University of Otago
Human Resources International Conference

University of Otago campus at night.

Call for extended abstracts HRIC

Academics, practitioners and students are invited to contribute to the 5th Human Resources International Conference (HRIC).

The 5th HRIC offers an opportunity to advance the discussion on Human Resource Management's (HRM) role in bringing about sustainability and common good within the workplace. Common Good is all about supporting “business leaders and employees in contributing to ecological and social progress in the world” (Aust, Matthews, and Muller-Camen, 2019), with Common Good HRM presenting a future-focused vision for HRM that supports practitioners who want to make a difference. Thus, there is a need for HRM to explore new approaches to practice.

Common good HRM emphasises how it can contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by supporting organisations as they attempt to deal with the grand challenges faced by our society. The value of the Common Good approach is that it highlights the salient role HRM can play in dealing with society’s grand challenges, with all the SDGs linking to HRM policy and practice. For example, the goal of eliminating poverty (#1) is clearly linked to rewards, gender equality (#5) to diversity and inclusion, good health and wellbeing (goal #3) to health, safety, and social and psychological wellbeing, decent work and economic growth (goal #8) to recruitment, selection, rewards, training, development and performance management. Although less explicit, goals such as that of responsible consumption and production (#12) can also be addressed through training and performance management initiatives.

Therefore, the conference theme, among other things, seeks to develop our understanding about new HRM approaches which promote solutions to the grand challenges faced by society, and influence stakeholders such as employees, organisations, community, and the environment. This HRIC provides opportunities to share work-in-progress on any current related HRM issue. The conference also presents an opportunity to network with colleagues from academia, industry and government. We welcome paper, symposia, and professional development workshop submissions on a range of topics relevant to the shifting landscape of HRM, and therefore have the following tracks:

  1. Common good HRM
  2. Indigeneity in HRM
  3. International HRM (including cross-cultural perspectives)
  4. Employment Relations
  5. Human Resource Development (HRD)
  6. HR scholar/practitioner nexus
  7. General HRM
  8. Interdisciplinary/practitioner

Submission Timeline

  • Submissions open Friday 2 June 2023
  • Submissions close on Friday 18 August 2023 (extended deadline Friday 22 September 2023).
  • Decisions notified by Friday 22 September 2023 (rolling feedback will be given as submissions are made, within eight weeks of submission)

Submission portal

Submission Guidelines

  • All extended abstracts and Symposium/Workshops submissions should be in English.
  • Extended abstracts should be a maximum of 1000 (excluded tables, figures and references).
  • Symposia and workshop proposals should be a maximum of 500 words and included the following:
    • Title
    • Organiser(s)
    • Potential participants - both who would be interested and approximately how many people are anticipated to attend
    • Topic/theme
    • Structure/Format including any specific space or room necessities.
    • Purpose/value/aim
  • To preserve anonymity, author names should be excluded from the header/footer or from the body.  Authors should be referred to in the text or notes in the third person only.
  • Submission is final, and changes cannot occur to it afterwards.
  • A maximum of three papers as an author or a co-author may be submitted.

Formatting Guidelines:

  • Extended abstracts should include a short background, problem, objectives, method, results and conclusions.
  • Formatting: Single spacing and Times New Roman 12-point font.
  • The entire submission (title, abstract, text, figures, graphs, tables, and references) must be contained in one document.
  • The title should be listed in the header of each page.
  • Only electronic submissions will be accepted. The HRIC2023 submission system will be open for submissions from 1 June 2023.
  • Figures, graphs, tables, appendices, and references should follow the Academy of Management Journal’s Style Guide.
  • Please follow the above guidelines to ensure your paper is reviewed. Papers that are not prepared according to these formatting instructions will not be reviewed.

Review Process

Papers will be double-blind reviewed:

  • All papers will be blind peer-reviewed by at least two reviewers
  • All submitting authors are expected to review one to two papers
  • Reviewers will be invited to supply review comments to authors, but a review report to the author is not compulsory
  • Reviewer decisions are final, and the outcomes will not be revisited.


Doctoral Colloquium Submissions

We are pleased to convene a Doctoral Colloquium which will provide both feedback on your research endeavours and specific workshops that will be valuable to doctoral students.  The colloquium will comprise of a feedback session with peers and senior academics, a seminar on a topic of relevance to doctoral students, and an interactive panel session focused on publishing.

To apply to join Doctoral Colloquium, students must develop and submit a summary proposal of their doctoral research (maximum 5 pages, single spaced).

You must include the following details:

  • Name, email address, university affiliation, PhD area/discipline, number of years in the PhD programme.
  • Title of your thesis/research proposal
  • Motivation for your research
  • Research question(s)
  • Brief literature review and overview of key concepts/theories
  • Methods/data/analysis approach
  • Potential contributions of the research

All participants will receive copies of all proposals and will be expected to provide feedback to those in their assigned group.

The final submission date is 30th September 2023.


Conference Location

New Zealand offers the perfect vantage point to evaluate this shifting landscape of HRM. New Zealand has a progressive HRM regulatory framework and sustainability is important to our workforce. Indeed, sustainability is a concept which resonates well within New Zealand, where our leadership during COVID-19 has emphasized wellbeing and been people-focused, strong, and decisive. As a country, we market ourselves as being “clean-green”, with sustainability and social responsibility at the heart of our future. Moreover, as a bicultural country, Māori views of hauora (wellbeing) and kaitiakitanga (sustainability) are holistic and relational, drawing from the inter-dependencies of socio-cultural, spiritual, ecological, and economic values. As such, the theme of Common Good HRM provides an interesting landscape on which to explore this uniquely Aotearoa New Zealand, Māori perspective in relation to organising and managing people.


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