Chad Michael McPherson

I received my Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Anthropology from Augustana College (IL) in 1999. For the next several years, I was blessed to work in the field of addictions and mental health for the fine organization C.A.D.S. in the Quad Cities, IL & IA. Working in a variety of organizational positions which culminated in three years of management experience, I developed key insights that continue to inform my research and guide my worldview.

Broadly identified, my areas of interest include social psychology, organizations, deviance and inequality. Slightly more specific, my research interests in social psychology, to date, have focused on identity (self and social), theories of legitimation, trust, morality, values, theories of the lifecourse and symbolic interaction. In the area of organizations, I am primarily driven by the New Institutionalist framework, examining institutional logics, the ‘inhabited institutions’ approach, multi-institutional organizations, and meaning construction amongst organizational decision-makers. I am further interested in the individualization hypothesis, the decoupling of human values from social institutions. My interest in deviance is centered around socio-structural impact of institutions and organizations on value structures and attitudes towards seeking culturally-defined ends by illegitimate means, theories of anomie, social control and strain. An education and understanding of diverse methodological approaches is a personal and academic imperative.

I am currently conducting inductive research and refining theory for my thesis project under the tutelage of my advisor, Professor Michael Sauder. In this research, I am examining organizational decision-makers in specialized courts. This work focuses on the role and impact of institutional logics in hybrid or multi-institutional organizations. My micro-oriented examination will hopefully provide a platform for multiple projects on specialized courts as hybrid organizational forms.

When away from academia, I enjoy spending time with my unfailingly supportive wife Tina, herself a graduate student in the Tippie School of Management. We enjoy spending time with our family and friends, being outdoors, eating vegetarian-friendly foods, and being die-hard, heartbroken Chicago Cubs fans.