The University of Arizona Alumnus / Spring 2008

PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST: Making Endowed Chairs a Priority

Stephen W. Gilliland
Eller College of Management
Arnold Lesk Endowed Chair
in Leadership


Freedom to Conduct Unique Research

by La Monica Everett-Haynes
Photos by Jacob Chinn

 

“There is this misperception that information is
ammunition.”

It has happened to most job-seekers.

You update your résumé and perhaps even buy a new suit. Then, you practice answering the top-10 most-popular interview questions.

You know that there are a number of candidates pulling for the same position, but the interview goes so well that you leave with a burst of confidence.

Then you never hear back from the interviewers — not even a courtesy call. Why not?

“I have found that even a short rejection letter, saying who got the job, tends to make people feel better,” says Stephen W. Gilliland, who heads the Eller College Department of Management and Organizations and holds the Arnold Lesk Chair in Leadership.

But managers generally don’t think it’s important to share information about their choices, he adds. “There is this misperception that information is ammunition.”

Gilliland has studied organizational management, culture, and communication for 20 years. With a special interest in fairness in the workplace, he looks at equitable compensation, respectful and equal treatment of employees, and open communication.

“One of the principles of fairness is the sharing of information,” says Gilliland. “The more information that is shared with employees the more successful the company.”

Gilliland’s research has shown that employees demonstrate greater commitment and creativity, deliver better customer service, and are less likely to leave for another position when the company culture supports idea-sharing and allows employees to voice their opinion — even when they disagree with management. Fairness plays a crucial role in employer-employee relations, he suggests, and directly affects customer service.

“Southwest Airlines is one company that has taken fairness to heart,” he says. “And you can tell. They treat their employees well and their employees treat customers well.”

He even suggests that companies post employee salaries on the bulletin board as a good-faith measure toward open communication.

“I get a lot of wide eyes when I recommend this in our executive courses,” says Gilliland. “But sharing employee salaries shows there are no secrets, no hidden motives.”

In the 1990s, Gilliland was among the first researchers to publish papers on how job applicants view the hiring process — essentially evaluating if companies use fair judgment when choosing employees.

“I am interested in people,” says Gilliland, who earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in industrial and organizational psychology. “The workplace is fascinating. People spend one-third of their adult lives in the workplace.

“As managers, we don’t always see the consequences of what happens at work or what we’re doing to our employees’ lives.”

Gilliland finds no excuse for unfairness in the workplace. His workplace laboratories, where participants are students, replicate real-world work situations. The research takes a look at decision-making and principles of fairness, from the sometimes opposing perspectives of both employees and employers. And fairness in business also is the subject he teaches undergraduate, graduate, and executive MBA students.

In his maxed-out classroom, Gilliland — who is creating a leadership assessment program to educate Eller students — tests the ethics gauge of his students.

During one recent management class, Gilliland volunteers senior Cory Bankemper for a mock-office scenario. Gilliland, playing a bad manager, summons an employee (Bankemper) into his office. He tells him that in exchange for stealing information from another employee, he can expect to get a promotion.

“This is the real world. This is the way it works. This is business,” says the mock boss, acting out exactly the kind of business practice Gilliland deplores.

Entrepreneur and philanthropist Brian Lesk established the leadership chair in his father’s name with a $1.5 million commitment in 2005.

Gilliland says the Lesk chair gives him the opportunity to conduct unique studies.

“It’s the kind of research that a grant probably wouldn’t fund because it’s considered softer science,” says Gilliland. “The chair has almost provided a sense of prosperity. I think I am able to provide better teaching as a result. It provides me with a level of freedom. In a way, it makes it feel like I’m at a private school.”


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