
Dr. Gill Hickman's career has involved both academic and administrative appointments. Her expertise is in management, with an underpinning of organization theory, organization behavior, and human resource management. As an inaugural faculty member of the Jepson School, Dr. Hickman participated in the early structuring and formation of the program, a role for which her background as dean in the School of Health at California State University, acting associate dean in the School of Community and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University, and professor of public administration had prepared her.
In the classroom, she focuses on theories and models of leadership, leadership in organizations, leading change, and leadership in a diverse society.
She is engaged in research in several areas including invisible leadership (leadership of the common purpose), leadership during personal crisis, and leadership in socially active businesses. Her research in the business sector focuses on companies that are meeting the challenge of balancing change, profitability, and social action, and, therefore, she is able to help practitioners and scholars learn more about how “leadership” functions in this business context.
In the course of studying how individuals in leadership roles handle personal crisis, Dr. Hickman has interviewed business, government, and nonprofit leaders about crises ranging from work-family conflicts to personal illness and the death of a loved one. She and a colleague are currently conducting survey research on this topic for publication.
She has worked on projects for regional governments in South Africa at the University of the Western Cape and taught at the prestigious Salzburg Seminar in Austria. As a consultant in the public and private sector, Dr. Hickman is sought after for her work in organizational leadership and change as well as invisible leadership and is frequently invited to present these topics to corporate and conference audiences internationally.
She is a former board member of the International Leadership Association and member of several other professional, scholarly, and community organizations. Dr. Hickman is the recipient of several awards, including the University of Richmond Distinguished Educator Award.
Hickman, G.R. & Georgia J. Sorenson. (2013). The Power of Invisible Leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Hickman, G.R. (Ed.). (2010). Leading Organizations: Perspectives for a new era (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Hickman, G.R. (2010). Leading change in multiple contexts: Concepts and practices in organizational, community, political, social, and global settings. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Hickman, G.R. & Lee, D. (2001). Managing human resources in the public sector: A shared responsibility. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace.
Hickman, G.R. (Ed.). (1998). Leading organizations: Perspectives for a new era. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Hickman, G.R., & Creighton-Zollar, A. (1998). Diverse self-directed work teams: Developing strategic initiatives for 21st century organizations. Public Personnel Management, 27, 187-200.
Hickman, G.R., & Creighton-Zollar, A. (1997). Teaching leadership for a diverse society: Strategies, challenges, and recommendations. Journal of Leadership Studies, 4(1), 90-106.
Hickman, G.R. (1994). Practicing what we preach: Modeling leadership in the classroom. Journal of Leadership Studies, 1(4), 135-144.
Hickman, G. R. (2007). Can organizations meet the test of transforming leadership? In R. A. Couto (Ed.), Reflections on leadership. Lanham: University Press of America.
Hickman, G. R. & Couto, R. A. (2006). Causality, change and leadership. In G. R. Goethals and G. Sorenson (Eds.), A quest for a general theory of leadership: A multidisciplinary experiment (pp. 152-187). Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Hickman, G. R. (2004). Invisible leadership. In J. M. Burns, G. R. Goethe’s & G. Sorenson (Eds.), Encyclopedia of leadership (pp. 750-754). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Hickman, G. R. (2004). Transformistic theory. In J. M. Burns, G. R. Goethals & G. Sorenson (Eds.), Encyclopedia of leadership (pp. 1570-1573). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Hickman, G. R. (2004). Organizations of hope: Leading the way to transformation, social action and profitability. In R. Riggio & S. S. Orr (Eds.), Improving leadership in non-profit organizations (pp. 151-162). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Can we be honest about the study of leadership? (New York Times, Leading Thoughts)
Mon., Apr. 28, 2014
Hickman writes on "Organizations of Hope"
Mon., Aug. 3, 2009
A closer look at special needs education
Mon., Nov. 23, 2009
Public Administration
Public Administration
Political Science
Leading Change
Invisible Leadership
Leadership during Personal Crisis