Historic faculty hiring: Meet Maria Kraimer

My research interests fall within the human resource management and organizational behavior domains. I specifically focus on understanding the nature of global work experiences, factors that impact employees’ success and career decisions, and workplace relationships. I strive to do research that has practical implications for helping employees have more successful careers and better working relationships.

I’ve also spent a lot of time giving back to my profession. I’ve served in leadership roles in the Academy of Management, was associate editor and editor-in-chief for Personnel Psychology and became the founding editor of the Journal of Management Scientific Reports, a new journal focused on publishing replication studies.

I interviewed at UB’s Department of Organization and Human Resources (OHR) about 20 years ago when I had first completed my PhD at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I had a very positive experience with meeting a collegial group of faculty. I fell in love with UB’s culture and the campus then. I received another job offer before UB finished interviewing their final candidates, so I took that offer.

My first tenure-track position was at Cleveland State University. I’ve worked at five different universities, including the University of Melbourne (Australia) and the University of Iowa. Most recently, I was a distinguished professor at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.

I’ve kept an eye on UB, though. I spent the last 20 years telling PhD students to check out UB whenever they posted an opening for an assistant professor. The OHR department has continued to hire great faculty all this time. When I saw the advertisement for an endowed professorship position at UB last year, I decided to apply, as I was ready for a career change.

The OHR department is a collegial group of 10 tenure-track and five clinical faculty. We are known for research in leadership and contributing to the leadership coursework in the MBA program. As chair, I hope to extend our expertise in leadership to the undergraduate program. We are just starting work on revising our undergraduate concentration to include more leadership and team courses. I also hope to support the faculty in their research and/or teaching so that they are successful in their promotions to the next rank. I will do my best to help all faculty and students thrive in the OHR department.

The OHR department is known for its expertise in leadership research and strong PhD training. It’s hard to have a strong PhD program with only a handful of students, but the OHR department has been successful in training students who have gone on to have successful careers at other AAU universities. My faculty are also actively engaged in our professional associations and on editorial boards of the top journals in the management field.

The School of Management's Center for Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness and the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership also offer many workshops and courses for companies and nonprofits throughout the Buffalo area. Those strong connections with local companies are really important for my research. I’ve already presented my research at a lunch-and-learn for National Fuel and am scheduled to give a workshop at Lornameade in December.   

It’s exciting to see UB growing when so many other institutions are shrinking. It’s clear from leadership that now is the time to build research. I’m starting to get a sense of the funding opportunities I could use to build my research — and I can already tell there’s really great support from administrative staff across the university to support faculty funding.

I’ve been at five universities, and I can say the onboarding at UB has been the best I’ve ever experienced. It’s been great to be able to meet so many new faculty during these early months. For me, it was a great opportunity to make new friends. I’ve already gotten together socially with some of the people I met during orientation week. My move to UB is intended to be my last career move. I am excited to be here!

So far, so good! I’ve found it to be an easy place to live with a lot to do. My husband and I have explored hiking and biking trails, wineries, restaurants throughout the city and suburbs, and Shea’s Buffalo theater. While I had been to Niagara Falls multiple times before moving here, I still find the falls to be breathtaking. I also think summer and fall weather is the best-kept secret about Buffalo … everyone in the country (world) knows that it is cold and snowy in the winter, but no one seems to know how beautiful the rest of the year is in Buffalo.