Department of Organizational Behavior

In 1964, the Department of Organizational Behavior at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management created the field’s first doctoral program—and we’ve been leading in innovation ever since. 

Today, our department is home to premier programs at the undergraduate, master, and doctoral levels. Our Leadership Minor and Bachelor of Science in Management with a concentration in Organizational Leadership program attract students from all over the world. We offer one of the nation’s finest and most innovative Master’s degree programs: the Master of Science in Positive Organization Development & Change (MSPOD). And we continue to maintain a leading Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior program as well, attracting students who conduct consequential research using rigorous methods.

Our primary focus in research and teaching is simple: Leading and managing change at the individual, team, organizational, and societal levels. As a department, we pride ourselves on maintaining a spirit of rigorous and consequential inquiry that continues to inspire new directions. 

Our faculty are thought leaders in prominent organizational research and pedagogical topics. Our areas of expertise include Appreciative inquiry and strengths-based approaches, Business as an agent of world benefit, Coaching, and leadership development, including organizational neuroscience, Emotionally intelligent leadership, Gender, diversity, equity, and inclusion, Management education and pedagogy, Organizational development, and Workplace relationships and dynamics. Our faculty have written field-defining books and published articles in leading management science journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, Academy of Management Learning & Education, Journal of Management, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Management Studies, Leadership Quarterly, Organization Science, Journal of Management Education, and many others. Our faculty members have worked on applied research in laboratory and field settings with a range of large organizations and networks, including numerous universities, city governments, corporations, nonprofit organizations, healthcare centers, and school systems, such as the National Science Foundation’s ADVANCE program, Walmart, United Nations Global Compact, The American Dairy Association, The European Social Fund, The U.S. Navy, Ford, GTE, The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).