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Effinger, Alexander

FACULTY

Biography

Dr. Effinger received his Ph.D. in Business Administration with an emphasis in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management from the University of Illinois Chicago. His research focuses on the topics of servant leadership, leader–member exchange, and ethics within organizations. Specifically, he researches misunderstandings between leaders and their direct reports, especially misunderstandings related to matters of ethics, and his work has been published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.

In addition to his academic work, Dr. Effinger has over 12 years of experience managing and leading within small-to-medium-sized organizations. His titles have included senior vice president and chief learning officer, and he has overseen the processes of training, hiring, onboarding, continuing education, and leadership development. Dr. Effinger enjoys leveraging his applied experience to enrich educational experiences within his classroom.

In his current role, Dr. Effinger teaches undergraduate courses in human resources and organizational communication. Prior to joining Central Michigan University, Dr. Effinger taught at the University of Illinois Chicago.

More about Alexander Effinger

Effinger, A. L., & Liden, R. C. (2025). Can we agree on morals? How moral agreement and moral tolerance affect leader-member exchange. Beyond exchange: Revisiting leadership as a relationship (O. Epitropaki & R. Martin, Eds). Information Age Publishing.

Lemoine, G. J., Hartnell, C. A., Effinger, A. L. (2024). Morality and Leadership in Organizations. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Business and Management.

Yuan, Z., Ui, S., Effinger, A. L., & Zhang, J. (2023). Being on the same page matters: A meta-analytic investigation of leader–member exchange (LMX) agreement. Journal of Applied Psychology, 108(9), 1540–1558.
PhD, University of Illinois Chicago
MSc, BM, Louisiana State University

Courses Taught

Human Resource Management
Communications: Managerial Applications