When you meet NIU Management Professor Mahesh Subramony, you can tell he is a people person.
Personable and engaging, he attempts to connect with each of his dozens of undergraduate and MBA students on a “human level” each semester. Having won multiple undergraduate and graduate teaching awards, he is clearly a favorite instructor among students.
But Subramony did not always have his sights on becoming a beloved professor. He describes himself as a mediocre student who discovered psychology early in his life and, in the study of human behavior, realized his passion. After earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in India, he moved to the United States at age 23 to pursue his Ph.D. in industrial-organizational psychology at Central Michigan University.
Early experiences conducting applied research motivated him to work for two Fortune 500 companies in their human resource (HR) functions after graduating with his doctorate. But his observation of the gap between science and practice led him to consider academics a few years into his career in the industry.
“I realized that I had to contribute to bridging this gap,” he said. “I felt that a career in academics could help fulfill my potential.”
So Subramony transitioned from corporate America to become a professor of organizational psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh before coming to NIU in 2009.
For Subramony, teaching and learning does not happen in a vacuum. His own experience and research projects constantly inform his teaching of management subjects such as change management, consulting and HR in real time. All his classes are interactive with his students working on hands-on projects and in-depth case discussions. And regardless of what he teaches, he views the development of his students as his key focus.
Subramony is a productive scholar. He describes his two key areas of research. “The first one looks at the impact HR practices have on organizational productivity, customer satisfaction and financial performance while another stream of research is about the relationship between frontline employees and customers and how customer behaviors influence employees.”
Subramony has been working with interdisciplinary teams from around the world on projects related to the performance of service organizations, well-being of frontline employees and the influence of disruptive events and technology on the service frontlines.
“The questions we ought to be asking are big, hairy and audacious that cannot be answered by any one discipline alone – cooperation between different disciplines is necessary to arrive at solutions,” he said.
Subramony’s research is similarly intertwined with his interest in understanding and solving real-life issues encountered by employees and managers. Describing his partnerships with multiple organizations over time, he noted, “In exchange for my analytics, talent management and change leadership expertise, I ask my organizational partners if I can use their data for my research,” he said. “Those data are then translated into research papers that we then publish.”
Indeed, a substantial number of his articles are solely based on his partnership with organizations.
“I view this as a ‘win-win’ as the organization is able to make substantial changes in its HR practices and talent processes, and I am able to publish research that connects science with practice,” he said.
His interest in understanding and helping frontline employees has led Subramony and his doctoral research assistant and colleague Nicholas Smith to conduct impactful research with a large airline company.
“For the last three years, I’ve been working with this company to help them figure out a way to enhance the well-being and resilience of flight attendants who face incivility and mistreatment from passengers. Our project began as a research study but has now become a large-scale developmental intervention for flight attendants.”
Subramony is also a member of the executive advisory board of Service Council, a forum for senior executives to exchange ideas regarding the management of service organizations. He finds this engagement, “very meaningful in bridging the gap between science and practice.”
Further, in his editorial role at multiple journals, Subramony promotes the publication of high-quality, peer-reviewed research articles related to HR and frontline employees each year. He also works with Ph.D. students at NIU and beyond who are attempting to publish their research. For instance, recently, he was invited to spend time with Dublin City University (DCU) in Ireland. He speaks glowingly of his experience in Dublin including visiting colleagues at Trinity College and Maynooth in addition to DCU.
“During my time there, I had the opportunity to provide publishing advice to their talented Ph.D. candidates, share my research on customer incivility with the very engaged students, deliver lectures and engage in research projects with faculty members,” he said.
Subramony uses these opportunities to build a community of researchers who are dedicated to understanding and enhancing the experiences of employees and customers. Subramony considers being a professor a mission and a calling.
“The beauty of being a professor of management at NIU is that I can ask big questions, work with global teams and yet have a real local impact on my students and the community,” he said. “And I feel fortunate every single day.”
