Carolyn Swora, M.A. ’18
After 17 years working in the pharmaceutical industry, Carolyn Swora, M.A. ’18, was ready for a change. She knew she wanted to help organizations improve their workplace culture, so she enrolled in the Industrial and Organizational Psychology program at Adler University’s Online Campus.
Inspired by her graduate education and her career, Swora recently published a book, Rules of Engagement: Building a Workplace Culture to Thrive in an Uncertain World. With the book, she said she hopes to educate employers and employees about what’s not working in the modern workplace and inspire them to make positive changes.
Swora noted that most workplaces have systems and processes that overwhelm employees and lead to poor productivity. In addition, larger societal issues such as unconscious bias exist in the workplace.
“The space between the CEO and the rest of the workers continues to get bigger,” Swora said. “How can we work more efficiently? How can we work with more equality to provide better services and products?”
Swora offers answers to these questions in her book and through her company, Pinnacle Culture, located near Toronto, to help organizations create healthy and thriving workplaces.
Swora appreciated her Adler University experience, saying it “redefined social justice for me. I think there’s a lot we can take into the corporate world.” In fact, the social justice mission was what originally attracted Swora to the University. “This program gave me a degree and allowed me to take action with it.”
She said she’s been able to apply everything she learned in her classes to her work, including developing her model of creating positive workplace experiences.
Swora plans to continue building her company and a larger community of people who want to see change in the workplace. “I want to grow a movement around this idea of disrupting workplaces for good,” Swora said.