Business

Assistant Professor of Management

Dr. Benjamin E. Baran is an assistant professor of management in Northern Kentucky University’s Haile/US Bank College of Business, where his teaching focuses on organizational behavior and related management topics.

In his research, Dr. Baran focuses on adaptive job performance, leadership, and the micro-level foundations of competitive advantage. His research has appeared or is forthcoming in a number of scholarly journals, including the Journal of Business and Psychology, Small Group Research, Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, Accident Analysis and Prevention, and Military Psychology, among others. He is an active member of the Academy of Management, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and the Strategic Management Society. He regularly presents his research at conferences of those organizations, and in 2009 was the co-recipient of the Best Doctoral Paper in Organizational Behavior award from the Southern Management Association.

As a consultant, Dr. Baran has delivered solutions to organizations across the private, public, and non-profit sectors. He is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources. As a business owner and entrepreneur, Dr. Baran is a co-founder of Whinot LLC, a startup company that provides a platform connecting small-business owners with a community of experts who provide solutions to both strategic and tactical business issues.

Prior to joining academia, Dr. Baran served as a public-relations professional at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and as an active-duty officer in the U.S. Navy. A veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, he led the warship USS Preble during more than 500 hours of complex operations at sea from the California coast to the Arabian Gulf. Dr. Baran continues his military service as a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve, a role in which he provides management consulting support to the Bureau of Naval Personnel and Navy Personnel Command.

Dr. Baran holds bachelor’s degrees in political science and communication from Villanova University and earned his master’s degree in industrial/organizational psychology and Ph.D. in organizational science from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.