What is the MarCC Lab?
The Marginalized and Cross-Cultural (MarCC) Research & Design Lab collaborates on graduate-level research and practical applications of workplace design with a focus on organizational justice. We strive to lead rigorous, socially just, equitable, and inclusive organizational performance and workplace learning research and design practice across the globe. The Team’s goal is to make a positive impact on organizational systems, performance, and individual’s experiences within the workplace.
Led by Dr. Lisa A. Giacumo, the group is located all across the United States and is connected through the Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning Master’s Program at Boise State University. MarCC continues to build a professional portfolio through publications, presentations with nationally recognized organizations (e.g., Association for Educational Communications Technology, AECT; International Society for Performance Improvement, ISPI; International Society for Performance Improvement Europe, Middle East, and Africa, ISPI EMEA), and through important research. We also create opportunities to network and build connections with fellow learning and development professionals, human performance practitioners, and organizational change champions. As a result of this network, MarCC has championed numerous organizational performance and workplace learning interventions, which have delivered valued results to organizational leaders and created positive change for individuals.
MarCC is a place to make a mark on the world! Through research and practice initiatives related to DEI and cross-cultural work, our members improve organizational performance and deliver more robust workplace learning opportunities. The lab actively seeks opportunities for our research to be shared with the public, our communities, and our personal networks.
MarCC is a place for individuals and organizational leaders to learn more, do more, and grow strong.
In short, please reach out if:
You want experience in academic research
You care about diversity, equality, and inclusivity (DEI)
You want to grow your professional network
You embrace hard work with a group of friends and colleagues
You are looking for a partner to improve your organizational performance or augment your workplace learning capacity
Our mission, vision, and values: The MarCC way
The MarCC lab mission and vision has existed for a few years now. However, our values are new statements. We are excited to share them with you today!
We have grown our values given our individual and collective experiences living in our communities, working in organizations, and traveling across the world. While we make mistakes, we also grow more polished each step of the way. We are committed to taking steps forward every day, towards becoming our best selves.
Below you will find our mission, vision, and values.
Our Mission
To lead rigorous, socially just, equitable, and inclusive, organizational performance improvement and workplace learning research and practice across the globe.
Our Vision
To positively effect organizational systems change and the individuals’ experiences, who make up organizations at all levels.
Our Values
Learners: We welcome every opportunity as a learning experience. We know some of these are joyful. Others are challenging. Each helps us grow stronger.
Respect: We treat one another with respect and appreciate old, new, similar, and divergent ideas. Each of us is needed and needs the others.
Integrity: Each person on our team works with honesty, transparency, and delivers what we promise.
Feedback: We offer kind, balanced, and actionable feedback with respect and empathy.
Support: We support our clients and one another as high-performing partners do.
Diversity: We come to know our own cultures better when we have opportunities to experience others’ cultures. We embrace each of these opportunities because it allows us to expand our perspectives and learn new ways to value ourselves and others.
Empathy: We strive to see through the eyes of marginalized groups, lift, and empower their voices. We do to others as they would want while balancing who we are too. We know this is not always easy and pledge to take our steps mindfully.
What do we research
What we do generally
While anthropology, international studies, and psychology all have best practices for working across cultures, the literature on cross-cultural research within organizational performance is brief. More specifically, the research on how organizations can work to support and interact with diverse employees and clients are limited. This lab attempts to fill that gap.
We conduct cross cultural research to examine the impact of organizational mission and values on human behavior and psychology in diverse settings. The global workforce represents individuals with different abilities and representing different backgrounds. We develop solutions to harness these unique abilities to realize a common goal. We study how to create more opportunities for these multicultural workforce using a systematic and systemic approach. Creating cross-cultural competence helps employees and the organization recognize the implicit bias and can be instrumental in creating a growth mindset culture.
We can create a blog/article on it and then link it here
What we have done
We have studied the impact of scholarship opportunities for marginalized, underrepresented, and low income students. We interview the students and faculty involved in recruiting these students, discovering various strengths and opportunities, and reporting results to the organization
Published two articles on the ethical and methodological considerations practitioners and organizations should value and apply when working with people across cultures
Presented our work at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology in 2020
What we are doing now
Currently, our focus is on:
how rapid prototyping competency models can help organizations become more equitable, inclusive, and improve performance (this is a tool you can use to go create your own competency model)
developing a competency model for organizations and practitioners to improve their cross-cultural and marginalized interactions within distributive, procedural, and interactional justice
building a social media strategy to bring our thoughts on how organizations can use themes of organizational justice to improve performance
Benefits of cross-cultural competence in the workplace
There are many reasons to invest in this investigation and strategize the best solution for any organization.
Multiple viewpoints help us create lasting solutions and minimize the risks in any situation
Helps to develop empathy, adaptability, and multi-pronged solutions
Promotes open communication and transparent policies
Provides a sustainable competitive advantage
Develops ease of communication
During our investigation, we found the above-cited benefits valid and reproducible.
Where are we going next
Well we did our research, published our paper, and presented our findings. Now, we are spreading the good word to all the netizens.
Contact us
Boise State students or graduates interested in joining our lab should contact us and reach out to Dr. Lisa A. Giacumo via email (lisagiacumo@boisestate.edu) to join today.
Potential partner organizational leaders should reach out to Dr. Lisa A. Giacumo via email (lisagiacumo@boisestate.edu) to inquire about capacity-building opportunities today.
For more information, visit the MarCC lab website, our LinkedIn organization page, or our Facebook group.
We welcome guest bloggers. Please submit your proposed blog article by contacting us.
Brief Summary of Authors
Madeleine MacDonald (she/her) is an Instructional Designer and working towards a Master’s degree in OPWL. She was also chosen as a Summer Research Fellow (2021) for the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE). She has an Honors degree in International Development from New College of Florida and is recognized as a Gilman Scholar. After graduating she became a Lead Training Designer for the Royal Navy’s engineering department in Fareham, UK. She aspires to work in the nonprofit or government sector in support of cross-cultural L & D initiatives. Currently, Madeleine is working on investigating ethical and responsible cross cultural organizational research methods
Shweta Shukla (she/her) is an Instructional Designer and working towards a Master’s degree in OPWL. She has transitioned from software quality analysis to develop her career as a learning experience designer and bridge the gap between technology and traditional instructional design. She is focusing her studies and internship on human performance improvement and learner analysis. Currently, she is building an outreach strategy for the lab.
Kendra Peterson (She/Her) is an Instructional Designer focused on Organizational Sustainability and Workplace Performance Improvement and working towards a Master’s degree in OPWL. She graduated with her BBA in Business Administration and Entrepreneurial Management with certificates in Nonprofit Management and Sociology. She aims to develop her career as a learning experience designer and move into K-12 Education. Kendra focuses her studies on Global cross-cultural and multicultural research in the hopes to provide her services in third-world education systems.
Dr. Lisa Giacumo is an Associate Professor in the Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning (OPWL) department of the College of Engineering and Boise State University. She directs the lab and focuses on the MarCC R&D Learning Tech Group by collaborating with clients, OPWL students, graduates, and faculty members, as well as other students and faculty at other universities.
Emma Salazar (she/her) graduated from the Universidade Federal de Alagoas (Brazil) with a B.S. in Pedagogy and an Associate Degree in Social and Human Services at Lake Washington Institute of Technology in 2012. Emma aims to work with individuals to help them unleash their full potential and feel empowered in their work environment while directly impacting their organization.
Erin Gregory (she/her) is an Instructional Designer with a background as an educator in the K-12 system and non-profit development. She is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in OPWL to transition into the field of organizational development and design. Erin is interested in working with organizations to strengthen individual performance and improve learning and development initiatives while building a strong workplace culture.
Justin R. Beaudry (he/him) is a Learning Experience Consultant and working towards a Master’s Degree in Boise State’s OPWL program. He has a BS in Mathematics from Springfield College and an MS in Computer and Information Sciences from Sacred Heart University. Upon graduation, he accepted a computer programming role with a large insurance company but quickly transitioned into an instructional designer role. His knowledge of the technical side of software gives him unique insight into how best to utilize eLearning within a blended environment.
Krista Yadav (she/her) is an HR professional with an extensive background in training and development and talent acquisition. She has a passion for helping others in pursuing their own career goals and seeks to grow further in HR on a consultative basis towards an HR business partner capacity. Krista is working towards her Master’s degree in OPWL, focusing on how we can apply HPI methods to an inclusive workplace.
Chantel Early is currently pursuing her Master’s Degree in OPWL at Boise State. She is a Coast Guard veteran and aspires to be an Instructional Designer upon completion of her studies. Chantel graduated from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in 2014 with her B.S. She served on three different Coast Guard cutters over a six-year span and separated in 2020 to focus on her studies. In 2021, she moved to Atlantic City, NJ with her husband Tim, and their two dogs, Maddy and Rey. She served as a Research Assistant to Dr. Lisa Giacumo for the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters and worked alongside others in the Marginalized Cross-Culture Research and Development Learning Tech Group. In her spare time, she likes to read books, watch movies and hang out with her family and friends.