Academy of Management Conference in Chicago, Sharon Parker was honoured to share the stage with Professor Jane Dutton and Professor Scott Sonenshein for a "Fireside Chat" organised by the OB committee.

Sharon, Jane, and Scott shared their tips and experiences about having a sustainable academic career. Jane shared with the audience some of the challenges around juggling family and career commitments, Scott advised academics to be focused in their decision making to stay productive, and Sharon recommended for young scholars to "go out into the field" for research inspiration and ideas.

One of our post-doctoral researchers, Daniela Andrei was in the audience. Daniela commented:

"For me, it was very inspiring to get a glimpse into the career journey of three seasoned and successful academics. What stroke a chord with me was the fact that neither of their career paths seemed to be straightforward, that they all encountered difficulties and challenges that are similar to some of the things I am experiencing myself. The discussion was open and candid, and even emotional at times, especially when the topic of balancing career aspirations and family came up."

Which Greek/Roman metaphor would describe your team performance?

"Icarus" team that starts out well but has a downward spiral versus.

Illustration by Kim Smith

A new paper that, with the help of Greek/Roman metaphors, describes different ways teams change over time. Such as an "Icarus" team that starts out well but has a downward spiral versus a "Jupiter" teams which performs well across time.

We examine the concept of team performance and propose a framework to understand patterns of change over time. Following a literature review on team performance (focusing on empirical articles published between 2007 and 2017) and drawing on Greek and Roman mythology, we identify five team performance trajectories: “Jupiter” (consistently high performing), “Neptune” (relatively steady, average performance), “Pluto” (low performing), “Icarus” (initially high performing, with a downward spiral), and “Odysseus” (initially low to midrange performing, with an upward spiral), which we refer to as “team performance archetypes.” We discuss how they might be used in conjunction with growth modeling methodology to help facilitate theory building and data collection/analysis with respect to team performance. In addition, we discuss the future research implications associated with using the archetypes to help conceptualize patterns of team performance over time.

You can this new paper on Research Gate.

#team

Applications for CEPAR Summer Research Scholarships are open

CEPAR and the UNSW Business School offer highly competitive summer research scholarships to currently enrolled undergraduate students who are considering Honours and/or postgraduate research in the future. Students will participate in research projects supervised by CEPAR researchers and gain valuable research experience.

2018/19 summer research scholarships are now open with the following projects being offered at the Centre for Transformative Work Design (CTWD):

Development and Validation of a Measure of Workplace Age Bias

Work Design Practices for Attracting and Retaining Mature Workers

Our Research Fellows, Daniela Andrei and Gigi Petery will supervise the above projects.

Gigi shared 5 reasons to apply for these opportunities:

• Engage with a team of world renown organizational researchers

• Gain hands-on research experience that is vital for graduate school applications

• Receive mentorship from experts

• Work in the heart of Perth’s vibrant CBD where the Curtin Graduate Business School is located

• Be a part of the CTWD's vision of transforming work through work design

To register your interest for one of the above available projects please read the Guidelines and submit your Application Form along with your transcripts and CV to Amy Brushwood a.brushwood@unsw.edu.au by 28 September 2018.

More information on the CEPAR's website.