Professor at Cornell wins 2004 Losey award

HR Magazine, July, 2004 by Ann Pomeroy

Lee Dyer, known to colleagues as the "father of strategic HR management," received the 2004 Michael R. Losey Human Resource Research Award at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Annual Conference and Exposition held June 27-30 in New Orleans.

The Cornell University professor, author, consultant and lecturer was honored at a ceremony June 29 for outstanding contributions to the human resource field.

The award, which includes a $50,000 check to be used for HR research, is presented by SHRM, the SHRM Foundation and the Human Resource Certification Institute, The three boards have established an endowed research fund in honor of former SHRM president and CEO Michael R. Losey, SPHR, CAE, who headed SHRM for more than 10 years before retiring in 2000.

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Dyer chairs the Department of Human Resource Studies at Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) in Ithaca, N.Y., where he has taught since 1971. During his career at Cornell, Dyer has "established an unsurpassed record of expanding knowledge through innovative research in previously unexplored issues in human resource management," according to Donald F. Parker, the Sara Hart Kimball Dean Emeritus of the College of Business at Oregon State University in Corvallis.

In a statement nominating Dyer for the award, Parker credited the professor with "elevating the stature of human resource management in the eyes of industry leaders." Others have praised him for influencing the perspective and thinking of top HR executives through Cornell's Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies, which he founded and directed from 1988 to 1995.

Dyer, who holds a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin's Industrial Relations Research Institute in Madison, is a prolific researcher who has written 14 books or monographs and nearly 100 articles and book chapters. Patrick M. Wright, professor of HR studies at Cornell's ILR, credits Dyer with being the first academic to write about the need to tie a company's human resource management activities to its business strategy. Dyer's recent research has focused on the concept of organizational agility--the ability of a company to be flexible and adapt quickly to a fast-changing, competitive environment.

A seven-member selection committee representing the three sponsoring boards chose Dyer for the 2004 award after reviewing nominations for 27 highly qualified candidates. He is the second HR researcher to win this prize. Edward E. Lawler III received the first Losey award in 2002 at the SHRM Annual Conference and Exposition in Philadelphia.

--Ann Pomeroy is senior writer for HR Magazine.