About the Centre
The Centre for Performance-Led HR (CPHR) at Lancaster brings together world–class experts to work with top HR directors to overcome the most pressing issues facing senior HR specialists today. One of these is the dilemma of performance. The Centre has been established as a problem-based research group that will offer advice and solutions. It is a unique partnership between Lancaster University Management School, government and major corporations and was nominated as one of five Outstanding Employer Engagement Initiatives in the 2009 Times Higher Education Awards. Both Cary Cooper and Paul Sparrow now rank in the top 5 most influential UK academics in HR. In the Human Resources Magazine 2009 ranking Cary Cooper, Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health is ranked at number 6, with Paul Sparrow, Professor of International HRM and Director of the Centre at 14. Lancaster is one of only two business schools to boast more than one entrant in the league table.
The Centre has the following aims:
- Generate research data and insights of specific relevance and utility to HR functions
- Help foster applied research based on new ideas and emerging trends that address real-world needs by engaging a broad range of stakeholders in the creation, interpretation and dissemination of knowledge
- Provide a reflexive, evidence-based decision-making environment through which HR directors can lead their functions.
- Disseminate such work through academic media and leading business media outlets, encouraging joint authorship
- Facilitate networking opportunities with Lancaster University Management School’s global faculty
The Centre moves away from traditional simple research contracts with business towards the development of a culture of deep engagement around the key business problems that HR functions have to face. To enable this, the Centre:
- Works with sponsors on both generic and bespoke projects that provide unique content and innovative synthesis of existing research in the field of HR.
- Ensures that work is informed by developments in other academic fields that have a bearing on the performance and effectiveness of HR functions
- Brokers research in ways that are relevant to practitioners and ensure that management fads are put into context
- Provides thought leadership (through ideas or people) based upon insights from research networks and our own analysis
- Facilitates interventions and knowledge transfer informed, designed and delivered on the basis of our own insights into learning and development methods
- Capitalises on on-going projects and company contacts in ways that inform the School’s teaching and research activities
A distinctive feature of Lancaster University Management School is that we draw important linkages between a number of our Centres, leveraging and developing knowledge across each. For HR Directors, there are clear points of contact and mutual insight, for example, between our Centre for Performance-led HR and the Lancaster Centre for Strategic Management, the Lancaster Leadership Centre, and the newly-established Centre for Organizational Health and Wellbeing.
The Centre for Performance-Led HR team. From left to right: Shashi Balain, Professor Paul Sparrow, Teresa Aldren, Martin Hird and Craig Marsh. More on the team.
