Monthly Archives: May 2016

Faculty who Shape Business Theory and Practice Through Research

By Lori Ferguson

Driehaus College of Business professors are not only educators, but also thought leaders whose research discoveries wield influence beyond the readership of the top academic journals that publish their work.

They apply their research to classroom lessons, empowering students to turn theory into action in their careers after graduation. They share their research findings with industry leaders and policymakers, providing new perspectives on the challenges and opportunities facing business and society. And when DePaul business professors communicate their research expertise in the media and through blogs, podcasts and documentaries, they enhance the public’s understanding of business and economic trends.

Here we profile seven DePaul business scholars whose research is shaping business thought and practice:

• James D. Shilling, Housing Trend Tracker
• R David McLean, Investor Behavior Analyst
• Kelly Richmond Pope, White Collar Fraud Fighter
• Andrew Gallan, A Voice for the Patient Experience
• Alyssa J. Westring, Scholar of Work-Life Balance
• William Sander, Economic Examiner
• Misty Johanson, Expert in Hospitality Excellence

By Lori Ferguson

Associate Professor of Management Alyssa Westring’s work-life balance classes attract students across the business management spectrum. “Students often tell me that they’ve decided to pursue a double major in their discipline and in management because they believe it’s equally important to understand the psychological aspects of business,” Westring says. “They realize they’re going to need soft skills in the workplace—the ability to address issues such as employee wellness and job satisfaction—and I love to be the person who says, ‘You can care about these things and about money!’”

A PhD in industrial/organizational psychology, Westring has seen her research garner increasing attention in recent years, thanks in part to the writings of Princeton professor emerita Anne-Marie Slaughter and Facebook COO and “Lean In” author Sheryl Sandberg. “When I started researching the topic, people were interested, but I had to bring the subject up. Now, however, if I even mention what I do, the discussion is off and running.”

Westring says that understanding values is a central aspect of both work-life balance and helping students to become future leaders.

“To be an effective leader, you not only need to know your values and act in alignment with them, but also be able to communicate them to others.”

To help her students gain greater facility in this area, Westring assigns personal audits, asking students to write down their values, track their time in 30-minute increments throughout the day and then see how their behavior aligns with their perceptions. “The goal is to encourage students to reflect, experiment and communicate,” says Westring. “I’ve found those are the key steps to making changes in one’s life.”

Westring is also committed to sharing her findings with a wider audience, both scholarly and populist. She writes for the Harvard Business Review as well as for the Huffington Post and Inside Higher Ed. And since September 2015, she and Elizabeth Boyd, an assistant professor of management at Kennesaw State University, have co-hosted a podcast, Ph.SHE, discussing women, careers and work-life balance issues from the perspective of working wives and mothers as well as PhDs conducting research in this area.

“Our goal is to add an academic perspective to a discussion in which many people feel free to voice their opinions,” says Westring. “I’m always trying to demonstrate to people that the principles I’m exploring are equally applicable in one’s personal and professional life.”

Read more: William Sander, Economic Examiner

By Lori Ferguson

It’s not surprising that when people are in the hospital, they’re focused not only on being cared for in a service sense—they want to feel cared for in every sense. “Patients don’t separate ‘care and cure.’ They see the experience as a holistic one,” says Assistant Professor of Marketing Andrew Gallan.

It’s the factors that impart those feelings of satisfaction that spark Gallan’s curiosity; his research focuses on service design and the customer experience, particularly in health care.

“When I go into an organization to provide advisory services, I tell staff, ‘I’m here to bring the patient’s voice into the organization and get as close as I can to the truth of the patient’s experience.’”

Providers have good reason to listen. Today’s medical community has an avid interest in metrics, with the biggest drivers revolving around an assessment of care, Gallan explains. The federal government requires any hospital that accepts Medicare to deploy an important series of patient surveys that ask about everything from the admissions process to noise at night. For patients, however, the issue boils down to a singular concept: communication. “At the end of the day, patients want to feel that they have the tools, knowledge and ability to go home and care for themselves,” Gallan asserts.

He should know. An active researcher, Gallan spends much of his time in patient settings, shadowing patients and conducting ride-alongs with home health nurses. For the last couple of years, he has worked as an advisor to the family practice and home health groups of Advocate Health Care, a large Downers Grove, Ill.-based health system with more than 250 sites of care and one of the largest home health companies in the state.

Gallan brings everything he learns back to the classroom. In fact, he was the first professor in the country to develop a graduate-level course on patient experience. “I think very carefully about how to lay out the curriculum in my courses to achieve buy-in and equip students with the knowledge they need to succeed in a career in this field.” For example, Gallan offers a health care data analytics class, an area he believes is very important for MBA students, and gives students numerous opportunities to obtain hands-on experience.

“My students work with me on research projects at Rush University Medical Center and other places, where I arrange for them to be mentored by professionals in the patient experience area,” Gallan says. “They’re involved with virtually everything I do.”

Read more: Alyssa Westring, Scholar of Work-Life Balance