She recently delivered her prestige lecture on risk management.
Prof Born is a full professor in industrial psychology at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Her impressive CV also includes her role as extraordinary professor in industrial and personnel psychology at the Free University in Amsterdam.
Her research interests include personnel selection, cross-cultural psychology, test development and assessment, big data and algorithms in psychological assessment, and personality and individual differences.
During her prestige lecture the audience was however treated to a look at risk issues or culture, the relevant aspects impacting on it, and how this relate to the individual differences between people.
“If we talk about organisational risk issues or risk culture, there are relevant aspects related to differences between individuals that must be taken into account,” she said.
Her lecture gave examples that aimed to inspire the audience and ultimately lead to new research. Prof Born explained that concepts that are relevant at the level of individual differences, such as different styles of coping with life events, is certainly also relevant when looking at organisational cultures.
She believes that apart from the organisational culture itself, it is also important to focus on research regarding the differences between individuals who play important roles within the organisation. “For instance, individual differences in terms of personality and values could influence risk accountability,” she added.
From left are Prof Babs Surijal, Prof Ian Rothmann, Prof Marise Born, Prof Linda du Plessis, Prof Elrie Botha, Prof Jaco Hoffmann, Prof Hermien Zaaiman and Prof Lucius Botes.
Prof Born describes herself as interdisciplinary oriented and believes in economic viewpoints as a big driver of her research.
“We know the Centre for Applied Risk Management is doing a lot of research in the South African context. From the standpoint of research in industrial psychology, this is immensely important,” she said.
According to her the datasets used in international books and journal articles are insufficient, since the information collected originates from only western countries in Europe and North America.
“When it comes to risk management, individual differences are also very relevant in the South African context. Some research must be done in risk taking propensity and how this may effect risk behaviour in the South African context. A lot of research has been done in other parts of the world, which may be generalised to some parts of society in South Africa, but certainly not on all,” said Prof Born.
As author and co-author, Prof Born has published more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and has also advised more than 20 PhD students. She is currently the chair of the board of the Dut
