Webinar By Dr. Marie-Line Germain

The HR Professionals of the world are now called as the Strategic Business Partners of the organization and this goes in line with their leadership approaches and initiatives. To dwell deeper into the domain and understand the importance of Corporate Leadership, Dr. Marie-Line Germain connected with the students of HR Batch 2016-18 and 2017-19 of SIBM Hyderabad through a very informative and interactive webinar that was conducted on 18th January, 2018.

Dr. Marie-Line Germain is a research, teaching and service award winning Associate Professor of Human Resources and Leadership at Western Carolina University. She has been a visiting scholar in Ghana, Japan and South Korea and a visiting professor in Helsinki, Finland. She also directs The HR Consulting Initiative, which provides pro bono HR Consulting nationwide. She has published over three dozen research articles and presented over 40 research papers internationally (Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Peru, The Netherlands, Scotland and Spain). Dr. Marie-Line Germain has been the recipient of several national awards and competitive grants that also includes Fulbright Specialist grant.

In today’s time, where organizations are quick to adapt the changes, it is of vital importance for the HR Professionals to understand the impact of their leadership that revolves in and around the organization. Dr. Marie-Line Germain discussed about the relevance of leadership in different organizational cultures and learning its nuances to draw the initiatives. She described this relevance by an example of leadership in an Individualistic and Collectivistic cultures. For instance, the paternalistic approach of leadership showcases different results in Individualistic and Collectivistic cultures and thus it becomes important for a leader not only to understand the culture but the associated people and their personalities.

She also focused on the role of leaders in understanding various types of behavior that influence leadership, relationships at workplace and retention issues. The strategic initiatives to be taken can only be drawn with an innate understanding of organizational psychology. Dr. Marie-Line Germain also threw light on different personalities of the corporate leaders and the effect of their leadership on the organizational culture and overall results. With examples of certain renowned corporate leaders of the world, the students were able to gain a deep insight in terms of different leadership approaches.

In her session, she also briefed the students about her recent book Narcissism at Work: Personality Disorders of Corporate Leaders, which explores the effect of personality disorders in corporate leaders in regard to employee productivity, motivation, well-being, retention and ultimately, the organization’s bottom line.

Overall, the session was very productive in terms of analyzing the cause and effect of different corporate leadership styles and initiatives associated with it.

Ms. Bhavi Vyas (HR Batch 2017-19) introduced the guest speaker to the students and the literary work was documented by Ms. Shireen Namjoshi (HR Batch 2016-18).

A Special Thanks to Dr. Yogita Abichandani, HOD, Faculty of Human Resources, SIBM Hyderabad, for providing a wonderful opportunity to all students of the HR batch of SIBM Hyderabad, to interact with Dr. Marie-Line Germain and gain several insights from her experiences. Thanks to Mr. S.A. Jeelani, System Administrator, SIBM Hyderabad, who ensured smooth technical functioning of the webinar. Special Thanks to Mr. Nikhil Nair of Pratibimb, the Photography Club of SIBM Hyderabad for covering the session. And last but not the least, thanks to all the students who attended the webinar and added a new learning to their chapters.