At Michigan’s Ross School, The Departing Dean Gets Poor Grades From Faculty

Michigan Ross School of Business Dean Alison Davis-Blake (second from left) sits on a panel at the White House. Photo courtesy of Michigan Ross

Michigan Ross School of Business Dean Alison Davis-Blake (second from left) sits on a panel at the White House. Photo courtesy of Michigan Ross

‘THEY THOUGHT SHE GOT SCREWED’

The disagreements with Ross and old-guard faculty, several insiders say, may have contributed to the decision to not bring Davis-Blake back for a second term. In 2014, Mark Schlissel became the school’s president and reportedly spent about five months at the Ross School getting a feel for the environment and leadership. Multiple Ross professors point to what happened after this visit as the beginning of the end for Davis-Blake’s deanship.

One faculty member describes Schlissel’s decision to not re-hire Davis Blake as one of many “really bad, uninformed, pretty naive decisions,” also alluding to how Schlissel handled the athletic department at the University of Michigan. Another says conversations with a staff member in the provost’s office led them to believe Davis-Blake got “screwed” out of another term of deanship.

“They thought she got screwed,” the Ross faculty member says. “Her performance was actually very good. They don’t understand it. She runs a tight ship, she’s honest with them, she’s transparent. What went wrong with all of that? They wouldn’t come out and say it, but the sense I got third-hand was that a core group of stakeholders in the school were not particularly happy with her performance.”

In 2013, Martha Pollack assumed the role of provost for the University of Michigan. Despite both major decision makers in Davis-Blake’s appointment having left the school, the source close to the situation indicated Pollack was “very supportive of and in favor of keeping Alison.” In response to a request for comment, the provost sent Poets&Quants the email given to faculty on July 20, 2015, announcing a search committee for Davis-Blake’s replacement. The president’s office also sent Davis-Blake’s resignation letter from May 18, 2015.

PERSONALITY TRAITS 

The dean’s somewhat introverted personality apparently didn’t help. “She is not warm, fuzzy, or interpersonally comfortable in social settings,” one faculty member says, while adding that she was the best dean the school has had. “You think to yourself, gee-whiz, this person is not very gregarious. She’s pretty cold — a little grizzly.”

Besides Ross, other donors seemed to notice Davis-Blake’s “grizzly” personality, too. “She sometimes makes jokes that I find funny but they’re not very elliptical and not everyone is going to get it,” says a faculty member who has worked closely with Davis-Blake for the extent of her deanship. “And I heard she did that with one of the main donors and he was pissed.”

Still, Davis-Blake has her supporters. Several faculty members — new and long-standing — sent letters of support to Poets&Quants during the reporting of this article. A five-year case study touting the gains made during Davis-Blake’s tenure was sent along with results of an internal survey of staff that reportedly shows statistically significant increases in staff morale at Ross. The case study was written by four Ross faculty members and a Ph.D. student and was only presented for the first time last month. Essentially, it outlines the school’s search for a “strategic identity” under the leadership of Davis-Blake, looking specifically at the school’s development of the “Evolution of the Positive Pillar.” According to the study, the development of a guiding pillar of positive business has led to a more unified and intentional faculty — again, for the most part.

The staff and faculty survey was reportedly conducted by an outside third party under the leadership of Amy Byron-Oilar, chief people officer at Ross. Impressively, staff reported statistically significant positive gains in 27 of 43 metrics. Some of the categories include job satisfaction, work conditions, communication, and innovation. Still, the faculty results do not show any significant gains. And while results are generally high (3s and 4s on a 5-point scale) in the categories of job satisfaction, workload, and resources satisfaction, results are generally lower (2s and 3s) in the categories involving academic life and influence.

“She had to make some pretty tough decisions,” Hopp says. “We owed the provost a significant amount of money we had to pay back. And we paid it back. And we paid it back ahead of schedule. And now we have reserves.”

Still, there is a difference between cleaning up back-room deal-making, which is certainly not exclusive to Michigan Ross, and brashly making changes with little regard or consideration to employees who’ve been in place for decades. And it’s unclear exactly where Davis-Blake fell on that spectrum.

BREAKING UP A GOOD OL’ BOYS CLUB?

Regardless, Davis-Blake was not only the first female dean at Michigan Ross, she appears to be the first to root out long-standing preferential deals.

“(Robert Dolan) and the previous dean were very adept at deal-making and keeping everyone happy,” a faculty member close to the situation says. “They were not that interested in equity for equity’s sake. They were interested in keeping the ship humming along. I think Alison looked at all of this and said, ‘I have to do something about this.’

“I don’t know if they were done in smoky rooms over 18-year-old Scotch, but there were some long-standing understandings between stakeholders, chaired professors who had been here for decades, and the administration. And the previous deans didn’t want to rock the boat because people were really producing.”

Hopp says changes she made might have been more accepted if Davis-Blake had a “different chromosome.”

“The school’s advisory board would come to me and say, ‘Yeah, he (Dolan) got us $40 million in debt and maybe wasn’t the best at managing the school, but he was a swell guy.’ And with Alison, they’d say, ‘Yes she did a really competent job, the school’s in great shape, but I don’t know if I like her.'”

Note: Shortly before the publication of this article, a representative of the University of Michigan informed Poets&Quants of Davis-Blake’s new role within the provost’s office. Beginning July 1, Davis-Blake will report directly to Pollack. According to the representative, Davis-Blake will work with deans and the vice president for student life to “expand the University of Michigan’s strategies and programming for students seeking business training to complement their education.” Additionally, Davis-Blake will develop a program that “provides professional development to new deans with a particular focus on financial, operational, management, and leadership skills.” Interestingly, both roles are congruent with her strengths according to the faculty survey.

(See the following pages for complete data of the faculty survey.)

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