
801 W. Michigan Street
BS 4070
Indianapolis, IN
46202
Biography
Marlene Walk's research interests focus on human resource management, the meaning of work, organizational change, and volunteering and volunteer management. Marlene earned a master’s degree from the School of Social Work and Health Care from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hildesheim, Germany. Marlene also earned a master’s in Management in Nonprofit Organizations from the School of Business Management and Social Sciences at the University of Applied Sciences in Osnabrück, Germany.
Before pursuing her Ph.D. in Social Welfare at the University of Pennsylvania, Marlene worked as a licensed social worker in Germany for three and a half years. Marlene received the Emerging Scholar Award from the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organization and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) in 2013 and the Best Paper Based on a Dissertation Award from the Organization Development and Change division of the Academy of Management (AOM) in 2015.
Education
- Ph.D., Social Welfare, University of Pennsylvania, 2015
- M.A., Nonprofit Management, University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück (Germany), 2009
- Dipl., Social Work, University of Applied Sciences Hildesheim (Germany), 2005
Professional Experience
- Research Fellow, Project: Organization Development and Human Resource Management during the Implementation of Inclusive Education, School of Business Management and Social Sciences, University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück (Germany), 2012-2015
- Research Fellow, School of Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania, 2010-2015
Highlights
- Co-Principal Investigator, “Competitive Giving: Identity, Sports, and Philanthropy,” (with Cali Curley and Jamie Levine Daniel), Sports Innovation Institute IUPUI (2017)
- Principal Investigator, “‘Don’t you wanna stay?’: Retention of long-term volunteers,” Enhanced Mentoring Program with Opportunities for Ways to Excel in Research (EMPOWER), Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research (2016-2017)
Selected Intellectual Contributions
- “Don’t you want to stay? The impact of training and recognition as HR practices on volunteer turnover.” (with R. Zhang, L. Littlepage) Nonprofit Management and Leadership (2018)
- “Nonprofit graduate education: Who gets the degree and why?” (with A. Stewart, K. Kuenzi) Journal of Public Affairs Education (2018)
- “Immigrant Integration Through Volunteering: The importance of contextual factors.” (with I. Greenspan, F. Handy) Journal of Social Policy (2018)
- “Job Crafting as Reaction to Organizational Change.” (with F. Handy) The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science (2018)
- "Change Management in Nonprofit Organizations: case study of child care organizations during inclusion." (with H. Schinnenburg) Swiss Journal of Business Research and Practice (2017)
- "Religious and secular coping strategies and mortality risk among older adults." (with L. McDougle, S. Konrath, F. Handy) Social Indicators Research (2016)
- "Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis: A case study of a job and skills training program offered by a social enterprise." (with I. Greenspan, H. Crossley, F. Handy) Nonprofit Management and Leadership (2015)
- "Mind the gap: Expectations and experiences of clients utilizing job-training services in a social enterprise." (with I. Greenspan, H. Crossley, F. Handy) Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics (2015)
- "Missing in action: Strategic human resource management in German nonprofits." (with H. Schinnenburg, F. Handy) Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations (2014)
- "What do talents want? Work expectations in India, China, and Germany." (with H. Schinnenburg, F. Handy) German Journal of Research in Human Resource Management: Zeitschrift für Personalforschung (2013)