From the Dean's Desk

Guest Column: John Rooney

John Rooney

John Rooney

Monday, 27 November 2023

Career Development

The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year at Mendoza. We look back on the fall activities, look ahead to the next semester, and outline how we will continue to work with graduate students on their career development. This year, I want to provide an overview of Mendoza Graduate Career Development and thoughts on moving forward as One Mendoza. 

What we do:  The Career Development team embraces the College's mission to Grow the Good in Business.  Our role is to empower students in their career journeys.  Our vision is to create leaders who are lifelong stewards of their careers.  We pursue this vision by valuing inclusion, servant leadership, and relationships.  Our strategy is built on four pillars, illustrated by the graphic below.  The top two pillars symbolize how we work closely with key partners including alumni, employers, and internal stakeholders at the University.  The bottom two pillars symbolize the core competencies of our team, focusing on career coaching and career curriculum.

 

chart of core objectives

 

Our success is measured by career outcomes, course instructor feedback (CIFs), and student and stakeholder feedback. We work with all of the Mendoza graduate programs. The 2023 MBA Employment Report documents our most recent MBA outcomes.

Current Focus and One Mendoza: As the Career Development team moves forward, we will continue to define our role in executing the College’s Strategic Framework. We approach our work inspired by the concept of One Mendoza, which reflects our goal to have our departments operate with a unified purpose, aligned objectives, and a common culture. This is important for Career Development because our students’ career success depends on their successfully working with, and integrating knowledge from, separate but related groups: admissions, student services, faculty, staff, and alumni. We look forward to increased success from our students as we all work together to support them.

The fundamental belief that every human being is naturally creative, resourceful, and whole informs our career coaching, and this belief helps transform us all into our best and most authentic selves. With the spirit of this belief, I encourage all of you to enjoy this special time of year at Mendoza.

Best Regards,

John Rooney
Senior Director
Graduate Business Career Development and Alumni Relations


Guest Column: Father Frank Murphy

Fr. Frank Murphy

Fr. Frank Murphy

Monday, 20 November 2023

The Practice of Gratitude

Our national feast of Thanksgiving reminds us to be thankful for what we have. From a faith or spiritual point of view, thankfulness, or gratitude, are signs of God’s presence and the touch of the Holy Spirit in our life. 

Thankfulness and gratitude are also deeply human experiences; they open us to the gift of life and to the gift of the people around us. A growing faith and spiritual practice in the country, I believe, is to cultivate gratitude in our life by periodically reflecting on what we are grateful for: in a given day, a certain period of our life, or just life in general.

The practice of gratitude can be done as an individual or as a family. As an individual, one can look over the day or the week and reflect on those moments of gratitude to God for the people, the events, the work, one’s family and loved ones, one’s own character and so on. Stay with and relish each awareness of gratitude. Notice the effect on you.

This can also be done with a family or a group. As you sit down for your Thanksgiving meal, let each person share what they are grateful for at this time in their life. Let each person share without criticism or judgment. It can be precious to hear what children share.

Focusing on things that we are grateful for removes our blindness to God’s presence and grace in our life, which is available to us always and in all circumstances, even though we may not recognize it. 

When we allow gratitude to grow in us, we gain a new perspective on life. We see it all as a gift. And we know gratitude is taking root in us when even our painful and stressful experiences lose their power to dominate our day and feelings, and when, despite life’s ups and downs, we can maintain a perspective of overall gratitude for our life and for the people, work and circumstances in which we live.

I remember a young man who had a difficult youth. He even spent time living on the street. But when he reflected on his life, he discovered that the gift that those years gave to him was resiliency. And that resilience was the one quality of his personality that gave him gratitude for his life. It changed his attitude and gave him a new perspective on those early years as well as hope for the future.

When I take time to look over my day or week, seeking the things that I am grateful to God for, it can change my attitude for that day or week. Where I might have only felt frustration, disappointment, or discouragement, I find people, events and circumstances that I am grateful for. I see the grace of God at work there. And it gives me meaning and peace that I otherwise would have missed, as well as gratitude for my life.

How do you plan to celebrate thankfulness and gratitude this Thanksgiving Day?

Blessings,

Father Frank

Fr. Frank Murphy, CSC
Coordinator of Spiritual Direction Training
Campus Ministry | University of Notre Dame


Research Roundup

Dean Martijn Cremers

Dean Martijn Cremers

Monday, 13 November 2023

As a reminder, please join us for the inaugural University Chair Public Lecture Series talk featuring Mike Crant, Notre Dame Professor of Management & Organization, at 3 p.m. on November 28 in the Jordan Auditorium, with the reception following at 4 p.m. in the atrium. All are welcome!

Congratulations to the following faculty on their research success:

Jeffrey Bergstrand, Professor of Finance
(Note: The paper is co-authored by then-senior undergraduate student Stephen Cray (BBA ’16) along with then-Notre Dame Assistant Professor Antoine Gervais, now an associate professor of economics at the University of Sherbrooke in Canada.)
"Increasing Marginal Costs, Firm Heterogeneity, and the Gains from “Deep” International Trade Agreements" (Journal of International Economics)
Evidence to date suggests that it would take a 57% reduction in “fixed” trade labor costs (say, reducing “red tape”) for the United States to achieve the same gain in economic welfare (or per capita income) as a 3% further cut in tariff rates. So why did the United States aggressively pursue over the past 30 years “deep” trade agreements that reduced such fixed costs? This research establishes that by recognizing empirically supported positively sloped bilateral export supply curves – in contrast to the typically assumed but empirically rejected flat export supply curves – it takes only a 14% reduction in fixed trade costs to achieve the same U.S. economic welfare gains as a 3% cut in tariff rates.

Andrew Imdieke, Assistant Professor of Accountancy
Reliance on External Assurance in Regulatory Monitoring” (The Accounting Review)
The researchers exploit a regulatory change to examine whether bank regulator strictness is affected when regulators can no longer rely on external assurance. Absent external assurance, the study finds evidence consistent with increased regulator strictness in the reporting of problem assets, particularly during targeted examinations. Thus, the results indicate that regulators become stricter when they can no longer rely on the work of external auditors and that third-party assurance is an imperfect substitute for direct regulatory monitoring.

Shijie Lu, Howard J. and Geraldine F. Korth Associate Professor of Marketing
Crowding-Out in Content Monetization Under Pay What You Want: Evidence From Live Streaming” (Production and Operations Management)
This study investigates the impact of viewer tipping in live streaming on broadcasters and peer engagement. Results from a field experiment reveal that while broadcasters react positively to more tips, viewers tend to tip less, chat less and leave streams sooner when they see peers tipping.  This effect is more pronounced in heavy tippers, potentially due to their focus on the pursuit of social status.  The research underscores social status as a driver of these crowding-out effects in live streaming, offering insights for platform design. (See related ND News story.)

Drew Marcantonio, Assistant Teaching Professor of Management & Organization
Environmental Violence: A Tool for Planetary Health (Lancet Planetary Health)
Human-produced environmental risks to health and well-being are high and contribute to patterns of global morbidity, mortality, economic inequality, displacement and insecurity. The implications of human-produced environmental harms to global health are complex just as are their causes. This paper presents the concept of environmental violence and offers a potentially robust frame for engaging this issue. Environmental violence is excess human-produced pollution that degrades human health – it is the single largest source of human mortality today resulting in at least 9 million deaths annually. The framework can be applied to map and measure causes and consequences of environmental violence and to help build just solutions that promote integral human ecology and flourishing.

Yoonseock Son, Assistant Professor of IT, Analytics, and Operations
Corey M. Angst, Jack and Joan McGraw Family Collegiate Professor of IT, Analytics, and Operations
Value of IT in Building Resilience During Crises: Evidence from U.S. Higher Education's Transition to Online During the COVID-19 Pandemic” (MIS Quarterly)
This study examines digital resilience in higher education institutions by assessing the role played by the centralized governance of information technology (IT) investments. The researchers find that centralized IT investments geared toward facilitating organizational coordination and providing instructional and technical support played a pivotal role in enabling emergency remote teaching and improving student ratings during the crisis. These results are corroborated by interviews with CIOs of U.S. higher education institutions. Additional analyses also suggest that the effectiveness of centralized IT governance is contingent upon organizational size, dissimilarity of local units and the strategic role of the CIO. 

Thank you to Jeff, Andy, Shijie, Drew, Yoonseock and Corey for your contributions.

In Notre Dame,

Martijn


Guest Column: Chris Fruehwirth

Chris Fruehwirth

Chris Fruehwirth

Monday, 6 November 2023

IT TOOLS AND RESOURCES

Following Rob Kelly's enlightening Mendoza Exchange post that introduced the "One Mendoza" concept and encouraged us to think collectively as a College, it's only fitting to consider the tools that shape our daily experiences.

In our continuous endeavor to support your work and uphold the mission of our esteemed institution, we are excited to reiterate and share with you the transformative potential of three exceptional tools: Google Suite, Slack and Monday.com. Some of these tools, such as Slack and Monday.com, are currently being utilized by our staff to increase efficiency and communication within and across teams. Although our faculty members may not be the primary users of these tools, their indirect contribution through enhanced efficiency and communication benefits the entire Mendoza community.

Google Suite: Collaboration and Innovation
Google Suite, now known as Google Workspace, is more than just a suite of applications; it's a dynamic force that drives collaboration, innovation and productivity. With Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and more, you are empowered to work seamlessly and unleash your creative potential from any location — be it real-time co-editing of documents, streamlined email communication or effortless data storage and sharing. Google Workspace streamlines your daily tasks and fosters collaboration within our community.

Slack: Communication and Collaboration
Slack is the hub for communication, where ideas flourish and teamwork thrives. This robust tool offers real-time messaging, file sharing and seamless integrations with many apps and services. With the ability to have dedicated channels for different projects, teams and interests, Slack enables efficient and organized discussions that transcend departmental boundaries. You'll streamline your communication, reduce email clutter and enrich collaboration, which makes the app an invaluable addition to your professional toolkit.

Monday.com: Simplifying Work Management
The complexity of work management becomes simplified with Monday.com. This user-friendly platform lets you plan, track and manage projects and daily tasks. Whether you're coordinating program development, organizing research initiatives or overseeing administrative duties, Monday.com equips you with customizable workflows, task assignments and visual tracking of your work. It's your key to managing projects more efficiently and ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks.

In the ever-evolving landscape of higher education, we must take advantage of these tools' immense power to drive innovation, foster collaboration and elevate productivity. These platforms will empower us to better serve our students, support our colleagues and further the continued success of our institution.

Mendoza IT (MIT) applauds your dedication to our Mendoza community and is eager to embark on this enhanced collaboration and productivity journey together. We are fortunate to have an exceptional IT team (Yes, I am biased) ready and willing to assist you with any of these tools. MIT will continue to serve faculty and staff throughout the College through improved processes and resources.

Please feel free to call us at 631-7896 or email us at mendozit@nd.edu for your consultation or additional resources to support your work.

Best regards,

Chris

Chris Fruehwirth
Director of Mendoza IT


New Endowed Chair Lecture Series

Dean Martijn Cremers

Dean Martijn Cremers

Monday, 30 October 2023

One of the key priorities in our College’s strategic plan is to elevate our research culture. An important part of our research culture is getting together as a College to learn from and celebrate one another’s scholarship. Our faculty do so regularly with their colleagues in their respective departments, and in seminars where particular papers are being presented by external visitors and by our own faculty. 

I’m glad to announce a new initiative where we hope to gather faculty from across all departments at Mendoza – together with staff as well as graduate and undergraduate students – to hear from the most accomplished scholars in the College who will share an overview of their research targeted to a broad audience. 

In particular, we are launching the University Chair Public Lecture Series featuring Mendoza faculty who are designated as “University chairs” – Notre Dame’s highest recognition of the impact of a faculty member’s research. We plan to host one University Chair Public Lecture event each semester. 

Mike Crant, the Notre Dame Professor of Management & Organization and the College’s newest University chair, will present the inaugural lecture on November 28 in the Jordan Auditorium. The lecture and Q&A will take about an hour, followed by a social in our atrium. Details as to the time will be sent to you as a calendar invitation. 

For his lecture, Mike will present “My Mendoza Journey: A Memoir,” where he will reflect on his personal and professional experiences since joining Notre Dame in 1990 – his first academic job after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill earlier that year. He will present an overview of his body of research, the changes he’s observed in his field of organizational behavior and his contributions to the growth of the College and his field, all targeted to a broad audience. 

Mike researches workplace dynamics, focusing primarily on proactive personality and behavior at work. He is one of the creators of the proactive personality scale, the most frequently used measure of proactivity in the organizational literature. With nearly 23,000 citations to his research, he is one of the most highly cited scholars at Mendoza (top 5) and in the upper echelon of researchers at Notre Dame (top 30 among current faculty). His more recent work examines the frequency and impact of proactivity in Asian cultures, including exploring how proactivity helped Chinese hospitals deal with the early days of the COVID-19 crisis.

I think you will find Mike’s talk and the ones to follow to be meaningful, enjoyable and even inspiring.  I’m most grateful to Mike for his many contributions to Notre Dame, and his willingness to share his scholarship with all of us in the inaugural University Chair Public Lecture at Mendoza.

I hope that you will join us!

In Notre Dame,

Martijn

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