At the HKUST Business School, over 80% of the faculty come from abroad. They form the school’s highly international academic team, bringing diverse perspectives and global experiences to local students. Prof Amy Dalton joined our international cohort in 2008 choosing to come to HKUST over the opportunity to teach in France.
A Part of a “Tossed Salad”
In fact, Prof Dalton came to Hong Kong with her significant other who is also a faculty member at the Business School. “When we first looked for university jobs together, we targeted the world’s top 30 business schools,” she said.
“HKUST was on the top of our list with its active research culture, and we thought it would be a bit of an adventure to work in the East. As we both got an offer from the university, we felt it was such a good fit for us,” she recalled.
Looking back, Prof Dalton said she had no problem in adapting to the living and working environment in Hong Kong. Thanks to her upbringing in Canada, she quickly got used to the similar yet diverse culture of her adopted city. She said Canadians believe in a ‘tossed salad’, which is an apt metaphor that describes people from different backgrounds living in harmony while retaining their own unique cultures.
Recognize a Difference
Prof Dalton said she was lucky to start her early childhood education in an environment where her parents and teachers gave her the choices and support to study things that she loved and enjoyed.
An innate self-motivated learner, Prof Dalton discovered her interest in psychology as an undergraduate at the University of Toronto, and later became interested in consumer psychology. She was torn between psychology and marketing, before making up her mind to pursue a PhD in marketing at Duke University in the US.
Currently teaching mainly undergraduates, Prof Dalton noted the cultural differences of students from around the world. Students from the West tend to adhere to individualism, while those from the East place more emphasis on collectivism. This explains why local students develop a stronger sense of respect, but appear to be relatively shy, she said.
“In my class, I want to encourage my students to not only think independently and critically about exceptions and alternatives, but also learn how to express their thoughts, questioning what they read and learn,” Prof Dalton explained.
To encourage students to speak up, she designs more team activities where individual participation can become a coordinated contribution to a team, and as a result every member gets credit for their role. Eastern culture works better in this team dynamic, she noticed.
Reward from Teaching and Research
In addition to teaching, Prof Dalton is a committed researcher with a strong interest in unconscious influences or simply put “subliminal advertising”. She explained how marketers come up with very subtle ways to get their messages across without people realizing that it is marketing or in other words the real power of marketing.
Prof Dalton was recently invited by three prestigious international marketing journals (the Journal of Consumer Psychology, the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Marketing Research) to be a member of their editorial boards. She said it was indeed an honor and vowed to continue her service for the marketing community.
Following years of dedicated work, Prof Dalton received a tenured position effective 1 July this year. She said she loved both teaching and research, both of which have provided her a great sense of satisfaction. It is teaching, however, that gives her a more immediately rewarding experience with students’ instant feedback.
Putting work aside, Prof Dalton stressed the importance of work-life balance and of being a keen practitioner of yoga and scuba diving. She loves travelling and believes it is another bonus of being in Asia that she could travel to places such as Tibet, which she would have had very slim chances of setting foot in if she were teaching in France, she said with a knowing smile.