CURRICULUM VITAE
Michael Pacanowsky
EDUCATION
BA, English, Harvard College, 1970
MS, Communication, Michigan State University, 1977
PhD, Communication, Stanford University, 1979
POSITIONS HELD
2013 – present
Gore-Giovale Professor in Business Innovation, Bill and Vieve Gore School of Business
Westminster College
Teaching and research on alternative approaches to management
1996 – 2013
Associate, W. L. Gore & Associates
OD specialist, responsible for significant strategic change initiatives
1987 – 1996
Associate Professor, Department of Communication,
University of Colorado—Boulder
Teaching/Research Emphasis: Organizational Communication
1992 – 1994: Department Chair
1987 – 1992: Associate Chair
1977 – 1987
Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Department of Communication
University of Utah
Teaching/Research Emphasis: Organizational Communication
1985 – 1987: Director of Graduate Studies
KEY CORPORATE PROJECTS
2011 – present
Leading a project on “Sustaining the Gore Culture” to help leaders and emerging leaders understand the Gore culture more thoroughly, and weave culturally consistent practices into daily worklife
2007 – present
Leading the Communication and Collaboration Tools project effort, working with IT colleagues, to select and help teams implement virtual tools that will allow global and virtual teams to effectively achieve business outcomes.
2006 – present
Helping the Chief Strategy Officer run an annual offsite workshop to improve the leadership skills (both “hard” and “soft”) of the top 80 business leaders at Gore
2005 – 2007
Led the Enterprise Leadership Development project
2004 – 2005
Facilitated the development of the Enterprise Strategic Plan
2002 – 2004
Led the change management efforts of a project to rationalize the business structure in Europe away from country-based offices to European-wide business units
2000 – 2002
Led a project to rearticulate the values and understandings of the Gore culture at the request of the first non-family member CEO
1996 – 1999
Led efforts in several divisions to build an effective senior leadership team, as well as facilitate efforts to build divisional business strategies
1989 – 2002
Led the annual Gore Culture Survey that assessed the strengths and weaknesses of how the Gore culture was being practiced throughout the Enterprise
SELECTED ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS
Michael Pacanowsky, “Team Tools for Wicked Problems,” Organizational Dynamics, Volume 23, Issue 3, Winter 1995, pp. 36-51
Michael Pacanowsky and Mary Strine, “The Grand Scrivener: Text and Commentary,” in L. L. Cummings and Peter J. Frost, (eds.), Publishing in the Organizational Sciences, 1985, Homewood, IL: Richard. D. Irwin, pp.290-298.
Michael Pacanowsky, “Communication in the Empowering Organization,” in Communication Yearbook 11, James Anderson (ed.), Sage, Newbury Park, CA, 1988, pp. 356-379.
Michael Pacanowsky, “Slouching Towards Chicago,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 74, 1988, pp. 453-467
Michael Pacanowsky and Nick O’Donnell-Trujillo, “Organizational Communication as Cultural Performance,” Communication Monographs 50, June 1983, pp. 126-47 (Awarded “Best Publication” by the Speech Communication Association—Organizational Communication Division)
Michael Pacanowsky, review of The Blockbuster Complex: Conglomerates, Show Business, and Book Publishing. by Thomas Whiteside, in Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 4, Dec., 1983, pp. 637-641
Linda L. Putnam and Michael E. Pacanowsky (eds.): Communication and Organization: An Interpretive Approach, 1983, Beverly Hills: Sage. (Awarded “Best Publication” by the Speech Communication Association—Organizational Communication Division)
Michael Pacanowsky and Nick O’Donnell Trujillo. “Communication and Organizational Cultures. Western Journal of Communication 46, Spring 1982, pp.115-130.
Murdock Pencil (pen name for Michael Pacanowsky), “Salt Passage Research: The State of the Art,” Journal of Communication, Autumn 1976, pp. 31-36.
Reprinted in The Washington Post, Sunday, April 9, 1978, p. C-1 & p. C-5.
Reprinted in Change: The Magazine of Learning, September, 1978, pp. 41-43.