Jeffrey Polzer

Jeff Polzer is the UPS Foundation Professor of Human Resource Management in the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School. He studies how people collaborate in teams and across organizational networks to accomplish their individual and collective goals. He has ongoing projects in collaboration with a number of organizations, often working with members of their people analytics groups on problems of mutual interest. He has taught a variety of courses in the MBA, Executive, and Doctoral Programs at HBS, and published his research in numerous top management and psychology journals.

Professor Polzer currently teaches "Leading with People Analytics" as an elective MBA course and in the Harvard Business Analytics Program for executives. His past MBA courses include Leadership and Organizational Behavior, Leading Teams, and Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development. He taught the doctoral course Human Behavior and served as the faculty chair of Harvard’s Organizational Behavior PhD program. He has also conducted executive training sessions for a variety of organizations including IBM, Novartis, AT&T, Allianz, Seagate, Jabil, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Citizens Bank, Bharti Airtel, Fresenius, Mercy Corps, and Ernst & Young.

Before coming to Harvard, he taught courses in Organizational Behavior and Negotiations at the University of Texas at Austin and Northwestern University, where he won the Kellogg Graduate School of Management's Doctoral Teaching Award. At HBS, he has received the Robert F. Greenhill Award for outstanding service, the Apgar Award for Innovation in Teaching, the Charles M. Williams award for his work with doctoral students, and the Wyss Award for Excellence in Doctoral Mentoring.

A native of Wisconsin, Professor Polzer earned a B.S. in Finance and Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and an MBA from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, where he worked for Burlington Northern Railroad as a marketing analyst. He received his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. He has published his research in the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Psychological Science, and Small Group Research.

AWARDS & HONORS

• Winner of the 2003 Outstanding Publication in Organizational Behavior from the Academy of Management's Organizational Behavior Division for "Capitalizing on Diversity: Interpersonal Congruence in Small Work Groups" (with L.P. Milton and W.B. Swann Jr., Administrative Science Quarterly, June 2002).