Profile for Scott Dickmeyer

Scott Dickmeyer

Associate Professor

Communication Studies

Specialty area(s)

Organizational Communication, Organizational Culture, Training & Development and Consulting

Brief biography

Since 1989, Dr. Scott Dickmeyer has dedicated himself as a teacher, trainer and consultant in order to develop people to be more effective communicators in all aspects of their lives. Scott is recognized nationally for his work on effective leadership, improving managerial communication, his success in training public speakers, and his ability to integrate diverse individuals into effective work teams. Dr. Dickmeyer engages in teaching, research, consulting, and training. In his organizational communication and public relations work he has helped thousands of people become other-oriented communicators and effective spokespeople for their organizations. Dr. Dickmeyer is an award-winning researcher and teacher. His ground breaking research identified communication, hiring and orientation practices that increase employee satisfaction, productivity and loyalty at companies that consistently rank on the Fortune magazine list of the 100 best companies to work for in America and has received four national awards for outstanding research in organizational and professional communication. Scott is currently involved in a large-scale study of “best company” communication strategies that increase employee satisfaction and create a favorable public perception of these companies.

Current courses at UWL

CST 280: Introduction to Communication and Leadership, CST 452 Contemporary Approaches to Organizational Communication, CST 499 Senior Project in CST

Education

Ph. D. University of Nebraska
2001 Department of Communication Studies
Emphasis Areas: Organizational Communication, Interpersonal Communication, and Training and Development

Dissertation: The way things are done around here: The role of normative control acts in organizational socialization as seen in newcomers’ sensemaking acts

M. A. Mankato State University
1991 Department of Speech Communication

Thesis: A rhetorical analysis of the 1962 “The Port Huron Statement” of the Students for a Democratic Society

B.S. Mankato State University
1989 Department of Speech Communication

Career

Teaching history

University of Wisconsin-La Crosse 2006-present
Associate Professor
Communication Studies Department

University of Wisconsin-La Crosse 2002-2006
Assistant Professor
Communication Studies Department

University of Wisconsin-La Crosse 2000-2002
Instructor
Communication Studies Department

Concordia College (Moorhead, MN) 1995-2000
Instructor & Director of Individual Events for Forensics
Speech Communication and Theatre Arts Department

University of Nebraska-Lincoln 1994-95
Instructor
Department of Communication Studies

Nebraska Wesleyan University (Lincoln, NE) 1994-1995
Instructor
Communication and Theatre Department

University of Nebraska-Lincoln 1991-1994
Graduate Teaching Assistant and Forensics Coach
Department of Communication Studies

Mankato State University 1989-1991
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Department of Speech Communication

Professional history

Dedicated to improving organizational environments and cultures, Dr. Dickmeyer is the lead person for a national corporate communication project. Focused on building high trust organizations, this project brings together leading academic researchers and top training and development professionals. Granted a leave of absence from his university, Scott successfully implemented the high trust program in a 200 member organization. Additionally, Dr. Dickmeyer has actively engaged in major organizational culture change projects in several organizations (for-profit and not-for-profit).

Research and publishing

As a member of a consortium of scholars and practitioners dedicated to uncovering the communication practices of effective, high-trust organizational cultures, Dr. Dickmeyer’s work has been spotlighted at several national and specialized academic conventions. He has twice been a keynote speaker at the prestigious conference “Engaging Theory: Transforming Organizations,” held annually in Aspen, Colorado, which brings together top scholars in Organizational Communication to work on the issues that plague American organizations. Dr. Dickmeyer has published over 20 research and application papers in a variety of communication studies journals, textbooks, and academic case study volumes. He has been chosen or invited to share his expertise in over 100 conference presentations.