Robert A. Cooke, Ph.D.

CEO and Director of Human Synergistics International and Associate Professor Emeritus of Management at the University of Illinois at Chicago

Robert A. Cooke is CEO and Director of Human Synergistics International and Associate Professor Emeritus of Management at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Cooke was previously an Associate Research Scientist at the University of Michigan’s Survey Research Center (Institute for Social Research) and a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University. He received his Ph.D. in Organizational Behaviour from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, where he was a National Defense (Title IV) and Commonwealth Edison Fellow.

Dr. Cooke specialises in the development and validation of surveys used for individual, group, and organization development. His surveys include the Organizational Culture Inventory®Organizational Effectiveness Inventory®Leadership/Impact®, and Group Styles Inventory™. These instruments have been translated into numerous languages and used throughout the world by consultants and trainers for organizational development and research purposes. Cooke personally has used his materials with hundreds of organizations, including GE, Motorola, Ford Motor Company, the U.S. Department of Defense, and CINergy.

Cooke has served as Study Director on numerous research projects on management, organizational change, and human subject experimentation. His research has been supported by such agencies as the National Science Foundation, the National Center for Health Services Research, the National Institute of Education, and the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects. He has conducted applied survey research projects for various corporations and government agencies including Ford Marketing Institute, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Merck, the Federal Aviation Administration, Northwestern University’s Readership Institute, and the U.S. Government Accountability Organization.

The author of more than 75 articles, chapters, and technical reports, Cooke’s research has appeared in such journals as Psychological ReportsScienceThe Journal of Applied Behavioral ScienceJournal of Applied PsychologyEducational and Psychological Measurement, and Group & Organization Management.

Cooke’s research has been selected for the William Davis Memorial Award for outstanding scholarly research and the Douglas McGregor Memorial Award for Excellence in the Applied Social Sciences. His teaching has been recognised with the MBA Professor of the Year Award and the Alumni Award for Outstanding Teaching at the University of Illinois at Chicago.