FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Anne M. O’Leary-Kelly, professor of management, has been appointed chair of the Department of Management in the Sam M. Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas.
O’Leary-Kelly’s research interests include the study of aggressive work behavior (violence, sexual harassment) and individual attachments to work organizations (psychological contracts, identification and cynicism). She teaches organizational behavior and human resource management.
“We are very grateful to be able to appoint such an outstanding faculty member as Dr. O’Leary-Kelly to the position of chair of the department. She is not only one of our top professors in the classroom, but she has also received several federal grants to fund leading-edge research in the organizational behavior field,” said Walton College Dean Doyle Z. Williams.
Daniel C. Ganster, Charles C. Fichtner Chair, held the chair of the department of management for 10 years. During that time, the 2002 U.S. News & World Report ranked the Walton College Department of Management 28th among the nation’s top public undergraduate business schools. Ganster was recently appointed to the editorial review board of the Academy of Management Journal, the premier journal in the field of management.
Williams said: “We would also like to express our deep appreciation to Dr. Ganster for his dedicated and excellent service as chair of the Department of Management. Under his leadership, clearly the department advanced in many ways - hiring of outstanding faculty, enhanced placement of Ph.D. graduates and increased number of research grants.”
O’Leary-Kelly received a B.A. in psychology from the University of Michigan in 1981 and a Ph.D. in organizational behavior and human resources from Michigan State University in 1990. She previously served on the faculties of Texas A&M University and the University of Dayton and joined the Walton College in 1997. O’Leary-Kelly recently chaired the University of Arkansas Diversity Task Force and served as chair of the UA Academic Standards Committee. In the Walton College, she served as director of the doctoral program in management. She received the 2003 Excellence in Research award from the Walton College.
O’Leary-Kelly currently serves on the executive committee of the Organizational Behavior Division of the Academy of Management and was the co-recipient of its Outstanding Publication in Organizational Behavior Award. She also received of the Dorothy Harlow Outstanding Paper Award given by its Gender and Diversity in Organizations Division.
In 1999, she was selected as the Faculty Mentor of the Year by The Compact for Faculty Diversity, Southern Regional Educational Board.
O’Leary-Kelly’s work has appeared in numerous publications, including the Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Journal of Management Inquiry, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, Research in Organizational Change and Development and American Business Law Journal among others.
As principal investigator on a three-year $603,942 National Science Foundation grant, O’Leary-Kelly is leading a research team studying the under-representation of women and minorities in the information technology (IT) workforce - with the ultimate goal of increasing their representation in the workforce. Other Walton College team members include Bill C. Hardgrave, executive director of the Information Technology Research Center and Edwin and Karlee Bradberry Chair; Vicki R. McKinney, assistant professor of information systems; and Darryl D. Wilson, assistant professor of information systems.
“This is the largest National Science Foundation (NSF) grant that the Walton College has ever received, and it is also significant because the NSF rarely makes grants to business schools,” said Williams.
O’Leary-Kelly also serves on a team of Walton College researchers who are using a three-year $500,000 grant from the United States Department of Justice to study the effects of domestic violence in the workplace. Along with principal investigator Amy Farmer, professor of economics, and Carol Reeves, associate professor of management, O’Leary-Kelly is studying how much domestic violence costs businesses and what can be done to address the problem.
In addition, she has consulted with private businesses on workplace and diversity issues.