The Leadership Research Colloquium 2018

Pathways to Leadership

For the 7^th year, we are pleased to convene some of the most cutting-edge thinking and research on leadership, from some of the top scholars in the world – and bring it to our community. This year’s line-up features three faculty members from three universities: University of Virginia, University of Georgia, and our own FIU. By asking the right questions and using innovative research methods – we are garnering new insights about leadership that may help you and your organization lead more effectively.

Popular books and many organizations are now encouraging people to, above all, be authentic – but when and why is this a bad idea and when is it actually beneficial? Dr. Buckman’s research helps to answer this question. Drawing from her research tied to NASA – Dr. Carter asks when and why should we start thinking about leadership as an interconnected network of influence? What actually happens to leadership (and what SHOULD happen to leadership) when your team has to collaborate with another team to get things done? The answer is not likely one that you would guess. Many ‘leadership gurus’ will tell you that real leadership means that you need to lead in a particular way, follow their 7 rules or use their specific approach. Dr. Lovelace’s work demonstrates that there are several different pathways one can take in order to be an effective leader – which should make some of us who don’t fit neatly into a leadership box, breathe just a little bit easier. Audience Q&A will follow the presentations.  

Dr. Buckman earned her Ph.D. from Arizona State University in 2014. Her published research has examined the various ways leaders enhance their followers' levels of engagement, as well as how different types of leader behaviors influence their followers' perceptions of fairness in the face of stressful job demands. She also has published a review of the research regarding how the personalities within a team influence teamwork and team effectiveness, and a book chapter that describes the various implications (both good and bad) of having strong positive relationships among team members.

In conducting this research, she has worked with a wide variety of organizations and industries, including the U.S. military, numerous automobile and pharmaceutical organizations in Eastern China, a U.S. based insurance company, a debt collection agency, a nation-wide fast-food chain, and a system of hospitals. She often draws upon her own five years of work experience, both as an external auditor at KPMG and as a senior financial analyst at Kraft Foods, both in her research and when teaching about human resource related concepts in the classroom.

Dr. Dorothy Carter is an Assistant Professor of Industrial and Organizational Psychology at the University of Georgia and the Director of the Leadership, Innovation, Networks, & Collaboration (LINC) Laboratory at UGA. Her research investigates the drivers of effective leadership and teamwork in complex organizational settings such as healthcare, scientific collaboration, the military, and space exploration. Her research has been published in multiple top-tier journals in Psychology and Management. She is currently the Primary Investigator on a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to develop teamwork training for the systems of teams that involved in a long-duration exploration voyage to Mars. Dr. Carter is also the recipient of The Center's 2017 Alvah H. Chapman Jr. Outstanding Dissertation Award.

Professor Lovelace's research examines the social and cognitive influences that shape leader behavior, leader-follower relationships, and performance at the individual and firm level. He is currently working on several projects that examine the sensemaking processes of leaders and how variables like celebrity, status, and reputation influence their behaviors and performance in dynamic environments. He has published journal articles and book chapters in a variety of outlets such as Academy of Management Review; The Leadership Quarterly; Creativity Research Journal; The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist; and Studies in Conflict & Terrorism. Professor Lovelace has taught leadership and psychology classes at the undergraduate and graduate level. He has also run corporate education workshops for a variety of organizations in the public and private sectors. Prior to his academic career, he served as an Officer in the United States Army from 2002 until 2014, most recently as Assistant Professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Dr. Nathan Hiller
Academic Director - FIU Center for Leadership
Associate Professor of Management and International Business,
Florida International University

As an academic, Dr. Nathan Hiller's focus is on understanding the strategic implications of executive personality, as well as enhancing the way that organizations build their leadership pipeline. Nathan’s research has appeared in most of the top journals in the field of management, including the Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, and The Leadership Quarterly. He holds editorial board positions at the Journal of Applied Psychology and The Leadership Quarterly, and has won several research awards.

As a consultant, Nathan has led projects and consulted with organizations such as: Boston Scientific, Hewlett Packard (HP), the US Secret Service, Bacardi USA, Norwegian Cruise Lines, and The Centers for Disease Control (CDC). In his role at the Center for Leadership, Nathan oversees the academic content of all leadership programs, and is the Faculty Director of The Senior Executive Leaders Program, The High-Impact Leadership Program, and an internal FIU program geared for senior leaders of the university. He is the primary author of The Center’s Leadership Competency Builder, which forms the backbone of all Center programming.

Dr. Hiller has held visiting faculty appointments at Cornell University and the University of Washington, and has taught a graduate leadership course at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) in Rio de Janeiro. Nathan loves to travel and draws regularly from his experience living in four countries on three continents in ten cities. He received his Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University.

The Leadership Research Colloquium 2017

The Leadership Research Colloquium 2016

The Leadership Research Colloquium 2015