On the morning of April 3, 2025 (Thursday), CUFE Business School successfully held the Fifth Lecture of Academic Excellence Lecture Theatre 2025 in the meeting room 615 of the Main Teaching Building of the South College Road Campus, which is also one of the important academic activities of CUFE Business School's "Key Journals College Tour" launched in 2024. Prof. Nicky Dries from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) and BI Business School (Norway) was invited as the guest speaker. The event was attended by faculty members of CUFE Business School, doctoral and master's students, as well as faculty members from Beijing Normal University and other universities.
The meeting was hosted by Professor Zhang Hongyu, Head of Department of Organization and Human Resource Management, CUFE Business School. Before the lecture, Professor Zhang Hongyu introduced the academic background of Professor Nicky Dries, who is currently a full professor in the Department of Work and Organization Studies at KU Leuven and in the Department of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at BI Business School in Norway. At KU Leuven, she is also a Bright Scholar of the Future of Work Lab (since 2012).
Up to now, she has published over 60 international peer-reviewed papers, 2 monographs, and 20 book chapters. Outside of academic circles, she actively participates in science communication work, regularly publishing articles and comments in business media such as Harvard Business Review and Forbes, participating in podcast recordings, and has appeared in the documentary "The Digital Dilemma" that explores the impact of disruptive technologies on the labor market. In 2021, she stood out from over a thousand candidates and was selected for Belgium's first "40 under 40" list, becoming one of the 40 outstanding young people representing the country's future social leaders.Currently, Professor Nicky Dries serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of Management and on the editorial boards of several journals, including the Human Resource Management Journal (HRMJ) and the European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology (EJWOP). She is also a long-time project reviewer for national and European research funding agencies such as the Flemish Research Foundation (FWO) in Belgium, the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), the Finnish Research Council and the European Commission.
Professor Nicky Dries' lecture was entitled "The Future of Work: A Research Agenda". She provided a conceptual and practical overview of the phenomenon of the "future of work" and the field of research, and suggested paths for further research. The lecture began with a brief review of the different schools of thought on the "future of work" in management and organization studies.She then elaborated on the most promising research directions, centered on five core questions of "what, when, who, how, and why": (1) research on the future of work needs to be clarified in terms of its temporal nature; (2) who is it for; (3) what fields are involved and what research is being done in related fields; (4) methods and types of data to be used to empirically study the future; and (5) how to respond to immediate and long-term concerns. methods and types of data for research on the future; and (5) how to respond to immediate and distant concerns. Based on this, she proposed a new set of agenda pathways for research on the future of work. Finally, Professor Nicky Dries cited some specific research questions and methodological examples to provide participants with inspiration for deeper thinking and research.
After the lecture, the participating students and faculty members engaged in a lively discussion on topics such as research methodology, data types, academic trends in the future work field, and career planning, centering on the topics shared by Professor Nicky Dries, which further promoted in-depth exchanges in academic research.
The "Academic Excellence Forum" is an academic exchange platform set up by CUFE Business School to fulfill its mission of "Contributing New Knowledge to Management", aiming to focus on the cutting-edge theoretical issues and organizational development dilemmas in business administration and China's corporate management practice, and to gather cutting-edge ideas and innovative perspectives at home and abroad, so as to contribute to the development of Chinese society and the development of Chinese enterprises. The aim is to bring together cutting-edge ideas and innovative perspectives from home and abroad to explore Chinese solutions for China's social and economic development.
