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Stephanie Gilbert, PhD
Year graduated: 2015 (PhD)
Supervisor: Dr. Kevin Kelloway
Dissertation: Motivation for Transformational Leadership in Two Organizations
Key take-home messages from your dissertation:
I developed and validated a scale to measure self-determined motivation to lead transformationally. The findings suggested that what drives/motivates leaders to lead transformationally matters for both leader-level outcomes (job satisfaction and self-rated transformational leadership) and for employee ratings of leaders’ transformational behaviours.
What have you been doing since you graduated?
I was hired at Cape Breton University Shannon School of Business in 2015.
What accomplishments are you most proud of?
This year, I was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure, which feels like a wonderful milestone in my career. I have also been awarded a number of external research grants, such as the SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship, SSHRC Insight Development Grant, and as part of a research team was awarded a CIHR COVID-19 Rapid Research Funding Opportunity grant.
What type of projects are you working on?
I am working with Dr. Kelloway and a team to understand the influence of COVID-19 on employee health and work outcomes as part of a CIHR-funded research program. I am also conducting research to understand employees’ experiences with the return-to-work process following bereavement, including the loss of a loved one generally (with Drs. Kelloway, Teed, Dimoff, and Mullen) and the loss of a pregnancy (with Drs. Dimoff and Brady).
Advice/Best practices?
Much of my research points to the value of good leaders who show employees compassion, support, and individualized consideration for helping employees through normal times and crisis situations- whether that is a pandemic or a personal crisis like loss. It is likely that these leaders are those who lead for autonomous rather than controlled reasons.
Other thoughts:
I think back so fondly on my time at SMU and am very proud of the program as well as its alumni who have gone on to have successful careers in I/O.
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