Curtin Sarawak lecturer receives best research paper award at international conference

Miri – 13 June 2016 – Reimara Valk, a senior lecturer in human resource management at Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia (Curtin Sarawak) was presented the Motofusa Murayama Best Research Paper Award at the recent 33rd Pan-Pacific Conference held in Miri.

Valk, from the Department of Management in the university’s Faculty of Business, received the award for her paper entitled ‘Flexpatriate Rotational Assignees in the Energy Industry: Exploring Job Demands, Job Resources and Well-being’ which she co-authored with Sandra Hannon of Lloyds Register Energy Drilling.

The award was established at this year’s conference as a tribute to Professor Motofusa Murayama, a former academic at Seattle University who was instrumental in establishing the conference and played major roles in the conference as a speaker, special panel presenter, session chair and Chair of the Conference Organising Committee. It acknowledges young scholars who received their first degrees during the last decade or are in the process of obtaining postgraduate degrees.

Valk’s paper explores the relationship between job demands, job resources and well-being of flexpatriate-rotational-assignees in the energy sector. Rotational assignments are a well-established form of international mobility in the energy and oil and gas sector and are commonly used on oil rigs and other remote locations.

In an exploratory case study within a global post-merger/acquisition organisation in the Energy industry, Valk and Hannon interviewed 24 rotational assignees of seven different nationalities residing at nine different locations across the globe.

The study found that frequent travelling to remote locations around the world as well as unhealthy living conditions undermined the respondents’ physical well-being, while work pressure, work overload and aggressive clients, as well as safety and security concerns, affected their psychological well-being.

The paper recommends that organisations in the Energy sector design health and well-being programmes to prevent chronic illnesses associated with lifestyle-related risk factors prominent among flexpatriate-rotational-assignees. Multimedia platforms and tools could be helpful for these assignees to monitor and improve their health and well-being whilst travelling to and working at remote work locations around the world.

Valk earned a Master of Science degree in Human Resource Studies at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. At present, she is an external PhD candidate at Utrecht University and her dissertation defence date is scheduled on 7 October 2016. Her specialisation is in the area of international human resource management with a research interest in global career mobility, repatriation experiences, repatriate turnover and career success of globally mobile career professionals; work-life balance; employee engagement; and employee well-being.

The 33rd Pan-Pacific Conference was held for the first time in East Malaysia in Miri from 25 to 27 May 2016 at Pullman Waterfront Miri. Co-organised by the Pan-Pacific Business Association and Curtin Sarawak with support from the Sarawak Convention Bureau, the conference themed ‘Building a Smart Society through Innovation and Co-creation’ was attended by delegates from over 20 Pacific Rim countries. It focused on changes in geopolitics and technological advances and their effects on the global economic landscape.

Recipient of Motofusa Murayama Best Research Paper Award, Reimara Valk.