Organizational Research Institute (ORI)

Focus

Organizational Research Institute (ORI) is an interdisciplinary research institute within the School of Entrepreneurship and Business Administration at the American University of Central Asia. The institute focuses on the:

1. Scientific research of management and human resource practices in Central Asia.
2. Dissemination of evidence-based HR and OD know-how to organizations and agencies based in Central Asia.
3. Facilitation of collaborations and exchanges between HR, OD professionals and academics in Central Asia and beyond.

Mission

To facilitate economic and social progress in Central Asia via effective organizational practices.

Purpose

Since the turn of the century, organizations in Central Asia have been faced with numerous challenges such as those from economic transition, intense market competition, and an evolving set of firm survival rules. Pressures to adapt comes not just from mimetic, coercive, or normative forces, but also the need to adapt existing Soviet-era practices for the new business environment.

Globalization and the formation of the Eurasian Economic Union brings ever more foreign investments that demand local partners to align their businesses practices; while recent local start-ups seek out modern management know-how to get an edge over traditional competitors. Yet with a dominantly pastoral nomadic culture, and a western-influenced young workforce working alongside soviet-train colleagues, the contextual dialectics question the applicability of western-origin management techniques in Central Asian firms.

Relative to localized research that is available for nation-building, organizations in Central Asia have much less locally theorized and sampled studies to turn to. The international scientific community are also much remote from understanding how management in Central Asia is similar or different from that in other parts of the world.

ORI is, hence, established to fill these gaps, and provide a platform for practitioner-academic exchange in organizational sciences to flourish in Central Asia.

Anchor Projects for 2018

Workforce
– 1st Annual Work Values and Career Aspirations Survey: Discovering Motivations and Attitudes of Kyrgyzstan Workforce

Organizations
– Creation and Distribution of a multi-language Open-source Organization Diagnostic Tool for Use in Central Asia.
– 1st Bi-annual Organizational Diagnostic Benchmarking Study in Central Asian Countries.

Other Planned Work for 2018*

– Formation of Core Industry Advisory Team
– National HR Practitioners Round-table (by invitation)
– Data collection on Multi-generational Differences in Organizational Attitude and Work Behaviors in Kyrgyzstan.
– Comparative Study on Relative Pay Preferences in Kyrgyzstan and U.S.A.
– Translation of Career Aspiration Taxonomy of Entrepreneurship, Professional, and Leadership Framework to Russian, Kyrgyz, and Dari.
– Initiate international collaboration to study the impact of Nomadic cultural influences on strategic risk-taking
* Activities exclude presentations pending acceptance at various international conferences.s

Pro-bono Assistance Available for Local Firms*

– Job Analysis, Job Evaluation & Organization Structure Diagnostics
– Organizational Climate and Employee Engagement Surveys
– Performance Management Design
– Selection and Assessment Tools and System Design
– Organizational Change Process Design
– Candidate and Leadership Assessment
– HR Metrics & ROI Projects
– HR Training (Team Design, Conflict Management, Motivation System Design)
– Strategic Analysis (Evaluation of External Environment and Internal Capabilities, Corporate Strategy Implementation and Execution)
* On cost-recovery basis and subject to scheduling availability. 3-4 weeks lead time is required.

Research Coordinators

Dr. Jayarethanam Pillai, Associate Professor
Dr. Riyang Phang, Assistant Professor
Aikerim Motukeeva, Lecturer

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