Congratulations to Bissett HR professor, Uthpala Tennakoon, PhD, on the recent publication of a chapter titled, Ideal Organizations for the New Ideal Workers: Exploring the Role of Life-friendly work practices in the book, The New Ideal Worker. Contributions to Management Science. (Edited by las Heras Maestro M., Chinchilla Albiol N., Grau Grau M.)

Abstract:The increased interest of modern employees to balance competing demands between work and life has driven organizations to rethink the profile of the ideal worker. Life-friendly work practices (LFWP), which commonly include flexible work arrangements, compressed work weeks, teleworking, job sharing, family leave programs, organizational support for dependent care, and other life-related benefits, have evolved as a means to create workplaces which appeals to this new breed of workers. With limited resources at their disposal, it is important for organizations to be intentional about the selection and offering of LFWP. This interview study with 16 HR executives and 16 post-secondary university students as future employees, explores the organizational reasoning behind LFWP and future employee attraction criteria in relation to LFWP. The findings reveal that most organizations are genuinely interested in creating an ideal organization for their ideal employees. It may be beneficial for organizations to be more expressive of the organizational LFWP initiatives in their employer branding message to create awareness and attract the future ideal workers. The multi-perspective examination of LFWP provided useful insights for practical applications, and directions for further research.

Also, the faculty extends their congratulations to Uthpala for receiving a research grant from the Institute for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the in the 2020 Essential Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Grants competition for the project titled, “Pop Quiz with a twist: Assessing the Benefits of two-stage in-class quizzes in business courses”.