Bridging the Gap between Academics and Practitioners

After being inspired by meeting and listening to Edward de Bono last week, I’ve taken on board his strategy of developing and putting into action my ideas which could benefit our members - otherwise as Edward says, they will only exist as  ideas.

With this in mind, I am  busy working on several ideas which are at the development and action stages. 
One idea that  has been developed and now being put into action, is our new Academic Branch Professional Accreditation process for our academic members.
I am really excited about this, as its real ground breaking stuff for us as an Institute. We realised that we had some fantastic HR academics that were leaders in their field but we had no way of being able to officially recognise them for their academic achievements and contribution to the HR profession – until now.

HR academics can now apply for  Professional Academic Accreditation  and gain the recognition they deserve in their chosen field of  Human Resource Management. 

By providing a professional accreditation process through our new Academic Branch,  we hope this will create a bridge between our HR academics and HR practitioners; which will encourage open communication  in order to advance relevant HRM research, and evidence-based HRM practice and policy advice.  Personally, I believe this is a win-win situation for everyone,  HR practitioners will be able to communicate to our HR academics what types of research they want researched, and the HR academics will be able to provide quality research  data  in the knowledge that this research will be widely received, relevant and practical for practitioners, employers and the HR profession.

Well on that note I must get back to work, but I would like to share one of my favourite quotes from Edward de Bono: “If you never change your mind, why have one?”