UNews - Mary Runt

Campus Kudos - January 2011

trevor.kenney — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 23:03:06 +0000

Dr. Helen Kelley (Management) collaborated in publishing, The Clinical Impact of eHealth on the Self-Management of Diabetes: A Double Adoption Perspective, in the Journal of the Association for Information Systems.

Dr. Gordon Hunter (Management) had two articles published recently. His study, The Duality of IT Roles: A Case Study, was published in the International Journal of Strategic Information Technology and Applications. The Chief Information Officer: A Review of the Role, was also published in the Journal of Information, Information Technology and Organizations.

Laurel Corbiere, previously the director of the International Centre for Students, assumed the role of senior advisor to the president, effective Jan. 17, 2011. Corbiere will play a central role in the oversight and stewardship of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's Strategic Plan.

Salvador Barragan (Management) collaborated on the article, The Impact of Strategic Human Resource Management on Productivity and Turnover in the Maquiladora Industry: A Conceptual Framework that was published in Advances in Management.

Dr. Robert Wood (Sociology) was appointed as dean of the School of Graduate Studies after having recently served the role as interim dean and has been a faculty member since 2000. He began a renewable term from Jan. 1, 2011 to June 30, 2016.

Jodie Black has been named the university secretariat, effective Jan. 17, 2011. Black was most recently the student retention co-ordinator in the Recruitment and Student Life office. She will be responsible for providing governance direction, advice and support to the Board of Governors, General Faculties Council (GFC) and Senate of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

Dr. Luis Escobar (Management) was recently published in the Journal of Business Ethics. He co-authored the article, Multinational Oil Companies and the Adoption of Sustainable Development: A resource-based and institutional theory interpretation of adoption heterogeneity.

Dr. Chris Hosgood (History) was reappointed dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, effective July 1, 2011. Hosgood begins his second term as dean and has been a faculty member since 1988.

Dr. Rossitsa Yalamova (Management) co-authored, Explaining What Leads Up to Stock Market Crashes: A Phase Transition Model and Scalability Dynamics, which appeared in the Journal of Behavioral Finance.

Dr. Debra Basil (Management) was published in three recent publications. She collaborated with three others to produce, The impact of pre-existing attitude, conflict management style, and service outcome on customer satisfaction: an empirical investigation, which was published in the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. She then worked with Dr. Mary Runté (Management) on, Personal and Corporate Volunteerism: Employee Motivations, which was published in the International Journal of Business Environment, as well as, Corporate Support for Employee Volunteerism Within Canada: a cross-cultural perspective, which was published in the Journal of Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketing.

Dr. Bernie Williams (Management) was recently published in the International Academy of Business and Economics. His co-authored article was titled, Anticipatory Socialization and the Influence of Media on Perceptions of International Job Assignments. He also authored, Incident Command as a Participative-Management Practice: Dispelling the Myth of Authoritarian Command, which has been accepted for publication in the International Fire Service Journal of Leadership and Management.

Women's Scholar award provides opportunity

trevor.kenney — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:54:54 +0000

Faculty and staff at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge take pride in their students and believe in giving them quality education with as many opportunities as possible to succeed in their chosen career path.

Established by the Women's Scholar group in collaboration with Dayna Daniels and Claudia Malacrida, the Women's Scholar Award gives female students the power to achieve their goals and reach their full potential.

Kristal Frank is one recipient of the Women's Scholar Award.

The scholarship, funded through faculty and staff giving, is based on a combination of academic achievement and financial need and is intended to support either female graduate students studying in non-traditional fields or graduate students studying gender-related issues.

"What was exciting is how quickly the members of the group agreed that it was something worth contributing to," says Daniels. "We saw an area that was underrepresented and realized we could do something to help

Kristal Frank is a recipient of the annual Women's Scholar award.

change that."

Kristal Frank, an MSc student majoring in policy and strategy, won the award this fall along with a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) award. Her proposed research is titled, Managerial Perceptions of Eldercare:

Implications for Managerial Work-Family Policy Allowance Decisions and the Adoption of Work-Eldercare Programs.

"It was amazing," Frank says of receiving the awards. "It was definitely a huge confidence-booster – it kind of reinforced that what I'd chosen to study had practical significance as well."

Frank has chosen to focus her research efforts on issues surrounding work-family conflict, organizational culture and gender issues at work, with the help of supervisor and mentor
Dr. Mary Runté.

"I chose to go with her primarily because that's her area of research as well," she explains. "For me, she's a big inspiration because not only does she research it, but she really lives it."

Frank graduated from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) in 1998 and worked in the IT industry for eight years before coming to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. She says the decision to go back to school took a lot of reflection and she chose to pursue her degree at the
U of L because of its excellent reputation and the flexibility to do evening and weekend courses. Frank commenced her studies at the Calgary campus in 2006, transferred to the Lethbridge campus in 2007 and graduated with her bachelor of management degree, with Great Distinction, in 2008.

After completing her graduate studies at the U of L, Frank hopes to move either to Edmonton or Halifax to pursue a PhD in management and plans to use her skills to become a university professor.

"I really want to teach; to encourage and empower students."

To learn more about the Faculty of Management at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, visit this link.

Bringing social responsibility to business interests

trevor.kenney — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:22:17 +0000

Dr. Debra Basil, associate professor of marketing at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, is comfortably settling into her newest role: director of the Centre for Socially Responsible Marketing (CSRM).

It's an area of study that is close to her heart and one she has used to engage students in lively discussions. Her classes can elicit strong reactions from students as they debate morals and ethics.

Dr. Debra Basil is showing students that ethics can play a major role in marketing.

"Recently, I feel that students are becoming more aware. Sometimes they strongly oppose each other's views," she says. "Some students feel that businesses should put profit ahead of ethical issues. Some believe that if it's legal, it's also ethical. We encourage them to consider the long-term implications of their actions because what is good in the short term can be fairly damaging in the long term."

In her consumer behaviour course, students look at how consumers perceive marketing efforts, and try to determine if a company is attempting to mislead consumers. Students are much less supportive of deceptive business practices when they realize they may have been duped themselves.

"We're here to help students think critically about these issues and to examine their own approach. In the long run, we hope they will internalize an ethical approach to business," Basil adds.

As part of her CSRM responsibilities, Basil is currently planning the fourth bi-annual Social Marketing Advances in Research Theory (SMART) conference. It will be held in Dublin, Ireland in April, 2011, in conjunction with the World Social Marketing Conference. This is the world's leading academic social marketing event.

Basil has also been busy as principal investigator in the second year of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grant, with professors Dr. Sameer Deshpande and Dr. Mary Runté, to study "Cause-related marketing: assessing motivations, experiences and impact for non-profit organizations."

Cause-related marketing represents a partnership between a company and a non-profit organization. The company markets the alliance to gain positive publicity. The non-profit benefits from the company's financial donation and from increased name recognition due to the company's publicity efforts.

Basil, Deshpande and Runté are examining the total impact of these alliances on non-profit organizations – both the good and the bad.

Currently, Basil is working in conjunction with Dr. Gary Noble, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Wollongong in Australia, on a research project examining the effectiveness of reusable bags in supermarkets. Data has been gathered from supermarkets in Canada, U.S., U.K. and Australia, as well as from consumers in Canada and the U.S. Various municipalities across these countries are introducing legislation aimed at regulating the use of plastic shopping bags.

Basil is hopeful the findings will result in greater consumer buy-in to the concept of reusable bags.

"Through this research we hope to reduce plastic bag use by identifying more effective customer appeal strategies. This should allow supermarkets to satisfy customer expectations while reducing their impact on the environment."

As for how this type of work connects with what students are doing in the program, Basil says, "The vocabulary surrounding social responsibility is becoming more common in business. We have a responsibility to teach this vocabulary so that students can use it effectively when they get into the business world."

To learn more about the Faculty of Management at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, follow this link.

Non-profit payback

trevor.kenney — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:12:54 +0000

There have been many nights over the last 16 years that Dr. Mary Runté has gotten little, if any, sleep. Raising two children has been no small factor in the equation, but even before Runté took on motherhood – the role by which she admittedly defines her life and holds most dear – she sacrificed shut-eye while out on the streets of east Vancouver, up at all hours of the night to do what she could to ease the plight of drug addicts, pregnant prostitutes and anyone else she encountered who was living their lives on the fringe of society.

It's not exactly the professional history you might expect a professor of management to have, but then again, Runté isn't your average management professor. Prior to 1998, Runté had no inclination at all to study anything remotely related to business. Her heart was then, as it is now, in the not-for-profit sector – although she also came to love management in a rather roundabout way.

Initially, Runté wanted to be a teacher, and was enrolled in the Bachelor of Education program at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta en route to that goal. It was during that course of study that Runté discovered the impact she wanted to have on students went beyond teaching them the finer points of Shakespeare.

"You know how there are people who are into extreme sports? I'm into extreme jobs," Runté says with laughter. "I wanted to work in the inner city, so I was teaching kids who were dealing with huge life issues – drugs, gangs, various kinds of abuse. I quickly realized that I wanted to make a different kind of impact on their lives. That's when I went into social services."

Runté abandoned the BEd and instead pursued a BA in psychology, all the while working in the non-profit sector. After graduating, she spent more than a decade willingly subjecting her professional self to some of the grittiest and most challenging circumstances imaginable, and moved up the ranks of social work with expediency. While she loved the work, Runté found that she lacked many of the basic management skills necessary to run the programs. Suddenly, and unexpectedly, earning an MBA became a logical move.

"A lot of people were absolutely shocked and even viewed me as a traitor," Runté says reflectively. "In the non-profit sector, management is seen as the big bad world of business. Debunking the myth that all business is bad was, and still is, very important to me."

Determined to remain true to her non-profit roots, Runté chose York ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ for her MBA because, at the time, it was one of the only business schools in Canada that researched non-profit organizations.

"It was extraordinarily positive for me to interact with faculty who understood that business has power, and that the power can and should be used carefully," says Runté. "It's possible to prioritize people over dollars, the environment over profitability – or at least find a respectful blend of both sides."

Runté graduated from York in 2000 and began teaching sessional classes at the U of L that year. She completed a PhD through Saint Mary's ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in 2005. Today, on track to become a tenured faculty member, Runté feels fortunate to be able to combine both of her professional disciplines, teaching business courses within the area of social responsibility – a declared minor that the Faculty of Management has now offered for a few years.

"It's core in the Faculty's vision to promote social responsibility in business. Every student takes a required course in it. In recent years, social responsibility has become more fashionable in business schools, but the U of L was one of the first universities to make a demonstrated commitment by offering a minor in the subject," says Runté. "I'm absolutely blessed to be teaching here."

A segment of the required course Runté teaches in social responsibility in business deals with non-profit management. Students must complete a minimum of nine hours of volunteer work and are free to choose any non-profit organization they wish to support. Runté says that it's very common for students to become impassioned with volunteerism and continue to be active within the organizations indefinitely.

"They intend to do nine hours of volunteering, and at the end, they're treating it almost like a part-time job," says Runté.

While Runté continues to champion the non-profit sector, emphatically pointing out that it's a significant employer within the country (constituting 13 per cent of the labour force) and contributes a surprisingly large percentage of the gross domestic product (seven per cent in 2003), she is quick to balance her view.

"Business isn't evil. It's important to our society. It has power, and that power gives us resources to do great things. It can help shape a more positive world. That's what I teach my students."

Shedding light on partnerships

trevor.kenney — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:52:16 +0000

Because of shrinking support from the government, cash-strapped Canadian non-profit agencies are doing what their U.S. counterparts have done for decades: accepting resources from companies eager to appear socially responsible.

"In the 1980s, neo-conservatism became more prominent in the U.S. government, and that's what we're experiencing now in Canada, which means less money from the government," says Gail McKenzie, a U of L Master of Science (Management) student. "On the flip side, businesses are choosing to be more socially responsible, because the public's demanding that of them."

Between degrees, McKenzie worked for several non-profits, including an adult literacy centre in Manitoba, and witnessed this emerging trend first hand. So when she started her master's at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, she opted to study how these partnerships work for non-profits, filling a noticeable gap in the literature.

McKenzie, who defended in December 2008, interviewed a number of U.S. non-profits about their legitimacy concerns. Most felt pressure to prove themselves to the public and to the businesses supporting them, but not to their clients or to their workers.

"Taking actions to become more legitimate to businesses and the public could change the way clients and volunteers see them," says McKenzie, who plans to ultimately complete a PhD. At the moment, she's teaching a U of L management course and writing grants for the Centre for Socially Responsible Marketing.

McKenzie says she was fortunate to be supervised jointly by Drs. John Usher and Mary Runté.

"John's an expert in theory and Mary's an expert in the sector and the (research) methodology. It wouldn't have worked without them both," says McKenzie. "I think my project is richer because I was able to get such different perspectives, which really enriched how I saw things."

Runté first taught McKenzie as an undergraduate and was struck by her curiosity and encouraged her to pursue graduate studies.

"I always look for the student who has his or her hand up and is asking, 'What are the implications of that?'" says Runté.

UNews - Mary Runt

Campus Kudos - January 2011

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Women's Scholar award provides opportunity

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Bringing social responsibility to business interests

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Non-profit payback

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