| CONNECT: |  |
 |
 |
University of Calgary
Fridays with the Faculty
Our popular seminar series Fridays With the Faculty features professors from the Haskayne School of Business. Get the latest research in key areas of management and leadership, ideas you can apply in your company first thing Monday morning.
Upcoming sessions
Friday, May 25, 2012
The Procrastination Equation: how to turn good intentions into completed action
with Dr. Piers Steel
Have you ever put off a task until later knowing you that you should be starting on it right away? That old bug-bear: procrastination! We all put things off, but not all to the same extent. It’s when procrastination becomes chronic that it’s a problem. It costs us emotionally and financially. The inability to tackle tasks is often a recipe for exhaustion and reduced productivity, wiping us out by the end of the day. Fortunately it is possible to adopt self-regulatory tricks that give us motivation when we want it, allowing us to change good intentions into completed actions. Find out more from Piers Steel, the author of The Procrastination Equation.
Dr. Piers Steel is one of the world’s leading researchers and speakers on the science of motivation and procrastination. Teaching at the Haskayne School of Business, he received the Killam Emerging Research Leader award for best new professor across all disciplines, as well as the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Leadership in Teaching and Learning. Piers’ research, which has focused on bridging psychology with human resource management, has won several awards as well as international recognition, with media coverage ranging from New York Times, The New Yorker, USA Today, The Globe and Mail, National Post and Scientific American.
Past sessions
Friday, April 27, 2012
How To Be Profitable and Moral... And Have Fun: Practical Advice for Long-term Profitability
with Dr. Jaana Woiceshyn
Have you ever thought that acting ethically is not always practical in business, or even that it is a chore? For many, this is a real-life challenge. Join us for this interactive session to learn why acting on the right ethical principles is a requirement of long-term profitability and the flourishing of your business. Professor of strategy and business ethics, Dr. Jaana Woiceshyn, will discuss the right moral principles for business success—such as honesty, justice and pride; and you will get some hands-on practice applying them to real-life ethical dilemmas.
Dr. Jaana Woiceshyn has taught strategic management and business ethics to undergraduate, MBA and Executive MBA students at the Haskayne School of Business since 1987. She has also given seminars on ethics to the Directors' Program at Haskayne and the International MBA and EMBA programs of the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration, both in Finland and in Taiwan . She holds a BBA as well as an MBA from the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration, and a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. Her most recent research examines the thinking methods of top executives in Canadian oil and gas firms. Dr. Woiceshyn has chaired Haskayne's research ethics review committee and served as a research ethics reviewer for the university-level committee. In addition to other, peer-reviewed journals, she has been published in Journal of Business Ethics.
Download slidesDownload handout
Friday, March 23, 2012
Contracts: Read 'em and Don't Weep
with Sandra Malach and Rob Malach
Instructors, Haskayne School of Business
Do you dread reviewing contracts? Are you unsure of their meaning? Are you worried that your review is inaccurate? This session will give you some tips and a methodology for approaching this daunting task. We will look at how contracts are constructed and provide you with and understanding of the legal and stylistic approaches to drafting to help you more accurately and confidently review and interpret contracts. The session will include a review of a short contract.
Sandra Malach, LLB, LLM, is an instructor in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation area at the Haskayne School of Business. Sandra teaches entrepreneurship and introductory and advanced business law at the undergraduate and MBA levels. Prior to becoming an instructor she was the counsel at the Venture Development Legal Clinic where she worked with MBA and law students in an interdisciplinary clinical environment to provide information to entrepreneurs. Sandra holds a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Calgary and a Masters of Laws degree from Osgoode Hall, York University, and has been a member of the Law Society of Alberta since 1987.
Rob Malach is a law instructor in the Business and Environment area at Haskayne School of Business. Prior to teaching at Haskayne, Rob spent 7 years as Associate Director Bar Admission Training where in addition to day to day course administration, he was involved in curriculum design and development, as well as the recruitment and training of volunteer faculty. Rob is presently the course coordinator and an instructor for BSEN 395 - Business Law for Strategic Decision Makers. He holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Saskatchewan, a diploma in Education, a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Calgary, and a Master of Laws degree from Osgoode Hall, York University.
Download slidesDownload worksheet
Friday, February 24, 2012
Competing for Global Talent
with Dr. Eva Klein
While rampant unemployment is impacting much of the Western world, many companies in western Canada are experiencing labour shortages. These skill shortages have resulted in companies seeking temporary and permanent workers from abroad. Canada has always welcomed immigrants to complement its small population; however we have not often used immigrants to their full potential or to Canada's economic benefit. This has resulted in frustration and disappointment both amongst employers and the immigrant population.
This seminar will address the main issues many employers face in attracting and retaining immigrant employees, including the issue of credential qualifications. What are the expectations of potential employers? How can new Canadians aim to fulfill these? How can Canadian employers compete effectively for the global talent they need to help make Canada thrive?
Dr. Eva Klein joined the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary in January 2008 as a professor of Human Resources and Organizational Dynamics and the Organizational Behaviour Executive in Residence. She teaches leadership and interpersonal behaviour, organizational change and compensation management to undergraduate, graduate, and executive audiences. Dr. Klein holds a PhD from Rutgers University, a Masters in Psycholinguistics from Stanford University, and a BSc in Honours Mathematics from McGill University.
Friday, January 27, 2012
A Review of Canada’s Private Equity Marketplace
with J. Ari Pandes, PhD
Private equity markets are becoming an increasingly important source of development capital in Canada and around the world. Using unique data from the Alberta Securities Commission, this presentation will focus on the nature of Canada’s private equity marketplace and its participants. The talk will outline how firms can structure their financing activities to help increase their investor base and the amount of capital they can raise, and examining the role that agents play in facilitating capital raising. This talk will be of interest to key decision makers within private firms, investment bankers, accountants, lawyers, and other potential agents, as well as potential private equity investors.
Dr. J. Ari Pandes is an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary. Ari teaches Advanced Financial Management at the undergraduate level. His research focuses primarily on issues in corporate finance, especially investment banking, raising financing, securities issuance, and the going public decision. Dr. Pandes holds a PhD in Finance from the Schulich School of Business at York University, a Master’s in Economics from York University, and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Toronto.
November 25, 2011
The Ostrich and the Chameleon: Finding Opportunity in the Face of Threat
with Jim Dewald, PhD
Possibly Steve Job’s greatest contribution was his innate ability to rise ever higher in the face of adversity. How do we each respond to adversity and what drives those responses? More importantly, how can you prepare yourself and your organization to gain in the face of adverse circumstances? Using the volatile real estate industry as a laboratory, researchers at the Haskayne School of Business have developed new insights into these challenges and opportunities.
Jim Dewald, Associate Dean (Graduate Programs) of the Haskayne School of Business has been named a “Thought Leader” by the Alberta Real Estate Foundation. This distinction recognizes his unique blending of academic credentials with 30 years of experience in industry, much of it as a CEO in real estate development. Join Jim as he shares the insights from five years of multi-level research in the real estate brokerage industry, and how those insights apply to other industries in the Calgary marketplace.
October 21, 2011
Process improvement in outpatient health care clinics
Dr. Diane Bischak
Crowded waiting rooms, unhappy patients, stressed-out staff…is there a better way? Diane Bischak, Ph.D., will discuss strategies for improving the process of serving patients at outpatient health care clinics — without compromising the quality of care. Topics covered included: how busy should a clinic really be, how should the daily appointment schedule be arranged, and how should additional resources be applied to achieve the greatest improvement in patient satisfaction?
Dr. Diane Bischak is Associate Professor of Operations Management at the Haskayne School of Business. She is Co-Director of the Healthcare OPerational Excellence (HOPE) Laboratory at the University of Calgary, the mission of which is to conduct basic and applied research to improve operational aspects of the delivery of health services. Diane earned her Ph.D. in industrial and operations engineering at the University of Michigan. She has been involved in health services research for over twenty years and has worked with several Calgary outpatient health care clinics to improve their operational processes.
September 23, 2011
People aren't as good at decision-making as they think they are.
(The good news is, they can be much better!)
Dr. Joe Arvai
Each day, people make hundreds of decisions. In the grand scheme of things, many of these decisions are small: which toothpaste to use or which clothes to wear. But, every so often, these decisions are so big that they can fundamentally change someone's life. Have you ever stopped to think about how these decisions get made? What process do people follow or wish they could follow? What information do people use, and what information do they ignore? What made a particular decision good, and what could make a bad decision better?
Dr. Joe Arvai is the Svare Chair in Applied Decision Research at the Haskayne School of Business & the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment, and Economy at the University of Calgary. He works across Canada, the U.S., and internationally as an advisor to government agencies and non-profit groups about individual and group decision making. His clients have included NASA, the International Energy Agency, the US EPA Science Advisory Board, the National Academy of Sciences, and Natural Resources Canada. Dr. Arvai earned a PhD in behavioural decision research and risk management from the University of British Columbia.
Friday, April 15, 2011
The Broken Promise: Product Quality or Product Failure?
with Dr. Debi Andrus
When 2007 was called the Year of the Recall, Dr. Debi Andrus began a research project to learn more about the issue. This presentation is the result of her research in monitoring product recalls, the reasons and the solutions. She has tracked the types of recalls and evaluated Canada’s product safety system against the U.S. and Europe. Dr. Andrus presented her findings and discussed the issue of product recalls and consumer trust.
Dr. Debi Andrus is an assistant professor of marketing and has been at the Haskayne School of Business since 1992. Before starting her PhD, she held marketing management positions with Canadian companies such as Nortel, Ernst & Young, and Facelle Company. She has also taught at the University of Alberta, SouthWest Petroleum Institute in Nan Chung, China as well as at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration in Vienna, Austria.
Dr. Andrus teaches senior marketing options in both the undergraduate and graduate programs and on occasion teaches in executive education programs. Her area of expertise is in strategic marketing, product management and creativity, while her research interests include strategic marketing, innovation, creativity and product management, specifically product recalls and quality assurance issues.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Avatar, oilsands, and the Amazon
Field notes from the energy indigenous environment interface research program
with Dr. David Lertzman
The most commercially successful film in history deals with indigenous peoples and industrial resource extraction to feed humanity’s growing consumption of energy. Although set in a futuristic world on the fictitious planet of Pandora, parallels to the Amazon jungle and Alberta’s oil sands have not been lost on the public. This was underscored by Canadian director James Cameron’s recent trip to Brazil supporting indigenous peoples’ opposition to the Bel Monte dam in the Amazon followed by a tour of Alberta’s oil sand operations and meetings with First Nations.
This talk was the first public sharing of field notes from the Energy Indigenous Environment Interface research program, funded by ISEEE and SSHRC, where Dr. David Lertzman has been collecting primary data with Achuar people of the Ecuadorian Amazon and Cree people of Alberta’s northern boreal forest. Both cases in this comparative analysis highlight indigenous peoples dependent upon forest ecosystems rich with fossil fuels. The Achuar are completely opposed to petroleum development seeing it as a “death project” for their people. The Little Red River Cree are working with industry to engage more socially and environmentally responsible behaviours.
We saw how these real-world cases are far more compelling, urgent, and instructive than the fictitious world of Pandora, giving insight to new tools and best practices for improving the ecological, social, and cross-cultural performance of industry and communities.
Dr. David Lertzman is an assistant professor of environmental management and sustainable development at the Haskayne School of Business, and senior associate of the International Resource Industries and Sustainability Centre (IRIS). He has lived and worked in First Nations communities for over fifteen years. Drawing on a broad interdisciplinary background, his teaching, research and professional work puts him at the forefront of efforts to bridge Indigenous peoples' traditional ecological knowledge and Western science in sustainable development. His passion for ecology and culture has brought him to Indigenous communities throughout the Pacific Northwest, the Rocky Mountains, the Great Plains, Eastern Woodlands and Boreal Forests, the Arctic, the Amazon and the United Kingdom. He teaches MBA and undergraduate courses on sustainable development with Indigenous peoples, and his innovative retreat-style course on leadership in sustainable development delivers cross-cultural teachings in a wilderness setting.
Dr. Lertzman holds a PhD in Ecological Sustainability and Community Development from UBC. He is a research associate of the Arctic Institute of North America (University of Calgary) and an associate of the International Institute for Child Rights and Development (University of Victoria). He consults as a sustainable development specialist, cross-cultural facilitator and leadership trainer, environmental educator and public speaker.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Efficient Negotiating
with Dr. Jenny Krahn and Dr. Loren Falkenberg
Managers spend a significant portion of their day negotiating. Unfortunately most managers employ the same strategy when they go into negotiations, which is to persuade the other negotiator to accept a desired outcome. Negotiations based on persuasion generally waste time with game playing and rarely maximize the value that could have been created for a negotiator. Skilled negotiators rarely use persuasion and focus on ensuring a negotiated agreement is based on relevant and strategic information. This presentation outlined how negotiators can prepare for different types of negotiation to ensure there is an efficient and effective exchange of information, so that the outcomes of the negotiation are maximized.
Friday, January 21, 2011
The Fundamental State of Leadership:
Enhancing Your Personal and Professional Influence
with Dr. Sloane Dugan
Today, the challenges facing most persons in leadership roles have become more complex than their capacity to address these challenges. Also, leaders are experiencing the very human tension between wanting to maintain the status quo and engaging in adaptive change in which they learn to see the iceberg before smashing into it. Many leaders deal with these two patterns by getting stuck in a normal state of leadership: comfort centered, externally directed by others, focused on oneself, and closed to outside forces. In contrast, the fundamental state of leadership (FSL) asks leaders to return to the basic roots of leadership: purpose, integrity, mutuality, and sustainable development.
This presentation highlighted our normal human tendencies that unfold over time as a slow death. It explored the FSL’s basic questions, characteristics, and actions to initiate.
News & Events
