Assistant Professor Dae Seok Chai has been appointed as the associate proceedings editor of the 2021 Academy of Human Resource Development International Research Conference in the Americas. Chai resigned from his position as the conference track chair, a role in which he’d served since 2015.
A faculty member in the School of Education’s Organizational Learning, Performance and Change program at Colorado State University, Chai’s research focuses on expatriation effectiveness, human resource development in an international context, and leadership in diverse cultural contexts.
Growing into a new role
Academy of Human Resource Development, the professional organization for those in the field of human resource development, encourages the systematic study of HRD theories, processes, and practices. They share information and encourage application of HRD research findings, while providing opportunities for those in the field to socialize in scholarly and professional contexts across the globe. AHRD hosts three International Research Conferences per year in the Americas, Europe, and Asia.
In his new role, Chai’s AHRD conference responsibilities have shifted dramatically.
“I served as a chair for the International, Global, and Cross Cultural Issues track from 2015,” said Chai. “The track chair editors collaborate with the conference planning team to provide a rewarding conference experience for conference attendees. Track chair editors serve key strategic leadership roles to ensure that the content and the design of the refereed and non-refereed sessions are supportive of their respective tracks.”
As associate proceedings editor, Chai is working with the proceedings editor to manage the peer review process. He is the primary contact for authors during the AHRD Cutting Edge Award submission and review process. The new position requires a three-year commitment that will advance Chai to increased responsibility until March 2023.
“The first year of the term is served as the associate proceedings editor for the 2021 Conference Proceedings of the AHRD International Research Conference,” said Chai. “The second year is served as proceedings editor for the 2022 Conference Proceedings, and the third year is served as the program chair for the 2023 Conference. For these three years, I will have lots of opportunities to interact and connect with leadership team members and to understand how the academy is running. These experiences and connections will benefit my career, and contribute to further development of OLPC, the School of Education, and CSU.”
While he’ll miss the author interactions he enjoyed as conference track chair, Chai looks forward to learning more about running and organizing a conference and being able to prepare himself to become a journal editor in the future.
Honored to serve the new role, Chai’s recognition shows the impact of his work internationally.
“I feel very honored and humble to be elected by the AHRD board,” he said. “This position is such a great privilege. At the same time, I feel very responsible to serve members of AHRD and the AHRD. I am very excited about it.”
Real-life experience in the classroom
While working as conference track chair, Chai was able to integrate what he had learned from AHRD into his own classroom.
“I originally started serving as a track chair for the International, Cross-cultural, and Global Issues track because I am enthusiastically interested in cross-cultural issues,” he said. “I wanted to know more scholars and practitioners whose research interests are similar to mine. During interactions with scholars, reviewing their works, and working together to get their works published in conference proceedings, I have learned a lot about various perspectives, theories, and practices in the cross-cultural settings around the world. I was able to integrate what I have learned in my course works. For example, as I re-developed our doctoral course, EDOD 769 – Theory and Practice of Change in Spring 2019, I included a concept of international organizational change in the course. I introduced several activities and concepts about how individuals interpret the same thing based on their perspectives.”
As Chai continues to grow in his new role, he plans on continuing benefiting his students with everything he learns. He hopes to grow their connections and encourage them to develop into stronger students and researchers.
“I will encourage the doctoral students of the OLPC program to submit more papers and present their papers at the conferences,” said Chai. “At the conferences, I’ll be able to introduce our participating students to leaders of the academy and make their connections much broader.”
The Organizational Learning, Performance and Change program offers master’s and doctoral degrees. The program is housed in the School of Education, part of CSU’s College of Health and Human Sciences.
