Interdisciplinary Centre for Staff Development (ICSD) is a new unit of the University of Silesia in Katowice, established to support the employees and management staff, mainly associated with universities. The Centre is a partner of the science and higher education sector in Poland, initiating and joining interdisciplinary research and implementation projects to design professional tools for human resource management. Prof. Barbara Kożusznik, Dean’s Plenipotentiary for Staff Development, is the Head of ICSD.
ICSD concept
‘The centre established by us is not only intended to ask certain questions, but also to provide a space for discussion and search for the best solutions. Its origin lies in curiosity, passion for cognition and understanding of certain issues from the interdisciplinary perspective’, says Prof. Barbara Kożusznik.
The research and implementation projects undertaken in cooperation with ICSD are to support establishing workplaces which are human-friendly and help organisation development.
The initiatives undertaken in cooperation with the Centre are connected by the common goal, which is to design solutions supporting the science and higher education sector in strengthening the research position of the University by developing the potential of employees associated with the University.
Specific tools will be developed based on the access to the latest knowledge in many various scientific disciplines under which broadly understood human functioning at work may be studied. The effects of activities undertaken by ICSD teams should be particularly interesting for the individuals involved in the higher education management. HR departments are increasingly becoming partners for university authorities in discussions on the introduction of changes that are to contribute e.g. to strengthening the position of Polish science on the international arena. Therefore, we need professional tools and solutions that not only promote the development of HR policy, but also shape a specific working culture at universities, in the spirit of HR Excellence in Research values.
Plants
The leading theme of ICSD is plants. Leaves emerging everywhere remind us that friendly workplace is a space that both the employer and the employee should take care of. The tools and solutions designed at ICSD can be helpful in this respect.
Curiosity, knowledge, involvement and excellence
The individuals involved in ICSD activities are connected by four values: curiosity, knowledge, involvement and excellence. They are described by the following four people: Prof. Barbara Kożusznik (Head of ICSD), Katarzyna Więcek-Jakubek (Head of HR and Internal Department at the University of Silesia), Prof. Michał Daszykowski (Vice-Rector for Finance and Development) and Prof. Marian Paluch (Director of the Silesian Centre for Education and Interdisciplinary Research).
Please watch the short film about ICSD, produced by punkT group:
Key competencies of the Polish academic staff of the future
One of the initiatives undertaken within the Centre is the project entitled ‘ICSD – think tank for the development of key competencies of the Polish academic staff of the future’, which is intended to develop tools for developing the potential of academic staff and administrative support staff at Polish universities. The project will include scientific research concerning e.g. the operation of research teams and leaders’ work, as well dissemination of good practices related to the strengthening of the global position of Polish universities and the pursuit of broadly understood research excellence.
For this purpose, cooperation with Polish and foreign universities, as well as external experts, will be established. The following items will be developed as part of the project:
- key competency model for research staff and administrative support staff of the higher education sector in Poland,
- tools and indicators for the measurement and analysis of competencies, including online tools,
- recommendations for the development of key staff competencies.
The project supervised by Prof. Barbara Kożusznik, is funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education under the DIALOG programme, and will be carried out in 2020–2022. The amount of subsidy granted is PLN 1,525,488.80.
Conducting research in cooperation with ICSD
All scientists who conduct research in human resource management, or take up research subjects that may contribute to informed formation of human-friendly workplaces, are invited to cooperate with ICSD.
Detailed information about ICSD is available at: www.us.edu.pl/icrk.