Eva Knies appointed as Professor of Strategic Human Resource Management Resource Management
As of 1 March 2018, Eva Knies is appointed as Professor of Strategic Human Resource Management at the Utrecht University School of Governance (USG) of the Faculty of Law, Economics, and Governance. In the coming years, Eva Knies will focus on the cross-fertilisation between the Strategic Human Resource Management and Public Management/Public Administration disciplines.
In the research that will conducted under her supervision, Eva Knies will focus on Strategic HRM and public value creation, leadership, and sustainable employability.
The Utrecht University School of Governance (USG) is very pleased as Eva Knies is the first USG alumna (bachelor and master) to be appointed as full professor. The brand new professor herself is also proud of her appointment: ‘I have always felt supported to develop myself and undertake new tasks and projects at USG. In the position of professor new tasks and responsibilities await me again. I find that very challenging. Furthermore: USG is a great place to work. That is more than enough motivation to stay here.’
The Future of Work – in the Public Sector
Eva Knies will act as a leading researcher in the USG research programme Public Matters, in particular the core theme Strategic HRM & Public service performance. In this capacity she will also strengthen the connections with the hub Future of Work of the Institutions for Open Societies strategic theme and the Professional Performance focus area of Utrecht University. She will also continue the research activities in her VENI project ‘Capturing the nature of public value creation’, in which she cooperates closely with organisations in the education and health care sectors.
‘HRM research mainly focuses on the private sector’ says Eva Knies, ‘but you cannot translate the findings of these studies to a public sector context. This already starts with the question which value you want to create as an organisation, and which contribution HRM and leadership can make. The HRM discipline can use insights from the public management/public administration to answer these questions.
As far as public service performance is concerned, managers in the public sector meet specific challenges. How do managers cope with red tape in the education and health care sectors? And what is the effect of the institutional context on your HRM policies and practices? It is often assumed that managers in the public sector can have less impact on performance because of rules and regulations. However, research shows that this is not the case. This is a highly relevant issue and I would like to study this in depth.
In the interdisciplinary research hub Future of Work, one of the foci is sustainable employability. What are the implications for employees when they are aware that their job is changing or disappearing as a result of changes in the labour market? And what can organisations offer employees to maintain their employability in times of an aging labour market, globalisation, and robotisation’.
Because of the many talks with practitioners, I am well informed on what’s going on in the field and this also inspires new research questions.
Eva Knies
Next to her research activities and the supervision of young researchers, Eva is associate editor for the leading HRM journal the International Journal of Human Resource Management. Furthermore she is strongly involved in the educational programmes at the bachelor, master, and executive master levels at USG, for example as coordinator of the master programme ‘Strategic HRM.’ She will continue to act as programme coordinator and teacher in two courses on people management and Strategic HRM for middle managers and school leaders in secondary education, which are commissioned by the VO Academy.
‘The interaction with societal partners is inspiring. We offer knowledge and insights to the participants in these programmes, but I’m learning a lot from them as well. Because of the many talks with practitioners, I am well informed on what’s going on in the field and this also inspires new research questions. This is real cross-fertilisation.’
More information
Would like to know more about Eva Knies, please visit her personal webpage.