HESBURGH LECTURE SERIES 2013 Program - Alumni Association ...

Robert Bretz, Ph.D.
Giovanini Professor of Management
Biography
Robert Bretz studies organizational processes related to hiring the right people, the synergy
between individual and organization effectiveness, and the impact organizational systems and
leaders have on the overall well-being of the people who work there. He is well known for his
research about how managers search for job opportunities and make choices about where to
work, with a particular emphasis on how individual differences in personality, values, and needs
Categories
interact with organizational climates to affect person-organization fit and the quality of the
working relationship.
Business
Bretz is a fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA), the Association for
Psychological Science (APS), and the Society for Industrial and Organization Psychology
(SIOP). He joined the faculty at the University of Notre Dame in 1997 and assumed departmental chair duties in 1998. Before
that, he taught at the University of Iowa and at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He has received
Outstanding Educator awards from Notre Dame’s MBA and MNA Programs, and the Notre Dame Presidential Award in 2004
for outstanding service to the University. He served as the Chair of the Management Department from 1998 through 2009, and
served several terms on the Provost’s Advisory Committee and the Academic Council.
His published work includes several articles on person-organization fit, career success, training program evaluation, motivation,
and compensation satisfaction appearing in premier psychological and managerial outlets including Personal Psychology, Journal
of Applied Psychology, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Journal of Management, Educational and Psychological Measurement, and
Public Personnel Management. His article titled “Job Search Behavior of Employed Managers” (Personnel Psychology) was the
recipient of the Academy of Management’s Human Resource Division’s Scholarly Achievement Award for 1995. A recent article in
The Industrial/Organizational Psychologist (TIP) identified Bretz as one of the 10 most prolific authors in the field’s two leading
journals (Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology) for the decades of the 1990s.
Lecture
Belief Formation and Self Awareness
Most organizations have smart leaders. But a lot of smart people have some pretty strange beliefs. Many common beliefs about
people and work are wrong but persist and reduce both the effectiveness of the organization and the well-being of the employees.
This lecture considers how beliefs are formed, the “thinking mistakes” that humans tend to make, and some processes for
generating more sustainable beliefs. It ends with a discussion of leader self awareness and the ways that many influential leaders
are unintentionally damaging the institutions and people they purport to lead.
14 The Hesburgh Lecture Series, 2013 Program