Dr Joey Lauw-Kalata Soehardjojo PhD

Dr Joey Lauw-Kalata Soehardjojo PhD

Lecturer, International Business
See full profile

Details

Open to

  • Collaborative projects
  • Industry Projects
  • Masters Research or PhD student supervision
  • Media enquiries

About

Dr. Joey Soehardjojo is a Lecturer (Teaching, Research and Industry Engagement) at RMIT University Vietnam. He is an interdisciplinary scholar of innovation, work, and organization whose research examines how labor-market institutions, HRM–employment relations systems, and multi-actor governance shape work and industrial development in global production networks, with a particular focus on Japan and Southeast Asia.

 

Building on his award-winning PhD thesis, his scholarship is grounded in extensive longitudinal, multi-sited field research with firms, employer associations, unions, government agencies, and intermediary organizations. As a lead author, he has published in ABDC A outlets including Economic and Industrial Democracy and the International Journal of Human Resource Management, and has led and contributed to funded research projects supported by UKRI ESRC, the British Academy, and Japan’s JSPS.

 

Alongside academic research, Joey maintains sustained industry and policy engagement. He contributes to knowledge exchange with policy stakeholders, industry, trade unions, and quasi-public agencies, and has served as an invited speaker and discussant for government and industry.

Before entering academia, Joey held leadership and management roles in New York City, including work in the financial district (Wall Street) and at Rockefeller Center. In the post-9/11 period, he supported cross-cultural communication and training work aligned with public-agency operational needs, contributing to practical cultural competence and communication capability in complex, high-stakes environments, including work involving the CIA, FBI, and NYPD. He also participated in the Walt Disney World International Program (EPCOT, Florida). Multilingual and internationally mobile, he has lived in eight countries and has worked in UK higher education across both Russell Group and modern universities. He is now based in Vietnam, his most recent professional and personal home, and enjoys local gastronomy and culture.

 

Joey holds a PhD from Warwick Business School (UK) and completed an MSc at the University of Oxford and an MSc at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), both in the UK. He also holds an Honours Bachelor of Commerce from McMaster University (Canada) and Osaka University (Japan).

Research fields

  • 350706 International business
  • 3505 Human resources and industrial relations
  • 350712 Production and operations management
  • 350909 Supply chains
  • 350705 Innovation management

UN sustainable development goals

  • 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
  • 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth

Teaching interests

My teaching is research-led, inclusive, and dialogic. I design learning experiences that help students connect theory to real organizational and societal challenges, drawing on insights from longitudinal fieldwork across Asia to inform lectures, case studies, and student-led research projects that foster critical thinking and global awareness. I have taught across undergraduate and postgraduate programs, including both coursework teaching and research supervision, working with diverse cohorts of international students as well as mature learners returning from industry and those balancing study with family and caring responsibilities. My teaching record has been recognized through university- and department-level teaching awards in the UK.

 

I contribute actively to curriculum development, module design, and program review, aligning content with interdisciplinary goals and contemporary global challenges, including digitization, the future of work, and sustainable industrial transformation. I emphasize academic integrity, methodological rigor, and reflective learning, supporting students to develop strong analytical writing, evidence-based argumentation, leadership, and professional communication skills. Equally important is a commitment to student well-being and inclusive learning, including appropriate support for neurodivergent students and learning practices that promote active learning and a healthy balance between academic study and everyday life.

Research interests

My research portfolio is oriented toward theory development with clear societal relevance. It speaks directly to policy stakeholders and communities of practice by engaging with contemporary shifts in the global political economy—industrial restructuring, uneven labor-market institutionalization, supply-chain pressures, and contested employment regulation. I use empirically grounded research to explain how these dynamics shape economic equity, job quality, worker voice, inclusion, and capability building, and to develop theory on the governance of innovation and work across organizations, industries, and institutional environments.

 

As lead author, my research focuses on:

  • Labor-market institutions and HRM–employment relations systems in comparative perspective, including the politics and practice of implementation and enforcement.
  • Multi-actor governance and legitimacy processes shaping employment regulation, worker voice, and industrial relations outcomes.
  • Global production networks and industrial upgrading, including how supply-chain governance influences work, skills, and inclusion across tiers.
  • Intermediary organizations and institutional agency, examining how hybrid actors coordinate knowledge transfer and capability building in industrial fields.
  • Work, innovation, and skills formation in late-industrializing contexts, with attention to the distributional consequences of industrial development.

 

I collaborate with co-authors across Australia and the UK and welcome research collaborations—especially projects that combine rigorous fieldwork with contributions to theory and practical value for policy, industry, and worker organizations.