Eric Abrahamson
Hughie E. Mills Professor of Business
Management Division
Bernstein Faculty Leader
Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership and Ethics
BA, Haverford, 1982; MPhil, New York University, 1987; PhD, 1990
Joined CBS in 1989
Office:
395
Kravis
Phone:
212-854-4432
E-mail:
[email protected]
Fax:
212-316-9355
Curriculum Vitae
Biography
Professor Abrahamson studies the creation, spread, use and rejection of innovative techniques for managing organizations and their employees. He is best known for his work on fads and fashions in management techniques. He is also an expert on the management of organizational change. He has explored the topic of change management in Change Without Pain: How Managers Can Overcome Initiative Overload, Organizational Chaos, and Employee Burnout (Harvard Business School Press, 2005), which won a Best Book of the Year award from Strategy and Business.
More recently, Abrahamson has been studying the dynamics of moderately messy system - offices, organizations and even industrial districts - that would function less well were they any less messy or any more orderly. A summary of his scholarly work was published in Research in Organizational Behavior under the title "Disorganizational Theory and Disorganizational Behavior: Towards and Etiology of Messes" (2002). Most recently, Abrahamson has coauthored, with David Freedman, a book that popularizes these ideas about the benefits of moderately messy system: A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder, How cluttered closets, jumbled offices, and on-the-fly planning make the world a better place (Little, Brown and Company, 2007).
He lectures and consults on these topics for companies around the world.
Memberships & Affiliations
2002
2001
2000
1999, 3 year term
1999
1998
1998-2000
1997-1999
1996, 3 year term
1995-1996
1993, 3 year term
Teaching
Spring 2022
Power & Influence
(MBA)
Power & Influence
(EMBA)
Spring 2021
Fall 2021
Spring 2020
Fall 2020
Power & Influence
(EMBA)
(PhD) Organization Theory
(PHD)
Spring 2019
Fall 2019
Spring 2018
Power & Influence
(EMBA)
(PhD) Organization Theory
(PHD)
OT Seminar: Innovation Diffusion
(PHD)
Columbia Caseworks cases
Rome & Rybak
(2021)
Coauthor(s): Eric Abrahamson
Ed Heffernan at Alliance Data
(2012)
Coauthor(s): Eric Abrahamson
Donna Dubinsky: Act II
(2008)
Coauthor(s): Eric Abrahamson
Navigating Organizational Politics: The Case of Kristen Peters
(2009)
Coauthor(s): Eric Abrahamson, Todd Jick, James Kitts
In The Media
A Messy Desk Might Help Neatniks Be More Creative
The NHS Is Suffering from Repetitive Change Injury
Five Habits Which Are Actually Proof You’re a Superior Being
Bright Ideas Can Be Found in the Clutter of a Messy Desk
The Surprising Health Benefits of Clutter
Awards And Honors
2014
Academy of Management, 2008
1997
1997
1996
1994
1990
1987