Interdisciplinary project on HR Trending Topics

Human Resources as a Business Partner Role? Work-Life Balance? Diversity Management? Compensation Schemes? Job Security or Flexibility? – These subjects, among others, were the core issues of the interdisciplinary HR project that 11 students from the Faculty of Society and Economics of Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences worked on in cooperation with 13 students from The Hague University of Applied Science. The 21st century business challenges were discussed and presented from both, an HR and a business perspective with the goal to provide advice for a foreign company expanding either to the Dutch or the German market. Starting in November with a three-day workshop in Kleve, groups consisting of both, students from The Hague and Kleve, worked on one of the topics.

In the first week of January 2015 the students organized a two-day workshop in The Hague to finalize their projects. Beside their work the students and their supervisors had the chance to get to know the city of The Hague. A Sightseeing tour through the historical sites of the city as well as the visit of the beach in Scheveningen was part of the programme.

But the focus was not only on management skills in HR management, but also on improving cross cultural competencies. How do cultural differences of the German and Dutch influence team management and the working process? Under supervision of Prof. Dr. Philipp Schorn, professor for Accounting and Auditing, and support by Fabian Dargel, B.A. of Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences and their colleagues Michel Hermans and Manolis Mavromatis from The Hague University of Applied Sciences the students successfully completed their projects and developed innovative approaches for the challenging topics.