After more than twenty-two years in the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers-New Brunswick, Distinguished Professor Susan Jackson formally retired at the end of the Spring 2021 semester.
A member of the Human Resource Management Department in SMLR, Susan has had a significant influence on research in human resource management (HRM), as well as on countless HR professionals and organizational managers. Her important and highly-cited foundational contributions to the field of strategic human resource management laid the groundwork for over three decades of research on HRM systems and their role in contributing to organizational success. While this alone would be a major accomplishment for any scholar, Susan also been a leader in important research on workplace diversity, knowledge management, and burnout. Continuing to focus on the pressing issues of our time, Susan has most recently turned her attention to stimulating HRM scholarship and practice that addresses the challenge of environmental sustainability through policies that contribute to organizations’ efforts to reduce the negative environmental impacts of their activities. She has published more than 150 scholarly articles and chapters on these topics and is the author or editor of numerous books.
Widely recognized as one of the most influential scholars in the broader field of management based on academic citations, citations in textbooks, and other metrics, Susan has received numerous awards and honors. These include the prestigious Herbert Heneman, Jr. Award for Career Achievement from the Human Resource Division of the Academy of Management and the Michael R. Losey Human Resource Research Award, given by the Society for Human Resource Management. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Management, of the British Academy of Management, and of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.
Susan has excelled in professional and administrative service both to the broader profession and also to Rutgers. Notably, she served as President of the Academy of Management (and prior to that, of the Organizational Behavior Division) and as Editor-in-Chief of Academy of Management Review, one of the top journals in the management field, among many other external roles. At Rutgers, she served as Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives in SMLR and was the graduate director of the school’s PhD program in Industrial Relations and Human Resources for many years.
The first female Distinguished Professor in SMLR, Susan has also been a mentor and role model for generations of graduate students and junior faculty. Many of those whom she has mentored have followed in her footsteps and have gone on to become award-winning scholars in their own right.
"Susan played an essential role in elevating the Rutgers SMLR HRM Department to be the world’s leading department in the field of strategic human resource management. She also led our PhD program at a crucial point in its development," said SMLR Dean Adrienne Eaton. "Susan has been an incredible innovator in both her research and teaching, developing for instance, a course on HRM and sustainability. We wish her all the best in her well-earned retirement."
