University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

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Published: October 27, 2011

Helen Gaiter, director of supplier diversity, Procurement Services, has received the Organization of Distinction Award from the Upstate New York Minority Supplier Development Council.

Gaiter was recognized for outstanding achievement and for setting the standard and paving the way for her peers.

The council is a not-for-profit organization established in 1979 to enhance the growth and development of minority-owned business enterprises through participation in private-sector procurement programs.

Bradley Owens, assistant professor of organization and human resources, School of Management, has received the Academy of Management Best Paper Award for 2011.

Owens’ research was published in the Academy of Management Journal, considered the premier journal of management research in the world.

The article, “An Examination of Whether and How Racial and Gender Biases Influence Customer Satisfaction,” demonstrated that customer ratings tend to be biased against women and racial minorities, potentially contributing to compensation inequity.

The Academy of Management’s award committee praised the study for using “novel data and strong theoretical grounding to tackle an issue of enormous practical and conceptual importance.”

Owens and his co-authors—Terence Mitchell of the University of Washington, David R. Hekman of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Karl Aquino of the University of British Columbia and Keith Leavitt and Pauline Schilpzand of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point—also earned the academy’s Gender and Diversity Best Paper Award for the same article, which appeared in the 2010 journal.