Michael Roloff received his Ph.D. in Communication from Michigan State University and joined the faculty at Northwestern in 1978. Roloff has been the Chair of the Interpersonal Communication Division of the National Communication Association and is currently Director of the National Communication Association Publications Board.

Roloff is a long-time editor of Communication Research and directs a Committee of the University Institutional Review Board (IRB). Roloff’s research interests are in the area of interpersonal influence with courses and publishing related to persuasion, change management, organizational change, and bargaining and negotiation. He has co-edited four research volumes: “Persuasion: New Directions in Theory and Research,” “Social Cognition and Communication,” “Interpersonal Processes,” and “Communication and Negotiation.” His publications include: Interpersonal Communication: The Social Exchange Approach (1981), Interpersonal Process: New Directions in Communication Research (1987) and Communication Processes Leading to Integrative Agreements (1988). Roloff teaches Change Management in the MSC curriculum.

Roloff was co-recipient of the Woolbert Award for Outstanding Contribution to Communication Research from the Speech Communication Association and of a publication award from the Social Cognition and Communication Division of the National Communication Association. In 2009 he was named a fellow of the International Communication Association and Distinguished Scholar of the National Communication Association.

Course

Change Management

This course will present a variety of theories and research projects that focus on how organizational change can be managed. At its core, organizational change management is about implementation of new ideas and practices. Because organizational change might be focused at a micro and macro level, this course examines perspectives that focus on how an individual’s attitudes and behavior might be altered as well as how an organization’s policies and practices might be changed. Consequently, this class will focus on material related to persuasion, bargaining and negotiation, and organizational campaigns. These theories will be drawn from a variety of disciplines including organizational behavior, industrial relations, political science, social psychology, and communication. Although the primary method of teaching will be lecture, students are encouraged to ask questions and offer examples.