Center for Values-Driven Leadership and Small Giants Community Announce New Research Partner:
University of Michigan’s Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship

Chicago, Illinois ~ Benedictine University’s Center for Values-Driven Leadership (CVDL, www.cvdl.org) and the Small Giants Community (www.smallgiants.org) announced today that the University of Michigan’s Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship has joined the Return on Values research initiative as a research partner. University of Michigan’s Dr. Kim Cameron will serve as a co-principal investigator for the study.

“We have long respected the work of the Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship, and especially that of their co-founder, Kim Cameron,” says Dr. Jim Ludema, director of the CVDL and principal investigator for the study. “Kim’s expertise will help insure that the Return on Values initiative is grounded in the best existing academic knowledge, and that the research methods employed lead to solid, verifiable results. We’re delighted to have him and his team as partners.”

The Return on Values study is a three-year project of the CVDL and the Small Giants Community, designed to explore the relationship between culture and business success in small and mid-size companies. The project launched on August 1, 2012 and is expected to run through 2015. Research begins with a survey of 1000 companies, and will then continue with in depth qualitative interviews with approximately 30 companies.

The Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship is a community of scholars devoted to the research and application of knowledge related to positive organizing and leading. Dr. Cameron, who holds a doctorate of philosophy from Yale University, is the former Dean of the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University and currently serves as the William Russell Kelly Chair of Management and Organizations. He is widely recognized as a global leader in positive organizational scholarship.