Donald C. Hambrick
Professor, Evan Pugh University Professor & Smeal Chaired Professor of Management
Department Management and Organization
Office Address 414 Business Building
Phone Number
814-863-0917
Email Address
dch14@psu.edu
Donald C. Hambrick

Professor, Evan Pugh University Professor & Smeal Chaired Professor of Management
Department Management and Organization
Office Address 414 Business Building
Phone Number
814-863-0917
Email Address
dch14@psu.edu
An internationally recognized scholar in the field of top management, Don Hambrick is the author of numerous articles, chapters, and books on the topics of strategy formulation, strategy implementation, executive staffing and incentives, and the composition and processes of top management teams. His recent book, Navigating Change: How CEOs, Top Teams, and Boards Steer Transformation, presents leading-edge thinking for executives who are embarking on corporate change initiatives. Another book, Strategic Leadership: Theory and Research on Executives, Top Management Teams, and Boards, is extensively used by scholars of executive leadership. He also conducted the widely-noted worldwide study of executive leadership, Reinventing the CEO. He is an acknowledged leader in his field, serving as President of the prestigious Academy of Management in 1992-93. He also has served on the board of directors of the Strategic Management Society and on the editorial boards of almost all the major scholarly journals in his field.
Expertise
Current research focuses on executive psychology, top management team dynamics, and history and evolution of the field of strategic management.
Education
Ph D, Organizational Strategy and Policy, The Pennsylvania State University, 1979
MBA, Marketing and Planning/Control, Harvard University, 1972
BS, Finance, University of Colorado at Boulder, 1968
Courses Taught
MGMT 596 – Individual Studies (Variable)
Creative projects, including nonthesis research, which are supervised on an individual basis and which fall outside the scope of formal courses.
MGMT 601 – Ph.D Dis Full-Time
NO DESCRIPTION.
MGMT 831 – Strat Impl and Chg (2)
Assess gap between current organization and that needed to implement new strategy or execute change; identify process for closing gap.
MGMT 535 – Upper Echelons (3)
To learn to evaluate and conduct research on top executives and their influence on organizational strategy, structure and performance.
MGMT 531 – Strat Impl and Chg (2)
This course addresses the managerial challenge of strategy implementation, particularly by examining the organizational elements that must be drawn into line to support a strategy, as well as the immense difficulties of changing an organization. As such, the course relies on two overarching frameworks. The first is a model of organizational alignment; the second is a model for managing the change process. The course will emphasize application and practice, primarily by the use of cases. Students will be asked, class after class, to take the position of a senior manager or an adviser to a manager, and develop answers to questions like these: WhatÀs the real problem here? How are the elements of the problem interconnected? What should be done? How, specifically, should we go about it? Strategy Implementation and Organizational Change will be relevant for a broad array of students, including those hoping to be managers, consultants, investors, and entrepreneurs. Because the course focuses on changing entire organizations (rather than small parts of organizations), we will be primarily taking the point of view of senior managers. However, our frameworks and tools, and the skills students will develop, will be useful early in their careers, as they face the need to manage change in their own subunits, as well as the need to comprehend and contribute to firm-wide changes.
MGMT 578 – Sem Corp Stratgy (3)
Current theoretical and research issues applicable to the study of corporate strategy formulation and implementation.