Faculty Focus - Where in the World is John Gallagher?
When you meet Dr. John Gallagher, chances are he’ll have a backpack in tow, and he will look as if he could dash off on an adventure trek at any moment—and he just might! Besides spending time with his family, there is little Gallagher loves to do more than travel, especially internationally, which makes him right at home leading students on international business trips. In fact, he zealously serves as international business coordinator on two “home fronts”—as professor of management and coordinator of international business studies at Maryville College and as core faculty and international trip coordinator of the Professional MBA program for the University of Tennessee’s College of Business Administration.
As Gallagher describes it, he has the best of both worlds: “I love my time with students and thrive on personal interaction with people who really want to learn. I enjoy the inquisitiveness and genuine curiosity of undergraduates, and I consider it a privilege to interact with executives who face real-world issues that are fascinating, complicated, and challenging on so many levels—ethical, moral, strategic, and more. Truth be told, it’s all really just a selfish way for me to satisfy my own desire to keep learning.”
A desire to learn is what attracted Gallagher to the study of strategic management in the first place. “During my corporate years, I worked for two organizations at opposite ends of the strategic spectrum,” explains Gallagher. “One was a large, publicly owned company and the other was a small, private, family-owned business. That’s what sparked my interest in studying the ‘big picture’ issues, particularly the differences in how businesses all along that size continuum address strategic challenges.”
Gallagher, who holds a B.A. from Boston College and both an MBA and Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee, was a Ph.D. student in 1996 when UT’s Professional MBA program originally was conceived. He was integrally involved in designing the program and became its inaugural director in 1998.
After completing his Ph.D., Gallaher accepted a position at Maryville College, where he currently teaches senior-level strategic management courses. He has maintained his key role as a core faculty member of UT’s Professional MBA program; he teaches, serves as a leadership development coach, and is a faculty advisor on student projects.
Today, Gallagher is still fascinated by what makes businesses different. His current research is on faith-based companies; specifically, he is exploring how a variety of faith-based organizations do business and the degree to which they succeed in doing business “differently.” Gallagher elaborates: “I’ve always been interested in companies that at least appear to be different, and I’m curious as to whether the marketplace allows them to be different and to still succeed in the traditional sense of the word.”
His appreciation for and fascination with “what makes us different” also fuels Gallagher’s love of international travel. “I’m intrigued by people and their cultures and want to open the eyes of students to help them see, understand, and appreciate what makes us alike and what makes us unique.”