PAUL S. GRAY'S HOMEPAGE
PAUL S. GRAY'S HOMEPAGE
I am Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Boston College, where I have served for 26 years. I received the A.B. in Politics from Princeton, an M.A. in Education from Stanford, and the Ph.D. in Sociology from Yale. My major research interests are: corporate-community relations, work and technology, adult education in the workplace, and labor relations and social change.
I have published articles in several journals, including: Industrial Relations, Urban Life, Changing Work, and the Journal of Voluntary Action Research. I am also the author of Unions and Leaders in Ghana and co-author of The Research Craft, a methods text. I was Principal Investigator for two studies (1988) which combine my interests in business and education: "Research on the Economic Impact of Independent Higher Education in Massachusetts," and "Comparing the Economic Impact of Independent Higher Education and High Technology."
Most recently, I have co-authored "Getting In" (with colleagues David Karp and Lynda Lytle Holmstrom), a series of articles for a study of family dynamics and the college choice-making process.
In addition to my research activities I also am an organizational consultant. I have worked with the Human Resources Department of the City of Boston, the National Alliance for Business, Micro-Ventures Group, and Sapient Corporation. I also served as Co-Principal Investigator for the project: "Worker Education for the l980's," which was supported by the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education, between 1984-87. While working on this project, I helped to problem solve and to facilitate ties between businesses, labor unions, and state government. As part of this effort, I served as co-organizer of a statewide conference, "Massachusetts Unions and the Future of Work."
I have been very active in promoting, and working within, the Joint Degree (Ph.D./MBA) Program which is offered by the Carroll Graduate School of Management and the Department of Sociology at Boston College. Several of my former students now hold positions of responsibility in the private, non-profit, and public sectors.
For the past six years, I have been associated with the LEADERSHIP FOR CHANGE Executive Program, as its founding Faculty Chair. This action learning-based program is designed to train managers in change-making and "dual bottom line" business strategies.
Most recently, I have served as Senior Researcher and Faculty at the Center for Corporate Citizenship and as a consultant to Battelle in Columbus, Ohio; Shell Chemical; Bristol-Myers Squibb; Motorola; and BP. In these projects I am exploring the connections between social change and business, especially the rise of a new industrial relations paradigm and the increasing emphasis on corporate social responsibility, both within the firm and in the outside community.
I offer graduate level courses in research methodology (including field work and action research) and in the teaching of Sociology. Another long-standing interest is the development and dependency of third world nations.
I am very interested in working with students in the general areas of development and modernization, social change, complex organizations, business and society, sociology of education, and action research.
I live in Newton, Massachusetts. I am married and the father of two daughters.