Elliot Bendoly Named to Mayfield City Schools Hall of Fame

Editor's note: We will provide daily bios of the four Hall of Fame inductees leading up to Thursday's VIP Dinner at Executive Caterers at Landerhaven.

A leading authority on information systems and a tenured professor at Emory University in Atlanta, Elliot Bendoly said paved the way for his future success.

"In my mind high school was the start of everything I became. I was forced to decide what I was really interested in," said the class of 1992 graduate, explaining that because not all classes were mandatory, he had options to choose from. Bendoly said he enjoyed that ability to experiment with topics.

"It was also a time in which my social skills matured," he said. "I figured out the kinds of social activity that actually meant something; not just fleeting. It made me appreciate the kinds of personalities that were the most important and akin to my own."

At Mayfield High, he was a members of the Academic Decathlon Team, the Junior Council on World Affairs, the Marching Band and the Jazz Band. After graduation, he went to Case Western Reserve University and served as president of the Engineering Council and Materials Research Society chapter. He graduated summa cum laude with degrees in materials engineering and economics.

He went on to earn master's and doctorate degrees from Indiana University's Kelley School of Business and received awards for his dissertation and teaching.

Bendoly now teaches undergrads using his own textbook, Excel Basics to Blackbelt, and was co-editor of a text on enterprise systems.

He is researching human and group behavior and how it relates to new organizational operating policies and new technology. Bendoly said his studies involve social networks in firms.

"Often the setting is that of a project team, charged perhaps with putting in place a large technology application. Or maybe it's a a team involved in product development, or putting a quality initiative in place. These are tough projects," he said.

"Psychology is a big part of how groups deal with these projects. I study the conditions under which psychology yield unanticipated results, and things managers can do to deal with these effects and moderate them in some cases."