The Academy of Management will honor Professor Emeritus Ken G. Smith with its Distinguished Educator Award in San Antonio next month. The Academy of Management, the oldest and largest scholarly management association in the world with nearly 20,000 members, selected Smith for his work developing doctoral students and junior faculty.

In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Cristian Dezsö talks about the wage gap between men and women and how the children of CEO come into play. The gap between wages earned by men and women is still a pervasive worldwide phenomenon. But new research finds that when an organization’s male CEO has a daughter, the relative pay for women at those firms goes up, narrowing the gap.

Lead smarter. That’s the goal with strategic management, which can help managers detect the early indicators that strategy isn’t working. In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Dr. Oliver Schlake talks about management strategy.

Thursday, March 10, 2011, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, March 13, 2011, 7:30 a.m. Preventing Employee Sabotage     Why does it pay to be nice to your waiter? Because if you don’t, he’ll spit in your soup. That’s a concern not only for diners, but managers, who know that great customer service is key to building brand and customer loyalty. Most companies hope their employees are behaving in a friendly, professional and patient manner toward customers, and fulfilling their requests. But sometimes employees actively sabotage customers.

Thursday, Feb. 10, 2010, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, Feb. 13, 2010, 7:30 a.m. Employee Satisfaction: It’s About Time

College Park, Md. – February 8, 2011 – Ritu Agarwal, professor and Dean’s Chair of Information Systems at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, was named a 2011-2012 Distinguished Scholar-Teacher by the University of Maryland.

Thursday, Jan. 20, 2011, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, Jan. 23, 2011, 7:30 a.m.; Monday, Jan. 24, 2011, 4:30 a.m. Leading Complex Organizations     With so many public and private-sector organizations becoming increasingly large and complex, what can senior leaders do to align their people around the organizations’ goals? In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Hugh Courtney discusses leadership in increasingly complex organizations.

How do you build teams that are highly adaptive and best draw upon the knowledge, skills and abilities of team members in ways that achieve superior performance? Recent research turns traditional notions of leadership on its head. In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Professor Paul Tesluk shares how your organization can gain competitive advantage by cultivating shared leadership in your teams.

How do you build teams that are highly adaptive and best draw upon the knowledge, skills and abilities of team members in ways that achieve superior performance? Recent research turns traditional notions of leadership on its head. In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Professor Paul Tesluk shares how your organization can gain competitive advantage by cultivating shared leadership in your teams.

Curt Grimm, Dean’s Professor of Supply Chain and Strategy, described coaching his young son’s softball team to a rapt audience in Frank Auditorium. Grimm knew that only two of the children could reliably catch the ball. So he put those boys at first and second base, and then instructed their teammates to only throw the ball to first and second. It proved to be a winning strategy, because his son’s team took the championship that year. Grimm asked his audience to assess his competitive strategy: was it good, bad or ugly?