Department of Management Newsletter
Spring 2025
Letter from the Chair
This newsletter is a new effort to stay connected to alumni and friends of our department.
If you read something in here and would like to learn more, please reach out to me and I'd be happy to provide additional details.
Our department hosts three undergraduate majors – Management (MGMT), International Business and Human Resource Management (HRM). Our enrollments have been steady over the last five years, no small feat considering that college enrollments are declining overall. We're also proud that since we launched a new degree program in HRM several years ago, it's been the fastest growing major on campus. Our undergraduate teaching is one of the primary ways in which we contribute to the Memphis business community. To honor that commitment, in 2024 we did an extensive curriculum review of both the MGMT and HRM majors. We are continuing to work on updating and upgrading our courses as the competencies that new graduates need continue to evolve.
The management department is also a key contributor to the college MBA program, teaching both the Impactful Leadership and Global Strategic Management courses. We are proud of our doctoral program which regularly produces outstanding young scholars who are moving into great research and teaching roles at strong universities.
Our research faculty have been extremely productive over the past five years. We not only publish the most top tier scholarly papers per faculty member in the college, but over the last three years we have been the most successful department in procuring external funding.
Our teaching faculty are similarly highly effective in their roles. Management faculty teach the first and last courses that all college majors take as well as all the key courses in our three degree programs. Notably, the college recently changed their job titles from Instructor to Assistant or Associate Professors of Teaching to appropriately recognize the value they bring to the college and our students.
The research and teaching excellence of our faculty has been recognized in multiple ways. In 2023, Dr. Kristen Jones was named the Robert Wang Chair of Excellence in Management. Dr. Jihae You was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. Drs. Caitlin Porter and Alex Lindsey were awarded the George Johnson Research Fellows Award this past spring. Dr. Kathy Tuberville received the SHRM Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023 by the Memphis chapter. Our faculty are also nationally recognized, sitting on many editorial boards or holding offices in professional societies.
There's a lot going on and more to come! In the spring of 2025, we will be completing our new department strategic plan and I am also in the process of reforming the Management Advisory Council to help us continue to grow, serve our community and profession and hold ourselves to the standards of professionalism and commitment that we teach in our classes.
Again, I invite you to follow up with me if you want to know anything more about the news and events in this newsletter.
Wishing you a safe, productive 2025.
Respectfully,
Kurt Kraiger
Professor & Chair | Dept. of MGMT
Email
Student Organization Spotlights
Memphis Institute for Leadership Education (MILE)
While MILE is an FCBE program, it is directed by Dr. Kurt Kraiger, the chair of the Management Department. The MILE program has transformed student experiences for over 17 years after being formed in the mid-2000s by former department chair Dr. Bob Taylor and MGMT alumnus Austin Baker. Austin is still actively involved in the MILE program.
MILE matches ambitious, high performing Fogelman students in all majors with business leaders in their chosen career path. MILE enhances the career readiness and leadership potential of our student protégés through a combination of monthly meetings and one-on-mentoring. In our meetings, we work on developing leadership, networking skills and essential skills like listening and collaborating. In their monthly meetups, mentors support their protégés though job shadowing, coaching, mock interviews, networking and providing emotional support as students navigate the challenges of college life.
Mentor recruitment begins in April in preparation for the following academic year.
If you are interested in giving back by being a mentor, please contact Dr. Kurt Kraiger at kurt.kraiger@memphis.edu.
SHRM
The Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) student chapter was awarded the Superior Merit Award for the 2023-24 academic year. This award requires a rigorous application process and only 20% of SHRM Student Chapters nationally receive one of the merit awards. The UofM SHRM Student Chapter has received a merit award each year since 2017.
The SHRM student chapter maintains a robust calendar with monthly meetings featuring speakers from the local HR community. SHRM also hosted their annual fall experiential learning event, the HR Academy. Cintas, as the featured employer, led students through a case study competition on a practical HR problem.
Featured Story
Three of our Management faculty are working on a two-year Science of Organizations (SoO) grant funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), which aims to build a more comprehensive understanding of the specific contextual factors that impact the psychological safety of marginalized employees at work, with the broader goal of improving marginalized employees’ work lives and helping organizations to retain top diverse talent. Dr. Kristen Jones is the Primary Investigator (PI) on the grant, and Drs. Alex Lindsey and Jessica Kirk are Co-PIs. In addition to the UofM investigators, the research team includes Dr. Devalina Nag (2022 graduate of the UofM MGMT PhD program and now Assistant Professor at the University of San Diego), Dr. Enrica Ruggs (University of Houston) and Dr. Shona Smith (University of Houston). The $400K NSF award, of which the University of Memphis was awarded $148,020, is a collaboration between the University of Memphis and the University of Houston.
Employee psychological safety, or the belief that one can take interpersonal risks at work without fear of retaliation, has been shown to have several health and productivity benefits for employees and organizations. One factor that is critical to building psychological safety is leader behavior. Most of the research to date has failed to consider that psychological safety may be cultivated in unique ways for employees who are members of socially disadvantaged groups, particularly for racial minority women who often experience unique challenges based on their intersecting social identities. Given the workforce has become increasingly diverse, building an understanding of how leaders can best cultivate psychological safety for employees who are members of socially disadvantaged groups is a critical step to fully realizing the advantages of a workforce in which employees feel psychologically safe. As such, the project team is collecting data to support the development of actionable, evidence-based interventions that will help managers develop communication and leadership skills that effectively cultivate the psychological safety of their employees,
Additionally, the research team has been working hard to build business partnerships as part of their ongoing efforts on this grant. For instance, Drs. Kristen Jones and Enrica Ruggs were invited to speak about the grant at the BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Annual Power of We Conference, which was held in Nashville this past October.
Student & Alumni Spotlights
Undergraduate Student
Lauren Culp
BBA | HR MGMT '25
Lauren Culp is a senior majoring in Human Resources at the University of Memphis, set to graduate in Spring 2025. While at the university, she became actively involved in the SHRM student chapter, where she had the privilege of meeting Dr. Tuberville who has been a valuable mentor. She is the current President of the SHRM Student Chapter and recent recipient of the 2024 TN SHRM Conference Student award last August in Memphis.
This year, she began her HR career with an internship at Barnhart Crane & Rigging's headquarters. She started in recruiting and has recently transitioned into benefits and payroll where she continues to expand my expertise in human resources.
In her words, “I am passionate about building meaningful connections, growing professionally and making a positive impact in the HR field.”
Doctoral Student
Feigu Zhou
PhD Candidate | Dept. of MGMT
Feigu Zhou is a FCBE Management Ph.D. candidate supervised by Dr. James Vardaman. Recently, he has accepted a tenure-track job offer from the Stephens College of Business at the University of Montevallo as an Assistant Professor of Management. He will join the Stephens College in the Fall of 2025.
His program of research focuses on organizational change and personnel issues in family businesses. His research has been published in journals including Journal of Change Management, Journal of Family Business Management, and Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship. He has an upcoming book chapter co-authored with Dr. Vardaman titled The Social Capital Imperative: Revealing, Developing, and Leveraging Organizational Networks, which will be published by Oxford University Press as part of SIOP's Professional Practice Series.
Alumni Spotlight
Austin Baker
Austin Baker infuses innovation and creativity into human resource strategy. Austin is the COO of Sholder. As the COO of Sholder, Austin is passionate about delivering incredible value to employers by delivering an innovative mental health benefit that builds mental health culture. His personal mission is to empower and train a million mentors in his lifetime and he believes that he can do that with Sholder. Austin is dedicated to helping Sholder create a new category that fuses mental health benefits with culture building strategies designed to support our public servants that need it most.
Austin is also the co-founder of the J. Austin Baker III, Memphis Institute for Leadership Education (MILE) which has influenced the careers of over 2K FCBE students.Beyond his professional success, Austin is an Eagle Scout dedicated to community service and nonprofit leadership. His involvement with organizations like Seeding Success, TN Prospers and Memphis Goodwill Excel Center underscores his commitment to community development. Austin Baker continues to be a driving force in shaping a future where innovation, leadership and community thrive in unison.
Faculty Updates
- Carol Danehower, longtime Management faculty member, is currently serving as University of Memphis
Interim Vice Provost for the Division of Undergraduate Education and Assistant Provost
for Academic Affairs.
- Caitlin Porter, Associate Professor of Management, was the recipient of the 2024 Tennessee Society
for Human Resource Management Professional Excellence Award, which recognizes leadership,
accomplishments and continued commitment to the HR profession.
- Kathy Tuberville served as Conference Chair for the 2024 State Conference of the Society for Human
Resource Management and received the Conference Director’s Excellence Award for her
leadership.
- James Vardaman was elected to the Executive Board of the Southern Management Association (SMA). Dr. Vardaman will be the UofM’s first President of SMA.
Faculty Publications
** In alphabetical order with faculty and students (current and former) in bold
Alonso, N. A., Marshall, A., Porter, C. M., & Kraiger, K. (2024). Co-creating successful mentoring relationships? Investigating mentor and protégé perceptions of dyadic fit and relationship quality. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 39(6), 635-650.
Antin Yates, V.M., Vardaman, J.M., McLarty, B.D., Kluemper, D., & Pollock, J. (2024). Bridging the Gap: The role of entrepreneurs’ egotism and structural hole occupancy in venture performance. Journal of Small Business Management.
Arena Jr., D. F., Jones, K. P., Lindsey, A. P., Sabat, I. E, DuBois, H., & Tripathy, S. C. (2024). Trajectories of depletion following witnessing incivility toward women: A time-lagged study. Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion: An International Journal, 43, 740-755.
Beier, M.E., Saxena, M., Kraiger, K., Costanza, D.P., Rudolph, C.W., Cadiz, D.M., Petery, G., and Fisher, G.G. (in press). Workplace learning and the future of work. The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist (focal article).
Bennett, A.A., Lanivich, S.E., Lyons, L.M., & Zhou, F. (in press). An effort-recovery model for entrepreneurial work demands: The role of recovery experiences. Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, 1-25.
Brock Baskin, M., Vardaman, J.M., & Leon, M. (2024). Like clockwork: A within-person analysis of time theft in the workplace. International Journal of Selection and Assessment.
Chu, I., Adomako, S., Vu, M.C., & Lanivich, S.E. (2024). Human flourishing from eudaimonic balance of values in entrepreneurs. Journal of Business Research, 175, 114546.
Chugh, R., Mockaitis, A., Lanivich, S.E., & Nooshabadi, J.E. (2024). It's all about resources: Narcissistic CEOs and entrepreneurial orientation during disruptions. International Small Business Journal.
Follmer, K. B., Sabat, I. E., Jones, K. P., & King, E. B. (Forthcoming). Under attack: Why and how I/O psychologists should counteract threats to DEI in education and organizations. Industrial and Organizational Psychology.
Franczak, J., Gyensare, M., Lanivich, S.E., Adomako, S., & Chu, I. (2024). How and when does founder polychronicity affect new venture performance? The roles of entrepreneurial orientation and firm age. Journal of Business Research, 172, 114408.
King, E. B., Hebl, M., Corrington, A. †, Holmes, O. †, Lindsey, A. P. †, Madera, J. †, Maneethai, D. †, Martinez, L. †, Ng, E. †, Nittrouer, C. †, Sabat, S. †, Sawyer, K. †, & Thoroughgood, C. † (2024). Understanding and addressing the health implications of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. Occupational Health Science, 8, 1-41. († authors contributed equally)
King, E. B., Hebl, M., Shapiro, J. R., Silver, E., Bilotta, R., Lennon, N., Jones, K. P., Lindsey, A. P., & Corrington, A. (2024). Can psychological standing increase (otherwise absent) allyship in STEM? Journal of Business and Psychology, 39, 1-24.
Kossek, E. E., Porter, C. M., Rosokha, L. M., Wilson, K. S., Rupp, D. E., & Law-Penrose, J. (2024). Advancing work-life supportive contexts for the “haves” and “have nots”: Integrating supervisor training with work-life flexibility to impact exhaustion or engagement. Human Resource Management, 63(6), 397-411.
Kraiger, K. (2024). Relationships among mentor support, trust in mentors, and protégé outcomes. The Chronicle of Mentoring & Coaching, 24(3).
Lanivich, S.E., Adomako, S., Ahsan, M., Istipliler, B., & Cox, K.C. (2023). Multidimensional cognitive style: Linking founders to firm performance through strategy and resource orchestration. Journal of Business Research, 166, 114081.
Lanivich, S.E., Moore, C., & McIntyre, N. (2024). The effects of neurodiversity on cognitive attributes of entrepreneurs. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 30(4), 979-1000.
Lanivich, S.E., Zahoor, N., Donbesuur, F., Miri, D., & Adomako, S. (2024). Entrepreneurial alertness: A mechanism for innovation and growth in an emerging economy. Asia Pacific Journal of Management.
Levasseur, L., Lanivich, S.E., Kalubandi, S.C., & Sanaria, A. (2024). Time perspective and entrepreneurs' alertness. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice.
Livingston, B., Gloor, J. L., Ward, A. K., Gabriel, A. S., Campbell, J. T., Block, E., Carter, D., French, K. A., Frieder, R., Hillebrandt, A., Hu, J., Jones, K. P., Joseph., D. L., Junker, N. M., Mandeville, A., Otner, S. M. G., Patel, A. S., Paustian-Underdahl, S., Priesemuth, M., Shockley, K. M., & Shoss, M. (2024). Many roads to success: Broadening our views of academic career paths and advice. Journal of Management, 50, 1186-1197.
Mallon, M.R., & Lanivich, S.E. (2024). Strategic transition. Strategic Change, 33(2), 117-125.
Nag, D., Jones, K. P., Lindsey, A. P., Robinson, A., & Arena, D. A. (2024). A theoretical model of selective cyber incivility: Exploring roles of perceived informality and perceived distance. Human Resource Management Journal, 34, 421-436.
Porter, C. M., Peltokorpi, V., & Allen, D. G. (2024). On- and off-the-job embeddedness differentially shape stress-related reactions to job insecurity. Applied Psychology: International Review.
Renn, R., Preston, F., Fabian, F., & Steinbauer, R. (2024). A definition and process model of employee work habits. Human Resource Management Review. 34 (2).
Vardaman, J.M., McLarty, B.M., & Carter, M.C. (2024). All is well until it isn’t: Socioemotional wealth congruence and employee behavior in family firms. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. https:// 10.1177/10422587241270638.
Vardaman, J.M., McLarty, B.M., Memili, E., Kotlar, J., & Liguori, E. (2024). The power of people in family firms. Journal of Small Business Management.
Vardaman, J.M., Tabor, W.E., Hargrove, D., & Zhou, F. (2024). Reducing agency costs through recruitment: Staffing referrals and family business success. Journal of Family Business Management. 14(1), 103-119.
Vardaman, J.M., Chew, S.L., Zhou, F., Hargrove, D., Raddatz, P., Datta, A., & Tabor, W.E. (2024). Yes we can! A job embeddedness perspective on employee change acceptance. Journal of Change Management. 4(1), 69-82,
Zampetakis, L., & Lanivich, S.E. (2024). The impact of job autonomy, pride, and resource competence on change-oriented OCB: A daily diary study. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 23(1), 12-22.