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University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Management Department Faculty Publications Management Department 2015 Fred Luthans—The Anatomy of a 50-Year Academic Career: An Interview by Kenneth R. Thompson Fred Luthans University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Kenneth R. Thompson DePaul University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/managementfacpub Luthans, Fred and Thompson, Kenneth R., "Fred Luthans—The Anatomy of a 50-Year Academic Career: An Interview by Kenneth R. Thompson" (2015). Management Department Faculty Publications. 132. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/managementfacpub/132 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Management Department at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Management Department Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Published in Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies 22:4 (2015), pp. 387–394; doi: 10.1177/1548051815594885 Copyright © 2015 Fred Luthans and Kenneth R. Thompson. Published by SAGE Publications. Used by permission. digitalcommons.unl.edudigitalcommons.unl.edu Fred Luthans—The Anatomy of a 50-Year Academic Career: An Interview by Kenneth R. Thompson 59 Corresponding author — Kenneth R. Thompson, Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, DePaul University, 1 East Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60604, USA; email [email protected] As the recipient of the 2014 Midwest Academy of Man- will try to formulate my questions in order to clar- agement Distinguished Scholar Award, Professor Fred Lu- ify things for myself. However, from a career devel- thans’s interview by Senior Editor Ken Thompson is in- opment standpoint, what I think may be of most cluded in this Midwest Academy’s annual special issue interest to others is for you to look back and iden- of JLOS. tify what triggered some of the pivotal points in your now 50-year career path. My goal is to keep this very informal and conversational. Let’s start Fred Luthans received his BA, MBA, and PhD from the with this question: What motivated you to get into University of Iowa. He is a University and George Holmes teaching and research? Distinguished Professor of Management at the University of Nebraska. Before coming to Nebraska in 1967, while Fred: That’s actually a hard question to answer because serving as an officer in the U.S. Army, he taught psychol- I think in my case, it just kind of evolved, rather ogy and leadership at the U.S. Military Academy at West than this was something I always wanted to do. Point. He is a former President of the Midwest and Na- While growing up in Clinton, Iowa, on the Missis- tional Academy of Management. He was or is editor or sippi River, when I was in high school, I took books co-editor of Journal of World Business, Organizational Dy- home, but I never really looked at them. In other namics, and Journal of Leadership & Organization Studies. words, I was not a scholarly, intellectual type. In- He is the author of several well-known books and over stead, I hung out with my friends, and we were 200 articles. In total, his work is approaching 30,000 cita- mostly into sports. We watched and played foot- tions and his current H-Index is 76. His research at first fo- ball in the fall, basketball in the winter, track in the cused on a behavioral approach to management or what spring, and baseball in the summer. he formulated and called O.B. Mod. (organizational be- Ken: Where do you think your eventual interest in edu- havior modification). In recent years, he has given rela- cation came from? tively more attention to the theory building, measure- Fred: My parents were very much into the value of an ed- ment, and impact of what he founded and has termed ucation. My dad was the youngest of 10 children “positive organizational behavior (POB)” and “psycholog- in a hardworking family of German descent. He ical capital (PsyCap).” For further information, see his en- and all of his siblings turned out to be successful, try in Wikipedia, some interviews on YouTube, or his pro- but he was the only one who graduated from high file in Google Scholar. school. Obviously, he was very much into educa- tion, as also was my mother who was from an Iowa Ken: Fred, first of all, congratulations on receiving the farm family also of German descent. She gradu- Midwest Academy’s Distinguished Scholar Award ated from a type of commercial trade or what she and allowing us to do this interview. We both have called a “Business School.” She wanted me to be a deep ties to the Midwest, but I feel especially priv- high school teacher. With those kinds of values and ileged to do this interview for them because I was support from my parents, it was just assumed that I your student and received my doctorate under you would go to college, and it was also assumed that at the University of Nebraska long ago and have I would go to the University of Iowa. I was never kept in close contact through the years. I, of course, asked and we never explored any alternatives. know much about your background and work and Ken: Why Iowa? 387 388 K. R. Thompson in Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies 22 (2015) Fred: Because that’s where almost everybody in my were certainly some important moments or trig- hometown in Eastern Iowa went and, with no ger points while at Iowa that definitely shaped my pro teams in the state, we were all fervent Hawk- career. An obvious one was when Dr. Albers asked eye fans of all sports. In addition, my only sibling, me if I would be interested in going on for a PhD Nancy, was already there. Therefore, I went to Iowa in management, but a more subtle pivotal point for and just kept going. I ran hurdles on the track team, me was choosing psychology as a minor. In those met and dated my future wife, Kay, and majored in days, most of my fellow doctoral students took math for my bachelor’s degree. Then I went on for their supporting course work in economics and an MBA, where I became interested, really for the I also took quite a few, especially labor econom- first time, and intellectually curious about my man- ics. Remember, organizational behavior or strategy agement course taught by Senior Professor Henry were not generally recognized fields at that time, H. Albers. He urged me to go on for a PhD. in man- so I majored in management from Albers, person- agement under his tutelage, and I quickly jumped nel and labor relations from Wortman, organization at this opportunity and never looked back. theory from Cal Hoyt (a Cal-Berkley educated or- Ken: Besides Albers, whom I know you have always ganizational sociologist) and a strong outside mi- touted as being a true pioneer by having one of nor in psychology. There was only one course in my the very first Principles of Management texts and minor that was called “industrial psychology,” so I his inspiring intellect, what other mentors at Iowa took my course work in social and behavioral psy- stood out for you? chology. These courses were taken in basically the same psychology program at Iowa from which the Fred: Yes, Professor Albers was a great mentor to me, not famous Albert Bandura had graduated with his MA only as a doctoral student but also in my early ca- and PhD about a decade or so earlier. I have always reer. The year after I came to Nebraska, he became proudly followed Bandura’s groundbreaking theory the founding department of management chair and building and research throughout my career, from I always give him credit not only for my PhD but behaviorism to social learning to social cognition also for challenging and supporting me in writing to efficacy to agency. In formulating my approach my Organizational Behavior text and at the same throughout my career, this psych background has time to do quality basic research in this just emerg- proved to be invaluable. ing field. In addition, after I had been in the Iowa doctoral program a year or two, Max Wortman was Ken: Thanks for sharing that early background. What did hired out of the strong University of Minnesota per- you do after graduating? sonnel and labor relations program. Max not only Fred: I received my degree in 1965, at the age of 25, and provided me with a sound grounding in what be- that period was the start of the buildup for the came known as human resource management but Vietnam War. I had gone through Army ROTC and also taught me how to write articles. I had seven ac- received my commission after my bachelor’s de- cepted articles with him by the time I graduated. He gree but then took an educational delay. I knew I also greatly helped me in my early career by pre- had to report for my 2 years of active duty as soon ceding me as President of the Midwest Academy of as I graduated with my PhD, so a trigger moment Management and the National Academy of Man- for me is when I proactively went to my ROTC Col- agement. Furthermore, he put me on his editorial onel, a West Point graduate, to see if I could be as- board when he was the founding editor of AMR. signed there to use my education to teach leader- In other words, I was extremely lucky to have two ship.

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