Cornell University's Dr. Michael Sturman visits MU
The Latest Trends series of lectures brings scholars and industry professional from all over the world to discuss pertinent topics in the tourism and hospitality industry.
Last Thursday, Michael C. Sturman, Professor of Management and the Kenneth and Marjorie Blanchard Professor of Human Resources at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration, spoke to a large crowd of students, faculty, and members of the Cornell Hotel Society on the topic of ‘’HR Branding: How Human Resources Can Learn from Product and Service Branding to Improve Attraction, Selection, and Retention.’’
Dr. Sturman met MODUL Career Head and fellow Cornell alumnus Hani El-Sharkawi at a 2012 conference in Belgrade, who was instrumental in organizing his MU lecture and gathering the Vienna chapter of the Cornell Society for the lecture and the networking cocktails that followed.
Dr. Sturman’s current research focuses on the prediction of individual job performance over time and the influence of compensation systems. On this topic, he elaborated that his research is especially involved in pay-for-performance, and how to motivate behaviors. He looks at the effects of motivational bonuses vs. raises and the long term effects on employee retention and turnover in the hospitality industry.
''Most of the current research has been on CEOs’’ he says, ‘’my research is more concerned with lower level staff, and what effect incentives and rewards have on them. Investing in low level employees is mutually beneficial, companies can promote retention and increase the pie for everyone.’’
He suggests that practical research in this area is necessary to show to what extent rewards have an effect on employee satisfaction to convince CEOs to employ reward schemes within their businesses. He seeks to find out what is scientifically better – for example Dr. Sturman points out that bonuses can actually serve to encourage turnover – the employee works until they receive a large sum of money and then quits shortly after. Increases in pay rate are more effective in improving long term performances, as the employee feels more valued and continues to earn more at a steady rate.
Dr. Sturman is currently a visiting professor at L'Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne where he teaches undergraduate, graduate, and executive education courses on human resource management, compensation, and research methodology.
Hani El-Sharkawi, Michael Sturman, and Dagmar Lund-Durlacher, MU professor and Latest Trends organizer.
