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Patrick Connor

Emeritus Professor of Organizational Analysis

Headshot of Patrick Connor

Contact Information

Address
900 State Street
Salem  Oregon  97301
U.S.A.

Biography

“Anything we do today, from producing personal computers to providing sanctuary for the abused, requires organizations and people to manage them.”

Message

MBA students around the world share an enthusiasm for learning, growing, being challenged, and for developing as managers. To participate in that enthusiasm and address the issues of management are what bring a first-rate faculty to Atkinson.

Implicit in our curriculum is the premise that organizations are human instruments created and maintained to perform society's work. Virtually anything we do today, from producing personal computers to providing sanctuary for the abused, requires organizations and people to manage them.

The organizational analysis curriculum concerns the human element of management: why people behave the way they do, what organizational forms are better under what circumstances, how change and conflict can be managed with the least cost and the greatest benefit to all concerned, and how human values affect and are affected by organizations and their managers.

Education

  • Ph.D., University of Washington
  • M.S.I.A., Purdue University
  • B.S.E.E., University of Washington

Areas of Instruction

Managing Organizations, Organization Design, Managing Organizational Change

Research Interests

Impact of Personal Value Systems on Managerial Action, Managerial Decision Styles, Management of Organizational Change, Executive Development.

Selected Professional Activities

Past President, Western Academy of Management; Member of Review Board: Journal of Management Inquiry; Academy of Management Executive. Member, Academy of Management, Organizational Behavior Teaching Society, International Society for the Study of Work and Organizational Values, Western Academy of Management.

Selected Publications

"Self-Selection or Socialization of Public-and Private-Sector Managers? A Cross-Cultural Values Analysis" (with Becker). Journal of Business Research, 2005.

"Machines or Gardens ... or Both?" (with Napolitano) in Managing the Complex: Philosophy, Theory and Application (Richardson and Richardson, editors), Information Age Publishing, Inc., 2004.

Managing Organizational Change (with Lake & Stackman), Praeger Publishers, 3rd edition, 2003.

"Personal Value Systems and Decision-Making Styles of Public Managers" (with Boris W. Becker), Public Personnel Management, 2003.

"Values Lost: Redirecting Research on Values in the Workplace,” (with Stackman and Pinder), Handbook of Organizational Culture and Climate (Ashkanasy et al, eds.) Sage Publications, 2000.

"Total Quality Management: A Selective Commentary on its Human Dimensions, with Special Reference to its Down Side," Public Administration Review, Vol. 57, Nov. 6, 1997.

"Personal Values and Management: What Do We Know and Why Don't We Know More?" (with Becker). Journal of Management Inquiry, V3, N1, 1994.

"Edifices and Ego: An Investor's View of Managerial (In)effectiveness," Journal of Management Inquiry, V3, N2, 1994.

"A Cross-National Comparative Study of Managerial Values: U.S., Canada, and Japan" (with Becker, Kakuyama and Moore), Advances in International Comparative Management, V8, 1993.

Willamette University

Atkinson Graduate School of Management

Salem Campus

Address
900 State Street
Salem Oregon 97301 U.S.A.
Phone
503-370-6167

Portland Center

Address
200 SW Market Street, Suite 101
Portland Oregon 97201 U.S.A.
Phone
971-717-7260