FILC Faculty Research Interests

At PSU, areas of research emphasis relating to the industry include supply and logistics, human resource management, consumer behavior and marketing. The following faculty and students are researching important areas that affect the food industry. FILC research is under the direction of Tom Gillpatrick, Ph.D., FILC Executive Director.

 

FILC Faculty Research for the Food Industry:

Dr. Lee Buddress: Dr. Buddress teaches supply and logistics management, operations management, and negotiation. His twenty years of experience in supply, logistics and operations management provide the foundation for his research interests in international supply and logistics and forecasting.

 

Dr. Alan M. Cabelly: Research project focuses on identification of important new approaches to the management of human resources within the food industry, including leadership and team development processes, as well as specific human resource improvements in retention, rewards, appraisal, and training.

 

Dr. Jeanne Enders: Dr. Enders is a social and organizational psychologist. Her areas of research include change management, organizational culture assessment and intervention methods and attitudes toward corporate social responsibility, including environmental issues (“sustainability practices”).

 

Dr. Thomas R. Gillpatrick: Research interests include researching the effect of category management across all levels of the food industry; describing category management practices, and reporting findings regarding best practices.

 

Dr. Robert Harmon: Research interests include value-based marketing, new product development, e-business, mobile commerce, strategic pricing, and all phases of the strategic market planning process.

 

Dr. Charla Mathwick: Her research focuses on the consumer experience in the online environment. Past studies have emphasized the sources of value derived from interacting online, the relationship orientation of on-line consumers and the effect of the navigational experience on consumer attitudes. More recently, she has begun investigating the characteristics of virtual communities.

Dr. Jill Mosteller: Research interests include situational/contextual influences on decision making, online retail atmospherics, incentives influence on attitudes/behaviors and emerging trends within the consumer domain. 

 

Dr. William W. Pfeiffer: Specific areas of interest and expertise include: employee development; leadership development; compensation, rewards and recognition; curriculum development; performance management; diversity; employee recruitment, selection and retention; employee communication; strategic planning; and transition management.

Affiliated Faculty:

Dr. Leslie B. Hammer: Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, Portland State University focuses her research on ways in which organizations can help reduce work and family stress and improve positive spillover by facilitating both formal and informal workplace supports. Currently conducting research in the retail food industry, Dr. Hammer is measuring how supervisor support for work-life policies affects employee health and the employee’s family among grocery store employees and their supervisors from 12 Midwestern stores. The retail food industry is ideal for the study of work-life policies and support due to the tight profit margins, high turnover, and hourly workers who frequently have work and family responsibilities.  Understanding ways of reducing employee work-family stress will lead to improved retention of workers, improved health, and improved customer satisfaction, ultimately improving business functioning in the retail food industry.

Dr. Hammer is the Director of the Center for Work-Family Stress, Safety, and Health, funded by a grant from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Dr. Hammer is also the Director of the Occupational Health Psychology graduate training program at Portland State University that is funded through a Training Program Grant from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Dr. Hammer is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Management and the Psychologist-Manager Journal. She has published numerous articles on work and family in such outlets as the Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Journal of Family Issues, Human Resource Planning, and Journal of Marriage and the Family and has written a book, Working Couples Caring for Children and Aging Parents: Effects on Work and Well-Being, with M. Neal. Classes she teaches at both the graduate and undergraduate levels include Work and Family, Occupational Health Psychology, and Organizational Psychology. She also supervises a number of graduate student theses and dissertations.