Thinking critically

Talya Bauer (PhD ’94) embraces the concept of critical thinking. As a professor, she encourages her students’processes of self-assessment. As a researcher, she seeks out new solutions. And as an editor, she weighs assumptions against facts.

“What is the point of doing a study well if the findings don’t matter? How can you bridge two research areas to create something novel? How can you push your ideas further so that you rule out alternative mechanisms?” Bauer says. “As the editor of the Journal of Management, I see many great articles with all these factors addressed, but I also see a lot of studies that suffer from poor methodology, a lack of theory, and/or weak contribution to the field,”she says. “I learned early on at Krannert how to avoid some of these basic mistakes.”

A California native, Bauer completed a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Humboldt State University, Arcata, and her master’s degree in industrial/organizationa lpsychology at San Francisco State University. Assuming she’d earn her doctorate on the West Coast as well, she switched gears after reading the work of Purdue organizational development researchers Stephen Green and Michael Campion.

“Once I found out about Krannert, I decided it was well worth the move to work with the top people in my field,” she says. “I was delighted when I got a call letting me know I had been accepted into the program.”

Bauer relocated to Purdue, where in addition to pursuing a PhD she taught human resource management and organizational behavior, using an experiential approach her Krannert professors had modeled for her.

Now, 15 years later, Bauer serves as Gerry and Marilyn Cameron Professor of Management in the School of Business at Portland State University, Oregon. Teaching organizational behavior, power and influence, negotiations, and training and development, she also publishes research on leadership, selection,and new employee socialization. Earlier this year,she released two new books: Organizational Behavior and Principles of Management.

“Much of the active learning approaches my coauthors and I took in the books came from my early experiences at Krannert,” Bauer says of the tomes, which are focused on helping students develop critical thinking skills they can employ in an increasingly mobile workplace.

“In addition,our textbooks are open source in nature, and students can use them for free or purchase inexpensive copies. I think this is illustrative of the mentality that students matter and that they should be given choices in how they approach learning, as long as the outcome is solid.”

— Angie Roberts