Michael Boyer O'Leary, PhD
Assistant Professor - Organization Studies Department
Michael O’Leary received a BA in Public Policy Studies from Trinity College, Duke University, where he served as a member of the Board of Trustees from 1991 to 1995. He received his PhD in organization studies from the MIT Sloan School of Management and joined the Organization Studies faculty at Boston College in 2002.
His current research focuses on geographically-dispersed work, especially in a team context, and employs a mixture of quantitative, qualitative, historical, and action research methods. More generally, he is interested in the intersection of team performance, working relationships, and the social and behavioral aspects of information technology use. He is the author of "Distributed Work over the Centuries: Trust and Control in the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1670-1826," (in Hinds & Kiesler, eds., Distributed Work, MIT Press, 2002), and "Managing by Canoeing Around: Lessons from the Hudson’s Bay Company," (Knowledge Directions, 2001), both of which were written with Wanda Orlikowski and JoAnne Yates.
Before graduate school, he worked as management consultant for Coopers & Lybrand, LLP and as a policy analyst for Pelavin Associates (now part of the American Institutes for Research). At Coopers & Lybrand, he worked in the Higher Education Consulting Group, serving major research universities and medical centers (e.g., Columbia, Georgetown, Stanford, Tufts, Boston University, and the Universities of Pennsylvania and Minnesota), as well as several large nonprofit organizations (e.g., the Educational Testing Service and the NCAA). His consulting clients were all undergoing major changes in their information technology systems and dealing with the strategic, organizational, and behavioral implications of those new systems. At Pelavin Associates, his primary clients were the Secretary’s Office of the U.S. Department of Education and the National Center for Education Statistics.
Dr. O'Leary teaches courses in organizational behavior and organizational change at the undergraduate, MBA, PhD, and executive levels.
Carroll School of Management
Fulton Hall 434
140 Commonwealth Ave.
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
mike.oleary@bc.edu
phone: 617-552-6823
web site: http://www2.bc.edu/~olearymn
