Katherine Breward

Title: Associate Professor
Office: 3BC31
Building: Buhler

Degrees:

Sept. 2008 – May 2012: PhD: Organizational Behaviour, Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario. Dissertation title: Individual, Organizational, and Institutional Predictors of the Requesting and Granting of Employer-Sponsored Disability Accommodations.

Sept. 26 – Oct.1, 2010: Master Class in Cross-Cultural Management, Aarhus University, Denmark (led by Geert Hofstede, limited to PhD candidates and junior faculty).

2002-2004: Masters of Business Administration: Wilfrid Laurier University

2000-2002:  B.Ed in Adult Education: Brock University

1990-1994: Honours B.A. in Sociology and Anthropology: University of Guelph

Biography:

Katherine Breward is an Associate Professor in HR with a focus on non-conscious prejudice and discrimination in the workplace and diversity management.  Her research is centered around labour market access for historically disadvantaged populations, with a particular focus on best practices in disability accommodation. She examines concrete methods for fostering labour market justice at multiple levels ranging from how to develop genuine empathy for “the other” in individual workers right up to institutional policy-based solutions to systemic inequity.

Prior to her academic career Katherine worked for 16 years in the software industry in the Kitchener-Waterloo high tech corridor, where she sold and implemented HR related software solutions for large corporate clients. Katherine has also been on the board of directors of numerous not-for-profit agencies including the Guelph and District Multicultural Center, Reception House Kitchener-Waterloo (a government funded facility supporting newly arrived refugees), and the Elizabeth Fry Society. She currently lives outside Winnipeg on a 25 acre working orchard with her husband, several cats, and a gigantic Alaskan Malamute named Odin.

Courses:

Katherine teaches the following courses in the University of Winnipeg business program:

BUS 2440: Fundamentals of HR

BUS 3420: Recruitment and Selection

BUS 4460: Leadership and Fairness in Complex Organizations

GBUS 7220: Project Management (within the Masters of Innovation Management program)

Publications:

Katherine Breward is one of three primary authors of the mainstream textbook “Essentials of Organizational Behaviour Canadian Edition”, Pearson Education Canada, Toronto, ON. (Also authored by Robbins and Judge.) The third edition of this textbook is currently being written.

Recent Mainstream News Articles

• Breward, K. (September 9, 2019) “How to Conduct Job Interviews With Candidates Who Have Autism”, The Conversation Canada, https://theconversation.com/how-to-conduct-job-interviews-with-candidates-who-have-autism-123152
• Breward, K. (July 14, 2019) “How Accommodating Workers With Autism Benefits Employers – And All of Us”, The Conversation Canada, https://theconversation.com/how-accommodating-workers-with-autism-benefits-employers-and-all-of-us-119628

Recent Academic Publications

• Breward, K. (2020) Seeking New Solutions: Best Practices in Workplace Accommodation for Psychiatric Disabilities, in The Palgrave Handbook of Disability at Work, edited by Fielden, S.; Moore, M.; and Wright, G.
• Breward, K. (2020) Privileges and Prejudices: Intersectionality and Disability Accommodation, in The Palgrave Handbook of Disability at Work, edited by Fielden, S.; Moore, M.; and Wright, G.
• Breward, K. (2020) “Invisible Barriers: Job Interviews, Culture, and the Immigrant Experience”, Sage Business Cases, Sage Publishing Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA.
• Breward, K. (2020) “Seeking Safe Refuge: A Disability Accommodation Story”, Sage Business Cases, Sage Publishing Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA.
• Breward, K. (2020) “Accommodating a Worker with Autism: A Call Centre Experience”, Sage Business Cases, Sage Publishing Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA.
• Breward, K. (Oct. 13, 2019) “A Look at Ableist Business Practices: Creating Fair Interviews for Neurodiverse Candidates”, The Western ABC Bulletin*, Fall 2019 issue.
• Breward, K. (2019) “Last Chance Agreements: Useful Tool or Tyrant?” Sage Business Cases, Sage Publishing Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA.
• Breward, K. (2019) “Is She Drunk?”: Disability and Intersectional Stereotyping At Work”, Sage Business Cases, Sage Publishing Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA
• Breward, K. (2017) Individual, Organizational, and Institutional Predictors of the Granting of Employer-sponsored Disability Accommodations, Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, Volume 6, Issue 4.
• Breward, K. (2016) Predictors of Employer-Sponsored Disability Accommodation Requesting in the Workplace, Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, Volume 5, Issue 1.
• Breward, K.; Sharen, C. (2016) An Uncomfortable Encounter: Perceptions of Sexual Harassment, Case Research Journal, Volume 36, Issue 3.
• Sharen, C.; Breward, K. (2015), Making the Hidden Visible: Dealing with Disability in the Workplace, Case Research Journal, Volume 35, Issue 4.