May 2007 Former NUI Galway Dean to deliver 30th annual Markievicz memorial lecture

The trend towards increasing outflows of people as well as the more evident inflows from other countries should be welcomed as part of Ireland's changing pattern of migration, according to a former Dean of Commerce at NUI Galway, Professor Roy Green, who will deliver the 30th Annual Countess Markievicz Memorial lecture on Tuesday, 8 May 2007.

The 'Building the Innovative Capability of Organisations' lecture, organised by the Irish Association for Industrial Relations (IAIR), with the support of Medtronic and GMIT, will take place at Áras Moyola, NUI Galway from 6.30 – 7.30pm.

Prof. Green is Dean of the Macquarie Graduate School of Management, one of Australia's leading business schools. Prof. Green argues that, like Australia, Ireland too must adopt a positive view of the trend for graduates to look for work abroad as well as at home, as many of these graduates are likely to return with enhanced skills and experience.

Prof. Green, who was responsible for establishing the Centre for Innovation & Structural Change and J E Cairnes Graduate School of Business & Public Policy during his six years at NUI Galway, believes Countess Markievicz herself was one of the first examples of a migrant who contributed massively to the Irish nation.

"The first phase of immigration comprised Irish expatriates from the less than halcyon days of the 1980s, who were forced to leave by the economic circumstances of the time and only now have the opportunity to return to senior positions in universities, public agencies and international firms, as well as professional s and skilled workers from a wide range of other countries, especially the new member states of the EU, who also want to contribute to the Irish economic transformation and build a new life here for themselves and their families," says Prof. Green.

"With only a slight stretch of the imagination, you might say that London-born Constance Markievicz was an early prototype for this group, as were James Connolly, who was Scottish and New York native Eamon de Valera.

"Unlike Joyce Beckett Shaw and the Massachusetts Kennedy clan, whose life and work were conducted abroad, the new generation will be gone one day but back the next, as a sophisticated, Blackberry wielding, Armani and Prada-clad globalised community, which according to AT Kearney's Globalisation Index, belongs to one of the most globalised economies in the world."

Professor Green concludes that business schools have a major part to play in "preparing the next generation of leaders in our societies, through their management of organisations in both the public and private sectors, and that leadership in the future will no longer be about 'command and control', but releasing people's talent and creativity, more often than not in cross-functional, problem-solving teams, collaborative networks and 'communities of knowledge'".

The lecture is free and open to the public. Further information is available from Dr Noel Harvey, Chairman of the IAIR on 091 742127 or Nuala Donohue, Department of Management, NUI Galway on 091 493771.

The Irish Association for Industrial Relations was established in 1972 in response to a growing need to develop and exchange knowledge on industrial relations at the national level, providing a forum for discussion and research. Membership is drawn from management, trade unions, academics, students and others interested in industrial relations and related topics.