Erica L. Steckler (Twitter: @EricaSteckler) is an Assistant Professor of Management in the Robert J. Manning School of Business (MSB) at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Erica Steckler, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Co-Director of the Donahue Center for Business Ethics & Social Responsibility

College
Manning School of Business
Department
Management
Phone
(978) 934-2866
Office
Pulichino Tong Business Center - 350
Email
Erica_Steckler@uml.edu
Profile Links

Research Interests

Organizational authenticity, organizational identity, corporate sustainability and responsibility, stakeholder engagement, business ethics, humanistic management, qualitative methods.

Stakeholder perceptions of organizational authenticity within the global domains of sustainability and corporate responsibility; key dynamics among stakeholders, leadership, and organizations in strategic social issue contexts.

Education

  • Ph D: Management & Organization, (2014), Boston College, Carroll School of Management (CSOM) - Chestnut Hill, MA
    Dissertation/Thesis Title: The social construction of organizational authenticity by stakeholders
  • MS: Organization Studies, (2010), Boston College, Carroll School of Management (CSOM) - Chestnut Hill, MA
  • MBA: Business Administration, (2000), Simmons Graduate School of Management - Boston, MA
  • BA: Russian & East European Studies, Phi Beta Kappa, (1997), Middlebury College - Middlebury, VT

Biography

Erica L. Steckler (Twitter: @EricaSteckler) is an Assistant Professor of Management in the Robert J. Manning School of Business (MSB) and Co-Director of the Donahue Center for Business Ethics & Social Responsibility at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Management and Organization at Boston College. Her recent research focuses on stakeholder perceptions of organizational authenticity within the global domains of sustainability and corporate responsibility. Situated at the intersection of organizational theory, strategic management, and social innovation, this work builds on and extends theories of organizational identity, institutional theory, and social change. Overall, her research contributes to an understanding of key dynamics among organizations, leadership, and stakeholders in strategic social issue contexts. The recipient of the 2015 Best Dissertation Award by the Academy of Management Social Issues in Management (SIM) Division, her work has been published in the Journal of Business of Ethics, Business and Society Review, Journal of Corporate Citizenship, Humanistic Management Journal, and in edited volumes. She has served as a member of the Editorial Board of the Academy of Management Review (AMR) and is currently a Research Fellow at the W. Michael Hoffman Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University. She is the Founding President of the US Humanistic Management Association (US HMA) and sits on the Advisory Board of the International Humanistic Management Association (IHMA). Prior to joining the Manning School, she was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Management and Organizational Development Group at Northeastern University and a Post-Doctoral Visiting Research Scholar at Bentley University's Hoffman Center.

Selected Awards and Honors

  • Best Dissertation Award – Academy of Management (2015) - Social Issues in Management (SIM) Division

Selected Publications

  • Magnant, E.F. (UMass Lowell Manning School of Business), Magnant, E. (UMass Lowell Manning School of Business) (2019). Viewpoint: Our business schools must teach better ethics (pp. 1). Boston Business Journal
  • Pirson, M., Steckler, E. (2018). A Humanistic Ontology for Responsible Management Learning.
  • Steckler, E., Clark, C. (2018). Authenticity and corporate governance. Journal of Business Ethics, 1-13.
  • Leigh, J.S., Steckler, E., Ennis, W. (2018). Harnessing the Potential of Gamification in Humanistic Management Teaching: Games for Change. Humanistic Management: Social Entrepreneurship and Mindfulness, Volume II: Foundations, Cases, and Exercises.
  • Pirson, M., Steckler, E. (2018). Towards a Consilience of Knowledge-Ontological Foundations for Humanistic Management.
  • Steckler, E., (). Self-Sustaining Practices of Successful Social Change Agents: A Retreats Framework for Supporting Transformational Change. Humanistic Management Journal, vol. 2(2), pages 171-198,.
  • Clark, C. (Bentley University), Steckler, E., Newell, S. (Bentley University) (2016). Managing Contradiction: Stockholder and Stakeholder Views of the Firm as Paradoxical Opportunity. Business and Society Review, 121(1) 123-159.
  • Waddock, S. (Boston College), Steckler, E. (2016). Visionaries and Wayfinders: Deliberate and Emergent Pathways to Vision in Social Entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Ethics, 133(4) 719-734.
  • Stevenson, W. (Boston College), Steckler, E. (2015). Rhetorical Strategies for Claims of Corporate Responsibility. Journal of Corporate Citizenship, 59 148-167.
  • Waddock, S. (Boston College), Steckler, E. (2013). Wisdom, Spirituality, Social Entrepreneurs, and Self-Sustaining Practices: What Can We Learn from Difference Makers? (pp. 285-301). Springer
  • Steckler, E., Bartunek, J.M. (2012). Revealing Themes: Applying a Positive Lens to the Chapters on Change Agency (pp. 113).
  • Steckler, E., Torbert, W. (2010). A “Developmental Action Inquiry” Approach to Teaching First-, Second-, and Third-Person Action Research Methods (pp. 105-126). Integral Education: New Directions for Higher Learning

Selected Presentations

  • Authenticity, Meaning & Organizations: Challenges & Channels for Advancing Authenticity Research. - All-Academy Research Symposium, Academy of Management Annual Meeting, 2016
  • Making Organizations Meaningful- Rethinking Management around Dignity and Well-being. - All-Academy Research Symposium, Academy of Management Annual Meeting. , 2016
  • Feeling Good about Me or Influence Others Positively? Exploring Tensions in Authenticity Research. - MOC/OB/GSO-Sponsored Research Symposium, Academy of Management Annual Meeting. , 2016
  • A contingency approach to competitive response in the corporate responsibility domain., 2015 - Vancouver, Canada.
  • Co-organizer of a Caucus: Managing for authenticity: Building a research community., 2015 - Vancouver, Canada.
  • Co-organizer of a PDW: Exemplary practices: Reinvention of teaching methods, developing authenticity, curriculum innovation., 2015 - Vancouver, Canada.
  • Constructing organizational authenticity - Positive Organizational Scholarship conference, 2015 - Orlando, FL.
  • Beyond lip service: Exploring stakeholder constructions of organizational authenticity - Academy of Management, 2014 - Philadelphia, PA.
  • Co-Chair and organizer of a MOC/OB-sponsored Symposium: Walking the talk: Advancing the concept of authenticity across levels of analysis. - Academy of Management, 2014 - Philadelphia, PA.
  • Discussant for the SIM-sponsored Symposium: Becoming an intellectual shaman: Tackling big ideas around social, ecological, and economic issues. - Academy of Management, 2014 - Philadelphia, PA.
  • Intraorganizational institutional variance: Defining sustainability within the organization - Academy of Management, 2014 - Philadelphia, PA.
  • Managing contradiction in business and society: Stockholder and stakeholder views of the firm as paradoxical opportunity., 2014 - Philadelphia, PA.
  • Managing contradiction in business and society: Stockholder and stakeholder views of the firm as paradoxical opportunity. - 29th European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium, 2013 - Montreal
  • Speaker in an All-Academy PDW: Capitalism in crisis and other conundrums: Tackling the big questions. - Academy of Management, 2013 - Orlando, FL.
  • Rhetoric, sustainability, and the corporate institutional field. - American Sociological Association, 2013 - New York, NY
  • Sustainability cues and stakeholder considerations of organizational authenticity - Eastern Academy of Management-International conference, 2013 - Seville, Spain
  • Toward a theory of organizational authenticity from a stakeholder perspective. - Academy of Management, 2012 - Boston, MA.
  • Look or leap: Vision development in the social entrepreneur. - 27th European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium, 2011 - Gothenburg, Sweden
  • Rhetoric and sustainability: an examination of institutional logic. - 27th European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium, 2011 - Gothenburg, Sweden
  • Sustaining self through retreats: A sustain-ability framework for the social entrepreneur over time. - 8th Annual Stern-NYU Conference on Social Entrepreneurship, 2011 - New York, NY
  • Good bedfellows? The co-mingling of stockholder and stakeholder logics. - Academy of Management, 2011 - San Antonio, TX
  • Seeing the forest and the trees: a sustainability framework for the social entrepreneur over time. - 16th International Symposium on Ethics, Business and Society, Towards a New Humanistic Synthesis, IESE, University of Navarra, 2010 - Barcelona, Spain
  • Speaker in an All- Academy Symposium: Tightrope walking dare-to-care devils: Difference makers, edgewalkers, and intellectual shamans. - Academy of Management, 2010 - Montreal
  • The emergence and evolution of a corporate responsibility identity. - Academy of Management, 2010 - Montreal
  • Difference makers who built the corporate responsibility infrastructure: Developing vision and sustaining action. - Interdisciplinary Committee on Organizational Studies (ICOS), University of Michigan, November 2010 - Ann Arbor, MI
  • Making a difference: Difference makers, edgewalkers, and intellectual shamans. - Lewis Institute Lecture Series, Babson College, October 2010 - Waltham, MA
  • Chair and co-organizer of an All-Academy Symposium: Corporate social responsibility from the ground up: Cultivating an employee-centered perspective. - Academy of Management, 2009 - Chicago, IL
  • Speaker in an All-Academy Symposium: Greening matters: Shaping and sustaining a new vision of the future. - Academy of Management, 2009 - Chicago, IL
  • Bein’ green: the emergence of a corporate environmentalism macroculture. - Academy of Management, 2008 - Anaheim, CA
  • Beyond compliance: Linking leadership and corporate social responsibility. - Academy of Management, 2007 - Philadelphia, PA

Research Currently in Progress

  • A contingency model of competitive response in the corporate responsibility domain

    Presented at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management; preparing for submission to California Management Review (Fall 2018).
    Steckler, E., Subramaniam, M. (Boston College)

  • Intraorganizational institutional variance: Defining sustainability within the organization

    Presented previous version at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management. Preparing for submission (Summer 2018).
    Steckler, E., Stevenson, W. (Boston College)

  • Stakeholder interpretations of “sustainability”

    Status: Developing manuscript from dissertation; submitted to Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability (ARCS) conference in June 2018.
    Steckler, E., Waddock, S. (Boston College)

  • The emergence and evolution of a corporate responsibility identity

    Presented previous version at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management. Preparing for submission to Business & Society (Summer 2018).
    Steckler, E.

  • The path of considerable resistance: Integrating critical stakeholder perspectives for authentic organizational transformation

    Drafting. Presented previous version at the 8th Biennial Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) Research Conference, May 9-10, 2017.
    Steckler, E.

  • The social construction of organizational authenticity

    Developing manuscript from dissertation; preparing for submission to Administrative Science Quarterly (Summer 2018).
    Steckler, E.