WENDI L. ADAIR (Ph.D., Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management) is Associate Professor of Organizational Psychology and Director of the Culture at Work research laboratory at the University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada). Professor Adair’s research examines how culture affects the way we communicate, negotiate, collaborate, and innovate at work. Her research appears in premier outlets including Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, and Organization Science, and she is co-editor of the Handbook of Research on Negotiation (2013). Professor Adair’s research has been recognized with awards from the American Psychological Association, the Academy of Management, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, and the International Association for Conflict Management.

An internationally recognized leader in her field, Professor Adair has served as President of the International Association for Conflict Management and is currently Associate Editor of the journal Negotiation and Conflict Management Research and Guest Editor of a special issue on International Conflict and Collaboration for the International Journal of Cross-Cultural and Strategic Management.

Professor Adair has 15 years of experience teaching MBA and executive teams in educational and corporate settings. Consulting clients include WebMD (formerly Medsite), OSRAM, and TELUS International. She also teaches courses on negotiation and conflict management, cross-cultural organizational behavior, leading and managing multicultural teams, and inclusive communication for undergraduate, MA, PhD, and nonprofit audiences.

Read more about Professor Adair’s research and consulting on her website. For a holistic picture of how Wendi thinks about culture, click here to see her TEDxUW talk, Building a New Cultural Metaphor.

Return to Team

nancy r. buchan, ph.D. is a recognized expert on the development of trust and cooperation in cross-cultural relationships, both as a researcher and teacher and for her consulting work with corporations.

As Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs at the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina as well as Associate Professor of International Business and a Moore Research Fellow, Dr. Buchan researches the factors that influence the development of trust and cooperation in cross-cultural relationships by combining the methodology of experimental economics with theory from psychology, sociology and political science. Of particular interest are the impact of membership in groups and networks in trust building, and the effects of globalization on individual attitudes and behaviors towards others locally, nationally, and globally. To pursue this research agenda, she has conducted experiments in 14 countries.

Dr. Buchan has published her work in top journals including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, American Economic Review, American Journal of Sociology, Psychological Science, Journal of Consumer Research, and Journal of International Business Studies. She has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of International Business Studies and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

In addition, Dr. Buchan has consulted on international negotiations and cross-cultural communications for Fortune 100, mid-size, and entrepreneurial companies, as well as for not-for-profit organizations. Recent clients include Westinghouse, Jarden Corporation, Blue Cross Blue Shield, the World Council of Credit Unions and Upward Unlimited.

Dr. Buchan received her doctorate in marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1998 and a Masters in International Administration in 1996 from the Lauder Institute of the University of Pennsylvania, as an East Asian specialist in the Japanese language program.

She currently teaches courses in International Marketing at the undergraduate level, and International Negotiations at the graduate level and in the executive education programs at USC, Technological de Monterrey in Guadalajara, and the Mediterranean School of Business in Tunis.

Return to Team

Xiao-Ping Chen is the Philip M. Condit Endowed Chair Professor and Associate Dean of Faculty and Academic Affairs at the Foster School of Business, University of Washington. She is an elected Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and Editor-in-Chief for Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes and for Management Insights, a bilingual (Chinese and English) magazine for business educators and practitioners.

Professor Chen’s research interests include cooperation and competition in social dilemmas, teamwork and leadership, entrepreneur passion, Chinese guanxi, and cross-cultural communication and management. She has published more than 30 research papers in top-tier journals such as Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Management Science, and Journal of International Business Studies. She received her Ph.D. from University of Illinois, and was a faculty previously at Indiana University and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Highly involved in the Chinese management research and business community, Professor Chen served as the second President for International Association for Chinese Management Research (IACMR). She has organized numerous research methods workshops, professional development workshops, and panel discussions for IACMR. She has published eight Chinese books so far, among which the Empirical Methods in Organization and Management Research book has been the best seller in China since 2008. As the editor of Management Insights, she has conducted in-depth interviews with distinguished CEOs and founders of Chinese companies such as Liu Chuanzhi of Lenovo, Jack Ma of Alibaba, Wang Shi and Yu Liang of Vanke, Ma Weihua of China Merchant Bank, and Michael Yu of New Oriental Group.

Professor Chen is the recipient of numerous teaching and research awards, including the Distinguished Scholarly Contribution Award (2016) by IACMR, Andrew Smith Faculty Development Award (2010), Outstanding University of Washington Woman Award (2010), Outstanding Ph.D. Mentor Award (2009, 2004), Dean’s International Research Award (2008, 2001), Charles E. Summer Teaching Award (2004), Best Conference Paper Award (2012, 2008) by IACMR, and Top 20 Poster Paper Award (2009) by Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychological Association.

Return to Team