Senior human resource management students Jenna Bayer and Roxanna Wood and Brian Lyons, associate professor of management in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, presented research on industry demand for human resource certifications at the 34th annual Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) Conference held April 4-6 in Maryland.

The co-authors shared their research entitled, “Reexamining the base rate of demand for HR certifications in the United States.”

The paper’s summary reads: “External pressures by an increasing number of certified Human Resources (HR) professionals and a new entrant into the HR certification market substantiated the need to establish a new base rate of demand for HR certification. Building on previous studies, the current study analyzed over 5,300 job announcements and found that: (a) the demand for HR certification increased from 15.6% (Lyons, Mueller, Gruys, & Meyers, 2012) to 20.7%; (b) the number of job announcements requiring HR certification increased from 1.1% (Lyons et al., 2012) to 2.6%; (c) HRCI certifications were generally in demand more often than SHRM certifications; and (d) the demand for HR certification for managerial-level jobs increased from 25.1% (Lyons et al., 2012) to 33.7%.”

The co-authors expect their research will be published within the next year.

After graduation, Bayer will join IBM in its U.S. Public Service, Global Services division as a business consultant. Wood will continue her human resources study at Cornell University in its Master of Industrial Labor Relations program.

 is the premier membership organization for the science and practice of industrial and organizational psychology. While an independent organization with its own governance, SIOP also represents Division 14 of the American Psychological Association and is an organizational affiliate of the Association for Psychological Science.

Luca Romano, vice president of operations at AKG of America, a privately-owned manufacturer of high-performance motor- and engine-cooling systems, spoke on April 15 to Operations and Supply Chain Management students about the role of supply chain management in manufacturing operations.

Romano has spent his career elevating manufacturing performance and company profitability at firms across the southeastern United States and Italy. With an undergraduate degree in engineering and industrial management, he began his career as a manufacturing engineer and worked his way up the ranks. Prior to joining AKG of America in 2016, Romano spent a number of years turning around the world’s largest dry ice plant and steering operations back to profitability through overhauling its supply chain operations.

Romano began his discussion in Assistant Professor of Marketing Prachi Gala’s class by giving students an overview of his responsibilities as head of operations. “I oversee our facilities, equipment and personnel; work to maintain low production costs while ensuring a high quality, finished product; and timely order fulfillment at AKG of America’s Mebane plant,” he said.

In his role, Romano shared he works closely with employees at every stage of the manufacturing process from start to finish to uphold efficient and high-quality work.

He then dove into more depth about AKG of America’s supply chain and operations management. Within a larger pool of competition, Romano shared AKG of America has found its niche in producing top quality cooling systems for luxury automakers and large industrial clients. Orders for these types of clients tend to be smaller but require high levels of customization, he explained, in order to tailor the product to more specialized needs.

This need for high levels of customization greatly impacts the physical supply chain. Assembly lines and computer programming need to be altered to each product’s specifications, which takes time and flexibility. In the end, this results in a more manual manufacturing process to best meet order demand.

Major industry constraints, Romano noted, continue to be associated with its highly manual manufacturing process. The industry is slow to react to quick changes in demand and quick changes in labor demand to fulfill orders. With the unemployment rate in the United States reaching its lowest point in decades, it is becoming a challenge to hire qualified workers to meet these changing demands.

“The manufacturing industry is experiencing a growing skills gap, where young professionals are shying away from technical jobs," Romano said. "The average age of a welder in the United States is 55 years and the U.S. is expected to be short of 291,000 welders by 2020.”

Given the labor-intensive process at AKG of America, this growing gap is hurting its ability to fill empty positions and meet the needs of growing demand, he said. These labor-related constraints have sparked an industrywide movement toward advanced artificial intelligence within the manufacturing space to take the place of highly specialized manufacturing needs currently occupied by humans, he explained.

Following the discussion, Romano fielded student questions about his career path, application of supply chain strategies and career advice.

When asked about what qualities he looks for in applicants, Romano responded, “The ability to carry yourself well, take criticism, and communicate concepts verbally.” Employers do not expect new hires to know everything before starting a position, but they seek out applicants with growth mindsets, he said.

Thirty-three sophomore Business Fellows traveled to New York April 8-10 to network with employers, learn about industries of interest and consider future career opportunities.

The Fellows split into two groups and visited a number of firms aligned with their future career interests. Accounting and finance majors visited Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, BlackRock, Bloomberg, Rockefeller Capital Management, Richard Bernstein, and Ernst & Young. Marketing, entrepreneurship, management, and economics majors visited FactSet, Google, Ralph Lauren, Intersection, CSM LeadDog, Omnicom, and charity: water. The two groups came together for a networking event at Credit Suisse’s New York office, hosted by Elon alumnus Shane Powers ‘99.

Accompanying the fellows were Tina Das, Lincoln Financial Professor of Economics and director of the Business Fellows Program; Jon Bae, assistant professor of finance; Danielle Golinski, assistant director of career services for the Love School of Business; and Brooke Buffington, senior associate director of corporate and employer relations for the Love School of Business.

​The company visits exposed students to important changing industries competencies. “The ability to code and work with computing languages such as Python, Java, and R are becoming increasingly valuable skills within the finance and accounting industries,” said Evan Mooney ’21, an accounting and management (business analytics) double major from New Jersey. “Nearly every employer seemed to believe that the world is heading toward automated computers and artificial intelligence, which ultimately influenced my decision to pick up a minor in computer science.”

Students also benefited from networking with alumni. “The trip showed me how strong our alumni network is despite Elon’s smaller size,” Thea Vunk ’21 said. “The Elon alumni we met are more than willing to help current students fulfill their professional goals and share insightful advice.”

​The experience taught students what it takes to make it in highly competitive industries, thus broadening their career horizons. “Being in New York opened my eyes to a whole new job market full of endless opportunities for business students,” shared Ben Mulholland ‘21. “I learned it takes hard work, enthusiasm and persistence if you want a career on Wall Street, but those who make it are rewarded with an unbeatable knowledge of financial markets and how money moves in America to help businesses everywhere. It was an experience that has changed the way how I will view my final two years here at Elon.”

“I am so grateful to have had this experience as a sophomore through the Business Fellows program since it allowed me to learn firsthand about the many career options in the financial services industry and helped me begin to think about what career I want to pursue,” said Vunk, a finance major from Vermont.

The Elon Business Fellows program blends classroom learning and real-world experience to prepare emerging business professionals to take on the leadership challenges in their professions, organizations and communities.

The program adds an extra dimension through dedicated team projects, specialized cohort classes, a Winter Term study abroad experience, company site visits, a four-year professional development plan and senior seminars involving managing a $250,000 portfolio or consulting for a company. 

Bill Nahmias of Gartner, a leading research and advisory company with more than 15,000 associates globally, shared insights about the evolving sales field during a March 13 presentation as part of the Chandler Family Professional Sales Center Speaker Series.

Emphasizing the importance of seizing opportunities that your experiences bring, Nahmias opened the presentation with a quote by the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you can go anywhere.” Students often want big marketing roles right out of school and can overlook competitive and transformative positions in sales, Nahmias said. He advised students who love a challenge and want a position with freedom and flexibility to consider a career in sales.

The world of sales is changing, Nahmias explained. With the rise in business analytics, industry and customers demands have shifted to remain competitive. Whereas in years past “relationship builders,” salesmen who thrived when it came to managing personal relationships with clients, were among the top sales performers, internal data is suggesting that “challengers,” salesmen who challenge their clients to think differently about their business with the help of analytics, are now overwhelmingly leading the ranks.

He continued to discuss the value of analytics within the sales industry to drive productivity and effectiveness, in roles both big and small. “Industry leaders are using analytics to identify customer prospects, improvements to the sales force design and territory design, and efficiently recruit and train sales representatives,” said Nahmias.

Sales representative are using analytics on smaller scales to identify where the opportunity is, who to target, what do the targets care about, and even the success of different approaches in order to get meetings with potential clients, he explained. Nahmias prompted prospective sales professionals to dig deeper to better understand analytics in order to identify promising opportunities clients can act on.

Nahmias also mentioned the importance of hard skills to make analytics work in professionals’ best interests. “Being familiar with Excel will take you a long way,” shared Nahmias. Large-scale data sets can be easily manipulated on platforms like Excel to come to valuable business conclusions.

Additionally, Nahmias highlighted the importance of critical thinking skills when analyzing data. Professionals can have a lot of excellent information but if they cannot interpret and act upon that information, then none of it matters. “Data is not going to tell you the whole story, it will just point you in the right direction,” he said.

Looking towards the future Nahmias expects big data and artificial intelligence will be especially important within the sales industry when it comes to analyzing characteristics of current clients to prospect for viable new clients and visualize data conclusions.

In closing, Nahmias’ advice to prospective sales professionals included:

• Invest in yourself.
• Understand what drives your success and apply it to other areas.
• Be disciplined.
• Leverage the resources around you.

The Chandler Family Professional Sales Center was endowed in 2008 by Thomas E. Chandler, owner of Chandler Concrete Company, and his family. The Chandler Family Center’s goals are to provide experiences that are relevant, practical and engaging, offer firms the latest sales knowledge and skills, connect students with local and national employers and conduct research that advances the field of sales.

Barjinder Singh, assistant professor of management in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, co-authored the paper, which was published by the Organization Management Journal.

Singh co-authored this paper with Peggy Cloninger, professor of management at University of Houston-Victoria, Kaumundi Misra, assistant professor of management at California State University East Bay, and Selvarajan Thirumalai Thattai, associate professor of management at California State University East Bay.

This study builds on the structural model of stress and regulatory focus theory to clarify the relationship between work-family conflict and counterproductive work behaviors, via mediating role of negative affect and moderating role of regulatory focus.

The paper’s abstract reads:

“Evidence suggests work–family conflict can lead to numerous negative consequences in the workplace, including behaviors detrimental to the organization and its members, such as counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs). Yet relatively little research has addressed the relationship between work–family conflict and CWBs. This study builds on the structural model of stress and regulatory focus theory to addresses this major gap in the literature. Our model proposes that negative affect and self-regulation can help us understand how and why work–family conflict may be related to CWBs. We hypothesize that work–family conflict is positively related to negative affect, which in turn is positively related to CWBs, and regulatory focus moderates the relationship between work–family conflict and CWBs. A survey of 332 employees shows work–family conflict is directly related to CWBs, indirectly related to CWBs via negative affect, and the relationship is moderated by regulatory prevention focus. We discuss implications for theory and practice.”

Singh was a tenured associate professor at the University of Houston System before joining ÁñÁ«app¹Ù·½ÍøÕ¾Èë’s faculty fall of 2017. His research interests include pursuing the highest levels of excellence within the organizational behavior and human resource management fields.

publishes papers that address the intersection of theoretical insight and practical application of organizational behavior, business strategy and policy, organizational theory, human resource management, and management education.  Organization Management Journal is a blind peer-reviewed online publication sponsored by the Eastern Academy of Management.

Hani Tadros, assistant professor of accounting in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, co-authored the paper which was published in the February issue of the Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal.

The paper examines and dissects information disclosed by firms regarding their environmental impact versus the realities of their environmental performance.

The paper’s abstract reads:

“Purpose – Focusing on a sample of firms from environmentally sensitive industries over several years, this study aims to reexamine the association between environmental disclosure and environmental performance.

“Design/methodology/approach – The authors use a panel data analysis to examine how the interaction between environmental performance and economic and legitimacy factors influence firms’ environmental disclosures.

“Findings – Results suggest that environmental performance moderates the effect of economic and legitimacy incentives on firms’ propensity to provide proprietary environmental disclosure, with both sets of incentives being influential. More specifically, there appears to be a reporting bias based on the firm’s environmental performance whereas the high-performers disclose more environmental information in the three following vehicles: annual report, 10-K and sustainability reports combined. Results also show that economic and legitimacy factors influence the disclosure decisions of the low and high environmental performers differently.

“Practical implications – Understanding the determinants of environmental disclosure for high and low environmental performers helps regulators to close the reporting gap between these firms.

“Social implications – There is little evidence to suggest that firms with low-environmental performance attempt to use their disclosures to legitimize their environmental operations.

“Originality/value – The study examines environmental disclosures of 78 firms over a period of 14 years in annual, 10-K and sustainability reports. The panel data analysis controls for significant cross-sectional and period effects.”

Tadros joined ÁñÁ«app¹Ù·½ÍøÕ¾Èë in fall 2015. He previously taught at Fayetteville State University and Concordia University. His research interests include environmental and management accounting.

The publishes research from a range of disciplinary approaches to improving social and environmental sustainability and the social and environmental consequences of climate change and other issues.

Members of Elon’s Lambda Xi chapter of Beta Alpha Psi (BAP), the international honor organization for financial information students and professionals, placed first in the Best Practices “Roots” category at the BAP Southeast regional meeting held Feb. 22-23 in Jacksonville, Florida.

The first-place team was comprised of junior accounting major Christian Carme, senior finance major Sophia Mancini, senior accounting major Jake O’Brien and senior accounting and computer science double major Kaitlyn Tomaino. Patty Cox, assistant professor of accounting and BAP faculty adviser, mentored and accompanied the team.

The BAP regional meeting provides students with the opportunity to network with other chapter members from the Southeast, attend engaging speaker sessions and develop professional skills. Teams participating in the competition portion of the event were evaluated by a panel of unaffiliated judges and corporate partners on the quality of content presented, flow of the presentation itself and clarity of the presenters’ message.

In the Best Practices “Roots” presentation, the Elon team described what the Lambda Xi chapter has done to foster lifelong ethical, social and public responsibility among its members and how they have successfully furthered that message through online platforms. The students articulated the primary goals of Lambda Xi's practice – to instill ethical decision making and integrity in the accounting and finance fields, and to promote the core values of leadership, professionalism and personal development – and how the officers communicate these goals using online platforms such as PhoenixConnect, MailChimp and LinkedIn.

“Attending the BAP Southeast regional meeting was a very rewarding experience,” said Carme. “I had the opportunity to network with Beta Alpha Psi members from other chapters as well as attend thought-provoking professional sessions put on by BAP alumni. It was incredibly valuable practice to present in front of an audience in a real-world situation and be critiqued on the quality of our work.”

Tyler Pastore ’19, Rebecca Roberts ‘19, Victoria Simpkins ‘19 and McKenna Patterson ’21 competed in the Best Practices “Branches” category, where teams were given the challenge of describing how their chapter has used technology to effectively reach out to finance and information systems community members and what programs have been implemented to widen the reach of membership.

Simpkins, O’Brien, Roberts and Patterson also participated in the "Wildcard" session, where chapters explained how they incorporate continuing education at chapter meetings. Elon’s presentation covered implementing a system of requesting employers/recruiters to pick a topic to speak about and providing opportunities for members to network with industry professionals to get the most of each one-hour chapter meeting.

In addition to cash prizes, the first-place team was invited to attend and compete at BAP’s annual meeting in Chicago in August.

The Elon Sales Meet and Greet attracted 49 students interested in sales, consulting, marketing, relationship and account management, and business development roles. The students represented 13 majors, from Marketing to Policy Studies.  

The Chandler Family Professional Sales Center and the Student Professional Development Center co-hosted the Feb. 25 event to provide students the opportunity to connect employers interested in hiring Elon talent for internships and full-time employment.

“As a senior getting ready to graduate in May having the opportunity to network is truly invaluable,” said senior Kaitlin Welch. “Elon did a great job inviting a variety of companies to attend and I think I made some meaningful connections with employers through the event.”

​The following employers attended the event:

• Amica Mutual Insurance
• ADP
• Call Box
• CHG Healthcare
• EF Education First
• Gartner
• John Galt Staffing
• MassMutual NC
• Omnicell
• Paycom
• Politico
• Prometheus Group
• Relias
• SAS 
• TransPerfect

The next Sales Meet and Greet will be held in fall 2019.

The Chandler Family Professional Sales Center, established in 2008 by an endowment gift from Elon Trustee Thomas E. Chandler, owner of Chandler Concrete Co., and his family, promotes professional selling and sales management, provides high-quality instruction to both students and sales executives, and conducts research that advances the field of sales.

Barjinder Singh, assista nt professor of management, co-authored the paper “,” which was published by the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality.

Singh co-authored this paper with Donna Stringer, lecturer of management at University of Houston, Clear Lake, and Selvarajan Thirumalai Thattai, associate professor of management at Cal State East Bay.

The paper’s abstract reads:

“Current research examines the role of religiosity and spirituality in coping with demands of work–family lives. Based on the job demands-resources model, we hypothesize that religiosity and spirituality positively moderate the relationship between work and family demands and work–family conflict. Based on evidence from extant literature, we propose that although spirituality has positive influence, religiosity can have either positive or negative influence on work–family conflict. Therefore, testing parallel hypotheses for the moderating role of religiosity, results of our study, based on a national sample of employees, indicate that religiosity and spirituality moderate the relationship between spousal demands and family-to-work conflict (FWC), such that the highly religious and spiritual employees experience less FWC. In the work domain, however, high level of religiosity further exacerbates the job demand and work-to-family conflict relationship; whereas spirituality does not moderate the relationship. Implications for theory and practice are also discussed.”

Singh was a tenured professor at the University of Houston before joining ÁñÁ«app¹Ù·½ÍøÕ¾Èë’s faculty in the fall of 2017. He was the 2018 recipient of the Love School of Business’s Summer Research Fellowship, during which he revised and completed research for this publication.

publishes peer-reviewed, original articles related to the psychological aspects of religion and spirituality, which employ experimental and correlational methods, qualitative analyses, and critical reviews of literature. 

The Elon Economics Club hosted a student panel on Feb. 20 in LaRose Digital Theatre for senior economics students to share their experience majoring in economics and the practical application of their coursework.

Panelists also provided general advice for students looking to pursue a degree in economics or the newest major at the Love School of Business, economic consulting. Sophomore club co-president Matthew Mitten moderated the discussion.

The panel was comprised of:

• Hannah Quinlan, incoming business analyst in the Business Operations Leadership Development (BOLD) Rotational Program at Dell EMC
• Katelyn Roache, incoming consultant at Bates White
• Carson Fawzi, aspiring sales professional
• David Ogburn, aspiring joint MD/MBA student
• Michaela Fogarty, incoming economist at RTI International – Health Policy Science Division
• Kira Hughes, incoming capital markets analyst, Commercial Banking Program at Citizens Bank

The panel’s advice included:

• Find ways to pursue interests outside of your major. As business grows increasingly global, being able to work cross-functionally and to do so effectively is essential for firms to remain competitive. Pick up a double major in another school or join a club unrelated to your studies. An interdisciplinary background can lead to interesting experiences that you can articulate in an interview and differentiate yourself from other job candidates.

• Develop relationships with faculty members. The Economics Department is a close-knit community of students and professors, which affords students the opportunity to have a personal relationship with professors. They can be an endless source of advice and advocate for you in the real world.

• Take classes that teach you hard skills. Many positions in the economics field will regularly involve the use of Excel, C++, R and Stata for research purposes. By taking the initiative to take classes on these topics and understand how to utilize their capabilities, you can easily set yourself apart from other job candidates.

• Use your peers as resources. Every student is in the same boat – taking the same classes and preparing for the postgraduate job search. Develop relationships with your peers and do not be afraid to lean on them when needed.

• Do not fear the senior thesis. All senior economics majors are required to develop a research question, carry out research and write a thesis to graduate. All students are matched with a faculty advisor and the research process begins in the fall of senior year. Though surely overwhelming at first, the senior thesis prep class and economics coursework prepare you well to tackle the challenge.

The Economics Club, advised by Vitaliy Strohush, assistant professor of economics, provides opportunities for students to learn more about the field of economics beyond the classroom and fosters relationships between students and faculty members. The Economics Club holds regular meetings every other week. For more information, contact mmitten@elon.edu or llindy@elon.edu.