Two graduates of the Bachelor's degree program IPO were successful winners at the award ceremony for the Eduard Gaugler Prize at the University of Mannheim's Faculty of Business Administration on 19 April.
The prize was donated in memory of Prof. Dr. h.c. mult. Eduard Gaugler (1928 - 2014), the second holder of the oldest Chair of Human Resources Management in the entire German-speaking world. The prize was announced by the Research Center for Business Administration and Social Practice (FBS e.V.), which Eduard Gaugler himself used to head, and was awarded for the first time in a ceremony at the Faculty of Business Administration. The family of the namesake was represented in large numbers at the award ceremony.
Alicia Junge B.Sc. received a 2nd prize of €2,000 for her Bachelor's thesis on "Influencing factors on employer attractiveness - relevance and impact of corporate purpose" from the theses submitted by HWG Ludwigshafen. Vivienne Hesser B.Sc. was awarded 3rd prize for her Bachelor's thesis on "Personnel marketing in the care sector - target group-specific optimization of the online presence for improved personnel recruitment" with prize money of €1,000. Both graduates were able to prevail against a large field of applicants.
In his welcoming address, the Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration, Joachim Lutz, pointed out that the first Chair of Human Resources Management in the entire German-speaking world was established at the Mannheim School of Business in 1961. The founding holder of the chair was Prof. Dr. August Marx (1906-1990), later also Papal House Prelate. He was succeeded in 1972 by Eduard Gaugler from Regensburg as holder of the Chair of General Business Administration, in particular Human Resources and Ergonomics. Gaugler's name is associated, among other things, with the publication of the 3rd edition of the Handwörterbuch des Personalwesens in 2004, which is still considered a standard work today. The magazine Wirtschaftswoche called him "the human resources pope" in recognition of his expertise. Prof. Gaugler has produced many students who have taken up key positions in practice and at university.
The HWG Ludwigshafen and the Human Resources Management (IPO and IHRM) department were represented at the award ceremony by the supervising professor of the two prize-winning bachelor theses. Prof. Dr. Thomas A. Martin, former scientific director of the consecutive degree program. Martin, former academic director of the consecutive Master's degree program IHRM (M.Sc.), and himself a student of Eduard Gaugler during his student days. Martin congratulated the award winners on behalf of the Department BW II Marketing and Human Resources Management and the Human Resources degree programs and wished them all the best and every success for their future academic and professional careers.