On 3 May 2016, the Institute of Organization and Human Resources celebrated its 25th anniversary together with 160 invited guests from business, politics and administration.
The foundation stone for the Institute was laid on April 1, 1991 with the appointment of Norbert Thom († April 2019) to the University of Bern. Today, the institute can look back on eventful years. During this time, it has supported the education of thousands of students. It has made a major contribution to the promotion of young academics at universities in Switzerland and abroad, produced countless publications with national and international recognition and shown a strong commitment to the continuing education of specialists and managers.
This achievement was acknowledged by the University of Bern (represented by Prof. Dr. Christian J. Leumann, Rector Designatus), politicians (represented by Peter Schmid, former Director of Education and former member of the cantonal government) and the business community (represented by Uwe E. Jocham, Chairman of the Board of CSL Behring AG and President of the Bern Employers' Association).
The subsequent speakers focused on current topics from research and their significance for practice. In her presentation on digital transformation, guest speaker Dr. Prisca Brosi from the Technical University of Munich referred to the need for lifelong learning, increasing diversity and the acceleration of work. The two current directors of the Institute, Frauke von Bieberstein (Organization) and Andreas Hack (Human Resource Management), provided information on their main research areas of behavioral economics and management in family businesses respectively. The former showed how experiments can be used to investigate practical questions such as “Do gifts in kind or gifts of money motivate employees more?” or “What qualities make a good salesperson?”. Andreas Hack described the significance of the family business stereotype and explained that this type of company is generally perceived positively.
Finally, Norbert Thom looked back on the past 25 years and illustrated the international impact of IOP research. His numerous anecdotes brought back memories of his time at the University of Bern for many of us.
