J. Barton Cunningham, PhD (Southern California)

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UVic Office: HSD A356
UVic Office Phone: 250.721.8059
Fax: 250.721.8849
E-mail: bcunning@uvic.ca

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Professional Information & Research Interests  |  Selected Publications  |  Grants & Awards  |  Recent International Engagements  |  Courses Taught  |  Professional Appointments & Memberships

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Professional Information & Research Interests

Professional Information

Bart Cunningham specializes in studying workplace issues related to stress, job satisfaction, human resource management, and insight problem solving. He has been a visiting scientist at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in London, England and had held positions at the Nanyang Business School at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore where he was the Research Director of the Enterprise Development Center. Most recently, he has held visiting positions at the Czech Management Center, the California School for Professional Psychology in San Diego, the Waikato Management School in New Zealand, and Johannes Kepler University in Austria.

He has recently been involved with a number of consulting initiatives, which are focused on workplace stress and hardiness, and using the Balanced Scorecard as a planning process with the First Nations Pine Beetle Initiative. In addition to his research publications, his published books include: Understanding Values and Beliefs: The Echo Approach (Quorum Books);  The Stress Management Sourcebook 2nd ed. (Lowell House); Action Research and Organizational Development (Praeger); and Quality of Working Life (LabourCanada).  Bart is currently completing a textbook on Strategic Human Resource Management: Engaging Canadians Organizations in the Global Arena (Pearson,  Canada).

Expertise & Interests

• Human resource management issues

• Action learning and research

• Organizational behavior, theory, effectiveness and change

Research Interests

• Creativity and insight problem solving

• Stress and workplace wellness

• Strategice planning and strategy implementation

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Selected Publications

Books

• Strategic Human Resource Management: Guiding Managerial Acton in the Global Arena (Forthcoming).

• Researching Organizational Values and Beliefs: The Echo Approach (Westport, Connecticut: Quorum Books, 2001) with a foreword by Janet Bavelas.

• The Stress Management Sourcebook (2nd. Edition) (California: Lowell House, 2000) with a foreword by Joe Lischeron.

Journals and Other Articles

• "Informal learning in the workplace: Key activities and processes" Education and Training (Accepted 2012). (With E. Hillier).

• "Promoting Organizational Fit in Strategic HRM: Applying the HR Scorecard in Two Public Service Organizations" Public Personnel Management 40(3), 2012, 193-214. (With Jim Kempling).

• "Training insight problem solving through focus on barriers and assumptions" Journal of Creative Behavior 45, 2012, 47-58. (With J. Walinga and J.N. MacGregor).

• "The Effects of Number and Level of Restructuring in Insight Problem Solving" Journal of Problem Solving 2(2), 2009, 130-141. (With J.N. MacGregor).

• "Categories of insight and their correlates: An exploration of relationships among classic-type insight problems, rebus puzzles, remote associates and esoteric analogies" Journal of Creative Behavior 43(4), 2009, 262-280. (With J.N. MacGregor, J.N. Gibb & J. Haar).

• "Implementing change in public sector organizations" Management Decision 74, 2008, 330-344. (With Jim Kempling). (2010 Award of Excellence: Emerald Award for top paper in 2010).

• "Training insightful problem solving: Effects of realistic and puzzle-like contexts" Creativity Research Journal 20, 2008, 291-296. (With J.N. MacGregor).

• "Factors in absenteeism and presenteeism: Life events and health events" Management Research News 31(8), 2008, 607-615. (With J.N. MacGregor & N. Caverley).

• "Individual competencies that older workers use in successfully adapting during their careers" International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management 9, 2009, 198-222. (With B.Sweet).

• "Rebus puzzles as insight problems" Behavior Research Methods 40(1), 2008, 263-268. (With J.N. MacGregor).

• "Sickness presenteeism, sickness absenteeism, and health following restructuring in a public service organization" Journal of Management Studies 44(2), 2007, 304-319. (With J.N. MacGregor & N. Caverley).

• "The Echo approach in developing items for student evaluation of faculty performance," Teaching of Psychology 33(2), Spring 2006, 96-100. (With J.N. MacGregor).

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Grants & Awards

• SSHRC grant (2011-2015): Insight Problem Solving (with J.M. MacGregor).

• Workplace BC "Safeguarding our indigenous communities: Measuring the health and safety culture of Aboriginal fire crews and emergency service personnel in British Columbia." (With Brent Langlois, Natasha Caverley, and Jim MacGregor).

• SSHRC grant (2004): Insight Problem Solving (with J.M. MacGregor).

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Recent International Engagements

• 2010: "Taxomonic categorization effects in insight problem solving" Granada, Spain (With J.N. MacGregor &, J. Walinga).

• 2010: "Training insight problem solving through focus on barriers and assumptions" Granada, Spain (With J.N. MacGregor &, J. Walinga).

• 2008: "Testing hypotheses about insight problem solving" New Perspectives in Problem Solving, Purdue University (With J.N. MacGregor).

• 2008: "Understanding the characteristics of creative insights" Academy of Management Conference in Anneheim, California (With J.N. MacGregor, J.Gibb, & J. Haar).

• 2007: "Competencies that older workers use in successfully adapting during their careers" European Academy of Management, Paris, France (With J.N. MacGregor).

• 2007: "Stress, absenteeism, and presenteeism" Western Academy of Management, Missoula, Montana (With J.N. MacGregor).

• 2006: "An experimental test of rebus puzzles as insight problems" Australian/New Zealand Psychological Societies Conference in Aukland, New Zealand (With J.N. MacGregor).

• 2006: "Imagination, ideas, and productive thinking in insight problem solving: A description and measure" Irish Academy of Management Conference in Cork, Ireland (With J.N. MacGregor).

• 2006: "Assessing creative problem solving: the roles of productive and divergent thinking in insight" British Academy of Management Conference in Belfast, UK (With J.N. MacGregor).

• 2006: "Training insightful problem solving" Western Academy of Management Conference in Long Beach, California (With J.N. MacGregor).

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Courses Taught

• ADMN 312: Organizational Behavior (Diploma Program)

• ADMN 431: Human Resource Management (Diploma Program)

• CD 511: Developing Personal Capacity to Facilitate and Lead Change

• ADMN 531: Human Resource Management

• ADMN 600: Doctoral Seminar

• ADMN 607: Organizational Behavior

• ADMN 645: Organization Change and Development

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Professional Appointments & Memberships

• Academy of Management

• Administrative Sciences Association of Canada

• Member, University of Victoria Speakers Bureau

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