Kenneth Thompson

Kenneth R. Thompson is Professor and the former Chair of the Department of Management for seven years at DePaul University, where he has been on staff since 1986. His current research interests include application of Total Quality Management approaches to service and academic institutions, self-efficacy, and goal setting. Professor Thompson has published in several journals, including the Academy of Management Executive, Organizational Dynamics, and the Journal of Social Psychology, in the areas of organizational behavior, Total Quality Management, self-efficacy, and goal setting. He has co-authored four textbooks and four invited chapters.

Thompson has been elected to the offices of president and chairman of the Board of Directors of the Midwest Division of the National Academy of Management. He was also on the governance board of the Organizational Behavior Division of the National Academy of Management. He is on the editorial review board of four professional journals and is the associate editor for the Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies.

For the past nine years, Thompson has been a senior lead examiner evaluating organizations for the Lincoln Quality Award. The Lincoln Award is the State of Illinois’ highest quality award. In addition, he has been a Baldrige examiner for the past two years. The Baldrige Award is the top award in the United States for quality given to businesses and education and healthcare organizations. He has lobbied to obtain passage of the bill that would expand the Baldrige Award process to public sector organizations and non-profits. In 2004, that bill was passed and funding was approved in 2005. From 1984 to 1986, Thompson was the director of the Center for Management and Executive Development for the University of Arkansas and was a major developer of the Walton Institute of Leadership. In that role, he worked directly with Sam Walton and other Wal-Mart executives in developing training programs for store managers and assistant managers at Wal-Mart.

In 1994, he completed a six-month internship in curricular design at the Galvin Center at Motorola. Before that time, he was at Notre Dame as an assistant professor of management. At that time, he consulted for General Motors in setting performance objectives in the Parts Division. Professor Thompson received his Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska in 1977.