Author Details

Professor Jane Dutton is a world expert in the field of Positive Organizational Scholarship. Dr. Dutton co-founded the Center for Positive Organizations at the Ross School of Business in 2002.  She is the only Distinguished University Professor on the faculty at Ross which is the highest award given to a faculty member at the University of Michigan. She received her Ph.D in Organizational Behavior from Northwestern and served on the strategy faculty at New York University before joining Ross and the Psychology department. She has won teaching awards at each university where she has been on the faculty and has won the top research awards at both Ross and in her field of Management and Organizational Behavior.

Dutton’s research and teaching sit at the interaction of strategy, management and psychology. She has received tenure in all three fields. Her research focuses on processes that build capabilities and strengths of employees in organizations. In particular, she examines how high quality connections and identity processes increase employees’ and organizations’ capabilities. Her research has explored compassion and organizations, resilience and organizations, as well as energy and organizations. Her research on compassion, on job crafting, and  on positive identities has appeared in the Harvard Business Review (HBR), representing 3 of the over 100 articles she has published in refereed journals.  She has published 13 books, two focused directly on managers including her most recent book with Gretchen Spreitzer, How to Be a Positive Leader: Small Actions, Big Impact.   Dutton consults and works with a variety of organizations. For 10 years she served as co-director of ICOS (Interdisciplinary Committee of Organizational Studies), which is the largest interdisciplinary community of organizational scholars at any university. She serves on the Board of Directors for Kelly Services. She has also worked with over 160 for-profit and not-for-profit organizations as a faculty coach with teams of MBA students doing consulting on strategy, marketing and leadership projects.