Fox’s Dr. Schmidt Advises Correctional Leaders on Power and Influence
Due to the current economic recession, many companies are cutting jobs and salaries to make ends meet. The corrections industry that includes prisons, jails, parole and probation is another sector that is struggling financially, resulting in overcrowding, fewer staff, and diminishing services. To help upper management combat this situation, and proactively manage in a stressful situation, Dr. Stuart M. Schmidt, Temple University’s Fox School of Business’ Department of Human Resource Management professor, is using his expertise in the classroom to help develop correctional leaders.
Similar to his teaching of courses in management and power and influence at Temple, Dr. Schmidt serves as a consultant for the National Institute of Corrections in Aurora, Colo., to train corrections leaders in topics including “Abuse of Power” and “Exercising Influence.” Several times a year, Dr. Schmidt travels to Colorado to speak and teach at intensive leadership development programs. Prior to attending the sessions, attendees take POIS diagnostic tests on “Influencing Your Subordinates” and “Influencing Your Manager”(POIS/Profiles of Organizational Influence Strategies) available at mindgarden.com and become more informed on how they use influence up and down in their organizations.
“The courses train corrections leaders on how to exercise leadership and power, and the assessments help people further think about power and how to effectively communicate with staff and stakeholders,” explained Dr. Schmidt.
As a result of Dr. Schmidt’s work with the National Institute of Corrections, many other invitations have come to speak on abuse of power and exercising influence in the corrections field. Recently, Dr. Schmidt spoke with the Massachusetts Department of Corrections executives on leadership.
Dr. Schmidt’s career and research as an expert in analyzing power and influence has included working with organizations from non-profits to corporations. In addition, Dr. Schmidt and two fellow faculty members, Dr. Deanna Geddes and Dr. Arthur Hochner, associate professors of Human Resources Management, collaborated in writing the book, Power and Negotiations in Organizations, which is used as the textbook in the Fox School’s Power, Influence and Negotiations’ classes.
Future plans for Dr. Schmidt and the Fox School’s Department of Human Resource Management are in the works to develop a center for sustainable organization leadership. The initial plans include creating an online network, conferences, and research as resources for private and public sector leaders to learn to think strategically about the sustainable deployment of human, financial, energy, and natural resources in their organizations.
