Paul Adler

Summary Statement of Research Interests

Professor Adler began his education in Australia and completed his graduate studies in France while working as a research economist for the French government. He came to the USA in 1981, and before arriving at USC in 1991, he was affiliated with the Brookings Institution, Barnard College, the Harvard Business School, and Stanford’s School of Engineering. His research and teaching focus on organization theory and design, most particularly in R&D, engineering, software, healthcare, and manufacturing operations. He has served as chair of the Technology and Innovation Management Division and of the Critical Management Studies Interest Group of the Academy of Management, and served as President of the Academy of Management in 2013-214. He has published widely in academic journals, edited several books, most recently The Firm as a Collaborative Community: Reconstructing Trust in the Knowledge Economy (2006), The Oxford Handbook of Sociology and Organization Studies: Classical Foundations (2009), The Oxford Handbook of Sociology, Social Theory, and Organization Studies: Contemporary Currents (2014), and co-authored Healing Together: The Labor-Management Partnership at Kaiser Permanente (2009).

Research Specialties

Organization theory and design; comparative political-economy of environmental sustainability.