HoD News - 15 November 2019

Dear colleagues,

New head of secretariat
I am very pleased to welcome Anja Zimmerdahl as the new head of secretariat at ECON starting today, 15 November. We are all looking forward to collaborate with Anja; both in the department management team but also in the administrative section who has suffered from lack of daily leadership for more than a year. Again, I would like to thank the administrative section in particular for your exemplary collaboration and understanding during this difficult period.

Strategic priorities of the department during 2020
The Aarhus BSS strategic priorities for 2017-2020 are rooted in the four mutually interrelated key elements, namely education, research, international outlook and external relations. Excelling within and across these areas with high quality as a common thread and denominator is Aarhus BSS’ raison d´être as a quality driven broad business school.

The Department of Economics and Business Economics acknowledges and strongly supports Aarhus BSS’ focus on quality in all the dimensions characterizing a top-class university department. The department is doing well, but we can still do much better.

At the annual strategy seminar of the BSS faculty management team held earlier this week, the strategic priorities of the department were discussed based on the ECON White Paper 2019. Later this year the strategic priorities will also be presented and discussed at LSU and the Departmental Forum. To deliver and improve quality in the dimensions mentioned, it is important to have the optimal organizational and environmental frames in place for our work place in order to strengthen strategic focus and to further improve departmental performance. As you know, we are already in the process of changing the organization of the department. Also, we will follow up on the results of the APV/WPA (workplace assessment).

In short, the Department of Economics and Business Economics will have the main priorities listed below for 2020. It goes without saying that we will focus on a range of other priorities as well, but those listed will be targeted in particular: 

1. The organization of the department, increased delegation, the work of the new sections, section councils, internal administrative processes, and department work flows in order to support the operational and strategic goals of the department.
2. Follow-up on the results of the physical and psychological APV/WPA, and the general psychological workplace environment, including being a family-friendly workplace, and focus on (preventive measures of) stress management within the department. Also, it will be a priority focus to consider initiatives and frames to improve gender balance at the department.
3. Continued management focus on education programmes: actions to reduce first-year dropout rates, and focus on the development and assessment of the education portfolio. The governance model and development of EVU-education programmes, particularly MBA and HD, will be addressed in collaboration with the Department of Management. 

Status regarding follow-up on the physical APV
I can add to the discussion above that the follow-up on the physical APV has already been initiated in collaboration with the caretakers at Building Services, where specific operational issues will be dealt with to the extent possible.

In addition, there must be a follow-up on the overall trends, such as noise in common areas, indoor climate and ergonomics. The department’s occupational health and safety group representatives Søren Staunsager (staff representative) and the new Head of Secretariat Anja Zimmerdahl (management representative) together with the Department management, LSU and Departmental Forum will focus on some of these topics.

Job openings at the department
There will be job openings at all levels within the department the coming months:

• Assistant professorships and post docs: Call in January 2020 with expected deadline for applications at the end of January.
• Associate professorships: The call is open. Deadline for applications is 8 December 2019.
• Full professorships in “Economics”: The call will be made as soon as possible when there is a decision regarding the current opening in “Business Economics”.

Niels Haldrup