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Scott Sonenshein
CV
Organizational Behavior

Scott Sonenshein

Henry Gardiner Symonds Professor of Management – Organizational Behavior

Faculty
McNair Hall 230
713-348-3182 scotts@rice.edu
Scott Sonenshein
CV
Organizational Behavior

Scott Sonenshein is the Henry Gardiner Symonds Professor of Management at Rice University and bestselling author of Stretch: Unlock the Power of Less – And Achieve More Than You Ever Imagined and co-author (with Marie Kondo) of Joy at Work: Organizing Your Professional Life. 

Prior to joining Rice Business in 2007, he taught at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan where he also received his Ph.D. in Management and Organizations. Sonenshein also received a B.A. from the University of Virginia in Business Ethics and an M.Phil from the University of Cambridge in Management Studies.

His research employs field methodologies (primarily involving qualitative data) to explain the resourceful actions of employees to foster organizational, social and personal change. His work usually follows an inductive approach using grounded theory and other ethnographic methods.

Sonenshein has contributed to a variety of theoretical perspectives that span both “micro” and “macro” topics, including creativity, sensemaking, identity, personal growth, prosocial competition, social influence, and decision making. He has made these contributions by locating generative field settings ranging from fashion to food trucks, banks to booksellers, and entrepreneurs to environmentalists. Although his studies often contain an inductive surprise, his work coalesces around illuminating the skill, agency, and motivation of individuals to contribute to change (personal, organizational and social) as well as the corresponding practices that foster these outcomes.

In 2013, the Center for Positive Organizations at the University of Michigan awarded his paper on the psychological resources employees create through sensemaking to facilitate strategic change with its Biennial Best Paper Award. In 2008, The Aspen Institute recognized his research on social change and business ethics by naming him a finalist for its Faculty Pioneer Award. In 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2017, he won the Rice Business Faculty Research Excellence Award.

Sonenshein’s research has appeared in many leading journals of organizational behavior including Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal and Organization Science. Additionally, he served as an associate editor at the Academy of Management Journal and currently sits on its editorial board along with Academy of Management Review and Organization Science.

Sonenshein has written for the New York Times, Time Magazine, Fast Company and Harvard Business Review. He has been interviewed on national and local television, NPR stations throughout the country, and has been featured in most major newspapers.

Please visit his website to learn more: www.ScottSonenshein.com

Teaching Interests: 

  • Organizational behavior
  • Change
  • Leadership

Research Interests: 

  • Sensemaking
  • Narratives
  • Social Influence
  • Creativity
  • Organizational change
  • Social issues

Rice Business Wisdom

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Corporate Social Activism | Peer-Reviewed Research

Cause And Effect

How to get your company to buy in for your cause.
Stained paint brushes.
Workplace Creativity | Peer-Reviewed Research

The Da Vinci Routine

How companies can foster employee creativity in routines.
Child sitting up a tree and reading a book
Organizational Behavior | Peer-Reviewed Research

Story Time

Why the stories companies tell themselves are serious business.
""
Management | Peer-Reviewed Research

Retail Therapy

Organizations can solve problems by repurposing objects in creative ways.
""
Advocacy at Work | Peer-Reviewed Research

Power To The People

Advice for employee advocates about changing the world.
""
Business Ethics | Peer-Reviewed Research

Moral Compass

Ethical expertise is a teachable skill.
Corporate Culture | Peer-Reviewed Research

Hive Mind

How the company you work for guides your idea of self-improvement.
Peer-to-Peer Lending | Peer-Reviewed Research

Tell Me A Story

Crafting a trustworthy persona online makes a difference in landing a loan—and paying it back.
Competition | Peer-Reviewed Research

Compliments Of The Chef

What happens when food trucks mix business, peer pressure and high standards?
""
Organizational Behavior | Peer-Reviewed Research

Money Talks

How employees shape the companies that help reshape society.
Book Excerpt | Mind Your Business

Resourcefulness

Scott Sonenshein teaches us we all have more to work with than we can imagine.
Top down view of a workbench
Peer-Reviewed Research

Is Necessity Truly The Mother Of Invention?

Through their actions, leaders can foster creativity within their companies.

In The Media

Brené Brown and Schoot Sonensheins

UnLocking Us With Brené Brown Podcast

Brené with Scott Sonenshein on Stretching and Chasing

""
In The Media

Finding Joy at Work During These Uncertain Times

Scott Sonenshein is the co-author of Joy at Work: Organizing Your Professional Life with Marie Kondo. Scott recently hosted a Twitter Q&A answering readers’ questions on how to best adjust to a new work routine during the coronavirus pandemic.

Rice Business
In The Media

How the COVID-19 crisis will make us more resourceful

As an organizational psychologist and business school professor at Rice University, I’ve been studying resourcefulness for nearly 20 years, both in times of crisis and times of prosperity. The scientific evidence on resourcefulness shows that constraints activate the flexibility and creativity we need to overcome hard challenges.

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