Jon M. Huntsman School of Business

learn about the latest and greatest from the School of Business

Friday, June 20, 2014

Professor Elected to National HR Committee

Professor Tim Gardner was recently elected to the Academy of Management Human Resource Division Executive Committee, a group that provides a disciplinary headquarters for members with specific scholarly interests around HR.

“Students that graduate from business schools with a specialization in human resources have excellent placement rates and starting salaries; they also make great alumni as they have a major impact on which schools their employers choose to hire from,” Professor Gardner said. “This election will allow me to influence the direction and quality of basic scholarship on the role human capital plays in organizational success and ensure that the human resource curriculum in AACSB accredited business schools remains relevant and useful to students and the companies that hire them.”
Professor Tim Gardner

Professor Gardner will serve with 12 other executive committee members – the chair, treasurer and program chairs – to develop and administer conferences, awards, teaching seminars, research seminars, etc.

The Huntsman MHR Program is seeing a steady increase in enrollment and visibility. Job placement rates are approximately 95 percent for graduates, and starting salaries are above average compared to many other graduate degrees. With Professor Gardner’s membership in this committee, more attention will be drawn to the MHR program outside of Utah among the academic community.

“Faculty play a big role in helping students decide where to pursue graduate study,” Professor Gardner said. “By networking with top HR Scholars from around the US and the world, these people will be more willing to refer their students to our program.”

The Academy of Management is a global collection of over 18,000 management scholars (faculty and doctoral students).

Huntsman Special Ops Team Makes Saving Money Cool



By Ken Snyder

This month a crack team of Huntsman staffers made saving money for the Huntsman School of Business cool by shredding the walls. As I have explained before, life in the George S. Eccles Business Building has become hot, muggy, and uncomfortable while renovation is underway, driving us all to seek out any cool pockets of air wherever we can find them. On the fifth floor the renovation work had created a temporary cool spot in what had been until just recently the main offices of the School of Accountancy, transforming it into sort of oasis of relief in the building.

Several of our staffers identified two needs that could be met in that transitional space that will soon become the Dean’s office. The room was due for a wallpaper change and the staffers were due for a cool change of pace. 

A five-member team decided to save the school money by taking down the wallpaper. The experience may have proved just as effective as any team-building conference or workshop. The project gave them a chance to get to know each other. They talked strategy too, discussing what they liked about their jobs and how they thought they could do them better. The task opened up a conversation that one would not get while sitting around a conference table, they said.

The project, that launched them into totally unfamiliar territory, gave them a chance to use their various skills to solve problems and constantly look for ways to improve their process. They discovered on Pinterest, for example, that a spray bottle loaded with fabric softener is a valuable tool when it comes to removing wallpaper. It was a continuous improvement effort, which is what we are all about in the Huntsman School. The whole project, which was attacked on and off for three days, created a positive workplace experience the staffers say they will always remember.
Ken Snyder

You may wonder who was on this team. Well, I’m not telling. It’s like a special ops team and I may need to send them into another complicated situation now that they have gelled into this efficient problem-solving unit. If others knew about them, then I’d have to wait in line. And, right now, I’m not about to be waiting in line in our toasty building. That would not be cool.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Construction Work Turns Up the Heat of the Huntsman World in Logan



By Ken Snyder

I’ve heard it said that if you put a frog in a pot of cold water and slowly heat it up, the frog won’t try to escape, like it would if you dropped it into hot water. We are not frogs at the Huntsman School of Business. Things have heated up and, oh, we have noticed.

Since construction has forced us to shut down our air conditioning systems, we have instantly gained a serious appreciation for something we took for granted before. While 80 degrees of sunny weather might make the perfect addition to a beach vacation, such temperatures can be very distracting in an office setting.

Right now I’m with five other people who are sharing a very stuffy classroom for our office when we can stand it. Since we aren’t keen on working up a sweat while at our keyboards we have considered going underground just like they do in the sci-fi movies when solar flares make life unlivable on the planet surface. We thought about pushing aside some computers on the first floor in the basement in hopes it might be a little cooler there but we can’t do that yet because they are still working on the new air conditioning systems for the labs.
Ken Snyder is feeling the heat.

Complete relief isn’t expected until August, so until them we are going old-school using fans and many people have just started working from home as much as they can. When things start heating up in June, most of us barely notice it until we go out to mow the lawn because our air-conditioned world equalizes things for us. That’s not the case this year. When those air conditioning units start churning out refreshing, life-giving air later this summer, however, I can guarantee we’ll notice and appreciate them more than we ever have before. From my point of view cool will never be cooler.