Joe Harder

Joe is an enthusiastic and highly rated instructor, having received nine awards for teaching excellence. In Darden's MBA program, he teaches two sections a year of his popular one week elective titled "The Spirit of the New Workplace,” which he also teaches twice a year at the Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University. This course couples exploration of exemplary organizations and leaders with a facilitated self-development process in order to teach participants how they can create work environments in which people are inspired to innovate, collaborate, and thrive. The class itself aims to provide a holistic experience, engaging participants at the mind, body, heart, and soul levels through facilitated large and small group conversations, experiential activities, movement and physical recreation, and reflection and meditation. Along with Peter Robertson and Hayden Woodward, Joe presented a paper at the Academy of Management annual meetings in Hawaii, August 2005, titled "A holistic framework for the design of transformational learning experiences," which uses examples from the class in elaborating upon a 4x4 learning matrix they developed.
Joe's current research centers on applying living systems ideas to organizational design, leadership, successful adaptation, and large system sustainability, which has resulted in a paper being published in a 2004 special issue of Organization Development Journal devoted to "new and emerging issues and theories in O.D. and change" (also with Robertson and Woodward). He has published his research as well in journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Applied Psychology, Sloan Management Review, and Social Justice Research. His work on justice and organizational reward systems has been cited in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, AdWeek, Institutional Investor, and Sports Illustrated.
Joe has consulted and taught executive education sessions around the globe on topics of leadership, culture, motivation, teamwork, and organizational change for clients including Lucent Technologies, The Department of Defense, United Technologies, Unilever, USAA, PricewaterhouseCoopers, NASA, Siam Cement Group, Whole Foods Markets, and The Brookings Institution, as well as in a number of open enrollment programs at Wharton and Darden. Joe has also consulted with and coached hundreds of executive education participants on the Leadership Practices Inventory® or company specific leadership development tools as part of Darden programs such as Strategic Sales Management, United Technologies Emerging Leaders Program, and Department of Homeland Security/United States Coast Guard Program on Managing Individual and Organizational Change.
Joe holds a B.S. degree in economics and business administration from Bethel College, an M.B.A. from Santa Clara University, and a Ph.D. in organizational behavior from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, where his dissertation under the direction of Jeffrey Pfeffer focused on pay and performance in professional sports.