Leading with Character & Innovation
A UND endowed chair expands research and reach of business ethics and organizational behavior at UND and around the world.
Since joining UND in 2008, Sean Valentine, DBA, has witnessed the Nistler College of Business & Public Administration’s rise among the nation’s top business schools. As the Eugene Dahl Innovation & Character Endowed Chair, he has advanced ethical leadership through his teaching, research, publications, and presentations, helping elevate UND’s reputation on the national and international stage.
Amity Technology founders Howard Dahl, ’71, HON ’10, and Brian Dahl, ’78, established the endowment that provides stipends to fund the position they named in honor of their father, Eugene Dahl — a visionary manufacturing entrepreneur and philanthropist. The additional funding has created opportunities that benefit Sean, his students, the Nistler College, and the University as a whole.
Sean’s perspective on the impact of endowed faculty is what follows.
On what this position offers UND students
“I often bring my findings back to the classroom, which helps my research as well, and share it directly with my MBA (Master's of Business Administration) class. We discuss the questions they ask as follow-up. It's encouraging to see their engagement. When I present or attend international conferences, I’m able to bring ideas from international perspective to our students and the college. Participating in discussion panels drives discussion in the classroom and helps our students retain the subject matter we discuss.”
On enhanced research capabilities
“One of the nice things about this position is that it gives me the funds to conduct research to buy books and data for research of two broad areas: 1) Bright side — the use of organizational ethics (codes, training, ethical leadership) and HR-based social sustainability to improve individual ethics and well-being, including enhancing integrity, ethical decision making, behavior, and physical/psychological wellness. 2) Dark side — how negative personality traits such as psychopathy, sadism, toxic work environments encourage workplace bullying, the victimization of coworkers, moral injury, and moral outrage.”
On what this endowed chair position offers the industry
“It gives me an outlet for my research and provides me the opportunity to share it with others at conferences. The compensation rewards me for doing the research and, as I present the research or publish it in journals, it gets the UND name out there.”
On gratitude for the Dahls
“I very much appreciate the resources provided by the Eugene Dahl Innovation & Character Endowed Chair. The funding has provided me additional compensation for my research, as well as additional opportunities to travel to both domestic and international conferences. I’m also about to collect data with another endowed chair of business ethics at Texas State University, and this position is providing some of the funds needed to purchase this dataset. We are excited about this data because it will enable us to explore a number of new research ideas such as gaslighting, grief, vengeance, and moral rebelliousness at work.”
The compensation rewards me for doing the research and, as I present the research or publish it in journals, it gets the UND name out there.Sean Valentine, DBA
