Anna-Katherine Ward has been appointed an assistant professor of management
Anna-Katherine “A.K.” Ward has been appointed an assistant professor in the Department of Management at Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business.
Ward is one of nine new faculty members at Pamplin this fall. They are part of the college’s efforts to strengthen and expand its teaching, research, and business outreach programs under the leadership of Robert Sumichrast, who became dean in July.
Ward received a Ph.D. in organizational behavior and human resources from the University of South Carolina in 2013. She received a master’s degree in industrial/organizational psychology from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 2008 and a bachelor’s degree in music and psychology at Sewanee: The University of the South in 2003.
Ward, who completed a dissertation on cross-cultural workplace voice and influence, includes communication, culture, employee voice, influence, and status among her research interests. Her early Ph.D. studies focused on two streams of research: one using cultural intelligence, self-monitoring, and impression management to understand how individuals come to develop status in the eyes of their culturally different peers and superiors; the other focusing on employee voice issues (i.e., “speaking up”).
Later, she integrated the two streams by examining when and how subordinates “voice” to culturally different superiors and when this voice is accepted and utilized. Her current research stream centers on building influence in cross-cultural relationships.
Ward has conducted surveys and experiments in the U.S., China, and South Korea, and her work has been published in Journal of Management, Journal of Business and Psychology, and Human Resource Management.
She has taught principles of management, organizational behavior, and human resources and will teach courses on organizational behavior and diversity in organizations at Virginia Tech.
