Professor Ferguson's research focuses on the dynamics of bureaucracy and careers in organizations. He concentrates on the ways that formal rules and structures affect managers' decisions and shape both workers' careers and organizational change. His work examines for example the costs and benefits for workers of getting specialized rather than diverse career experience; the ways that task interdependence and career mobility shape job redesign; and whether formalized employment policies reduce employment segregation.
Professor Ferguson is a mutt who spent equal parts of his childhood in New Jersey and Texas. This was useful, because the two accents cancel one another out perfectly. Prior to academia, he spent time in international development, working for the U.S. State Department, the ILO, and the World Bank. Professor Ferguson’s waistline obscures a passionate interest in cycling; in his spare time he volunteers as a mechanic in San Francisco, helping people to build, maintain and repair their bikes.
This pro-seminar is primarily for OB-macro PhD students who are developing dissertation ideas. The focus is on the theoretical argument underpinning the dissertation research. Students will regularly present and comment upon one another's ideas....
This course examines fundamental issues of general management and leadership within an organization. You will learn about setting an organization's strategic direction, aligning structure to implement strategy, and leading individuals within the...
This course examines fundamental issues of general management and leadership within an organization. You will learn about setting an organization's strategic direction, aligning structure to implement strategy, and leading individuals within the...
Racial and sexual segregation within firms and other organizations is persistently decried as a social problem. Yet there is persistent scholarly debate about the causes, effects, and remedies for such segregation. Over five weeks this course...
Most macro-organizational theories draw on assumptions about how work is performed within organizations; yet organizational scholarship has for a generation been filled with descriptions of how work and the employment relationship have been...
This course examines fundamental issues of general management and leadership within an organization. You will learn about setting an organization's strategic direction, aligning structure to implement strategy, and leading individuals within the...
