George Edward Cheney
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George Edward Cheney | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1956 (age 69–70) Youngstown, Ohio, US |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Purdue University |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | University of Colorado University of Utah University of Waikato Ohio Employee Ownership Center |
George E. Cheney is an educator, writer, speaker, facilitator, and consultant. Together with his wife and colleague, Sally Planalp, he has a primary residence in Moab, Utah. Cheney is an internationally recognized leader in the area of organizational communication[1] and focuses his work on the improvement of organizational processes with special attention to the triple bottom line and the pursuit of socially and environmentally responsible economic development. Cheney draws from a variety of disciplines and professions in his work, including sociology, economics, political science, philosophy, marketing, management, and applied ethics.
Cheney was born and raised in Youngstown, Ohio, where he was co-valedictorian of Cardinal Mooney High School (1975). Cheney has a B.A. in Psychology, from Youngstown State University (1980, summa cum laude), an MA (1982) and a PhD (1985) in Communication from Purdue University in 1985 (where he was ranked first for a university-wide fellowship).[2]
Academic positions
Currently, Cheney is an adjoint professor at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs, an adjunct professor at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, and an adjunct professor at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. He is also an Associate Investigator with the Ohio Employee Ownership Center at Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, where he was recently a professor of communication studies and the coordinator of doctoral education and interdisciplinary research in the College of Communication and Information. In addition, he is an associate of the faculties of humanities, social sciences and business at Mondragon University in the Basque Country, Spain. Previously, he taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1984-1986), The University of Colorado at Boulder (1986-1995), The University of Montana (1995-2002), The University of Utah (2002–10) and The University of Texas at Austin (2010-11). Cheney held tenure-track or tenured positions in all these institutions.
Areas of interest and contribution
Cheney's research and teaching interests include identity in organizations, professional ethics, globalization, consumerism, and peace, in addition to workplace democracy and economic solidarity. Recognized as a leader in the area of organizational communication, Cheney has helped to expand the boundaries of that specialty to include important social and economic issues of our times as well as considering the implications of practices in all sectors for the larger society. He is also known for drawing upon, and in certain ways, bridging different epistemological traditions, including elements of empiricism, interpretive research, critical studies, and postmodernism to allow for more complete and nuanced pictures of social phenomena. Also, he has helped to internationalize the study of organizational communication, considering how insights about practices in employee participation and the communication of organizational identity in different nations and cultural contexts.
Grants
Cheney has participated in several grants (totaling nearly US$1,000,000) for collaborative research projects in the U.S. USDA and New Zealand (Marsden Fund, in projects on corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability led by Dr. Juliet Roper at the University of Waikato). The most recent included a Louis J. Kelso fellowship from Rutgers University, for research on best practices in establishing, maintaining, and enhancing “ownership culture” in worker cooperatives (2012-2013). For several years, he worked on Rural Cooperative Development grants through the USDA in collaborative work with the Ohio Employee Ownership Center.
Innovative courses and workshops
Cheney has developed a number of innovative courses that bridge theory and practice and that have been offered at both undergraduate and graduate levels.[2] Also, some of these courses have been delivered in condensed and hybrid formats. Topics include Quality of Worklife, Trends in Professional Ethics, and Communication and Globalization. The Quality of Worklife course was cited by students at the University of Utah in nomination for a teaching award and has been expanded over the years to include a broad range of issues in today's workplace and organizations. Working with David Derezotes, a professor of Social Work at the University of Utah, Cheney helped to develop an innovative, experiential course in dialogue. He is currently developing a course on sustainability and social responsibility for the curriculum in Communication at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.
Teaching and mentorship awards
Cheney has won several teaching, advising and mentoring awards at different universities, most recently departmental and college-level advising and mentoring awards at Kent State University. In 2013-14, he received the College of Communication and information's Distinguished Advising Award and the School of Communication's Larry Hugenberg Faculty-Student Mentoring Award.
Lectures and keynote addresses
Cheney has lectured widely and has given keynote addresses at conferences in Europe, Latin America and New Zealand, in addition to North America. Topics have included tools for structuring and maintaining participatory cultures at work, sustaining community values in times of economic crisis, inspiring approaches to professional ethics linking ethical practice to happiness, the implications of consumerism for citizenship, and the analysis of images of war and peace in popular culture. In 2008, he delivered, in Spanish, a lecture named for the founder of the Mondragon cooperatives, the largest system of worker-owned-and-governed businesses in the world. In recent years he has become known for translating theoretical ideas for wider audiences, including various groups of professionals and citizens.
Research awards, citations and influence
Cheney has won 20 awards for his scholarship from national and international professional associations. In a recent survey of references in organizational communication, Cheney was found to be the scholar most often cited in the journal Management Communication Quarterly the premier journal in the specialty.
Direction of PhD dissertations, Master's theses, and other projects
Cheney has advised or co-advised over a dozen PhD students, numerous master's students, and many undergraduate students. Cheney's students are employed in universities, government agencies, corporations, and in private consulting practices. Cheney has been active in assisting students pursue their academic and career goals, not only in instances of formal advising at the institutions where he has served but also through a wider national and international net of informal advice and mentoring. The student advising and mentoring often includes career planning as well as training in the chosen field or specialization. The extent of this activity was recognized in recent awards.
Administrative experience
Cheney has served as interim director of a student service-learning program (INVST at The University of Colorado at Boulder), a co-creator of an innovative quality of work life program for university staff (The University of Montana-Missoula), director of graduate studies in communication departments (The University of Colorado a Boulder and The University of Montana-Missoula), director of the Tanner Center for Nonviolent Human Rights Advocacy and the Peace and Conflict Studies program (The University of Utah), and coordinator of a college-wide doctoral program in Communication and Information (Kent State University). Noteworthy accomplishments include the expansion of academic curricula, the establishment of community partnerships, the hosting and organizing of national and international conferences, and the promotion of multi-disciplinary collaboration,
Consultation
Cheney has consulted with a variety of organizations in all three major sectors, including corporations, non-profit agencies, government agencies, and universities. Often this work has been an outgrowth of applied research.
- Areas of Applied Research, Consultation and Training include
Analysis of organizational culture performance, including organizational structures, communication patterns, leadership styles, decision-making strategies, employee-participation programs, committee and team meetings, mission statements, values/ethics statements, and public-relations campaigns, using both qualitative and quantitative techniques.
Facilitation of organizational change processes, especially towards greater employee participation and the integration of internal and external corporate communications.
Crafting and development of mission and ethics statements, quality-of-worklife programs, and comprehensive communications strategies.
Training and coaching in presentations, interviewing, committee and board activities, and transformational leadership and mentoring.
The benefits of these activities and interventions include: clarity and unity of organizational image/distinctiveness, increased task effectiveness, enhanced collaboration and creativity, and strengthening of ties between work processes and organizational values.
Service
Cheney has served on the boards of numerous non-profit organizations and professional associations, and has reviewed manuscripts for more than 20 journals and presses. In 2008, he was awarded the Gandhi Peacemaker of the Year Award from the Gandhi Alliance for Peace for his outreach efforts between the University of Utah and Salt Lake City. He currently serves on the Advisory Board of Cooperation Texas, where he was a co-author of a 2015 report on scaling up the cooperative economy, and as Associate Editor for the international and interdisciplinary journal Organization (journal), where he has been engaged since 2003. Cheney is a member of the Community Wealth Building Network of Metro Denver..
