Detail

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

• Spring 2013
  (PhD) Organization Theory (PHD)
  Power & Influence in Organizations (EMBA)
  
• Spring 2012
  (PhD) Organization Theory (PHD)
  Power & Influence in Organizations (EMBA)
  
• Fall 2012
  (PhD) Research Methods (PHD)
  
• Spring 2011
  (PhD) Organization Theory (PHD)
  Power & Influence in Organizations (EMBA)
  
• Fall 2011
  (PhD) Research Methods (PHD)
  
• Summer 2010
  Power & Influence in Organizations (EMBA)
  
• Spring 2010
  Power & Influence (MBA)
  Power & Influence in Organizations (EMBA)
  
• Summer 2009
  Power & Influence in Organizations (EMBA)
  
• Spring 2009
  Power & Influence (MBA)
  
• Fall 2009
  (PhD) Organization Theory (PHD)
  

Fads, Fashions and the Fluidity of Knowledge: The Story of Peter Senge's 'The Learning Organization' In The Blackwell Handbook of Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management (2011)
Author(s): Eric Abrahamson, Mikelle Calhoun, William Starbuck

What Lies Behind Organizational Facades and How Organizational Facades Lie: An Untold Story of Organizational Decision Making In The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Decision Making (2008)
Author(s): Eric Abrahamson, Phillipe Beaumard

The Iron Cage: Ugly, Uncool, and Unfashionable In Organizational Studies (2011)
Author(s): Eric Abrahamson

Researchers Should Make Thoughtful Assessments Instead of Null-Hypothesis In Organizational Science (2011)
Author(s): Andreas Schwab, Eric Abrahamson, William Starbuck, Fiona Fidler

Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship in China In Management and Organization Review (2010)
Author(s): Eric Abrahamson, P. Phan

Necessary Conditions for the Study of Fads and Fashions in Science In Scandinavian Journal of Management (2009)
Author(s): Eric Abrahamson

22 Things I Hate: Mini Rants on Management Research In Journal of Management Inquiry (2008)
Author(s): Eric Abrahamson

Employee-Management Techniques: Transient Fads or Trending Fashions? In Administrative Science Quarterly (2008)
Author(s): Eric Abrahamson, Micki Eisenman

Disorganization Theory and Disorganizational Behavior: Towards an Etiology of Messes In Research in Organizational Behavior (2002)
Author(s): Eric Abrahamson

Change Without Pain In Harvard Business Review (2000)
Author(s): Eric Abrahamson

Management Fashion: Life Cycle, Triggers, and Collective Learning Processes In Administrative Science Quarterly (1999)
Author(s): Eric Abrahamson, Gregory Fairchild

Movements, Bandwagons, and Clones: Industry Evolution and the Entrepreneurial Process In Journal of Business Venturing (1997)
Author(s): Eric Abrahamson

Social Network Effects on the Extent of Innovation Diffusion: A Computer Simulation In Organization Science (1997)
Author(s): Eric Abrahamson, Lori Rosenkopf

The Emergence and Prevalence of Employee Management Rhetorics: The Effect of Long Waves, Labor Unions, and Turnover, 1875 to 1992 In Academy of Management Journal (1997)
Author(s): Eric Abrahamson

Management Fashion In Academy of Management Review (1996)
Author(s): Eric Abrahamson

Assessing Managerial Discretion Across Industries: A Multimethod Approach In Academy of Management Journal (1995)
Author(s): Donald Hambrick, Eric Abrahamson

Concealment of Negative Organizational Outcomes: An Agency Theory Perspective In Academy of Management Journal (1994)
Author(s): Eric Abrahamson, Choelsoon Park

Macrocultures: Determinants and Consequences In Academy of Management Review (1994)
Author(s): Eric Abrahamson, Charles Fombrun

Institutional and Competitive Bandwagons: Using Mathematical Modeling as a Tool to Explore Innovation Diffusion In Academy of Management Review (1993)
Author(s): Eric Abrahamson, Lori Rosenkopf

Managerial Fads and Fashions: The Diffusion and Rejection of Innovations In Academy of Management Review (1991)
Author(s): Eric Abrahamson

Ed Heffernan at Alliance Data: Summer 2012
Author(s): Eric Abrahamson

Donna Dubinsky: Act II: Fall 2008
Author(s): Eric Abrahamson

Jean Spire at Teleswitches Ltd.: Fall 2011
Author(s): Eric Abrahamson, James Kitts, Ozgecan Kocak

Building Power and Exerting Influence: The Case of Kristen Peters: Spring 2009
Author(s): Eric Abrahamson, Todd Jick, James Kitts

Change Without Pain: How Managers Can Overcome Initiative Overload, Organizational Chaos, and Employee Burnout (2004)
Author(s): Eric Abrahamson

The interrelation between supply and demand in the market for management fashions In Academy of Management Review (2005)
Author(s): Eric Abrahamson, Ryan Michigan