Elizabeth “Leeza” Goryunova, associate professor of leadership and chair of the Leadership and Organizational Development program at the University of Southern Maine, has received the Marilyn Y. Byrd Excellence in HRD Research-to-Practice Award for research on how organizations integrate artificial intelligence.
The award is presented by the Academy of Human Resource Development, an international scholarly organization dedicated to advancing research and practice in workplace learning and leadership. It recognizes scholarship that translates academic insight into practical strategies organizations can apply.
Goryunova and her co-author, Robert M. Yawson, professor of management at Quinnipiac University, were recognized for their article “Nested Complexity: A Conceptual Framework for Leveraging AI for Sustainable Organizations and Human Resource Development,” published in Advances in Developing Human Resources.
“An important problem that everybody is trying to solve now is integrating AI in organizations,” Goryunova said. “It is very important for this to be a human-centric process so we don’t give away our agency.”
The challenge, Goryunova said, is compounded by the broader environment organizations already operate within.
“Organizations exist in what scholars call a VUCA environment,” Goryunova said, referring to conditions that are volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. “When you bring artificial intelligence into that environment, you introduce another layer of complexity.”
To help leaders navigate those overlapping challenges, Goryunova and Yawson developed what they describe as a Nested Complexity framework for understanding how artificial intelligence systems interact with organizational structures, processes and people.
“When organizations think about AI, they often think about it as a tool that will make processes more efficient,” Goryunova said. “What they don’t realize is how complex it is, not because of the technology in the world, but because of the human factor that should be at the center of everything that takes place.”
The framework encourages organizations to approach artificial intelligence adoption deliberately rather than rushing to implement new technologies.
This recognition comes during a period of growing scholarly engagement with artificial intelligence across disciplines.
Following the award, Goryunova and her co-author were invited by Sage Publications to write a public-facing blog on their research, now in production. Goryunova has also been invited to guest edit a forthcoming special issue of Administrative Sciences, present at several 2026 academic conferences, and contribute to the forthcoming Routledge Handbook of the Sociology of the American Presidency on a Global Stage: Sociopolitical Forces, Leadership and Governance.
Goryunova joined USM in 2017 and leads the Leadership and Organizational Development program, which offers undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral studies focused on leadership and organizational change.
For Goryunova, universities play an important role in shaping how emerging technologies are understood and applied.
“Ethics is always an important topic. Human agency, the interaction between people and AI, and governance issues are all critical questions,” Goryunova said. “Universities are implementing it right now. Everybody wants to do the best for their constituency, and that is why it is very important to exercise dilligence.”