Rosabeth Moss Kanter Explained

Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Birth Name:Rosabeth Moss
Birth Date:15 March 1943
Birth Place:Cleveland, Ohio, US
Other Names:Rosabeth M. Kanter
Thesis Title:Utopia[1]
Thesis Year:1967
Influences:C. Wright Mills[2]
Main Interests:Tokenism

Rosabeth Moss Kanter (born March 15, 1943)[3] is an American sociologist who is a professor of business at Harvard Business School.[4] She co-founded the Harvard University Advanced Leadership Initiative and served as Director and Founding Chair from 2008 to 2018.[5] She was the top-ranking woman—No. 11 overall—in a 2002 study of Top Business Intellectuals by citation in several sources.[6] She was named one of the "50 most powerful women in Boston" by Boston Magazine[7] and named one of "125 women who changed our world" over the past 125 years by Good Housekeeping magazine in May 2010.[8]

Early life

Rosabeth Moss was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Helen (Smolen) Moss, a schoolteacher, and Nelson Nathan Moss, a lawyer and small-business owner.[9] She has a younger sister, Myra.[10] Kanter described her childhood as "benign" and herself as ambitious, having written a novel and entered essay contests as early as 11 years old.[10]

Education

Kanter graduated from Cleveland Heights High School in 1960 and then went on to study sociology and English literature at Bryn Mawr College, graduating magna cum laude in 1964.[11] The following year she received an MA in sociology and, in 1967, a PhD from the University of Michigan.[3] Her dissertation was on 19th-century utopian communes.[12] Although Kanter later decided to pursue a career in business research,[12] her training as a sociologist informed her thinking and subsequent work.[13]

Career

Kanter was assistant professor of sociology at Brandeis University from 1967 to 1973 and again from 1974 to 1977, visiting associate professor of administration at Harvard University, as well as professor of sociology at Yale University from 1977 to 1986.[14] She served as editor of the Harvard Business Review from 1989 to 1992, the last academic to hold the job.[15] She is chair and director of the Harvard University Advanced Leadership Initiative.[16]

Kanter's earliest work as a sociologist focused on utopian communities and communes in the United States. In her 1972 book, Commitment & Community: Communes and Utopias in Sociological Perspective, she argued that the internal characteristics of a utopian community lead to its success or failure. Kanter defined a "successful" commune as one that lasted for longer than thirty-three years. After surveying ninety-one communal projects from the period between 1780 and 1860, she determined that communal groups such as the Shakers, Amana, and Oneida were among the most successful nineteenth-century communes. To explain their success, Kanter noted these groups' rituals and clear boundaries for membership, as well as the "commitment mechanisms" that utopians utilized: sacrifice, investment, renunciation, communion, mortification and transcendence.[17] She concluded that the more that a utopian community asked of its members, the more cohesive and long-lasting it was.

Kanter has written numerous books on business management techniques, particularly change management; she also has a regular column in the Miami Herald. She is known for her 1977 study of tokenism - how being a minority in a group can affect one's performance due to enhanced visibility and performance pressure. Her study of Men and Women of the Corporation[18] is a classic in critical management studies, bureaucracy analysis and gender studies.

Kanter was an economic adviser to Michael Dukakis in his 1988 bid for presidency.[14] Together they wrote a book entitled Creating the future: the Massachusetts comeback and its promise for America, an examination of the Massachusetts Miracle.[14] [19]

Kanter co-founded the consulting firm Goodmeasure Inc. and has served as chair since 1980. She advises CEOs of companies and has served on various business and non-profit boards.[20] Her consulting clients have included large companies such as IBM, Gap Inc., Monsanto, British Airways, and Volvo.[21] Kanter has spoken in national and international events along with Presidents, Prime Ministers and CEOs. Her main focus is speaking out on addressing educational dilemmas.[20]

Management theory

Kanter's theory of management suggests the manner by which a company operates influences attitudes of the work force. Kanter says employees show a variety of behaviors depending on whether structural support is in position. Her view is power emanates from informal and formal sources. Employees must have access to available resources to accomplish the organization's objectives. It is also essential to promote the staff's skills and comprehension.[22]

An article in Management Today cited Kanter as "probably the first woman to attain indisputable management guru status." Kanter has interests in corporate strategies, self-confidence, and demographic shift. She has a fondness for conducting detailed research therefore earning the pseudonym, "The Thinking Woman's Michael Porter".[23]

An article published in the San Diego Tribune on May 29, 2018, mentioned Kanter's idea that the happiest employees can solve the most difficult problems and make a positive change in the lives of people.[24] In an interview with Business Insider in 2015, Kanter deplored the "miserable state of America's infrastructure which impaired the economy and affected American citizens."

Books

Awards

The Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award is given in recognition of the best piece of work-family research. The award was created by the Center for Families at Purdue University and the Center for Work and Family at Boston College in honor of Kanter.[29] [30]

Personal life

Kanter's first husband, Stuart A. Kanter, whom she had married in her junior year at Bryn Mawr,[10] died in 1969.[11] She married consultant Barry Stein in 1972; he died in 2023. Together they have one son.[11]

Selected bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Kanter . Rosabeth Moss . 1967 . Utopia: A Study in Comparative Organization . PhD . Ann Arbor, Michigan . University of Michigan . 48240266.
  2. Web site: Potia . Zeenat . Ely . Robin . Robin J. Ely . Kanter . Rosabeth Moss . Rosabeth Moss Kanter . 12 September 2018 . Celebrating a Landmark Book on Gender in the Workplace . Boston, Massachusetts . Harvard Business School . 5 May 2019.
  3. Book: Royster, Jacqueline Jones . Profiles of Ohio women, 1803-2003 . 2003 . . Athens, Ohio . 978-0-8214-1508-5 . 9 .
  4. http://drfd.hbs.edu/fit/public/facultyInfo.do?facInfo=bio&facEmId=rkanter@hbs.edu&loc=extn "Rosabeth M. Kanter"
  5. Web site: Rosabeth M. Kanter - Faculty & Research - Harvard Business School . 2023-10-31 . www.hbs.edu . en.
  6. http://newsroom.accenture.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=3898 "Accenture Study Yields Top 50 'Business Intellectuals' Ranking of Top Thinkers and Writers on Management Topics"
  7. Hall, Alexandra (February 2011). "The 50 Most Powerful Women in Boston" . Boston. Retrieved April 12, 2012.
  8. http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/family/inspirational-people/women-who-changed-our-world?src=edit&mag=ghk&chan=hp&link=women-who-changed-our-world-PP-M1&click=pp#slide-1 "125 Women Who Changed Our World"
  9. Book: Graham, Judith . Current biography yearbook, 1996 . 1996 . . New York . 978-0-8242-0908-7 . 234 .
  10. News: Deutsch . Claudia H. . 2004-09-19 . If at First You Don't Succeed, Believe Harder . 2024-07-22 . The New York Times . en-US . 0362-4331.
  11. Book: Krismann, Carol H. . Encyclopedia of American women in business: from colonial times to the present . 2005 . . Westport, Conn. . 978-0-313-32757-5 . 299 - 300. registration .
  12. Soley, Lawrence C. (1995). "Leasing the ivory tower: the corporate takeover of academia". Boston, Massachusetts: South End Press, p. 79. .
  13. O'Hara, Mary (November 12, 2008) ."Prophet for a new age". The Guardian. Retrieved April 28, 2012.
  14. Book: Sheldrake, John . Management theory . 2003 . . London . 978-1-86152-963-3 . 231 .
  15. Book: Hindle, Tim . Guide to management ideas and gurus . 2008 . . London . 978-1-84668-108-0 . 257 - 258.
  16. Web site: Rosabeth M. Kanter. Harvard Business School. 2017-11-30.
  17. Book: Kanter. Rosabeth Moss. Commitment & Community: Communes and Utopias in Sociological Perspective. registration. 1972. Harvard University Press. 75–125. 978-0-674-14575-7 .
  18. Book: Kanter, Rosabeth Moss . Men and Women of the Corporation . 2008 . 1977. Basic Books . New York . 978-0-7867-2384-3.
  19. [Fox Butterfield|Butterfield, Fox]
  20. Web site: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ph.D. . 2023-11-03 . World Business Academy . en-US.
  21. Cooper, Cary L. (2000). "Who's who in the management sciences". Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, Massachusetts: Edward Elgar. p. 234–237. .
  22. News: Management Theory of Rosabeth Moss Kanter . 2018-05-29 . business.com.
  23. News: Rosabeth Moss Kanter: Management guru . 2018-05-30.
  24. News: JIMENEZ . JAMES . Back to school: Filling the need for teachers . en-US . Pomerado News . 2018-05-30.
  25. http://www.gf.org/fellows/7540-rosabeth-moss-kanter "Rosabeth Moss Kanter"
  26. Book: Pugh, Derek Salman . Great writers on organizations . Hickson, David John . . 2007 . 978-0-7546-7056-8 . Aldershot . 177 . Derek S. Pugh . David John Hickson.
  27. http://www.sssp1.org/?pageID=122/m/259 "C. Wright Mills Award Past Winners"
  28. http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/12/newsmakers-7/ "Newsmakers"
  29. http://www.cfs.purdue.edu/cff/projects/current_projects/kanter_award/kanter.html "The Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award"
  30. http://www.bc.edu/centers/cwf/Kanter.html "Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award"

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Rosabeth Moss Kanter".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.