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UC Davis experts: Organizational behaviorThe following UC Davis faculty members are available for comment on various topics related to organizational behavior. If you need more help in finding a source for a related topic, please contact Julia Ann Easley, News Service, (530) 752-8248, jaeasley@ucdavis.edu, or Claudia Morain, (530) 752-9841, cmmorain@ucdavis.edu.
Business and economic networks, innovation, technology adoptionNicole Woolsey Biggart, dean of the Graduate School of Management, is a professor of both management and sociology, and she holds the Jerome J. and Elsie Suran Chair in Technology Management. Biggart is an authority on organizational theory and management of innovation. Her research interests include economic and organizational sociology, firm networks, industrial change and social bases of technology adoption. The author of seven books or book-length reports, Biggart has studied a wide array of sectors, organizations and markets around the world, including the auto industries of South Korea, Taiwan, Spain and Argentina; the U.S. commercial building industry; Japanese management strategies in the United States; management and organization in the Far East; organizational explanations for scandals in the White House; organizational change in the U.S. Post Office; and the sociology of labor and leisure. She is also an expert in the formation of business clusters. Contact: Nicole Woolsey Biggart, Graduate School of Management, (530) 752-7366, nwbiggart@ucdavis.edu. Reputation and crisis management, creativity, work environmentKimberly Elsbach, associate professor of management in the Graduate School of Management, focuses her research on the acquisition and maintenance of organizational images, identities and reputations -- especially images of legitimacy, trustworthiness and creativity. Director of executive education, she also teaches and studies negotiation skills in competitive business environments. Her research provides a framework for communicating with shareholders, customers and employees in the immediacy of a reputation crisis and through long-term recovery. Her research on creativity shows how Hollywood movie and television producers judge the creativity of people pitching story ideas. She has studied the impacts of telecommuting and how firms and employees have dealt with the transformation of their workplace from a traditional office to a "hoteling" environment, in which employee have no permanent offices and reserve workspaces on a daily basis. Contact: Kim Elsbach, Graduate School of Management, (530) 752-0910, kdelsbach@ucdavis.edu.Management of technology and innovation, entrepreneurship, new productsAndrew Hargadon, associate professor and director of technology management programs for the Graduate School of Management, is an expert in technology management, management of innovation, entrepreneurship and the management of new product development. Hargadon's research is focused on the point at which technology and innovation meet and the interplay between product development and marketing. He looks at the sources of new ideas and the notion of "knowledge brokering." His book, How Breakthroughs Happen: The Surprising Truth About How Companies Innovate describes how engineers and entrepreneurs pull together old ideas and ways of thinking from different areas and use them to create revolutions in other industries and fields. A former design engineer for IDEO Product Development and Apple Computer, Hargadon also studies how entrepreneurs and designers must overcome the fact that people adopting innovations rely on familiar understandings and ideas to make sense of new technologies. Contact: Andrew Hargadon, Graduate School of Management, (530) 752-2277, abhargadon@ucdavis.edu. Corporate governance, executive succession, white-collar crime, ethicsProfessor Donald Palmer of the Graduate School of Management focuses his research on corporate governance, the interlocking nature of corporate directorships, and the role of power and politics in executive succession. He is an expert on corporate and white-collar crime, corporate ethics and social responsibility. As a specialist in organizational behavior, Palmer examines basic psychological and social psychological processes shaping human behavior and applies knowledge of these processes to the problem of working with and managing others in organizations. He also has extensive knowledge of mergers and acquisitions, regional economic growth and the health-care industry. Contact: Donald Palmer, Graduate School of Management, (530) 752-8566, dapalmer@ucdavis.edu.Industry evolution, niche and small-business strategies, changeProfessor Anand Swaminathan of the Graduate School of Management devotes his research to industry evolution, the strategies of small business and niche/specialist firms, organizational change and its consequences, social movement organizations and the effects of technological change on firm performance. His research has covered market entry, technological innovation and competition. Recently, he has studied the organization, structure and history of the American brewing and wine industries as well as the bicycle industry and U.S. auto component suppliers. Swaminathan has also researched and teaches the principles and applications of social network theory, specifically how to create value and foster change by coordinating employees within and between functional groups and coordinating activities across organizations. Contact: Anand Swaminathan, Graduate School of Management, (530) 752-9916, aswaminathan@ucdavis.edu. Disasters and organizational behaviorOrganizational sociologist Tom Beamish studies how organizations and institutions deal with disasters. Beamish, an assistant professor of sociology, can talk about how organizations -- governmental, commercial and social -- respond to human-induced disasters. He says many disasters reflect long-term problems actively ignored or simply not seen by the organizations charged with protecting the public. These organizations are generally reactive, often because being proactive means making difficult choices over funding and priorities, choosing among the risks, and a basic inertia in organizational routines. Beamish wrote "Silent Spill: The Organization of an Industrial Crisis" (2002). He received a 2003 Hazards Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation. Contact: Tom Beamish, Sociology, (530) 754-6897, tdbeamish@ucdavis.edu. Coordination of technical work, film productionBeth Bechky, assistant professor in the Graduate School of Management, conducts specialized research on the politics of knowledge work, work and occupations, and technology and organizations -- specifically how people in technical and science fields interact with machines and each other across occupational boundaries to get their jobs done. She can also comment on group dynamics and how technological change affects team processes in organizations. For a recent research project, Bechky did extensive field work on the sets of a television commercial, a music video, an independent film and a big-budget movie. Focusing her sights on workers behind the scenes, Bechky zoomed in on how complex film productions are coordinated. Contact: Beth Bechky , Graduate School of Management, (530) 752-0911, babechky@ucdavis.edu. Media contacts:
Last updated July 7, 2004 |
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