Gerard Seijts

Gerard Seijts received his PhD from the University of Toronto in 1998. Prior to joining Ivey Business School in 2000, he was on the faculty at the I.H. Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba. Gerard is teaching on several leadership programs. For example, he has worked with organizations including Aecon, Intact Financial Corporation, OMERS, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Porter Airlines, Canadian Space Agency, Business Development Bank of Canada, Maple Leaf Foods, J.D. Irving Limited, EY Canada, Hutchison Ports, Deloitte, Hilti, A.S. Watson, and many others. He has also worked with government agencies in Canada, Hong Kong, Africa, and the Middle East on issues such as leadership and change. Gerard has taught EMBA, MBA and undergraduate courses in leadership, leading change, organizational behavior, performance management and staffing.

His research activities, spanning journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers, cover a wide range of topics including leadership, leader character, change, goal setting, training and development, teams, organizational justice, and performance management. He also enjoys writing practitioner-oriented articles.

Gerard has written many cases on topics including but not limited to leadership, leader character, leading change, organizational turnarounds, crisis management, organizational culture and alignment, teams and managing conflict in teams. Recently, he authored or co-authored four books: Leadership on Trial: A Manifesto for Leadership Development; Good Leaders Learn: Lessons from Lifetimes of Leadership; Developing Leadership Character; and Leadership in Practice: Theory and Cases in Leadership Character.

Gerard is the recipient of awards for research, innovation in teaching and outreach activities.

Teaching

• Leading People and Organizations (HBA, MBA and EMBA programs)
• Cross-Enterprise Leadership (HBA and MBA programs)
• Leading Change (HBA and MBA programs)
• Leadership under Fire: Developing Leader Character (HBA program)

Programs Taught

• Executive Education
• Education
• PhD, University of Toronto

Recent Refereed Articles

• Seijts, G. H., (Forthcoming), "Character and Trust in Crisis Leadership: Probing the Relationships Among Character, Identification-Based Trust, and Perceptions of Effectiveness in Political Leadership During the COVID-19 Pandemic", The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science
• Seijts, G. H., (Forthcoming), "The Short-Sightedness of Sticking with the Interesting Research Advocacy", Journal of Management Inquiry
• Mohan, G.; Seijts, G. H.; Miller, R., 2022, "Does Leader Character Have a Gender?", Journal of Business Ethics: 1 - 18.
• Seijts, G. H.; Monzani, L.; Woodley, H. J. R.; Mohan, G., 2022, "The Effects of Character on the Perceived Stressfulness of Life Events and Subjective Well-Being of Undergraduate Business Students", Journal of Management Education, February 46(1): 106 - 139.
• Seijts, G. H.; Wright, T. A., 2021, "Why Character Matters", Organizational Dynamics, September 50(3): 100754 - 100754.
• Bhardwaj, R.; Seijts, G. H., 2021, "Leader character in the boardroom", Organizational Dynamics, September 50(3): 100751 - 100751.
• Seijts, G. H.; Young-Milani, K., 2021, "The myriad ways in which COVID-19 revealed character", Organizational Dynamics, September 50(3): 100765 - 100765.
• Monzani, L.; Seijts, G. H.; Crossan, M. M., 2021, "Character matters: The network structure of leader character and its relation to follower positive outcomes", PLOS One, September 16(9): e0255940 - e0255940.
• Seijts, G. H.; Young Milani, K., 2021, "The application of leader character to building cultures of equity, diversity, and inclusion", Business Horizons
• Seijts, G. H.; de Clercy, C.; Mohan, G., 2021, "Trust as a Mediator of the Relationship Between Character and Perceptions of Leader Effectiveness During the COVID-19 Crisis", Canadian Journal Of Behavioural Science-Revue Canadienne Des Sciences Du Comportement, July 53(3): 358 - 364.
• de Clercy, C.; Seijts, G. H.; Nguyen, B., 2020, "Do Canadian and American Voters Evaluate Leader Character Similarly? Comparing Voters’ Perceptions of Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Justin Trudeau", American Review of Canadian Studies, December 50(4): 498 - 521.
• Seijts, G. H.; Espinoza, J.; Carswell, J., 2020, "Utility Analysis of Character Assessment in Employee Placement", Leadership and Organization Development Journal, September 41(5): 703 - 720.
• Seijts, G. H.; de Clercy, C., 2020, "How Do Populist Voters Rate Their Political Leaders? Comparing Citizen Assessments in Three Jurisdictions", Politics and Governance, March 8(1): 133 - 145.
• Seijts, G. H.; Byrne, A.; Crossan, M. M.; Gandz, J., 2019, "Leader Character in Board Governance", Journal of Management and Governance, March 23(1): 227 - 258.
• Seijts, G. H.; de Clercy, C.; Nguyen, B., 2018, "Exploring How Canadian Voters Evaluate Leader Character in Three Cases: Justin Trudeau, Hillary Clinton And Donald Trump", Journal of Canadian Studies, November 52(2): 427 - 450.

Experience

• Professor, Western University, Ivey Business School (July 2013-present)
• Associate Professor, Western University, Ivey Business School (July 2005-June 2013)
• Assistant Professor, Western University, Ivey Business School (July 2000-June 2005)
• Assistant Professor, University of Manitoba, I.H. Asper School of Business (June 1997-July 2000)

Research/Course Development

• Leadership
• Leader Character
• Organizational Change
• Motivation and Goal-setting
• Training and Development
• Performance Management
• Team Processes