TEACHING

My teaching and research interests involve organizational behavior and industrial/employee relations. Typically, I teach undergraduate courses in organizational behavior, a graduate elective in managing employee attitudes and behaviors such as absenteeism, turnover, employee commitment, and stress, and a PhD seminar in organizational behavior.

In terms of philosophy, I believe in being readily available to students in and out of the classroom. You can reach me through a variety of means (e.g. email, telephone) and I encourage students to stop by without an appointment. My goal is to make you as excited about the material we cover in class as I am. 

I also believe in a scientific approach to understanding human behavior in organizations. Accordingly, I encourage those of you who are intrigued by how and why people behave in certain ways to visit with me about how we might involve you in the knowledge generation process (i.e., research).

RESEARCH

My research interests are numerous and varied. Over my career I have conducted research on such disparate topics as office design, physical attractiveness, smoking in the workplace, and the impact of part-time work and unusual work schedules on employee attitudes and behaviors. However, the majority of my research has centered on the study of employee loyalty and commitment. What makes an employee feel a sense of loyalty to his or her work, occupation, career, or organizations? How do these attitudes influence behaviors like performance, absenteeism, turnover, and other managerially relevant outcomes? These questions are exceedingly important to today's managers and human resource professionals. In recent years, I have collaborated with Mike Crum of our Supply Chain and Information Systems Department and others in our college to study employee-oriented issues in the railroad and trucking industries. My most current research projects entail work with David Cantor and Frank Montabon related to finding ways to encourage employees to voluntarily engage in pro-environmental behaviors. As you can see, I am not afraid to venture out!

I enjoy working with others who like to do research in these and other subject matter areas. My door is always open to students wanting to discuss potential independent studies, theses, or creative component projects that entail data collection and analysis. Tomorrow's "principles" of management will emerge from just such efforts.