Contact
2212 Sennott Square
amurrell@katz.pitt.edu
412-648-1651
Profile
Audrey J. Murrell conducts research, teaches, and works with organizations on strategies to enhance overall effectiveness by utilizing their most valuable assets–their human and social capital. She conducts extensive research on building capacity of people and outcomes at work with a special emphasis on enhancing outcomes for women. This includes topics such as mentoring, breaking the “glass ceiling”, diversity, and workplace discrimination. Her work has been published widely in management and psychology journals as well as book chapter and special issues. Popular media—including the Wall Street Journal, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Pittsburgh Business Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Black Enterprise, Jet Magazine, and Vida Executive (in Brazil)—has also highlighted Murrell’s work. She is the author (along with Crosby and Ely) of the book Mentoring Dilemmas: Developmental Relationships within Multicultural Organizations and the author (with Forte-Trammell and Bing) of the recent book Intelligent Mentoring: How IBM Creates Value through People, Knowledge and Relationships. She recently received funding from the Ford Foundation’s Having a Dream Fund to study way to increase the utilization of minority and women contractors/suppliers among public/governmental agencies.
Professor Murrell is a professor of business administration and holds secondary appointments in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and Pitt’s Psychology Department. She currently serves as a Senior Research Fellow for the David Berg Center for Ethics and Leadership within Pitt Business, but served as Director from 2007 to 2019. Dr. Murrell received her BS from Howard University, magna cum laude in 1983 and a MS in 1985, and a PhD in 1987 from the University of Delaware. She serves as a consultant in the areas of mentoring, organizational effectiveness, teamwork, diversity, and leadership development. Her clients have included Alcoa, IBM, Heinz, Bayer, Eli Lilly, Kaiser Permanente, FedEx Ground, Executive Leadership Council, YWCA, Carnegie Libraries, Human Engineering Research Labs, Kent State University, Howard University, and Hampton University. This work involves public, private, and governmental organizations and includes numerous public forum and media appearances. She also served on the Allegheny County Minority, Women and Disadvantage Business Enterprise Certification Appeals Board and was past chair of the Gender and Diversity in Organizational Division of the Academy of Management Association.
Dr. Murrell has received numerous recognitions including the Mayor’s Citizen Service Award from the City of Pittsburgh, the SBA Minority Business Champion of the Year, the University of Pittsburgh Student Choice Award, the “Women of Distinction” award from the Girls Scouts of Southwestern Pennsylvania, the Susan B. Anthony “Women of Vision” award from the Women’s Leadership Assembly, the Community Service award from the Pennsylvania Job Corps Association, the Community Champion Award from the United Way of Allegheny County, the H. J. Zoffer Medal for Meritorious Service from the Pitt Business Alumni Association and the Chancellor’s Distinguished Public and Community Service Award from the University of Pittsburgh. She has been included in Outstanding Young Woman in America and received Phi Beta Kappa honors in addition to the Kurt Ryder nomination for outstanding dissertation in the humanities while at Howard University. She was a member of Leadership Pittsburgh (Class XVI) and has also been awarded numerous research grants, including funding from the National Science Foundation, Ford Foundation, H.J. Heinz Endowments, Maurice Falk Foundation, Institute for Industrial Competitiveness, Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, Pitt’s University Center for Social and Urban Research, and the American Association of University Women.
Audrey’s community service activities include serving as the board chair North Side Christian Health Center. Her previous board memberships include: Mentoring Partnership of SWPA, Urban Youth Action, American Red Cross, Family Services of Western Pennsylvania, Fund for the Advancement of Minorities in Education (FAME), Leadership Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Presbyterian Foundation, FISA Foundation, Minority Enterprise Corporation of Southwestern Pennsylvania, Western Pennsylvania Lung Alliance, and Three Rivers Adoption Council. Professor Murrell has worked with the American Red Cross as an instructor, public affairs specialist, volunteer in the National Disaster Human Resources System, and previous member of the National Diversity Advisory Council in Washington, D.C.
Courses Recently Taught
- International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior (undergraduate)
- Service Learning in Organizations (undergraduate)
- Leadership in a Social Environment (undergraduate)
- Fundamentals of Business Communication (undergraduate)
- Organizational Behavior (undergraduate, graduate, and executive)
- Cross Cultural Management (graduate)
- Social Entrepreneurship (graduate)
- Behavioral Science Theories in Organizations (doctoral)
- Group Dynamics and Intergroup Relations (doctoral)
- Effective Crisis Management (executive)
Research Interests
- Mentoring and Career Development
- Gender and Diversity in Organizations
- Minority/Women Contracting and Supplier Diversity
- Social Issues in Management
- Social Identity Theory and Applications.
Areas of Expertise
Mentoring and Career Development
Awards and Honors
- SBA Minority Business Champion of the Year
- ATHENA Award Finalist, Allegheny Conference
- New Pittsburgh Courier’s Women of Excellence in Education
- Women of Achievement Award
- Undergraduate Student Choice Award
- Irwin-McGraw Hill Distinguished Paper Award
- Girl Scouts of Southwestern Pennsylvania, “Women of Distinction” Award, Pittsburgh, PA
- Susan B. Anthony, “Women of Vision” Award, Women’s Leadership Assembly, Pittsburgh, PA
- Chancellor’s Affirmative Action and Diversity Award, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
- H. J. Zoffer Medal for Meritorious Service Award, University of Pittsburgh, Katz Business Alumni
- Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Public and Community Service, University of Pittsburgh
Professional Service and Activities
- Editorial Board, Sex Roles: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Research
- Editorial Board, Journal of Hispanic Research
- Editorial Board, Journal of Sport Management
- Chair, Board of Directors, North Side Christian Health Center
Degrees
- PhD, University of Delaware
- MS, University of Delaware
- BS, Howard University
Recent Publications
Murrell, A.J. and South-Paul, J. (under contract). Mentoring in medical and health professions. To be published by McGraw-Hill.
Murrell, A.J., Forte-Trammel, S. and Bing, D. (2008). Intelligent Mentoring: How IBM Creates Value through People, Knowledge and Relationships. Pearson Publishers.
Murrell, A.J., Crosby, F. and Ely, R. (1999), Mentoring Dilemmas: Developmental Relationships within the Multicultural Organization, Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers.
Frieze, I.H., Olson, J.E. & Murrell, A.J. (2011). Working beyond 65: Predictors of late retirement for men and women MBAs. Journal of Women and Aging, 23(1), 40-57.
Zagenczyk, T., Scott, K.D., Gibney, R., Murrell, A.J., and Thatcher, J.B. (2010). Social influence and perceived organizational support: A social networks analysis. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 111, 127-138.
Zagenczyk, T. and Murrell, A.J. (2009). It is better to receive than to give: Advice network effects on job and work-unit attachment. Journal of Business & Psychology, 24(2), 139-152 .
Zagenczyk, T., Gibney, R., Murrell, A.J. and Boss, S. (2008). Friends don’t make friends good citizens, but advisors do. Group & Organizational Management, 33(6), 760-780.
Murrell, A.J., Blake-Beard, S., Porter, D.M., and Perkins-Williams, A. (2008). Inter-organizational formal mentoring: Breaking the concrete ceiling sometimes requires support from the outside. Human Resource Management, 47(2), 275-294.
Zagenczyk, T., Murrell, A.J. and Gibney, R. (2007). The effects of the physical work environment on social capital. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 15(2), 119-135.
Blake-Beard, S., Murrell, A.J. and Thomas, D.A. (2007). Unfinished Business: The Impact of Race on Understanding Mentoring Relationships. In B. Rose-Ragins and K. Kram (Eds.), Handbook on Mentoring, Sage Publications.
Bangs, R., Murrell, A.J. and Higgins, M. (2007). Racial discrimination in public contracting. Journal of Health and Social Policy, Vol 23(2).
Jones, R. and Murrell, A.J. (2006). “Teaching Gender and Diversity in Organizations.” To appear in J. Branche, E.R. Cohn, and J.W. Mullennix (Eds.), Diversity across the Curriculum: A Guide for Faculty in Higher Education, Anker Publishing, Inc.
Murrell, A.J. and Zagenczyk, T. (2006). Gender, Race and Role Model Status: Exploring the Impact of Informal Developmental Relationships on Management Careers. In, M. Karsten (Ed.), Gender, Ethnicity and Race in the Workplace, Westwood, CT: Greenwood/Praeger Publishers.
Murrell, A.J. and Zagenczyk, T. (2006). The gendered nature of role model status: An empirical study. Career Development International, 11(6), 560-578.
Frieze, I.H., Olson, J.E., Murrell, A.J. and Selvan, M. (2006). Work values and their effect on work behavior and work outcomes in female and male managers. Sex Roles 54(1/2), 89-93.
Frooman, J. and Murrell, A.J. (2005). Stakeholder influence strategies: The roles of structural and demographic determinants. Business and Society, 44(1), 3-31.
Wolf, R., Weick, K., Usher, R., Terborg, J., Poppo, L., Murrell, A.J., Dukerich, J., Crown, D., Dickson, K., Jourdan, J. (2005). Sport and organizational studies: Exploring synergy. Journal of Management Inquiry, 14(2), 182-210.
Murrell, A.J. and Hayes-James, E. (2001). Gender and Diversity within Organizations. Sex Roles, 45 (5-6) (special issue).
Center Affiliation
Berg Center
Academic Area
Organizations and Entrepreneurship
Personal Interests
Audrey Murrell enjoys creative arts and crafts, singing alto in her church’s choir, reading a good book (e.g., Walter Mosley, Alexander McCall Smith and Octavia Butler), ballgames at PNC Park (especially when the Cubs are in town), Monday night football (go Steelers!) and watching her favorite movie “Remember the Titans”.
Departments
Dean’s Office
