Ellen Ernst Kossek is University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University’s School of Human Resources & Labor Relations with a joint courtesy appointment in the Management Department. Dr. Kossek is Associate Director of the Center for Work, Family Health and Stress and is a founding co- PI and member of the U.S. National Institutes of Health National Work, Family and Health Network and a founding co-editor of the Sloan Work-Family Encyclopedia. She is also Chair of the PhD. Program Committee for the School of Human Resources & Labor Relations.
A popular keynote speaker and educator for both practitioner and academic audiences, Dr. Kossek thrives in teaching students and managers on how to positively address organizational behavior, implement strategic and adaptive change, and transform organizations to address domestic and international human resource challenges. She frequently consults, gives speeches, conducts training, and partners on research with employers (public, private and nonprofit) in the U.S., Asia, Europe, and Americas.
Dr. Kossek has taught managers from Japan, Korea, Australia, China, Singapore, the U.K., and Eastern and Western Europe on the role of human resource management strategies in organizational change. She serves or has served on the advisory boards of the International Center for Work and Family of IESE Business School in Spain and of the State of Michigan YMCA among others. She has served on the Wharton Work-Life Roundtable.
Her research involves designing, managing and evaluating adaptive organizational change initiatives and training to enhance organizational culture and social support; implementing workplace flexibility and human resource innovation; managing workforce gender, diversity, organizational subcultures, and workplace inclusion; the implementation of global employment strategies and, international human resources management.
Her educational degrees are from Yale University (Ph.D. in organizational behavior); University of Michigan (MBA with a certificate of specialization in Labor and Industrial Relations); Mount Holyoke College (BA with honors in psychology). She has been a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan, the Center for Creative Leadership, the University of Warwick, UK, the University of South Australia, and Harvard Business School. Prior to becoming a faculty member, she worked for many companies in human resources such as IBM’s corporate headquarters (New York) General Telephone and Electronic’s corporate headquarters and Area Personal Office Europe (Connecticut and Switzerland); Hitachi’s Area Personnel and Labor Relations Office (Japan), Deere and Co. (Iowa), the United Nations Association (New York), a U.S. Congressman (Wash., DC) , Cornell University’s Center on Women and Work New York) and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Civil Rights (Wash., DC).
Dr. Kossek was elected to the Board of Governors of the National Academy of Management, Gender and Diversity in Organizations Division Chair, and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Besides the honor of being promoted to University Distinguished Professor, which is the highest distinctive rank Michigan State University offers its faculty, she has won many awards including the Academy of Management Divisions’ Gender and Diversity in Organizations’ Sage Scholarly Achievement award recognizing research to advance gender and diversity in organizations. This award recognizes a present or past member of the division who has made significant contributions that have advanced our knowledge of Gender and Diversity in Organizations and she was commended for "the rigor, breadth, depth and impact of her accumulated body of work."
She has authored 8 books: CEO of Me: Creating a Life that Works in the Flexible Job Age ( Wharton: 2008); Managing Human Resources in the 21st Century: From Core Concepts to Strategic Choice (2000,Southwestern); Managing Diversity: Human Resource Strategies for Transforming the Workplace (1996, Blackwell); Child Care Challenges for Employers (1991, LRP); and The Acceptance of Human Resource Innovation: Lessons for Managers (1989, Quorum). She edited two books on work and family: Work And Life Integration: Organizational, Cultural and Psychological Perspectives (2005, with S. Lambert) and The Handbook Of Work-Family: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives, Methods, and Approaches (2006, with Pitt-Catsouphes and Sweet) (Taylor and Francis/ Lawrence Erlbaum Associates (LEA) Press). She also has edited a new book on best articles on Women in Management (2010, Elgar Press with Gattrell and Cooper). She has published over 55 articles in refereed journals or book chapters. Several of these papers have been nominated for or won Best Paper of the year awards. She currently serves as a consulting editor or board member of The Journal of Applied Psychology, Human Relations, and Human Resource Management Journal. She previously served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, the Human Resource Planning Journal, and the Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Learning and Management Education.
She is frequently interviewed by the national and international media including National Public Radio, the Financial Times, and the New York Times and many on-line international and national media outlets as an expert on many topics from gender and diversity, to employer support of workplace flexibility and work and family, strategic organizational culture change and the changing employment relationship in a global 24-7 world.
Her scholarly work has been supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (http://flex-work.lir.msu.edu/) (http://www.worklifeflexibility.msu.edu), the National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety and the National Institute of Child and Health Development (http://wfsupport.psy.pdx.edu/), the Gerber Foundation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; State of Michigan Department of Commerce, Family Independence Agency, & Research Excellence Funds; Center for Creative Leadership, and many private employers. She has been invited to present her work to managers and scholars as keynote to the dutch government’s 24 and more task force to increase female labor participation, the Michigan Economic Corporations Next Great Companies Summit, the international human resource management in Europe conference in Greece, the International Work Psychology conference as keynote in Sheffield University, UK, managers at the Kings College HR Learning Board in London, England; IESE International Work and Family Conference keynote, Best Work-Family Employer in Portugal keynote, Penn State Work Family Symposium keynote, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Conference Boards of Europe and the U.S., the Rockefeller Foundation Center in Bellagio, Italy, the National Institute of Health in Wash., D.C., American University Roundtable, the Society of HRM for New Hampshire, the SIOP Leading Edge Practitioners' Forum, Boston College Work and Family Roundtable, and the Rutgers Diversity Roundtable. She is a member of the Teaching Resources Board of the Boston College work-family network www.bc.edu/wfnetwork, both supported by the Sloan Foundation.
Link to vita and to personal website http://ellenkossek.hrlr.msu.edu/
