Good day, Dr. K. Sampath. I'm Arjun. I've had a look through your background and your professional record. I'm interested in hearing more about your work and how you see yourself fitting in here with our faculty. Ready to start?

It's I'm, uh, Doctor K uh, Sampath.

Academician.

Having experienced more than 22 years of.

Uh, experience in teaching?

And research activity.

I hold a PhD.

In human resource development, MBA in HR and marketing.

And Btech Chemical.

Engineering Qualifications.

My, uh, academic interest in HR analytics.

Strategic human resource management.

Organizational change and development.

I have organized many workshops.

Seminar.

Student workshops.

Conferences.

I have published papers in Scopus, indexed journals, conferences, ABDC listed journals and UGC care journals.

Thank you, Professor. Let's delve into specific areas of your expertise. Starting with HR analytics, how would you explain its role in improving organizational decision-making to an audience unfamiliar with the concept?

Is HR analytics, uh, is a data-driven, uh, decision making.

In HR.

This HR analytics replaces intuition-based decision-making in HR. In HR analytics, we collect employee data.

And using uh, a predictive models analyze the data.

And get insights for decision making.

In the areas of recruitment and other important functional areas, HR analytics improves.

Retention.

And improve the recruitment.

Strategies in the organization.

Appraisal and predict attrition rate of in organization.

Understood. Can you provide an example of a situation where predictive analytics in HR could be used to address a real organizational challenge—such as high attrition rates?

Yes, when a organization faces a high attrition rate.

There are there may be many reasons for the high attrition rate.

So as in HR analytics we can develop.

To measure the rate of attrition.

A matrix.

OK. Using that metrics, we can calculate the attrition rate and the reasons behind the high attrition rate in the organization.

So by measuring the matrix and understanding the metrics and the insights from the analysis.

We can develop a possible solution and strategies.

That can be implemented in an organization to reduce the attrition level in the particular organization.

Thank you, Professor. Moving to another area of your expertise, how would you guide students in understanding the practical implications of strategic human resource management?

Strategic human resource management is basically.

A Treating HR function as a strategic partner in an organization where the HR strategy is integrated with the.

Business strategy.

So every hour activities.

And practices that contributes to the organizational success and overall productivity of an organizations so this can be taught for the students.

Through live corporate cases.

Uh, role plays.

And simulation exercises.

We can teach these concepts more practically to MBA students for their better understanding.

Understood. How would you link this to organizational change and development, ensuring students grasp the interconnectedness of these concepts?

So we are a living and a highly dynamic business environment.

Changes innovatively in today's business scenario.

But how those changes are brought into the organizational process and practices is very, very important.

To understand this change process, I can explain the students with the livings change model.

Which countries offer three stages?

And second phase is transformation.

So do the intended changes in the organizations and implement it effectively and rephrase it. That is the third phase.

So in the rephrase, we are institutionalizing the changes in the organization.

So by implementing the changes.

Uh, in terms of our technology, culture and structure in the organization, because those changes enables the organization, uh, to adopt to the internal and external pressures for the growth of the organization. It is very, very, very important.

Thank you, Professor. Now shifting focus, how do you ensure that theoretical concepts are effectively integrated with practical applications in your teaching approach?

Yes. Umm.

My teaching approaches uh student centric and practical oriented approach.

In my uh class discussion.

I integrate live corporate case studies.

To understand the applications of concepts in the.

And I use analytical based mini projects to the students.

Practice.

And research based.

Assignments.

And I implement role plays.

And use appropriate assimilation exercises. So all those teaching pedagogies are very useful to understand the concepts.

And how a student can apply it in the practical situation?

And the theories.

Understood. How do you evaluate the effectiveness of these methodologies in achieving desired learning outcomes?

Yes, 2.

Ensure the uh.

Outcome of this methodologies.

My my approach is.

I use this methodologies and I align them with the uh, the course objectives of the particular, uh course.

End with my pedagogy.

And I align this with the assessment and feedback.

So those alignment will ensure.

The best outcome?

That is aligned with outcome based education.

And other accreditation requirements for an academic institution.

Thank you, Professor. With your extensive experience, how do you guide students in quality research projects, ensuring academic rigor and relevance?

Yes, I have a uh.

The experience was the experience in teaching.

And I have a consistent uh, uh.

Research.

Output in terms of obligations.

And in the past 22 years, I have guided many MBA quality MBA projects.

And I am expertise in the data analysis as well.

So through structured research, planning starts from.

Research Design.

And uh, proper, uh, uh, methodological. That means advanced, uh, methodology.

And advanced statistical tools for data analysis.

And ethical practices in the research OK that leads to quality research outcome and also have experience in publication processes and mentoring. So all those experiences will guide the students in the proper research, conducting research and will ensure the quality outcome.

Thank you, Professor. Moving towards research dissemination, can you discuss how your papers in Scopus-indexed and ABDC-listed journals contribute to both academia and industry?

Yes, I have uh uh papers published and indexed in Scopus and ABDC listed journals. For example my recent research publication in 2024.

EA powered performance evaluation system, so that actually demonstrates my focus on future of work.

Was focused on.

OK. And my other research papers were focused on a in HR systems.

And stress management in the workplace.

And predict you, uh, models digital HR, uh, uh, transformation.

OK, oh, so the all those publications or the examples for best quality, uh, research output from my side and my commitment towards the.

Good research profile.

Understood, Professor. One last area—how do you see the role of workshops and conferences in shaping both faculty and student development?

As an academician.

Please continue.

It's it's my responsibility.

To update myself on the new skills.

And the latest developments.

Uh, in my uh.

Field OK, so to update myself and to update the, uh, knowledge of the students, agonizing workshops, seminars, conferences, They help you a lot where we bring talents together and the experts together. They share their knowledge, their expertise in a different areas of management. And students and faculties, they get an opportunity.

To interact and they share their thoughts, knowledge and expertise on the various management topics. So this helps a lot. OK to update ourselves.

And improve our knowledge and exposure in a different areas of management. Certainly, this workshops, seminar, conferences OK immensely help students and faculty to upgrade ourselves or improve our knowledge and exposure.

Dr. Sampath, to begin, can you share which specific course or area in Human Resource Management you find most engaging to teach at an introductory level and why?

Actually, I'm, umm, uh, a certified, uh, industry certified uh, faculty on uh, Zoho CRM applications.

I have done a certification course in HR and Analytics based on my.

And also.

Uh certification courses in Zoho CRM and HR Analytics.

Those courses are very useful and engaging.

For example, Nazoho CRM that explains how a student or a faculty use the employee data and customer data.

To understand the customer related decisions are made based on that.

Whereas in HR analytics certifications.

Improvement in training, UH, in appraisal, in understanding the attrition rate.

So those all those learnings are done with the help of a corporate data sets and application of predictive models.

So all these courses are practical in nature.

And it needs, uh, uh, involvement from the participants. So this course was basically highly engaging for this, uh, the students or the faculty who are undertaking this, uh, uh, certification process, they are really useful and engage.

Professor, I see that your academic background includes a Ph.D. in Management with a focus on Human Resource Development. Could you elaborate on one of your recent research publications or projects that bridges your expertise in HR analytics or predictive modeling with your teaching practices?

Yes, uh.

I have a PhD. PhD in human resource development. My PhD.

Our focus was uh.

Human resource development practices.

In commercial banks.

And their implementation effectiveness.

Uh, through my PhD, uh, the outcome of the basically the outcome of my research work was.

The implementation of HRD practices.

Increases the effectiveness of the organizational performances.

In my recent research I focused on a applications in HR.

Umm, employee, uh, appraisal.

Uh, and the digital, uh, transformation.

So all those areas were focused in my recent publications, one of my researchers employee.

A performance.

A message where I use a predictive.

Models OK to understand the performance metrics for an employee.

So what are all the key result areas or the metrics OK that determines exactly?

Exactly the the employee performance.

And where are the performance gaps exist?

In order to improve the employee performance, those areas can be, uh, concentrated.

So that.

So, the feedback can be given to the employees as well and also the HR department can take suitable measures to bridge that gap.

It’s a thoughtful application of predictive models in HR analytics, especially in identifying performance gaps and areas of improvement. Could you elaborate on how you translate these types of research findings into a classroom setting? Specifically, how do you ensure that students engage with and apply these advanced concepts practically?

Yes, we can convert.

The outcomes of this uh.

Advanced Research, uh.

Publications into.

Uh, classroom teachings.

Uh, because, uh, by adopting.

The analytics based.

Are the projects can be given to the students?

Assignments.

Uh, initially the concepts must be taught to the students. What is the predictive models HR analytics? OK, once they understand the basic concepts of HR analytics and how the predictive models can be applied in HR analytics.

Uh, we can uh, uh, give.

An analytics based assignments are the projects so that the student can collect data. Employee data may be related to recruitment or attrition.

Or employee performance from the live corporate data sets. So for the data, the UH students can apply the uh predictive models and they can understand and how those models works and how the interpretations are made. So by doing.

Uh, by undertaking this projects, students practically understand how those models works in a HR analytics. Throughout this process as a faculty, I support and guide the students in this entire assignments or the projects.

Thank you, Professor. It's clear that you aim to foster a strong practical understanding through real-world data and hands-on assignments. How do you measure the success of these approaches in terms of students' ability to grasp and apply these advanced HR concepts?

Yes, the outcome of.

Those assignments or the project learning can be measured through continuous.

Assessments.

Basically, uh, for assignments, we said what are the uh, uh, expected outcomes of the assignments?

OK, uh.

OK the metrics to measure the outcomes OK. So using this matrix the assign performance of the students can be measured objective.

And for the projects based learning.

It's a clear outcomes course. Outcomes or developed and.

Through the different stages of the project OK, so their progress can be monitored and evaluated objectively through.

Proper assessment methods.

And also final presentation can ensure what is the final outcome of the.

Uh, this particular project work, uh, by the students, so it can be measured objectively without any bias.

Your structured approach to assessment, with clearly defined metrics and stages for evaluation, reflects a robust method to ensure student learning. Let's proceed.

Uh, is, is for a project assignments. Can you, uh, we can develop a robust store, uh, assessment, uh?

Professor,

Methodologies, first we have I have to establish what is the expected outcome of the the projects OK and Mr. Establish.

Your robust methodology for carrying out the.

Uh, project work. That means a research design must be developed properly so that can be evaluated.

OK. And the proper data collection and ethical practices in carrying out the projects must be uh, uh.

Established.

And advanced statistical tools and models must be used so that can be measured properly. OK, Finally the reporting of a particular projects, so in the different stages we have a clear standards for measuring the progress of those projects for the students. So it can be objectively measured.

Thank you for explaining your approach, Professor. Could you now elaborate on how you would mentor junior students in your research lab to ensure they develop the skills necessary to contribute to high-quality, impactful publications?

Yes, I focus on high quality, impactful research.

For the students.

Uh, first.

I make them uh.

To understand the research process thoroughly, first Business Research process they must thorough about the entire research process from the from defining the research gap, research design, statistical analysis OK and report writing.

OK, so based on the business, uh, business problem identified, so they have to convert it into the research problem. And based on that, the research design must be developed and proper data collection methods and tools must be applied.

And appropriate selection of advanced statistical tools may be such as spaces or machine learning models can be used for that purpose.

And inferences. And based on that, finally we can prepare the report. So in each stages of this research process, I guide the students OK with all my knowledge and experiences.

Understood, Professor. How do you plan to leverage international collaborations to enhance the visibility and citation metrics of your research output?

So the citation.

Off my publications are the research work. It depends on the quality of the publications.

So my focus will be on the high impact research.

So the high impact results will research will be a result of.

Proper identification of the research gap.

And, uh, proper research design.

And robust research methodology and usage of advanced statistical tools.

And following the ethical practices in conducting the.

Research.

OK, so as a result of following all the steps.

I can produce a high quality research publications so that will attract more site agents in national or international levels.

Thank you for clarifying, Professor. That will conclude this section.

Professor, let's begin by discussing your approach to instructional strategies. Can you explain in detail how you would implement an active learning model, such as a Flipped Classroom, for a large-enrollment course? Please exclude the use of slides or traditional lecture formats and focus on student engagement.

Yes, my approaches uh student centric.

And practical oriented teaching.

In my class discussions.

I will use more live case studies related to the concept which I'm explaining to the students.

And wherever appropriate, I will emphasize the students to undertake.

Uh, analytics based assignments.

And uh, research based projects so where they can use tools like spaces and machine learning.

So the assignments and projects I encourage students to undertake more and more.

And I use role play and simulation exercises.

To understand the concepts OK, so this practical approaches are more engaging for the students and also.

It attracts involvement, more involvement from the student side.

So this is my approach, more of a a practical oriented and student centric rather than using a traditional lecture method.

Thank you, Professor. Building on that, how would you leverage your expertise in managing family businesses and entrepreneurship to create course content that resonates with an institution's vision to cultivate future leaders? Perhaps you could mention some specific activities or themes you would incorporate.

Yes, uh, to en incorporate uh, entrepreneurial culture.

Uh, in the institution and then the students mind.

I.

Involve I organize this entrepreneurial awareness programs for the different groups of people, for example.

Uh, I organized programs for the uh, non governmental organizations and small family business uh, uh people.

And self help groups.

So I created a detailed.

Presentation and discussion with them.

To create an awareness about the different uh uh.

Functions of management, how that is applicable into their business?