about
Joel Gehman
Ph.D. Candidate
Pennsylvania State University
Smeal College of Business
Management & Organization Department
447A Business Building
University Park, PA 16802
(814) 865-7149 — voicemail
(814) 380-1481 — cellphone
jgehman [at] psu [dot] edu
Summary
My research focuses on sustainability accounting:
- I conceive of sustainability accounting as a calculative-narrative technique. As a calculation I explore what organizations count as sustainability, and how, when, and for whom this counting is performed. As a narrative I explore the sustainability accounts orgranizations give, including what they say, and how, when and for whom they perform these accounts.
- This approach draws attention to the social, the material, and the temporal dimensions of sustainability accounting. Thus, in addition to metrics and texts, I consider the various artifacts organizations use to give tangibility, durability, and vitality to their sustainability accounting, and how these efforts implicate different memories of the past, visions for the future, and possibilities in the present.
- I bring these streams of analysis together to offer insights into how organizations justify their actions and determine worth.
Education
Ph.D., Smeal College of Business, 2012 (expected)
B.S., School of Hotel Administration, 1994
Academic Experience
Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 2007-Present
Research Assistant, Professors Raghu Garud and Linda Trevino
Instructor, MGMT 451W Business, Ethics and Society — Fall 2009 Syllabus (128k .pdf)
Spring 2009 — Instructor Rating 6.7 out of 7.0 | Course Rating 6.3 out of 7.0
Professional Experience
Earlier in my career I spent 13 years in working at the intersection of marketing, strategy, and technology.
>> From 2001 through 2007 I was an executive at two leading interactive agencies: senior vice president at Refinery (now G2 Interactive), which was acquired by WPP Group, and managing director and vice president of sustainability at IMC2, one of the largest interactive agencies in the United States.
>> From 1994 through 2001 I worked as a management consultant, internet analyst, ecommerce manager, and startup cofounder in New York, Silicon Valley and Philadelphia.
>> In addition to these formal roles, during my career I wrote more than 100 articles on all facets of internet marketing, worked as an independent consultant to several dozens clients and served as a board member for a private company.
Affiliations
Member, Academy of Management
Member, American Sociological Association
Member, European Group for Organization Studies
