By Courtney Wicker
Elm Staff Writer
Leadership and imagination are two very important aspects of the business world, but aren’t often the first to come to mind. For professor Michael Harvey, it is almost second nature that the two go hand-in-hand.
“Leadership and imagination. If you ask what do you study, that’s what it boils down to,” Harvey said. He’s dedicated his life’s work to integrating leadership, imagination, and the power gained from collaboration.
Harvey’s office door is collaged with post cards from around the world. The travel theme is kept up heavily with the décor of posters, and artifacts from various nations abroad. It’s clear Harvey is a well-traveled professor.
“[I’ve traveled to] Venezuela, Ecuador, and lived for a year in Italy, after college. My wife is Dutch, so we spend a lot of time in France and Holland.” His bookshelf hinted at a passion for English, with “The Odyssey” peeking out.
Before the professor called Washington College home, he spent time living all around the world.
“My dad was in the CIA,” he said. He moved to Maryland in 1970, “So I’m sort of from Maryland. I’m born in Greece, but sort of from Maryland.”
He got his start in education at University of Maryland where he got a B. A. in English. He then moved on to Cornell University where he obtained his masters in Government. At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he obtained a M.S. in International Business. Harvey also obtained a Ph.D. in Government from Cornell. “So I’m sort of a jack of all trades,” Harvey said.
“I’m fascinated by the challenges of people working together,” said Harvey. This fascination led him to business. He believes that the collaboration of people is what drew him into the field. “I’m not just fascinated with it in the corporate setting,” he said. “It’s fascinating in all settings, like a sports team or even drama.
Organizational Behavior, one of Harvey’s courses, is another major aspect to the professor’s work, “[which] is the study of people in organizational settings-what can go wrong and what can go right. If you want a good example of what can go wrong, look at the TV show, ‘The Office,’” said Harvey.
When Harvey isn’t at WC he has much to keep him busy. “I’m a dad, I’m a husband, I’m a citizen, and I’m on the local county school board,” he said. He shares his time between several boards. He’s the Business department chair, he reads a lot, jogs, and enjoys old-fashioned games like poker and chess.
“There’s not a lot of time for that,” Harvey said. “Being a professor takes a lot of work. I barely exercise during the semester. It’s okay, it’s a full time job.”
“There’s no greater place to learn than at a liberal arts college. The liberal arts environment is the best place to learn. The modern world tries to break existence into little pieces. It’s very common for majors to say ‘I like this and I don’t like that.’ In much of our lives we act as if problems come in pieces. And at a liberal arts college we help our students realize the connections. And that’s really exciting,” Harvey said.
“At the heart of a liberal arts education is not a specific set of answers, but questions,” said Harvey. “Students are very lucky to be going to school here. Part of the deal is, you’ve got to care,” he said.
As a department chair, he teaches on a 3-2 course load. He teaches business courses and English 101. Organizational Behavior may be the course he spends most of his time teaching, but it doesn’t over shadow his love for English 101.
“How can I not love English 101, because I get to teach Shakespeare,” said Harvey. The one thing he wishes for WC is a gap year. “I wish students were required to go out and work.
Nothing would make students appreciate learning more than going out and working for a year,” he said.
In looking toward the future, Harvey is excited because, “[We already] have the biggest major on campus.” He’s very excited when he looks to the future of his students and the past of where great pioneers in business have gone. He has hopes for what President Mitchell Reiss is interested into bringing to WC. “He wants to create a Wall Street connection, and not just for business management students.”
Harvey is also interested in adding to the pool of internships. “My personal set of goals are more global internships, a thriving China language program, a regular flow of Washington College students doing internships or study abroad in China, and around the world,” said Harvey, a major advocate for studying abroad. Professor Harvey expressed that taking courses outside of your major is greatly advised. He spoke fondly of students he knew who were minoring in areas that wouldn’t traditionally fall in line with their majors.
Harvey said that oftentimes, people who don’t study business have some misinterpretations as to what it’s really about. He expressed that business affects more areas than one may think and involves a lot more creativity than it is perceived to.
“Many people who don’t study business have a misconception about it, and think that somehow business is narrow or vocational and I suppose it can be, but if you ask at the heart of business what can it do, the most general answer is that businesses create value. If I put a lot of work into something no one wants, I didn’t create value. At its heart, business is creative. That’s our core insight at the department here and my core insight as a teacher,” Harvey said.
April 15, 2011
Volume LXXXI Issue 22