Geoff Plimmer

Dr Geoff Plimmer

Director BCAHons/MCA-HRIR
Victoria Management School
address

You can find out more about the BCAHons & MCA-HRIR programmes here.

Introduction

I’m interested in how people and organisations make judgements about themselves and the world around them, and then use those judgements to change (hopefully in a good way). My approach tends to be practical – I’m more interested in what works than grand theory. Some example areas of interest are:

Current projects in varying levels of activity are:

• Human resource development and performance
• Evaluation and improvement of educational institutions
• Practical applications of the possible selves concept
• Use of video in job selection
• Industrial relations – my main interest here is union revitalisation, and what unions can do to be relevant to and effective for workers

Current projects in varying levels of activity are:

• Skill and capability in the state sector. I'm interested in whether state sector management styles have become too rigid and controlling, and that this is limiting the state sector’s adaptability to future requirements. Bullying, and other forms of victimisation, are markers of insufficient skill, and the evidence seems to be that those behaviours are far too common in the state sector. 
  
• Worker victimisation /bullying – my current interest is in the interaction between individual and organisational characteristics that are associated with bullying. I’m also interested in how alleged bullying is resolved (or not), and what the outcomes are for targets, perpetrators and organisations. 
  
• Management responses to the Christchurch earthquakes – I’m interested in how resilient organisations were, and whether organisations became more relational and less transactional in their dealings with staff and other stakeholders.
  
• Union revitalisation, and what unions can do to be relevant to and effective for workers
  
• Widening of union agenda to the full span of the employment relationship
  
• The use of a ‘possible selves’ approach with student transitions, criminal offending reduction, leadership and case management. I work with FutureSelves – a private company – that develops possible selves based programmes. Clients in the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand all use it in slightly different ways – making it an interesting lens into different cultures (www.futureselves.com).
  
• Video-based recruitment and staff selection. Video approaches seem particularly effective at developing shortlists (and final hiring decisions) that are less prone to bias, easy for organisations to use, and cheap when hiring non-locally. This research with www.virtualinterview.co.nz is still at the exploratory stage.
  

Qualifications

• PHD - Doctor of Philosophy   – Industrial and organisational psychology
• BA (Hons) - Bachelor of Arts with Honours (1st class)
• BA - Bachelor of Arts 

Publications

Donnelly, N., Proctor-Thomson, S.B. & Plimmer, G. (2012). The role of ‘voice’ in matters of ‘choice’: flexible work outcomes for women in the New Zealand Public Services. Journal of Industrial Relations, 54(2).

Plimmer, G. (2012). Adult Career Counseling Using Possible Selves—A Quasi-Experimental Field Study in Naturalistic Settings. Journal of Career Assessment, 20(1), 53-70.

Plimmer, G. (2012). HRM and the new workplace. In J. Bryson & R. Ryan (Eds.), Human resource management in the workplace (pp. 92 - 124). Auckland: Pearson.

Proctor-Thomson, S.B., Donnelly, N. & Plimmer, G. (2011). Constructing workplace democracy:Women’s voice in New Zealand public services. Wellington: Public Service Association (PSA) &Industrial Relations Centre, Victoria University of Wellington.

Plimmer, G. , Gill, D. & Norman, R. (2011). Skills and people capability in the future state: Needs, barriers and opportunities. In B. Ryan, & D. Gill (Eds.), Future State. (pp 281 – 305). Wellington NZ: VUW Press.

Plimmer, G., Willie Clarke-Okah, W., Donovan, C. & Russell, W. (2011). COL RIM: Lowering the cost and increasing the effectiveness of QA. In I. Jung & C. Latchem (Eds.). Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Distance Education. (pp. 162 – 172). New York: Routledge.

Schmidt, A., Plimmer, G., & Donovan, C. (2010). Handbook for the Commonwealth of Learning Review and Improvement Model. Retrieved from http://www.col.org/resources/publications/Pages/detail.aspx?PID=359.

Commonwealth of Learning (2009) Conceptual Framework for  Low Cost Model of effective Instituitional Quality Audit for Higher Education. Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver, 61pp. (Co-author with Alison Schmidt)

Plimmer, G., & Schmidt, A. (2007). Possible selves and career transition: It's who you want to be, not what you want to do. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 2007 (114), 61-74.

Presentations

Plimmer, G., Norman, R. & Gill, D. (2011, November). Overcoming new public management calcification: Skills and capability implications. Paper presented at Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Fall Conference, Washington DC.

Plimmer, G. (2010, July). Cost-effective institutional quality audit: The Commonwealth of Learning Review and Improvement Model (COL RIM). Paper presented at IIAS -IASIA Congress, 12-15 July. Bali, Indonesia.

Plimmer, G. (2005). Career Development in Organisations: What the research shows works and doesn't work. 14th AACC Inc National Conference, Canberra, ACT Conference 30th March - 1st April.

Plimmer, G. (2005). Career Development in Organisations: What the research shows works and doesn't work.
HRINZ Professional Interest Group, Auckland, April.  Download presentation.

Plimmer, G. (2004). Picking What's Useful Out of Recent Research. Presentation at the Organisation Development Network Eleventh National Conference, Wellington.