2024 Best 40-Under-40 MBA Professors: Erik Gonzalez-Mulé, Indiana University Kelley School of Business

Erik Gonzalez-Mulé
Indiana University Kelley School of Business

“His approach in the MBA classroom is to help students apply scientific evidence from the organizational sciences to their work lives using the case method. As an example of impact, one of his students recently shared that they were joining a new team at the Pentagon and using these concepts to reshape the culture.

“In noteworthy service, Gonzalez-Mulé served on the search committee for Kelley’s dean in 2023 and was the inaugural associate chair of the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship in 2021-23. From 2020-2023, he was co-academic director for a grant from the US Embassy in North Macedonia that led Saints Cyril and Methodius University to establish the first-ever online MBA program in the country.” – Sreeni Kamma, associate dean for academics

Erik Gonzalez-Mulé, 38, is Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources at Indiana University Kelley School of Business. He is also the Randall L. Tobias Chair in Leadership.
He holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Iowa, where he was a Presidential Research Fellow. He also holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in management and psychology from the University of Florida.

His research interests include work stress and employee health, team dynamics and effectiveness, and individual differences in the workplace. He has published his research in leading academic journals, such as the Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Psychological Bulletin, and Journal of Management and is on the editorial review boards for the Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, and Journal of Management.

He has won best paper and innovative teaching awards from the Academy of Management – the premier academic organization for management scholars. His research has been featured in a variety of news outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, CBS News, and Forbes.

He teaches courses on leadership topics at the MBA level and has previously taught doctoral seminars on research methods and team dynamics, as well as in the undergraduate Integrated Core. He currently serves as chair of the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship.

BACKGROUND

At current institution since what year? 2015
Education: Ph.D. from University of Iowa; M.S. in Management from University of Florida; B.S. in Psychology from University of Florida
List of MBA courses you currently teach: Leadership, Teams, and Inclusion; Leading Organizations

TELL US ABOUT LIFE AS A BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFESSOR

I knew I wanted to be a business school professor when… The start was really when I was a middle school teacher after earning my undergraduate degree in psychology. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but knew teaching middle school wasn’t for me long-term and I became curious about organizations and how they function. I decided to do a Master’s degree in Management to apply my interest and knowledge in psychology to business issues.

A professor at the University of Florida then suggested I explore a career as a business school professor. I didn’t know anything about professorial life, but he must have thought that because I asked so many questions (I was a bit of a pain 😉) and was curious about the material it would be a good fit.

He connected me with a colleague of his who needed help on a project, and I was tasked with the most tedious job possible: hand-coding qualitative interview transcripts. After a few months of doing that, I still thought it was extremely fun and interesting, which is probably the best indicator one could have that this career was right for them!

What are you currently researching and what is the most significant discovery you’ve made from it? My research has recently been focused primarily on exploring how different elements of people’s work affects their health and well-being. For example, I’ve studied the link between supervisor and coworker support and cortisol patterns and BMI; how job demands, control, and cognitive ability interact to predict physical and mental health and, ultimately death; and how being mistreated at work has different effects on depression depending on one’s race.
My most significant discovery has been finding that jobs which are more demanding – which have higher workload, time pressure, and challenge – are more likely to lead people to die over time when they are paired with low control over the work itself.

If I weren’t a business school professor… I’d probably be an HR consultant or practitioner.

What do you think makes you stand out as a professor? I have a very conversational style in class and use a flipped classroom method based on active learning. I believe students learn best by doing and applying the content and frameworks to their lived experiences, and the MBA students I teach are able to do this the very next day at work. So, class is very discussion-heavy, and I expect students to actually do something at work using the knowledge and skills they get from class and report it back to me in their final assignment.

One word that describes my first time teaching: Fun!

Here’s what I wish someone would’ve told me about being a business school professor: Something that nobody teaches you but which you just kind of pick up along the way is how impactful and rewarding leadership and service roles can be in a business school and university. It provides an opportunity to practice much of what we preach and have an immediate effect – hopefully for the better – on our colleagues’ lives.

Professor I most admire and why: Besides all the mentors and confidantes I have at the Kelley School, I am a big fan of Adam Grant. I have never met him in person but have corresponded with him via e-mail (and have even asked him for data – which he sent!) I always found him to be so open and generous with his time. It also helps that he has a brilliant knack for taking scientific evidence and distilling it for a practitioner audience. I assign his books and specific episodes of the WorkLife podcast to my students.

TEACHING MBA STUDENTS

What do you enjoy most about teaching business students? The single most rewarding thing is the applicability of what we teach. It’s a real thrill to teach somebody a concept or framework and know they’re going to apply it the next day. I often receive notes from my students after the class ends, documenting success — and sometimes failure — from the approach they used and always enjoy debriefing those experiences with them.

What is most challenging? The fact that the subjects I teach have no right answers. Human behavior is incredibly difficult to predict, so students sometimes get frustrated when they realize that there’s no one way to approach a particular problem. They have to be OK with that uncertainty and learn to make the best decision in the context they’re operating in – while living with the outcome.

In one word, describe your favorite type of student: Curious

In one word, describe your least favorite type of student: Arrogant

When it comes to grading, I think students would describe me as… Tough! Although I am actually a big softie.

LIFE OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM

What are your hobbies? I enjoy a litany of hobbies which I definitely don’t have enough time for, but I have a tendency to pick rabbit holes and dive in deep. As a sampler, I enjoy collecting vintage watches, Italian espresso, the occasional video game (strategy games are a favorite), chess, and reading books and magazines (I am always on the lookout for good content to bring to my classes!). I also have some vices; a good scotch or bourbon and a cigar is a weekly treat.

How will you spend your summer? Hopefully relaxing, but more realistically wrapping up a couple of manuscripts, some travel with my family (I have three kids – ages 6, 4, and 2), and strategic planning for the department for next year.

Favorite place(s) to vacation: My favorite place in the world is Barcelona. I first visited it with my wife on our honeymoon and have been back a couple of times since. My great-grandfather was from there (he emigrated to Cuba, which is where my closer ancestors all hail from) and I just love the architecture, food, and people.

Favorite book(s): My favorite book is “The Catcher in the Rye.” I read it as a teenager, which I suppose most people do, and it had a dramatic impact on me, in terms of its ability to speak to such a wide range of issues during a very formative period of my life. I still think about this line several decades later, which I apply in my own way to my teaching, leadership, and parenting: “The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them”.

What is currently your favorite movie and/or show and what is it about the film or program that you enjoy so much? I love movies (I should have listed it as a hobby, but don’t have nearly enough time for them lately) – and have many favorites. The last “favorite” I watched was the movie “Poor Things.” I thought it was such a novel and gorgeously shot movie, features an incredible set of performances. The themes around feminism, self-awareness, and self-determination resonated with me.

What is your favorite type of music or artist(s) and why? I enjoy a wide variety of music, but most recently have been enjoying Latin music in various forms (For example, I have been listening to the new Shakira album!). It helps me connect with my Latin heritage and it’s something that I can have in the background while I am doing other things. It also helps that my kids enjoy it, and they can practice listening to Spanish.

THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS

If I had my way, the business school of the future would have much more of this… Engagement with external stakeholders. I think the academic-practice divide is an enormous issue and addressing it will require more systematic outreach (and this includes, and may even be led by, faculty). I think we could do more to engage with alumni, recruiters, and the like, and invite them to be partners in our research and teaching in a way that still preserves academic freedom and the scholarly mission.

In my opinion, companies and organizations today need to do a better job at… Practicing evidence-based management. This ties to the theme above, as I feel the academic-practice divide will only improve with more engagement on both sides of the issue and feel that many organizations could take a more evidence-based and scientific approach to their practices. Often, leaders do what has worked for them in the past, or what they have observed others in a similar position doing. This may very well work here and there, but, achieving long-term, replicable success is only possible with an evidence-based toolkit, and organizations can do a better job of building that toolkit to support and develop their leaders of the future.

I’m grateful for… The opportunity to work at Kelley! This is a truly special place, and a unique mix of high performance and achievement, but also collegiality and empathy. Coming to work every day is a blessing and I am grateful for the opportunity to work with such talented faculty, staff, and students.

DON’T MISS: THE ENTIRE 2024 ROSTER OF THE WORLD’S BEST 40-UNDER-40 MBA PROFESSORS