By, Rachel Varnham
Human Resource Management explores the core of an organisation, the people who make it up, and how to ensure these can work together in harmony.
Those that study or focus their research in this area are able to take a deep dive into an international sector that impacts people not only inside their workplaces but in their personal lives and in wider society, too.
HRM research can, for example, examine how an individual responds to their professional responsibilities, how their wellbeing at work is managed, how the inner workings of an institution can impact people and policy, how work has evolved over the years, career progression, the challenges an industry faces and find solutions on how to navigate them.
From studying diversity in the workplace, the impact of AI, hybrid and remote work models and their effects, employee recruitment, and interactions at work, the exploration of HRM is a vital function of academia and industry. It is also, perhaps, overwhelmingly vast.
Thankfully, there are many professors studying various functions across this field who are only too happy to break down and share their discoveries, insights and opinions with future academics, leaders, and researchers beyond publishing their studies in academic journals.
We’ve curated a list of some of the top HRM experts and academics doing exactly this on LinkedIn. Whether you’re looking to study HRM, you’re considering a career change, you’re an employer wanting to find out more about how to enhance your workforce, or you’re simply curious, these experts can shed a little extra light on a topic that affects almost all of us.
By reading their work and keeping up to date with their discoveries, you’ll be informed of the latest in the HRM industry and know of the inner workings of institutions, and the people who are involved in them.
We’ve curated a list of some of the top HR experts and professors you should follow if you’re interested in HR.
Karoline Strauss – Professor of Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management at ESSEC Business School
Professor Strauss’ research focuses on an individual’s relation with the future, how someone creates their own path in their mind and through their will, and how this helps them manage their career. She also explores how individuals attempt to influence their own future and the future of their organizations, for example, by contributing to sustainability or to innovation. These subjects because the focus of her TEDx talk.
Currently Professor Strauss is leading a project about the wellbeing consequences of proactive behaviour.
At ESSEC, she teaches and shares her expertise across Bachelor, Masters, MBA, and PhD programmes.
Her work has been published across a variety of esteemed academic journals and has enabled her to serve on several editorial boards for journal publications.
Professor Strauss is a representative at the Academy of Management’s Managerial and Organizational Cognition division, and an academic member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
On LinkedIn, she shares accessible, thoughtful insights into all of her professional pursuits, highlights the discoveries of her colleagues and provides an insight into life at ESSEC – useful to any potential applicants considering their options.
Find and follow Professor Strauss on LinkedIn here
Alessandra Lazazzara – Associate Professor of Human Resource Management and Organization Studies at the University of Milan
Professor Lazazzara is truly a master of all (HRM) trades, with research interests in diversity, inclusion, job crafting, internal branding, and e-HRM.
Most recently her work has explored AI-enabled workplace inclusion – embedding the technology within HR processes to create and sustain inclusive environments.
At the University of Milan she teaches Digital HR & Analytics and Organization Theory at both undergraduate and graduate levels,
She is actively involved in national and international research projects, collaborating with institutions across different sectors, and also serves as the Associate Editor of Gender, Work and Organization on the editorial board of The International Journal of Human Resource Management.
Being a co-editor of three books in the LNISO Springer series, and her own published book “Intelligenza Artificiale nei Processi HR: Una gestione aumentata del personale”, she holds a wealth of wisdom and shares these insights and her findings with her followers.
Find and follow Professor Lazazzara on LinkedIn here
Corine Boon – Professor of HRM and People Analytics at University of Amsterdam Business School
With the increase in Artificial Intelligence (AI), many organisations are changing the structure of how they operate and what they expect from human staff and the work they do. To make sense of this, Professor Boon’s research focuses on the role and impact of AI on HRM, and the conditions under which strategic HRM affects employees.
She teaches on these topics at the University of Amsterdam across both MSc and MBA programmes, as well as serving as Director of the Amsterdam People Analytics Centre (APAC) and as a co-program director for the Data Driven Management programme.
She’s a prominent figure in HRM, due to her impressive portfolio of serving on editorial boards, being a board member of the Dutch HRM network, and position on the leadership team of the HR division of the Academy of Management. Professor Boon also often speaks at events and in webinars about HR and the job market.
On LinkedIn she shares news and updates from all of these elements of her professional life as well as engaging in discussions on the topics of people analytics, leadership and management, and strategic HRM.
You can find and follow Professor Boon on LinkedIn here
Dr Mengyi Xu – Assistant Professor in Human Resource Management at the University of Birmingham
The realities and requirements of the roles we do at work, and how those workforces are structured is changing. Professor Xu aims to understand the impact of this in her research, focusing on how work and life intersect. This has enabled her to explore areas including; hybrid work, working-time reduction, migrant work, and how employees manage work and non-work boundaries to encourage better wellbeing.
She shares her expertise in the classroom, teaching on and holding the role of Director of the full-time MBA programme at Birmingham Business School, as well as across undergraduate, postgraduate and executive programmes. She further contributes to the world of academia as an Early Career Reviewer Board member of Personnel Review.
Prior to entering academia, Dr Xu had an impressive career working in education, media, HR, and as a TV presenter in both the UK and China, giving her first-hand experience of working in international locations and experiencing work-culture in different ways.
On LinkedIn, she keeps her followers updated with her academic explorations, as well as sharing and celebrating the successes of her students.
You can find and follow Professor Xu on LinkedIn here
Dr. Bex Hewett – Associate Professor in HRM at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University
Dr. Hewett’s work is driven by her passion and belief that work needs to make someone’s life better. Her research focuses on how work can benefit the lives of workers, and society while also achieving corporate goals and targets.
Her work, and her ability to tailor her expertise to industry-focused solutions has been published in multiple academic journals and regularly features across global media.
At Rotterdam School of Management Erasmus University, she teaches across multiple programmes and serves as Academic Director of the part-time PhD programme of the Erasmus Institute of Management. Additionally, Dr Hewett works with organisations to apply her research to organisational practice as part of the People, Organisations & Change research group.
Aside from a highly impressive academic career in HR, prior to her PhD, she has solid industry experience too – having spent 10 years in HR roles, including as Head of HR Operations at Ofcom, giving her first-hand experience and insights.
On LinkedIn, Dr Hewett is a fierce champion of her colleagues’ work – recommending reading to her followers and lending her backing to others’ insights and opinions. She also regularly shares her own work, and snippets of her life, bringing a very human, personal touch to practice.
You can find and follow Professor Hewett on LinkedIn here
Ioannis Nikolaou – Professor of Human Resources Management & Organizational Behaviour at the Athens University of Economics and Business
Dr Nikolaou has years of academic experience behind him, from studying Psychology at the University of Crete, to gaining a master’s and PhD at Manchester School of Management, as well as a wealth of experience in industry.
His career experience includes roles as an Assistant Manager for PricewaterhouseCoopers at the department of Global Human Resources Solutions and as the Head of the Training Department at Egnatia Bank.
He is now a Work and Organizational Psychologist, a Professor of HRM and Organizational Behaviour, and the Head of his Department at Athens University of Economics and Business.
This wealth of experience has been channelled into his academic life. He has written books on psychology and behaviour, human capital, and co-edited works about employee recruitment, as well as having work published in peer-reviewed academic journals.
His research today focuses on employee recruitment, and more recently, social media use – making him up to date with current challenges and issues, which he speaks out about on his online platform, and through his courses in undergraduate and post-graduate levels.
His LinkedIn provides his 19,000 followers with updates on his professional life as well as signposting them to additional resources from colleagues and other organisations.
You can find and follow Professor Nikolaou on LinkedIn here
Audrey Holm – Assistant Professor of Management and Human Resources at HEC Paris
Audrey Holm’s research takes an ethnographic approach, reflecting on how people experience and relate to their work. She has a strong focus on examining shifting work dynamics with a very human focus covering; inclusion, social change and issues regarding inequality within the labour market.
To date her work has explored career re-entry, employee voice and action, transitions of expertise across functions and job readiness.
She has been the recipient of the Robert McDonald Advancement of Organizational Research Methodology Award in 2024 and a finalist in the INFORMS/Organization Science Dissertation Proposal Competition and for the Academy of Management’s Louis Pondy Best Dissertation Paper Award.
At HEC she teaches on organisational behaviour, as well as advising on qualitative research methods at PhD level.
she has an M.B.A from ESSEC Business School and a PhD in Management from Boston University’s Questrom School of Business.
On LinkedIn she shares updates on her work, her guest lectures and speaker slots and summarises her discussions for her global followers.
You can find and follow Professor Holm on LinkedIn here
Jason Heyes – Professor of Employment Relations at Sheffield University Management School
Alongside being a leading Professor in Employment Relations, he is also the director of the Centre for Decent Work (CDW), and Associate Editor of academic journals, and a Co-Investigator for The Productivity Institute.
Professor Heyes’ work examines issues that many organisations often overlook – the issues surrounding young workers. He is a great professor to follow specifically for younger generations who are navigating the ever-changing world of work.
He also investigates underemployment, unpaid care, employment protection legislation, training, and minimum wages.
His research has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and has taken research projects on behalf of the International Labour Organization, European Commission, Low Pay Commission and the European Trade Union Institute.
Prior to teaching at Sheffield University Management School, he was a Reader in Human Resource Management and head of the Organisation, Work and Employment group at the University of Birmingham.
You can find and follow Professor Heyes on LinkedIn here
Rebecca Kehoe – Professor of Human Resource Studies in the ILR School at Cornell University
How do star performers in an organisation influence the learning, performance, and career outcomes of their peers?
Professor Keho’s research explores this question, developing a better understanding of how and when organisations can develop a human resource-based competitive advantage over their competitors.
Her work also examines the factors that shape an employee’s transition between different jobs and organisations.
These investigations enable her to provide guidance on the ways firms can develop effective HR strategy, structure and implementation. Alongside her research appearing in a variety of academic publications and journals, she has also served as a representative-at-large and on the leadership track for the Strategic Human Capital Interest Group within Strategic Management Society and on the executive committee for the HR Division of the Academy of Management (AOM).
She has published several thought leadership articles in publications such as Harvard Business Review. She shares these articles, along with the published works and musings of her colleagues from across the higher education sector on LinkedIn.
Before joining the ILR School, she served on the faculty at Rutgers University. Prior to this, she obtained her B.S, M.S, and PhD from Cornell University.
You can find and follow Professor Kehoe on LinkedIn here
Dave Ulrich – Rensis Likert Professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan
With the moniker the “father of modern HR” and the “HR thought leader of the decade”, Professor Ulrich’s inclusion in this list needs no explanation. He’s an academic, a teacher, a speaker, an author, a business coach and a thought leader.
Over the course of his extensive academic career is has published over 200 articles and book chapters and over 30 books. He also spent ten years as editor of Human Resource Management journal and served of the editorial board of four others
His research has delved deep into modern organisational behaviour, talent management, collaboration and culture change, focusing on HRM outcomes, governance and practice.
All of this is fed into his teaching at Michigan Ross across business and executive education programmes.
He has presented and spoken at events and conferences across 90 countries, as well as providing coaching for a significant portion of the Fortune 200 list. He is, understandably named as a Distinguished Fellow in the National Academy of Human Resources.
He is incredible active and engaged on LinkedIn, sharing his views daily with an audience of over 400,000 followers. He also publishes a regular newsletter – Human Capability Impact – which to date is received by over 250,000 subscribers.
You can find and follow Professor Ulrich on LinkedIn here
Rachel Varnham
Rachel has an Undergraduate Degree in Sociology and a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing. She enjoys writing about academic research, specifically focusing on sustainability, environmentalism, and gender equality.
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