British Academy of Management (BAM) conference is an important event on the calendar for business school academics and PhD researchers.
The conference offers an opportunity to share the latest thinking in all aspects of management research and this year BAM 2014 took place in Belfast, Northern Ireland from 9th to 11th September 2014.
A team of nine Salford Business School individuals have participated in this year’s event. The team included Professor Jo Crotty and PhD student Mojtaba Poor-Rezaei.
So, what happened at BAM2014? What are the latest thoughts? Here are the short summaries from each of the nine attendees.
Dr Jonathan Lord, Lecturer in HRM
This was my first visit to the BAM conference, and having visited other management and employment law conferences, I can categorically say that this was an extremely well run and beneficial event. Belfast is, as expected, a very friendly and welcoming city, which provided the perfect environment for hosting the BAM 2014 conference.
The raft of excellent papers presented at the conference posed a problem of which ones to select, and in the main the papers I heard were extremely informative and provided some fantastic ideas for future areas of research. The calibre of academics that not only attended but also presented at the conference was outstanding and enabled some extremely useful networking opportunities, as well as vital feedback on my area of research.
BAM facilitate various Special Interest Groups (SIG’s) of which I attended the Human Resource Management. Being involved in a specific forum was extremely useful with important connections established and potential events organised for the future.
For me, the BAM conference is an essential event for management academics, the quality of papers and networking opportunities is invaluable and I am already looking forward to next year’s conference which is being held at the University of Portsmouth.
Dr Muhammad Amjad, Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management
BAM 2014 conference was a good, intellectually stimulating event. It was my third visit to Belfast, as I have attended some earlier BAM and Irish Academy of Management (IAM) conferences.
It was nice to have colleagues from the Salford Business School presenting in different tracks at the conference. Myself, Dave and Jonathan attended a number of sessions in Strategy and HRM tracks that allowed interaction and networking with senior academics from different leading business schools.
Some stimulating conversations revolved around strategy as practice vs. strategy practised and employment law. It was also good to meet my new colleagues at Salford Business School at the conference dinner.
Looking forward to BAM 2015!
Dr Kathy Hartley, Lecturer in People Management
This was my second visit to BAM (the first being Liverpool last year) and it was great to cross the water and visit Belfast for the first time. I attended with 3 aims in mind – to get feedback on the conceptual idea underpinning my paper from noted academics, to meet up with old colleagues/ friends and make plans for future research and finally to forge new contacts with people in the ‘Leadership’ and ‘Gender and Management’ SIGs.
I managed to ‘tick all my boxes’, and so came home with a sense of achievement. Beyond that a highlight of the conference was the visit to the Titanic Museum (pre the Gala Dinner) – an amazing display on the locally built (Harland and Wolf) ‘Titanic’, but also of the working conditions of the ‘Linenopolis’ era.
Dr Aleksej Heinze, Co-director Centre for Digital Business
This was my first time at BAM and I was looking forward to meeting the special interest group (SIG) community in eBusiness and eGovernence. Presenting a joint paper with Mojtaba Poor Rezaei during the last session on the last day of the conference was a positive experience – despite the fact that several delegates had to leave early to catch their flights we still had a good audience of over ten people. I have been an active member of UK Academy for Information Systems (UKAIS) for many years and it was good to meet and hear new colleagues who share their interest in all things digital but who might not engage with the specialist UKAIS group.
This being a multi disciplinary conference, it was great to see the breadth of topics and talks that were on offer. I joined the research methods stream to hear one of our colleagues, Muhammad Amjad, present his paper. In the same session there was a discussion paper on how international students should approach translation of their research data. Some interesting thoughts were highlighted in the discussion that followed, for example, the need to preserve the original text and do as little editing to the meaning as possible. On the other hand, in order to make research projects more transparent, a full translation which offers independently verifiable meaning was also advocated. I guess at this point it certainly raises the question of data collection transparency for any researcher, it certainly now makes me think more on how to approach this subject.
Dr Dave Redfern, Lecturer in HRM
I was delighted to visit Belfast for the first time for 15 years. There had been a very substantial transformation in the Waterfront area of the city in that time with evidence of much needed economic regeneration. The conference was the largest such event with over 650 delegates so that it provided an excellent opportunity for discussions about comparative studies. It was also an opportunity to catch up with former colleagues whom, in some instances, I had not seen for many years.
Much lively debate and discussion occurred in seminars and workshops with some excellent developmental papers as well as those from established academics. The only slight drawback was that at some venues, notably the market place, there was significant sound intrusion from adjacent presentations. The conference dinner was held in the magnificent Titanic Museum. It was only at the dinner that I realised what a substantial attendance there was by members from SBS. We assembled for a team photograph on a replica of the iconic staircase on the Titanic.
The paper delivered by Jonathan Lord and me was in the last session of the conference and some useful points were made concerning the barriers presented by employment tribunals to justice. All in all a very productive and worthwhile conference.
Sue (Susan) Mawer, Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) and PhD student
BAM 2014: First, Belfast. Not what I expected and more than pleasantly surprised by the attractiveness of the waterfront and warmth of the people. Although they knew you were a tourist, they weren’t ‘in your face’ but friendly, anxious that you enjoyed their city and asking if you’ll be coming back. The Titanic centre was superb with a poignant account of the lives of the people involved with the ship. The gala dinner was less superb with entertainment that didn’t do justice to the venue and Belfast. Whilst comparisons may be a bit unfair, last year’s dinner in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral with a Beatles tribute band, had the ‘wow’ factor.
The conference: a great variety of topics, individuals and disciplines. The world-wide representation made it special. At the gala dinner I sat with Kenyan, American, Pakistani, Indian and Chinese delegates; each offering a fascinating insight into their country and higher education.
My special interest group – Sustainable and Responsible Business – provided a treasure trove of useful information. For example, future work on the UN initiative Principles for Management Education (PRME) was significant for me in my research and important in that Salford is a member of PRME.
Belfast Titanic Museum
The Salford Business School team joined the BAM conference at the evening dinner which tool place at the Belfast Titanic Museum. It is a full immersion museum that takes the visitor through the size of the ship to the moment of striking the iceberg.
The Salford team took a group photo on the Titanic staircase, recreated in memory of the ship, some say it is haunted… 😉
BAM evening dinner at the Titanic Museum (Halloween special edits thanks to Darren Langlands) Picture left to right – Muhammad Amjad, Kathy Hartley, Dave Redfern, Mojtaba Poor-Rezaei, Jo Crotty, Jia Liu, Aleksej Heinze, Jonathan Lord and Sue Mawer
#BAM2014 on Twitter
The team have also join the #BAM2014 conversation on twitter and here are some highlights from storify:
Do you want to share your experiences of BAM 2014? Please share them in the comments section below!