By Ashley Mussbacher (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: February 25, 2015
If you’ve ever been curious about what research professors are conducting outside of class, the Scholarly Sharing Initiative is the perfect event to attend.
About 12 faculty and staff crowded around a board room table on February 19 to hear about two different projects: director of the school of business Frank Ulbrich’s work on shared service centres, and professor of the school of business Luciana Hakak’s research on identity dynamics.
Unlike in a seminar or stuffy classroom, the initiative was hosted in the Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies, and was structured like a casual dinner meeting with Greek food set out buffet-style.
A decentralized model of business
Ulbrich began with his research on the shared service centre, a decentralized model of a department or company — in other words, placing people with similar expertise in the same area so you can have increased competence.
The idea was complex, but Ulbrich used two model-sized Mini Coopers from his pocket to illustrate an example. At the end of his presentation, he invited questions. The main one that came up was how effective a decentralized model would be in multiple situations.
“If there are all these cases where it doesn’t perfectly apply, will it ever perfectly apply?” Hakak asked, to which Ulbrich responded that the key component in this model is effective communication between departments.
It got the group thinking aloud about concrete examples, like UBC’s decentralization of their IT department, and even whether this model applies to what’s currently happening to UFV’s Writing Centre.
Professionals driving taxis and the resulting identity shift
After a short break, Hakak opened her presentation by inviting the audience to imagine themselves in a scenario.
“Imagine you’re a professional in, say, India …”
She explained how this person you’re imagining to be is male, with a prestigious career and a family to support. You see an advertisement to come to Canada and work in the same profession.
Except when you arrive in Canada and go into a job interview the infamous question is posed: do you have “Canadian experience”?
Even though each workplace requires so-called Canadian experience, there is no place to gain such experience, so these educated individuals slip into work that is considered stigmatized in Canadian culture, like driving a taxi.
Hakak interviewed male taxi drivers from India and found they all shared similar experiences. She looked at how they underwent shifts in their identity, from identifying as professionals to eventually identifying themselves not by their careers, but by their roles as providers.
This presentation turned quickly into a conversation around the table as members of the audience began to share their experiences of how it was for them when they came to Canada.
“I worked in mechanical drafting,” one faculty member explained. He told how when he came to Canada he expected to find work and was asked if he had Canadian experience.
“I met with a guy […] and he asked if I had Canadian experience, and when I said no he told me, ‘Go wash some dishes,’” he said.
Hakak hopes her research can help by having an impact on policy related to providing more opportunities for immigrants trying to enter the Canadian workforce.
The scholarly sharing series is funded by the office of research and the college of arts, and hosted by English professor Melissa Walter and communications professor Michelle Riedlinger.
