You are here

Hayagreeva Rao

Hayagreeva   Rao
Professor, Organizational Behavior
Contact Info
HayagreevaRao
Atholl McBean Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources
Professor of Sociology (by courtesy), School of Humanities and Sciences
Director of the Managing Talent for Strategic Advantage Executive Program
Codirector of the Customer-Focused Innovation Executive Program
Academic Director, Stanford Innovation and Entrepreneurship Certificate
Academic Area: 
Organizational Behavior

Research Statement

Professor Rao studies collective action within organizations and in markets. His research and by implication, his teaching, revolves around scaling up mobilization, innovation, and talent in organizations.

Teaching Statement

Professor Rao teaches courses on Scaling up Excellence, HR for Startups, and Launch to Liquidity - a course he coteaches with Professors Levav and Rauh.

Bio

His most recent book, co-authored with Bob Sutton of the School of Engineering at Stanford, is Scaling Up Excellence (www.scalingupexcellence.com). The book is a  Wall Street Journal Best seller, and was included in the best business books to read in 2014 by Financial Times, Inc Magazine, Amazon, Forbes, Washington Post and the Library Journal.

His research has been published in journals such as the Administrative Science Quarterly, American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science and Strategic Management Journal. He is also the author of “Market Rebels: How Activists Make or Break Radical Innovation”, Princeton University Press. 2009.

He served as the Editor of Administrative Science Quarterly, and has been a member of the editorial boards of American Journal of Sociology and Organization Science and Academy of Management Review. He has been a Member of the Organizational Innovation and Change Panel of the National Science Foundation.

He is a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Science, a Fellow of the Sociological Research Association and also a Fellow of the Academy of Management.

His teaching specialties include leading organizational change, building customer focused cultures, and organization design. He teaches courses on these topics to MBA and executive audiences. He has consulted with, and conducted executive workshops for, organizations such as Aon Corporation, British Petroleum, CEMEX, General Electric, Hearst Corporation, IBM, Mass Mutual, James Hardie Company, Seyfarth and Shaw. Additionally, he also worked with nonprofit organizations such as the American Cancer Society and governmental organizations such as the FBI and CIA, and the intelligence community.

Among the awards he has received are the Sidney Levy Teaching Award from the Kellogg School of Management, and the W. Richard Scott Distinguished Award for Scholarship from the American Sociological Association.

Academic Degrees

  • PhD, Case Western Reserve University, 1989
  • Post-Graduate Diploma in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations, XLRI, India, 1980
  • BA, Andhra University, India, 1978

Academic Appointments

  • At Stanford University since 2005
  • Richard L.Thomas Distinguished Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2002-2005
  • Charles Howard Candler Professor of Management, Emory University Goizueta Business School, April-June 2002
  • Professor of Organization & Management, Emory University Goizueta Business School, 2000-2002
  • Associate Professor of Organization & Management, Emory University Goizueta Business School , 1995-2000;
  • Assistant Professor of Organization & Management, Emory University Goizueta Business School, 1989-1994

Awards and Honors

  • W. Richard Scott Distinguished Award for Scholarly Contributions, American Sociological Association, 2005
  • Fellow of Sociological Research Association, American Sociological Association, 2007
  • Sidney Levy Award For Teaching, Kellogg School of Management, 2004,
  • Fellow, Academy of Management, 2008,
  • Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Science, 2004,

Publications

Journal Articles

Lori Yue, Hayagreeva Rao, Paul Ingram. Administrative Science Quarterly. October 21, 2013, Vol. 58, Pages 669-701.
Henrich R. Greve, Hayagreeva Rao. American Journal of Sociology. 2012, Vol. 118, Issue 3, Pages 635-675.
Hayagreeva Rao, Sunasir Dutta. Administrative Science Quarterly. 2012, Vol. 57, Issue 4 , Pages 625-668.
Christophe Boone, Carolyn H. Declerck, Hayagreeva Rao, Kristin Van den Buys. Poetics. 2012, Vol. 40, Issue 1, Pages 44-66.
Giacomo Negro, Michael T. Hannan, Hayagreeva Rao. Organizational Science. 2011, Vol. 22 , Issue 6, Pages 1449-1463.
Hayagreeva Rao, Lori Qingyuan Yue, Paul Ingram. American Sociological Review. 2011, Vol. 76, Issue 3, Pages 365-385.
Elizabeth Pontikes, Giacomo Negro, Hayagreeva Rao. American Sociological Review. June 2010, Vol. 75, Issue 3, Pages 456-478.
Giacomo Negro, Michael T. Hannan, Hayagreeva Rao. Industrial and Corporate Change. 2010, Vol. 19, Pages 1397-1425.
Henrich Greve, Jo-Ellen Pozner, Hayagreeva Rao. American Journal of Sociology. 2010, Vol. 116, Issue 2, Pages 656-662.
Klaus Weber, Hayagreeva Rao, L. G. Thomas. American Sociological Review. 2009, Vol. 74, Issue 1, Pages 106-127.
Timothy J. Rowley, Henrich R. Greve, Hayagreeva Rao, Joel A. C. Baum, Andrew V. Shipilov. Academy of Management Journal. June 1, 2005, Vol. 48, Issue 3, Pages 499-520.
Hayagreeva Rao, Philippe Monin, Rodolphe Durand. American Sociological Review. 2005, Vol. 70, Issue 6, Pages 968-991.
Paul Ingram, Hayagreeva Rao. American Journal of Sociology. 2004, Vol. 110, Issue 2, Pages 446–487.
Hayagreeva Rao, Philippe Monin, Rodolphe Durand. American Journal of Sociology. January 2003, Vol. 108, Issue 4, Pages 795-843.
Hayagreeva Rao, Robert Drazin. Academy of Management Journal. 2002, Vol. 45, Issue 3, Pages 491-507.

Books

Robert I. Sutton, Hayagreeva Rao Crown Business, 2014.
Hayagreeva Rao Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009.

Working Papers

Courses Taught

Degree Courses

2015-16

This course focuses attention on human resource strategies for startups. It discusses recruitment, incentives, design of jobs, development of talent, leadership and empowerment challenges in startups. We will deal with questions ranging from...

This course considers the challenges faced by start-ups in achieving liquidity. We take the perspectives of organizational behavior, marketing, and finance, and examine forks in the road faced by firms that have already launched products....

The premise of the course is that managers are concerned with how to scale excellence in organizations and that scaling skills are essential for any leadership role. It will be taught with Shantanu Narayen, the CEO of Adobe. The course is...

2014-15

This course focuses attention on human resource strategies for startups. It discusses recruitment, incentives, design of jobs, development of talent, leadership and empowerment challenges in startups. We will deal with questions ranging from...

Social movement actors have helped initiate some of the major social, cultural, and political changes of the modern era. It is hard to imagine a major political or social reform that did not find its origins in a social movement or collective...

This course considers the challenges faced by start-ups in achieving liquidity. We take the perspectives of organizational behavior, marketing, and finance, and examine forks in the road faced by firms that have already launched products....

The premise of the course is that managers are concerned with how to scale excellence in organizations and that scaling skills are essential for any leadership role. It will be taught with Shantanu Narayen, the CEO of Adobe. The course is...

2013-14

This seminar considers the leading sociological approaches to analyzing relations of organizations and environments, with a special emphasis on dynamics. Attention is given to theoretical formulations, research designs, and results of empirical...

This course considers the challenges faced by start-ups in achieving liquidity. We take the perspectives of organizational behavior, marketing, and finance, and examine forks in the road faced by firms that have already launched products....

Stanford Case Studies

Adobe: Building Momentum by Abandoning Annual Performance Reviews for “Check-Ins” | HR38
Rebecca Hinds, Robert Sutton, Hayagreeva Rao2014
BuildDirect: Constructing a Culture That Can Weather the Storms | E526
Robert Sutton, Hayagreeva Rao, Rebecca Hinds2014
Navy SEALs: Selecting and Training for an Elite Fighting Force | HR40
Hayagreeva Rao, Carter Bowen, Gib Lopez2014
Peixe Urbano (A) The Ride Up the Roller Coaster | E494A
Hayagreeva Rao, Yin Li2014
Peixe Urbano (B) From Founder to Turnaround CEO | E494B
Hayagreeva Rao, Yin Li2014
The Rapid Equipping Force Customer Focused Innovation in the U.S. Army | L20
Hayagreeva Rao, Robert Sutton, David Hoyt2013
Chemrad Corporation: President and CEO Search | HR36
Hayagreeva Rao, Thomas J Friel2010
Gruppo illy SpA (B): Università del Caffè | SM188B
Glenn Carroll, Victoria Chang, Hayagreeva Rao2010
Illycaffè and Gruppo illy (A): Expanding Beyond Gourmet Coffee | SM188A
Glenn Carrol, Victoria Chang, David Hoyt, Hayagreeva Rao2010
JetBlue Airways, A New Beginning | L17
David Hoyt, Charles O'Reilly III, Hayagreeva Rao, Robert Sutton2010
Mozilla: Scaling Through a Community of Volunteers | HR35
David Hoyt, Hayagreeva Rao, Robert Sutton2009
Scaling: How China-Based VanceInfo Grows Big Fast | HR34
Hayagreeva Rao, Pamela Yatsko2009
Employee Recognition at Intuit | HR31
David Hoyt, Hayagreeva Rao2008
Infosys: Building a Talent Engine to Sustain Growth | HR30
David Hoyt, Hayagreeva Rao2007

Stanford University Affiliations

Greater Stanford University

Service to the Profession

  • Editor, Administrative Science Quarterly, 2008-2011
  • Member, Macro-Organizational Behavior Society, 1997-present
  • Consulting Editor, American Journal of Sociology, 2001-2003
  • Member, Organization and Innovation Panel, National Science Foundation, 2000-2002
  • Senior Editor, Organization Science, 2000-2002

In the Media

Bussiness Insider Australia, March 30, 2015

Insights by Stanford Business

July 28, 2015
Fear of contagion makes people irrational.
January 21, 2015
Professor Huggy Rao provides a practical framework for changing your company from the inside out.
December 11, 2014
Explore 10 Stanford Business stories from 2014, including pieces on happiness and networking.
January 7, 2014
Two Stanford professors discuss their new book, Scaling Up Excellence, which reveals how the best leaders and teams create a growth mindset.
October 1, 2013
A game-changing idea can win or lose depending on how quickly the consumer “gets” it.
September 28, 2012
Hayagreeva Rao explains why innovation is about more than just new technology.
July 1, 2010
Researchers explore the role of 1950s-era social networks in the Hollywood "Red Scare."