Before diving into the typical paragraph on research interests, I’d like to explain in a few lines how my research interests arose.

   My life had mostly focused around societal work (non-profit and governmental) until I took on a senior management position in a Fortune 500 company. At the time (mid 90’s), the company was ranked as the most socially responsible company by Fortune. It seemed that the company was a perfect fit to my own person values. Thus, I hoped that I could leverage the influence of the company as well as the socially responsible values of the company in order to do good for society. However, reality hit as I scurried around to meet short-term sales targets, cut costs, and spend the majority of my time putting out “fires”. I simply had no time left over to spend on the social responsibility “stuff”.

   As a result, I tried to find ways in which doing good for society could be integrated into business strategy and daily operations. I set up a leadership institute and also a graduate business school that focused on models of how businesses can do well for themselves while also doing good for society. However, I felt more research was needed in order to develop truly applicable models of how business could do well by doing good. So I entered the PhD program in Organizational Behavior at Case Western Reserve University.

   My current research focuses on wholeness in the workplace. If we were allowed to bring values to work that we hold personally– such as caring for others – what would work look like? What would the corporate workplace be like if it allowed for humans to be human again?

   I believe that many people deeply care about the well-being of others and the planet. However, at work they are forced to be cut-throat profit-making machines. If their work allowed them to show their whole selves – by giving them the ability to care for the well-being of others and the planet – it is quite possible that they would be more motivated to be productive at work, and thus increase the value of the business.

   Thus, my current stream of research publications are focusing on the effects of corporate citizenship on employee behavior – specifically on employee engagement, high-quality relationships, and creative involvement.