Investigating the workplace

A 1970 Chevelle helped drive Brad Bell to the world of workplace psychology.

Six months of rebuilding a beat-up car slathered with gray primer “got me interested in knowing how things work.”

He was 15.

Now 33 and an associate professor of Human Resources Studies at ILR, Bell is rounding a professional curve.

In May, he was formally recommended for tenure. In August, he will receive the first ever Early Career Achievement Award given by the Academy of Management’s Human Resources Division.

The honor will be presented in Anaheim, Cal., at the academy’s annual meeting. In nominating Bell, ILR colleagues Lee Dyer and Patrick Wright called Bell “an extraordinarily active researcher” with 23 published works in two fields – training and development and team effectiveness.

Bell examines workplace issues with the same take-apart-and-put-back-together skills used to get the Chevelle on the road in his South Jersey hometown.

Mostly, he looks at workplace teams and workplace training. What works? What doesn’t work? Why?

Research, teaching and consulting on teams and training began in his undergraduate years as a psychology major at the University of Maryland. Those experiences have grown into a 14-page resume, spanning his graduate work at Michigan State University and his six years at ILR.

He helped the Toledo Fire Department figure out who to hire.

Bell collaborated on a paper that reports, yes, there is something to the theory that we attach – or disattach -- to work organizations as we did to early caregivers.

At the Michigan Center for Truck Safety, he rode along as drivers purposefully jackknifed their rigs. It helped him help their bosses figure out how to most effectively teach safe driving skills.

When two red pandas mysteriously died at the National Zoo, Bell was part of a national panel assembled to get to the why of it.

Breakdowns in leadership contributed to communication gaps in the care of the rare marsupials and led to their deaths, Bell found.

The toughest part of his work, Bell said, is “learning to say ‘no’ to interesting projects … I want to do everything. Learning to say ‘no’ to things is very important. It’s tough to do.”

When the yes or no isn’t coming easily, he relies on the insight of colleagues. He’s not afraid to ask them, he said, “How did you deal with this?”