The collaborative and multidisciplinary research environment at Simon Fraser University has allowed the Centre for Global Workforce Strategy to build a strong team of researchers, drawing from the Beedie School of Business’ existing research expertise on global workforce management and from an extensive network of individuals associated with ongoing research projects. Research Fellows span the globe from Austria to Australia and represent a wide range of sub-specialties including expertise in work-life balance, the development of cultural intelligence, comparative human resource management practices, biculturalism, assessment centres, HR issues in mergers and acquisitions, management of expatriates, and cross-cultural communication.

The purpose of the Centre is to focus activity on contemporary problems related to global workforce strategy under the guidance of an Advisory Board, which itself represents a wide range of geographic locations and industries. In addition to research, Centre activities include hosting public forums, workshops, and academic conferences; preparation and distribution of educational material for use by universities and professional associations; media outreach and networking activities; and regular offerings of professional development programs.

About Us

The Centre for Global Workforce Strategy carries out multidisciplinary research on issues surrounding effective workforce management strategies. It began by consolidating the activities of three ongoing multinational research projects.

The first, The Cultural Intelligence Project, involves participants from 12 countries in defining, developing, and validating an instrument to measure cultural intelligence–the measure of an individual’s ability to interact effectively with the cultural aspects of an environment. It is a key competency requirement for the management of cultural diversity

The second project is Canadian Participation in Cranet (Cranfield Network on Comparative Human Resource Management). Established in 1989, Cranet is an expanding group of top business schools and academic institutions collaborating to provide unique and rigorous data on human resource management (HRM) practices across the world. Researchers carry out a regular international survey of organizational policies and practices and provide benchmarks for a systematic comparative analysis of trends in HRM policies and practices. Cranet is a unique resource for researchers, management practitioners, and policy makers, who seeking an up-to-date overview of HRM’s ever-changing global face.

The third project involves the study of bicultural individuals in organizations. Given the changing patterns in the world’s workforce, it is increasingly possible that more employees and managers will be bicultural. Bicultural individuals have a dual pattern of identification with different cultures. The ability of biculturals to operate within more than one culture as a native raises a number of interesting and important questions for global workforce management.

Other Centre activities include:

• Practitioner forums, media outreach, and academic conferences
• Publication in traditional scholarly venues
• Preparation and distribution of educational material for use by universities and professional associations
• Outreach and networking activities, such as hosting conferences or public forums on topical subjects, and workshops to promote the activities and findings of the Centre to both academic and business audiences
• Professional development programs

The collaborative and multidisciplinary research environment at Simon Fraser University has allowed the Centre to build a strong team of researchers, drawing from both the Beedie School of Business existing research expertise on global workforce management and an extensive network of individuals associated with ongoing research projects.