June 2, 2008

MSU Doctoral Student Receives Award to Study Global Work Teams

Kaumudi Misra, a doctoral student in the MSU School of Labor & Industrial Relations, has received the Susan G. Cohen Doctoral Research Award in Organization Design, Effectiveness, and Change to pursue her dissertation research—The Effects of High Involvement Human Resource Practices on Global Team Effectiveness. The award is sponsored by the Academy of Management and the Center for Effective Organizations at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California.

Very little research has been done to assess how companies manage global teams, given the unique time and work demands they place on employees. Kaumudi's study will examine how different human resource practices affect global team effectiveness, with particular emphasis on the ability of global team employees to balance their work-family demands.

Misra's current research interests include high performance work systems and their effects on employees, with particular emphases on work-life issues and workplace flexibility practices. She has worked on a National Science Foundation project on organizational change and effectiveness, was the Sloan Research Fellow to study work-life flexibility practices, and has presented several research papers at national conferences, including the Academy of Management, the Labor and Employment Relations Association, and the Canadian Industrial Relations Research Association. One of her research papers won the best paper award in its category, and she was recently awarded a gold medallion for academic excellence by the Phi Beta Delta Honor Society at MSU.

The award and $2,500 prize will be presented to Misra at the Annual Academy of Management Conference in Anaheim, Calif., in August.