Kathleen Sutcliffe
Professor Emeritus of Business Administration. Professor Emeritus of Management and Organizations at Stephen M. Ross School of Business
Professor (Management & Organization) at Carey Business School

Schools
- Stephen M. Ross School of Business
- Carey Business School
Expertise
Links
Biography
Stephen M. Ross School of Business
Kathleen Sutcliffe’s research interests and expertise are in the areas of strategic management and organization theory, and are broadly focused on organization adaptability, reliability, and resilience. One stream of her research examines top executive teams and team processes, specifically to understand how top executive teams influence firm performance. In a second stream of research, Sutcliffe investigates how organizations can be designed to better sense, cope with, and respond to unexpected and changing demands, demands that if ignored, could result in errors that escalate into catastrophes. Sutcliffe has published her research widely in management and healthcare, and has presented her research nationally and internationally.
Carey Business School
Areas of Interest: , High reliability organizing,, Managing Risk and Uncertainty,, Resilience,, Organizational Change
Biography
Kathleen M. Sutcliffe, PhD (University of Texas, Austin) is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Business and Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. Her research is on how organizations and their members cope with uncertainty and unexpected surprises, and how organizations can be designed to be more reliable and resilient. She is currently investigating these issues in healthcare as well as in wild-land firefighting, oil and gas exploration, and other dynamic high-risk industries.
Honors & Distinctions
- Past Chairman of the Academy of Management Division of Managerial and Organizational Cognition.
- Editorial boards, Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Organization Studies
- Appointment by National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine to study workforce resilience in the Department of Homeland Security. The research was published in 2013 in a book titled: A Ready and Resilient Workforce for the Department of Homeland Security: Protecting America’s Front Line (Washington, DC: The National Academies Press).
Videos
Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Lecture Series: Kathleen Sutcliffe
Read about executive education
Other experts
Looking for an expert?
Contact us and we'll find the best option for you.