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Chair's Update

Welcome to the latest edition of Management Momentum. It has been a busy year for the Department of Management, so let me call attention to some of this year's highlights.

The past year has been a time of change for both the College of Business Administration and the Department of Management. First, Dr. Kathleen Cooper assumed the position of Dean in the fall of 2005. Then, in the spring, after seven years of exceptional service as chair, Dr. Lynn Johnson returned to his faculty position. With the support of our faculty, effective March 1st, I assumed the position of interim chair of the Department of Management. In addition, in January of 2006, Dr. Manjula Salimath joined our faculty in the area of Business Policy and Entrepreneurship. Dr. Salimath is a recent graduate of Washington State University. Finally, Danielle Cooper joined the faculty in the area of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management in the Fall of 2006. She is currently completing her dissertation at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

The Department of Management continues to be a leader in providing distance delivery instruction to our students. We led the College of Business Administration in the number of graduate and undergraduate courses offered 100% online, and we also offer the MBA in Strategic Management in an online format. Many of our undergraduate and graduate classes utilize a blended learning approach that integrates both web-based and face-to-face instruction.

Other topics of interest that you will find in this edition of our newsletter include our study abroad program, highlights from the Murphy Enterprise Center, recognition of our outstanding students and scholarship recipients, as well as the accomplishments of our faculty and doctoral students, among others.

Since the newsletter is now distributed in an electronic format, we would like to utilize this technology to stay in touch with our alumni and friends. Please contact us with your news, including both job and life changes such as promotions and career changes, marriages, and births. In future editions, we would like to help you keep up with your classmates through our newsletter.

I hope you enjoy this edition of Management Momentum, and I look forward to receiving your news for future issues.

Nancy Boyd-Lillie
Interim Chair, Department of Management

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Department Faculty

Full Professors:

• Mark Davis – Health Services Admin.
• Derrick D’Souza – ESMG
• Vicki Goodwin – OBHR
• Don Powell – ESMG
• Lew Taylor – OBHR
• Mary Thibodeaux – ESMG
• Warren Watson – OBHR
• Dick White –OSCM

Associate Professors:

• Anat BarNir – ESMG
• Nancy Boyd-Lillie – OBHR
• Bob Insley – OBHR
• Ching-Chung Kuo – OSCM
• Donna Ledgerwood – OBHR
• Grant Miles – ESMG
• Lou Ponthieu – ESMG

Assistant Professors:

• Manjula Salimath – ESMG
• Michael Stodnick – OSCM

Visiting Professors:

• Barbara Altman

Lecturers:

• Joan Hubbard
• Eileen Resnik
• Mike Sexton

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Department Staff

• Virginia Jones, Administrative Services Officer
• Sheila McWilliams, Administrative Assistant II
• Laurie Spohn, Secretarial Assistant II
• Kathy Voelker, Advisor
• Heather Hanna, Office Assistant
• Kelly Touchstone, Office Assistant
• Amber Williams, Office Assistant

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The QEP

The QEP refers to the university's Quality Enhancement Plan. The QEP seeks to improve student learning outcomes in large enrollment undergraduate courses through extensive redesign of 25 large enrollment courses. Five courses per year will be redesigned over a five-year period beginning September 2006. These course redesigns will be accomplished through the efforts of a team comprised of faculty, Center for Distributed Learning personnel, librarians, teaching assistants, and a university assessments outcome specialist.

Department of Management faculty member Bob Insley served as a member of the university's Quality Enhancement Plan Committee and was also selected to redesign the large enrollment section of MGMT 3330 beginning this September. Bob will receive a $12,000 grant to assist him in his redesign efforts.

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Ph.D. Program

The Department of Management offers a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management (OB/HR), Organizational Theory and Strategy (OT/S), and Operations Management (OM). Currently the program consists of 11 outstanding students in the three areas of study. Students come from various parts of the world including the United States, India, China, Mexico, and Taiwan. Some students come to our program with as many as 25 years of work experience, while others have decided to pursue a Ph.D. almost immediately following their master’s work. These students are all making good progress through the different stages in the Ph.D. program.

This year we have two first year students: Elaine (Wai Kwan) Lau and Daniel Cernas Ortiz, who are taking their first year courses. Zhen Li and Lisa Russell are now in their second year, completing the class work portion of their program and will be taking their comprehensive exams in Fall 2007. Dwight Hite and Tip Robertson have taken their course work and are currently in the process of taking comprehensive exams. The comprehensive exam process involves a battery of written and oral examinations that ensure that students are ready to move from their course work to starting their dissertations.

Five candidates are currently working on their dissertations. Three candidates are developing their research studies and preparing to defend their dissertation proposals. Tommy Nichols, who is advised by Dr. Goodwin, is working on a dissertation in the area of Organizational Behavior. Jeff Niu, who is advised by Dr. Miles, is working on a dissertation in the area of Strategy. Troy Voelker, who is advised by Dr. Miles, is working on a dissertation in the area of Strategy.

Two candidates have successfully defended their dissertation proposals and are now working toward the completion of their dissertations. Arun Madapusi, who is advised by Dr. White, is writing his dissertation on the post-implementation evaluation of ERP systems in production firms. Pam Rogers, who is advised by Dr.White, is working on a dissertation in the area of Operations Management.

All of the Ph.D. students are doing a good job teaching in our undergraduate programs. Their teaching helps fund their education while providing them with the classroom experience necessary to be successful as future faculty members at other universities. Several of the students have also presented their research at various conferences put on by the Academy of Management, Decision Sciences, Southern Management Association, Southwest Academy of Management, and others. The Department of Management’s Ph.D. program is flourishing, and we look for great things out of our students in the future.

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Murphy Enterprise Center

Did you Graduate since 1997? ... You'll want to plan to attend this!

Designed for entrepreneurially minded recent UNT graduates, the Connections Breakfast Series will:

• Give you access to successful entrepreneurs that are in the early stages of business development
• Help you build your entrepreneurial network
• Re-acquaint you with other recent UNT alumni for both business and personal connections

The series will be February 27, May 15, and September 11 and will feature speakers under 45 years of age that are growing their business. Contact the Murphy Enterprise Center for more details or to sign up.

Mean Green May Job Fair

For the fourth year, the Murphy Enterprise Center is hosting The Mean Green May Job Fair in cooperation with the North Texas Exes, UNT Cooperative Education Office, the Department of Management, and the UNT Career Center. Fifty companies will be at the job fair interviewing and hiring our recent graduates. The Mean Green May Job Fair is open to all UNT students and alumni. The fair is scheduled for May 18 from 8:00 am - 3:00 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza Suites in Dallas. We are pleased to be working with UNT's Colleges on campus in supporting this effort and finding gainful employment for our graduates.

2006 Leadership Luncheon

H. Ross Perot, Sr. was the keynote speaker for the 2006 Leadership Luncheon on Friday, November 17 at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas. Mr. Perot gave a speech on leadership that will be long remembered by all those in attendance. Over 1000 ticket holders were there to honor Nelson Bunker Hunt, Murphy Award Winner and to hear Mr. Perot. The Silent Auction held prior to the event was a great success in gaining scholarship donations for UNT's finest students. The 2006 New Venture Creation contest winners were presented and scholarships were awarded on behalf of donors and the Murphy Enterprise Center.

Hold the date: November 2, 2007 is the next leadership luncheon.

Entrepreneur in Residence

The Murphy Center is proud to welcome Mr. Bill Winspear as the 2006-2007 Entrepreneur in Residence for the Murphy Enterprise Center. Students and fledgling businesses can make an appointment to be mentored by Mr. Winspear each month during the 2007 Spring Semester.

Watch our website for new happenings! www.MurphyCenter.unt.edu

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Study Abroad Programs

The Study Abroad Program for the first summer term, which departed June 6 and returned on June 29, 2006, took students to Spain, Portugal, and the French Riviera. They traveled to Lisbon, Barcelona, Montserrat, and Nice. Some were enrolled in BUSI 4940 (Business Policy) and MGMT 4660 (International Management). Instructors were Dr. Dick White and Professor Eileen Resnik.

The second summer term (departed July 14 and returned on August 4, 2006) saw students traveling to Austria, Germany, Slovakia, and Switzerland. They spent time in Vienna, Bratislava, Munich, and Innsbruck. They took a half-day trip to Swarovski Kristlwelten, a world of crystal and a Canal Tour of Zurich and a trip to the Rhine Falls. Students were enrolled in BUSI 4940 (Business Policy) and MGMT 4660 (International Management). Their instructor was Dr. Don Powell.

A Wintermester group traveled to Latin America between Fall and Spring Semesters. Students were given the opportunity to study BUSI 4940 (Business Policy) and MGMT 4660 (International Management). Instructors were Dr. Dick White and Professor Eileen Resnik.

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2006 Distinguished Alumnus: Dr. Elvis Clay Stephens

Professor Emeritus Elvis Stephens is a graduate of the University of North Texas with a BBA in Personnel Management in 1958 (he was cited as the Outstanding Senior Student in Management that year) and an MBA in Management in 1959. After teaching at Austin College for two years, he attended the University of Indiana, from which he received the Doctor of Business Administration. He returned to UNT in 1963 as a faculty member in the Management Department. During his 36 years of teaching at UNT he served 9 years as Department Chair. He maintains a connection to UNT by serving on the Management Advisory Board and the President's Council.

While at UNT he was active in the professional organizations serving as president and other positions in the Dallas Personnel Association, the Fort Worth Personnel Association, the American Society for Training and Development, and the Industrial Relations Research Association. At the national level, he helped develop the Management Practices Accreditation Test for the Society for Human Resource Management, and was the Chairman of the College Relations Committee for two years.

Although he taught several courses in Human Resources, his main interest was, and is, in labor relations. This interest led him to become a labor arbitrator in his spare time, proving that professors often do apply the topics they teach. A member of the National Academy of Arbitrators, he remains active in labor arbitration. Dr. Stephens' arbitration work has served as an important source for UNT's Oral History Collection. He has also published arbitration hearings.

He and his wife, Joyce, have two children, Daryl and Jennifer. Altogether the family has six degrees from UNT -- Elvis with two, Daryl with two and Joyce and Jennifer with one each.

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Partnering to Enhance the Student Experience

The Integrated Business Case Competition, organized by the Management Department professors teaching the capstone Business Policy course, enhances the student experience by putting students in the role of consultants advising a real company on appropriate actions to take to improve performance. For the past several years, Enterprise Rent-A-Car has served as the sponsor of the case competition and has provided more than $50,000 over that time to provide prize money and awards to the students. This past year, we have been honored to welcome Service King Collision Repair as a co-sponsor along with Enterprise. The two companies work closely together in their businesses and we look forward to furthering the relationship between both companies and the Management Department.

During the Fall 2005 competition, the students focused on Dalhart Consumer Cooperative. Located in the Texas panhandle, Dalhart's primary business is handling the grain grown by the local farmers who make up most of its membership. With high energy prices threatening the farmers ability to profitably grow their crops, Dalhart was interested in looking at additional products and services they might offer. The students came up with a number of ideas that Dalhart is now looking at for possible implementation. More than 20 faculty members from the College of Business served as judges for the preliminary round of the competition. For the finals, judges included Jim Turner, General Manager of Dalhart Consumer Coop, Cengiz Capan, Associate Dean of COBA, Chong Choe, Director of Equal Opportunity at UNT and Will Themer, a graduate of the college now employed as a lawyer with Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr, P.C.

Members of the winning team for the fall were Christopher Childers, Daniel Dean, Bradley Johnson, Makoto Kobayashi, Jayson Van Drunen, Matthew Yates, and Ross Navarrette.

For the Spring 2006 competition, Craftmade International was the company the students looked at. Located in Coppell, Craftmade is a designer and marketer of ceiling fans and lighting products. They are trying to solidify their footing in a very competitive market and the students came up with a number of solid ideas for Craftmade. In addition to the regular instructors, 15 other faculty members from the College of Business served as judges for the classroom portion of the competition. For the finals, judges included Dr. Norval Pohl, President of UNT, Scott Jamison, a COBA alum who is a co-founder and vice president for operations of Ze-net Technologies, and Dr. Derrick D'Sousa, associate dean of the College of Business.

Members of the wining team for the spring included Lauren Doster, Sanita Islam, Brian Gilmore, Dana Lauderdale, Chris Jones, Matt Page, and Ryan Dennis.

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Department of Management's Outstanding Students 2006:

• Outstanding Graduate Student in Health Services Management: Jay DeVenny
• Outstanding Graduate Student in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management: Stephen Perrin
• Outstanding Undergraduate Student Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management (2 awardees): John Harmond and Kimberly Kendall
• Outstanding Graduate Student in Operations and Supply Chain Management: Brian Bell
• Outstanding Undergraduate Student in Operations and Supply Chain Management: Laura Pope
• Outstanding Graduate Student in Strategic Management: Katrina Short
• Outstanding Undergraduate Student in Entrepreneurship: Jamie Meier
• Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award for Entrepreneurial Achievement: Nicholas McCoy

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Recepients of 2006-2007 Management Department Scholarships

The following are 32 individual scholarships that the Department of Management awarded totaling $26, 800 to 27 outstanding students at all levels this year.

• Advocare Scholarship ($1,000) was awarded to Christopher Crabill.
• Dr. John F. and Mrs. Eunice D. Curry Scholarship ($1,000) was awarded to Crystel Catero.
• Department of Management Scholarship ($500 each) was awarded to Matthew Kleen, Stacy Lambert, Arun Madapusi, Alicia Merkel, Kuei-Hsien Niu, Lisa Russell, Kathy Voelker, and Troy Voelker.
• Liz and Pete Gunter Scholarship ($400) was awarded to Julian Streete.
• ISM-Dallas Leonard Ingram Memorial Scholarship ($1,000 each) was awarded to Pamela Rogers and to Jakkrit Wajavuth.
• Littlefield Memorial Scholarship ($750 each) was awarded to Swathi Dhoopati and to Zhen Li.
• Maurice Maher Scholarship ($500) was awarded to Kevin Saller.
• Murphy Enterprise Center Scholarship ($1,000 each) was awarded to Christopher Crabill, Amethyst Mendek, Seth Pedersen, Kevin Saller, and Julian Streete.
• Murphy Enterprise Center Freshman Scholarship ($500) was awarded to Lionel Jones.
• Murphy Enterprise Center Phoneraiser Scholarship ($400) was awarded to Amethyst Mendek.
• Ken and Shirley Murphy Scholarship in Entrepreneurship ($5,000) was awarded to Jesse Fought.
• William D. and Marilyn B. Oates Scholarship ($750 each) was awarded to Laura Beadles, Stephen Bradshaw, Jason Levi, and Christopher Nini.
• Pinnacle Scholarship ($500 each) was awarded to Corina Marginas and to Seth Pedersen.
• Elvis and Joyce Stephens Scholarship ($1,000) was awarded to Angela Braudaway.
• Mike and Marjorie Sullivan Scholarship ($500) was awarded to John Leatherman.

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UNT Dallas Campus Update

All is going well at the UNT Dallas Campus. We are especially proud of our new leadership series, which brought several speakers on campus during Fall Semester to meet with our students.

In addition, we are excited about our big move. The UNT Dallas Campus moved December 2006 to its first new building on the permanent campus site at Camp Wisdom and Houston School Roads. The building is opened for classes starting Spring Semester 2007.

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Faculty Honors

Ching-Chung Kuo was recognized as an outstanding teacher with the Honor Professor Award at the 2006 Honors Day Convocation in April.

Under the leadership of Donna Ledgerwood and April Kuykendall, the University of North Texas student chapter of SHRM earned the Superior Merit Award for 2005-2006 from the Society for Human Resource Management. In addition, one of UNT's two teams won the Texas State Games. The chapter's two teams also placed third and fourth in Regional HR games in Denver in early April.

Bob Insley and Mike Sexton were selected as joint-recipients of the 2006 University of North Texas Outstanding Online Course and Teacher Award for the MGMT 3330 course (Communicating in Business). Bob and Mike were recognized at the Faculty/Staff Convocation on September 12. UNT President, Dr. Bataille, presented the award, which included one large trophy with both names engraved on it and two separate smaller, engraved trophies for each recipient.

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Kudos Corner

Manjula Salimath presented the following paper at the Academy of Management Conference in Atlanta in August: Salimath, M.C. & Cullen, J.; "Does Context Matter? A Review of Culture and Social Institutional Factors Affecting Entrepreneurship." Manjula also chaired an Entrepreneurship Division session on "Entrepreneurship in China" at the Academy of Management Conference, as well as attended the New Faculty Consortium of the Entrepreneurship Division.

Manjula also participated in commencement this past August at Washington State University. She is now officially a graduate of her Ph.D. program.

Please congratulate Pam Rogers upon successfully defending her dissertation proposal on August 9, 2006. Her research examines the implications of manufacturing flexibility. We all look forward to seeing the finished product in the near future.

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ISM Student Chapter:

With strong support from the Dallas Chapter of the Institute of Supply Management (ISM), the UNT Student Chapter of ISM was established in the Department of Management under the leadership of Dr. Richard White in 2001. The organization has continued to grow every year since then. At present, it has 47 members majoring in Operations and Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Information Technology and Decision Sciences, Hospitality Management, General Business, Marketing, and other fields at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

The student club meets three times in each of the fall and spring semesters. Typically, a guest speaker from industry is invited to give a talk in the monthly meeting with topics ranging from resume preparation and job interview to career development and professional advancement. Other activities include visits to local companies and participation in events sponsored by ISM - Dallas, which not only assigns a business professional to every student member as a mentor, but also awards three $1,000 scholarships each year.

Membership is free and open to all UNT students interested in supply management and related areas. For further information about the organization, please visit its website at http://www.coba.unt.edu/mgmt/ism/index.htm. The current officers are Lisa Hua - President, Beth Quigley - Vice President for Development, Kira Cha - Vice President for Marketing, and Tatyana Gladilina - Vice President for Membership. Drs. Richard White and Ching-Chung Kuo are the faculty advisors for the student chapter.

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Society for Human Resources Management

SUCCESS in 2006 has charged the University of North Texas' student chapter of the Society for Human Resources Management (UNT SHRM) with a mission of servant leadership for the Fall 2006 and Spring 2007 semesters. In 2006 one UNT team won the Texas State Games while two other teams came in third and fifth. UNT teams also came in third and fourth at the regional HR Games in Denver in April 2006. Along with our success as a recipient of the Superior Merit Award for 15 straight years, we have had six scholarship winners, numerous internship recipients and have a student chapter which boasts of 50 members.

The University of North Texas will host the HR Games on February 23-24 (actually the night of the 23rd - checking out Saturday the 24th) We had February 12-15 set but had to change the dates due to the McNair Programs meeting in Denton at that time.

UNT approved all seven rooms available in the College of Business Administration (COBA). We will also have four rooms in the Physics Building next door to the COBA. We have the equipment to be donated for the games and will have a UNT jazz band for our reception the night of February 23. We are working on the food and to secure all volunteers.

Also, UNT's SHRM will be dedicating our hosting of these (2007 Texas HR Games) to Christina Nobrega who died Thursday, November 9 in a tragic car wreck on her way home from classes. Christi's Mom had her UNT SHRM card mounted on the picture frame on the top of Christi's casket. Passionate about her goals, one of Christi's top two goals was to establish an HR Scholarship at her church. Her other goal was to start a fund for expanding the nursery at her church.

Christi Nobrega symbolizes the dedicated, aspiring professionals in OBHR here at UNT. She will be missed, but never forgotten. She lived and breathed MEAN GREEN, and we will continue to work hard in her memory and for our OBHR program.

Donna E. Ledgerwood, Ph.D., SPHR
Faculty Advisor

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Young Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow

Young Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow (Y.E.T.) was founded in Spring 2003. We have a renewed focus on events and activities that elucidate the entrepreneurial process. These include inviting subject matter experts to campus, visiting local businesses, and participation in community-oriented activities.

Membership is open campus wide to all UNT students interested in entrepreneurship. Meetings are typically held once a month on Monday afternoons. Currently, the organization is served by President Mr. C.J. Crabill, Vice Presidents Daniel Strebe, Cole Mercer, and Dave Jhingade along with committee members. To learn more about Y.E.T., please visit our website (http://www.coba.unt.edu/mgmt/yet/index.htm).

Y.E.T. is always interested in having speakers to attend our monthly meetings and share their stories and experiences. Please contact Prof. Mike Sexton at 940.565.4925 (Sexton@unt.edu).

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Beta Gamma Sigma

225 UNT Top Business Students Invited to Join Beta Gamma Sigma, The International Honor Society for Business Schools during 2006

Only the best business students in the world, and the professionals who earned the distinction of "The Best in Business" during their academic careers, can claim membership in Beta Gamma Sigma. The University of North Texas congratulated 225 students who earned invitations to membership during 2006. While almost 300,000 students receive bachelor's or master's degrees in business each year, only about 20,000 are inducted into lifetime membership in Beta Gamma Sigma. Students ranking in the top 7 percent of the junior class, top 10 percent of the senior class, and top 20 percent of master's programs at schools accredited by AACSB International - The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business are eligible for this invitation.

Beta Gamma Sigma membership has become a truly international honor. With the expansion of accreditation by AACSB International, membership is no longer limited to those who have studied in the U.S. or Canada. These outstanding University of North Texas students are now eligible for the highest recognition a business student anywhere in the world can receive in an undergraduate or master's program at a school accredited by AACSB International.

A quote from Stephen W. Gilman, one of three professors who founded Beta Gamma Sigma at the University of Wisconsin, best states the philosophy of UNT BGS members: "Success is not to be measured by income but by influence, not by power but by personality, and not by capital but by character." UNT members of BGS are those who exhibit not only academic excellence but live their lives as examples of leaders who serve and give back to their communities.

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Raymond E. Miles Distinguished Scholar

Dr. Michael A. Hitt, the Joe B. Foster Chair in Business Leadership at Texas A & M University is the 2005-06 Raymond E. Miles Distinguished Scholar.

Department of Management at the University of North Texas was happy to bring in Dr. Michael A. Hitt as its recipient of the 2005 Raymond E. Miles Distinguished Scholar Award (October 19, 2005). Dr. Hitt, a distinguished professor and the Joe B. Foster Chair in Business Leadership at Texas A&M University, presented his research entitled "Managing Resources To Create Value: The Integrated Effects of Human Capital, Relational Capital and Strategy on Firm Performance." The research was well received by an audience of UNT faculty and students as well as faculty from the University of Texas - Dallas, University of Texas - Arlington, Texas Christian University and Southern Methodist University. We are very grateful that the event was cosponsored by John Wiley and Sons, Inc., the publisher of Dr. Hitt's newest textbook entitled "Organizational Behavior: A Strategic Approach", co-authored with Dr. Chet Miller and Dr. Adrienne Colella.

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Farewells

Dr. Matthew Bowler has joined the faculty at Oklahoma State University, Tulsa in the Fall of 2006. Dr. Bowler has served as an Assistant Professor since 2003, teaching courses in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management.

Liz Abedajo, who has served as a student assistant and an instructional aide during the past four years, graduated in August after completing an internship with Nordstrom's during the summer.

Last, but certainly not least, we will bid farewell to Dr. Mary Thibodeaux who will be retiring at the end of the fall 2006 term. While Dr. Thibodeaux has served for the past few years as an Associate Dean for the College of Business Administration (and one year as Interim Dean), her home is the Department of Management. We wish Dr. Thibodeaux all the best!

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Newsletter Staff

• Dr. Robert Insley, Editor
• Dr. Nancy Boyd-Lillie
• Virginia Jones
• Sheila McWilliams
• Charlie Brien, Webmaster

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