EMU Today

YPSILANTI - Dr. Eric Schulz, professor of management at Eastern Michigan University, has been awarded the $2,500 Darrell H. Cooper Presidential Endowment Academic Research Award. For 22 years, Schulz has worked as an educator at EMU and holds an impressive history of publications in human resources journals. 

Schulz specializes in compensation and benefits and recently developed his proposal, “CEO and Employee Pay Dispersion and Its Relationship to Organizational Performance”, to address the growing gap between the pay of the organizational leader as represented by the chief executive officer and the average employee compensation. Schulz’s study proposes to collect and analyze pay data of organizational leaders of publicly traded firms from three discreet industries. The study focuses on the effects that pay dispersion measures have on organizational performance,  measures of sales, growth and productivity. 

"I will make a significant influence in understanding the impacts of CEO and employee pay dispersion,” said Schulz. “The cooper leadership chair is proud to support this important research."

Established in 1993 by Darrell H. Cooper, chairman of the board and owner of Fernco, Inc. the Darrell H. Cooper Presidential Endowment Academic Research Award serves EMU’s students and faculty by supporting research, education and the community. Research awards are distributed every academic year to management department faculty to use in research related to leadership and all management disciplines.

"The Cooper Presidential Endowment is excited to fund this important project to help us better understand pay disparity and the trends going forward,” said Megan Endres, Darrel H. Cooper Endowed leadership chair and EMU professor of Management. “Schulz is an exceptional researcher who we are proud to support,” Endres added.

Schulz is the co-coordinator for the master of science in Human Resources and Organizational Development Program at EMU. He also holds a doctorate from Rutgers University. 

About Eastern Michigan University

Founded in 1849, Eastern is the second oldest public university in Michigan. It currently serves more than 15,000 students pursuing undergraduate, graduate, specialist, doctoral and certificate degrees in the arts, sciences and professions. In all, more than 300 majors, minors and concentrations are delivered through the University's Colleges of Arts and Sciences; Business; Education; Engineering and Technology; Health and Human Services; and, its graduate school. EMU is regularly recognized by national publications for its excellence, diversity, and commitment to applied education. For more information about Eastern Michigan University, visit the University's website.