Matthew Cole
Associate Professor
College of Business + Information Technology
Matthew L. Cole, PhD is Associate Professor in the College of Business and Information Technology at Lawrence Technological University, and the chair of the Lawrence Tech Assessment Committee and the Institutional Review Board. He served as Director of Lawrence Tech's Psychology Program from 2009-2011. He is a strong proponent of inter-disciplinary research collaborations at Lawrence Tech and manages the annual Research Day and Presidential Colloquium.
Dr. Cole, a graduate of Cleveland Institute of Music and Eastern Michigan University, holds a PhD in Integrated Social and Cognitive Psychology from Wayne State University. Cole teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in human resource management (HRM), principles of management, and business statistics. Supported in part by a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), Cole’s HRM course is part of LTU’s course-based undergraduate research experience (CRE). Students in HRM conduct empirical research to address the following research question: “What should employers and HR managers do to increase employee retention in Gen Z workers?” This question is timely in today’s highly competitive global business market, especially with a multi-generational workforce. Results of the research may help employers and HR managers to anticipate workplace needs and possibly change HR strategies to increase employee engagement and retention of Gen Z workers. Cole also supervises completion of the Master’s Thesis research by students in the Senior Service College Fellowship (SSCF) program developed by the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) as a result of a critical need for civilian leaders in acquisition for the Army. In his business statistics course, Cole teaches students to use Minitab and Tableau to analyze real world data.
Cole has published journal articles and book chapters on the science of teams, team conflict, team leadership, entrepreneurship, research methods and models, the neuroscience of the self, positive organizational scholarship, Appreciative Inquiry, SOAR (Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results), and SOAR-based strategic thinking, planning, and leading. Cole serves on the editorial team of the SA Journal of Industrial Psychology.