Rick Cotton

Dr. Rick Cotton, an Associate Professor at the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business at the University of Victoria is a Principal Co-Investigator for Globe 2020, a research project where he works with more than 350 researchers studying culture change, leadership and trust dynamics in 150+ countries. He is also a core research team member for the 35 country Cross-Cultural Collaboration on Contemporary Careers (5C). – Linkedin Profile

Rick has more than 25 years of experience in roles including change management with Accenture and as a Senior Vice-President of HR at a Fortune 500 service firm. His clients include: Aetna, BC Ferries, CNA Insurance, General Electric, the Hay Group, the Intercultural Association of Greater Victoria, Pepsi, Putnam Investments, Sapient, Tourism Victoria, United Technologies and several other service firms, government entities and multi-national corporations.

Rick brings a passion for understanding how individuals thrive in their careers and how HR and talent management practices can foster organizational and individual success in a variety of country, industry and occupational settings. He teaches undergraduates, MBA students, executives, front-line employees and budding entrepreneurs in British Columbia, the United States and Japan.

His research focuses on how individuals, teams and organizations can best leverage human capital (knowledge, skills, abilities), social capital (networks, friendships) and positive psychological capital (hope, self-efficacy, resilience and optimism) to maximize performance.  In particular, he studies extraordinary career achievement from baseball to business, automotive to consumer electronics and from teachers to tow truck drivers. Rick also researches how individuals in challenging situations survive and thrive by studying unique populations including women miners, correctional officers, serial entrepreneurs, employees in organizations recovering from scandal and HR professionals who have laid off thousands of employees.

Rick was recognized six times as a ‘Most Memorable Professor’ and has won many high-profile awards for his research.

Rick’s primary topics are:

Careers/career success, HR, managing people, networks, national and organizational cultures, team chemistry, service management, managing change, leadership resilience.