Alexandra Dunn 
Assistant Professor | University of Mary Washington
Fredericksburg, VA, UNITED STATES
Dr. Dunn focuses on creating a supportive work environment and positive onboarding experience.
Spotlight
Biography
Alexandra M. Dunn, Assistant Professor of Management, is an organizational scientist who teaches management, human resources, and organizational behavior in the undergraduate and MBA program. She is a member of the Fredericksburg SHRM chapter and SHRM-CP certified. She enjoys collaborating on research projects with undergraduate and graduate students, professors from UMW and other universities, and local businesses.
Her research focuses on creating supportive work environments, recruiting and onboarding, high-reliability organizations (e.g., firefighters, police officers), and how to design effective surveys. Dr. Dunn’s work has been published in numerous academic journals including the Journal of Business and Psychology, Human Relations, and the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. She also has co-authored work that appears in The Cambridge Handbook of Meeting Science and has contributed to The SAGE Encyclopedia of Industrial Organizational Psychology.
Dr. Dunn’s work has been quoted in multiple media outlets including Men’s Health, the Charlotte Business Journal, and Fredericksburg.com. She has received fellowship awards from the National Science Foundation and P.E.O. International and was recently awarded the Waple Professorship at UMW.
Areas of Expertise (5)
Management and Organizational Behavior
Human Resource Management
Onboarding, Recruitment, and Socialization
Organizational Support
Survey Response Quality
Education (3)
University of North Carolina at Charlotte: Ph.D., Organizational Science 2017
University of North Carolina at Charlotte: M.A., Industrial Organizational Psychology 2014
Elon University: B.A., Psychology 2011
Affiliations (4)
- Academy of Management
- Southern Management Association
- Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychologists
- North Carolina Industrial Organizational Psychology
Links (2)
Media Appearances (3)
Dunn: Fit and fairness are two words that managers should live by
Fredericksburg.com
2018-01-07
A friend told me a story that highlights the importance of trusting and using the formal hiring process at your organization—and treating your employees fairly. Brenda (not her real name) has been with her large technology company for four years. Since joining the company, she has seen upwards of five management changes while her team was growing and taking on more responsibility. After designing, organizing, and leading multiple events, Brenda was promoted to manager and given the authority to hire two people to join her team. The same responsibility was given to two of her team members, Joe and Sheila...
How to succeed as a millennial woman in business
Charlotte Business Journal online
2016-10-14
I had the opportunity to attend the recent #NextGenCLT event and I was not disappointed. As a woman millennial finishing my dissertation and studying business, I was excited to hear the four female panelists discuss strategies for success and how to take advantage of opportunities for growth for millennial women in business. The discussion was multifaceted, thoughtful, and sparked future conversations.
The Job Habit That Can Burn You Out
Men'sHealth online
2013-12-06
There's a better way to impress your boss—without going crazy.
Articles (3)
Quantity and quality: Increasing safety norms through after action reviews
Human RelationsAM Dunn, C Scott, JA Allen, D Bonilla
2016 Workplace safety is a concern for both scholars and practitioners alike because accidents and injuries can result in time away from work and lost organizational resources. This study focuses on how one type of post-incident discussion can be effectively used to promote positive safety norms. It adds to the growing body of research on after action review meetings, one type of post-incident discussion intervention commonly used in high reliability organizations to increase future workplace safety behaviors. This study also extends the sensemaking and high reliability literatures by examining a three-way interaction between perceived frequency of after action review meetings, ambiguity reduction and psychological safety. Survey data were obtained from 330 firefighters. Results from the three-way interaction showed that safety norms were highest when perceived after action review frequency, ambiguity reduction and psychological safety were simultaneously high, and safety norms were lowest when perceived after action review frequency, ambiguity reduction and psychological safety were simultaneously low. By examining both the perceived quantity and quality of after action review meetings, this study provides insight into which after action review facilitation objectives are most likely to increase positive safety norms and ultimately create a shared understanding of how to behave safely in future workplace events in high reliability organizational contexts.
Five theoretical lenses for conceptualizing the role of meetings in organizational life
The Cambridge Handbook of Meeting ScienceC Scott, JA Allen, SG Rogelberg, A Kello
2015 Although work meetings remain an enduring and commonplace organizational communication activity, scholars have only recently begun to theorize the meeting as a phenomenon unto itself. When meetings have been studied, they have usually been analyzed as settings for the exploration of other phenomena.Recent research that examinesmeetings addresses a broad range of issues, but often leaves theoretical questions and assumptions regarding the nature of meeting communication itself and the role of meetings in shaping organizational life underspecified or completely unarticulated. What are meetings really? Why should practitioners and scholars see them as more significant than any other organizational phenomenon? Why should they believe that work meetings actually play an important role in shaping (i.e., rather than merely reflecting) larger attitudes and perceptions about organizations and the individuals who facilitate and participate in them? This chapter presents a set of metaphors that capture the various ways in which meetings are approached in contemporary research. Each metaphor reflects and sustains distinct assumptions about what meetings are, what role they play in organizational life, and the manner in which they constitute organizations. We argue that meeting science should deploy both practical and theoretical assumptions that position meetings as generative activities through which groups and organizations are constituted and sustained. The chapter also describes related directions for future research that would add to our understanding of the various ways that meeting communication shapes individual and organizational outcomes. Work meetings remain an enduring and frequently occurring activity in organizational life. Unfortunately, in spite of their prevalence, meetings have usually only been analyzed by scholars as settings for the exploration of other phenomena such as decision making or group development (Schwartzman, 1986). Consequently, the practical relevance and related frustrations of work meetings have received far more attention than theoretical questions about what meetings are and how they fit into larger organizational processes and outcomes. Researchers have only recently begun to theorize the meeting as a phenomenon unto itself (e.g., Rogelberg, Leach, Warr, and Burnfield, 2006), and theory development regarding the role of meetings in organizational life has been particularly sparse.
Less acting, more doing: How surface acting relates to perceived meeting effectiveness and other employee outcomes
Journal of Occupational and Organizational PsychologyAlexandra Dunn et al.
2013 This study adds to the growing body of research on work meetings and extends the emotional labour literature beyond a service context by examining the relationship between surface acting during meetings and perceived meeting effectiveness. Additionally, the relationships of surface acting during meetings and perceived meeting effectiveness with time-lagged reports of intention to quit and emotional exhaustion 3 months later were investigated. Structural equation modelling of data from 178 working adults revealed negative relationships between surface acting and perceptions of meeting effectiveness...
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