Ellen Whitener

Senior Associate Dean 
Professor of Commerce

Office phone: 434-924-3174
e-mail: emw8r@virginia.edu

Education:

Ph.D., Business Administration, Michigan State University
M.B.A., Management, Appalachian State University
A.B., Psychology and Religion, Duke University

Areas of Expertise:

Professor Whitener specializes in organizational behavior and human resource management. Her current research focuses on building trusting relationships within organizations and evaluating the impact of human resource practices on employee attitudes and performance.

Professional Activities:

Professor Whitener has more than 15 years of experience in human resources and general consulting in financial services, health care, and government services. She has worked with these organizations in evaluating personnel functions; building teams and strategic vision; designing, administering, and analyzing employee surveys; and conducting workshops on topics such as customer service, team-building, coaching, and trust. She conducts research on employee commitment, trust, and human resource practices that has been published in journals such as Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Human Resource Management Review, Computers in Human Behavior, Communications of the ACM, and Journal of Management. She has supplemented her professional interests with volunteer service on the boards of directors of the Paramount Theater, Hospice of the Piedmont, and Charlottesville’s Center for Christian Study. She is currently serving on the national board of trustees for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. She was on the organizing committee for the first “Women Build” house constructed by the Charlottesville-Albemarle chapter of Habitat for Humanity and continues to volunteer building houses. She has served as a member of the Personnel Review (Grievance) Board for the City of Charlottesville. 

Selected Publications:

“Creating and building trust.” (with G. Stahl) In Handbook of global organizing and managing. H. W. Lane, M.L. Maznevski, M. Mendenhall, & J. McNett, eds., London: Blackwell. 2003.

“Preserving trust in the face of conflict: the role of managerial trustworthy behavior and organizational context.” (with M.A. Korsgaard & S. E. Brodt) Journal of Applied Psychology, 2002.

“Do ‘high commitment’ human resource practices affect employee commitment? A cross-level analysis using hierarchical linear modeling.” Journal of Management, 2001.

“The role of linguistic analysis of intercultural communication in effective global leadership.” (with B. Muller-Jacquier) In Developing global leaders. M. Mendenhall, T. Kuehlmnn, & G. Stahl, eds. Quorum Books, 2000.

“Forging employee morale, trust, and performance.” (with S.E. Brodt), Monograph, Filene Research Institute, 2000.

“Managers as initiators of trust: an exchange relationship framework for understanding managerial trustworthy behavior.” (with S.E. Brodt,  M. A.Korsgaard, & J.M.Werner), Academy of Management Review, 1998.

“The impact of human resource activities on employee trust.” Human Resource Management Review, 1997.

“The effects of human resource practices on credit union employees and performance.” Monograph, Filene Research Institute, 1998.

“Human resource management.” In Virtual Organizational Behavior, 2nd ed. F. Luthans, ed. McGraw-Hill, 2000.

“The assessment of end-user training needs.” (with R.R. Nelson & H. Philcox) Communications of the ACM, 1995. 

“Equivalence of computerized and traditional research methods: the roles of scanning, social environment, and social desirability.” (with H.J.Klein), Computers in Human Behavior, 1995. 

“When is a 'KO' OK? Capitalizing on existing knowledge structures to facilitate pre-training transfer.” (with S.E. Brodt) Human Resource Management Review, 1994. 

“Exchange theory determinants of affective and continuance commitment and turnover” (with P.M. Walz), Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1993. 

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