Professor Melcher has traveled extensively worldwide and lived in various locations nationwide and he settled in southern Illinois because of the beautiful setting. “It is continually attractive with a moderate climate, rolling hills, many lakes, density of wildlife, extensive forests and parks, and small town ambience,” he said.  

Born and raised on a Nebraska farm, Melcher also lived in California, where he attended high school, junior college and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from University of California, Los Angeles. He received a doctorate from University of Chicago.  

Melcher’s research focus is to build capability and contribute to the knowledge base in multiple aspects of management—leadership, change, micro and macro organizational theory, strategic management, and theory building methodology.

From 1989 to 1995, Melcher served as chair of the Department of Management. Melcher has taught in the College of Business executive MBA programs in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Puerto Rico. He has also participated in doctoral seminars in Malaysia, Portugal and The Netherlands.

Melcher said teaching never gets old because “each group of students is a new challenge. The profession enables one to be independent, to express yourself on a wide range of subjects, to continuously build capability over an entire career, and potentially to influence several generations of students at undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels.”  

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Building capability and contribute to the knowledge base in multiple aspects of management including:
• Leadership
• Change
• Micro and macro organizational theory
• Strategic management
• Theory building methodology

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

The Importance of Social Structure in Implementing ERP Systems: A case study using Adaptive Structuration Theory” Journal of Information Technology Case & Application Research (JITCAR) (Accepted, 2006) w/ Kimberly Furumo)

“Applying Adaptive Structuration Theory to Health Information Systems Adoption: A Case Study,” in International Journal of Healthcare Information Systems and Informatics. (2006) With Dana Schwieger, C Ranganathan & H. J. Wen,

“Appropriating Electronic Billing Systems: Adaptive Structuration Theory Analysis,” in Human Systems Management with (2005) Dana Schwieger, C Ranganathan & H. J. Wen

“IT Productivity Impacts in Manufacturing Contexts” Encyclopedia of Information Science & Technology (Mehdi Khosrow-Pour, editor), pp. 1721-1727; 2004; co authors, Kristina Setzekorn & Arun Rai

Appropriating Electronic Billing Systems: Adaptive Structuration Theory analysis” Human Systems Management (2004);coauthors, Dana Schwieger, Ranganathan Chandrasekaran, & Joseph Wen

“Mapping the Relationship among Product Complexity, Information Technology and Transaction Governance Structure: A Case Study,” Journal of Management Systems (2004), Vol 16, No 4); coauthors Aimao Zhang and Ling Li.