Karen Myers: From Business Owner to Professor

News Date: 

Thursday, December 12, 2024

Author: 

By Caroline Lagorio

Content: 

Karen Myers didn’t have the most conventional academic journey. After spending 12 years leading and owning her business, Heritage Publishers, she decided to return to college. There, her passion for organizational communication flourished, leading Myers to work as a professor in the Communication Department at UC Santa Barbara, which continues to shape her teaching and research.

Myer is working on a new book on intergenerational communication in the workplace. She strives to help students navigate the complexities of modern workplaces, for example the differing communication styles, and expectations of, different age cohorts.

“I want to add to research and theory about this,” Myers said. “But I also want to provide something practical for people who are actually out in the workplace, for managers and for young people who are about to start their careers or are just starting their careers to understand a little of these dynamics.”

Karen Myers is a communications professor and researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara. 

Through her previous business experience, Myers had learned the ins and outs of organizations and the conflicts that arise within them, such as working with clients of different ages who hold different ideas, values, and interests as well as the challenges that come with launching and owning a business.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in marketing, Myers started her own company, Heritage Publishers, a firm that visited businesses nationwide to conduct research, then wrote and published books documenting their histories.

This business had a diverse clientele, including privately held companies, family businesses, publicly traded firms, hospitals, and medical associations, with clients using the books to capture their histories and as gifts for donors, volunteers, or to persuade key clients and public officials to do business with them.

“I got to meet some really interesting people and learn about a lot of really cool organizations that I never ever would have even imagined existed,” she said. “I loved the business because it combined my love of history with my interest in businesses.”

Though Myers enjoyed her time as a business owner, she decided to sell her company. Feeling uncertain about her next steps in her career, she recognized the important role communication plays in every aspect of life and decided to deepen her knowledge in this field.

“I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life at that point,” she said. “I was in my late 30s, and I was like ‘It's too early for me to retire.’ I thought, ‘you know, communication is foundational for pretty much everything’.”

She returned to school, earning a master’s degree in organizational communication from the University of New Mexico and a doctorate in the same field from Arizona State University. She graduated in 2005 and became a professor at UCSB in 2007.

Teaching “Organizational Communication,” Myers draws on both her research in the field and her real-world experience as a former business owner.

“I can bring stories into the classroom from my own experiences, from experiences from working with clients that I think brings things to light a little bit,” she said.

During her time as a business owner of Heritage Publishers, Myers worked with employees and subcontractors of all ages, teaching her valuable lessons on how workstyle, expectations, and values differ between different generations, offering her students a well-rounded perspective of the modern workplace. 

“I learned what it is like to struggle to launch a business. It typically takes way more money and time than you think it will and I know what it is like to go for a long time without a paycheck so that I could keep my business afloat,” she said.

Being an entrepreneur, Myers offers insights of what it takes to run and own a business, shining light on the challenges and rewards it brings.

"I might have a slightly different perspective than a lot of other professors and so I enjoy that,” she said. Her approach blends theory and practice, offering students a clear understanding of how communication operates within real-world organizations.

In her course, Myers teaches students about communication across both internal and external levels of organizations, such as resolving conflicts between colleagues, improving team collaboration, and managing public relations crises, using real-world examples from her business career to enhance their understanding.

“Individuals are really shaped, their values, their expectations, how they see the world, based on important things that happened at key developmental times,” Myers said. “When they first started school, when they were adolescents, when they went to college.”

These developmental experiences influence not only how individuals see the world but also how they engage with others in their personal and professional lives. Myers highlights how these generational orientations extend beyond personal views to significantly impact workplace dynamics.

“Differences in orientations apply to career interests, apply to interactions in the workplace between supervisors and their employees, but also between workers,” she said. “I think it's important to understand those kinds of things and it's an area that is under-researched.”

A central focus of Myers’ work is how different generations—Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and now Gen Z—communicate and interact within organizations given these different values and perspectives.

“Baby Boomers use email all the time. I live on my email—I’ve constantly got it open, I’m always looking at it because that's where my world is—but younger generation people, it's not like that,” Myers said.

These differences between cohorts range from things as small as preferred communication tools, like email versus instant messaging, to broader differences in workplace expectations, such as career goals and advancement.

“Another thing that is also challenging is just different expectations about what's important to us in our jobs and career,” she said. The generation of Baby Boomers finds much value and identity in hard work and dedication, whereas Generation Z values a slower workplace, finding less gratification in material benefits.

These complexities and unknowns of intergenerational communication are what drive Myers' research and interest in understanding how these differences shape workplace dynamics, a key to improving and growing organizational communication. 

Karen Myers attributed to the research done in this book, Handbook of Organizational Communication Theory and Research.

Myers possesses deep expertise on how American corporations operate and how to thrive in these environments, offering advice to UCSB students and current workforce members.

“I think it’s important to find an organization that you can respect and try to stay with for a while because yes you can job hop every couple of years…but there's a whole lot of value that I think young people might be missing out on,” Myers said.

Myers emphasizes that remaining with a single organization not only furthers personal growth but also demonstrates a level of commitment and stability that future employers value.

“If you stay with an organization, you’ll have a lot of opportunities to rise in that organization and develop a strong attachment to it, some commitment, which can feel really rewarding.”'

For current UCSB students, Myers' perspective encourages them to seek out workplaces that align with their values and goals, potentially leading to long-term career success. By investing time in one organization, they can build meaningful relationships, enhance their skills, and build a reputation that sets them apart in the competitive job market.

Myers plans to provide additional insights for both current and incoming members of the workforce through her book and current research.  Her research highlights the importance of studying generational differences over extended periods to fully understand them.

She explained that capturing these variations requires observing a generation at one stage of life, such as in their mid-20s as they start their careers, and then revisiting the same group decades later. This approach helps determine whether differences are tied to life stages or are truly generational.

Although such long-term studies are challenging and less common, Myers believes they are crucial for providing meaningful insights and realistic advice to improve workplace communication and collaboration.

Myers' research on intergenerational communication, as well as her time in the corporate world, offers invaluable insights to both students and professionals navigating modern workplaces.

As she continues to teach and publish, Myers remains committed to helping the next generation understand and thrive in ever-evolving corporations, equipping them with the tools to communicate effectively across generations.

Caroline Lagorio is a third-year communications major. She wrote this piece for her Digital Journalism course.