Robert B. Duncan
Professor
Management
Phone: (517) 884-1672
Email: duncan@bus.msu.edu
PhD Yale University
Vita
Research interests/Areas of expertise
- Leadership and change strategies
Bio(s)
- Robert (Bob) B. Duncan (born 1942) earned his B.A. – Psychology/Sociology (1964) and M.A. –Sociology (1966) from Indiana University, and his Ph.D. – Organizational Behavior – Yale University (1971). He was Dean of the Eli Broad College of Business from 2002–2008. He is currently Professor of Management and Dean Emeritus at the Eli Broad College of Business, Michigan State University.
From 1970 to 2001 he was on the faculty at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. At Northwestern, he served as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Kellogg as well as Northwestern University’s Provost from 1987–1991.
Professor Duncan teaches strategy implementation and the management of strategic change in Broad's undergraduate, MBA and executive programs. Professor Duncan has won numerous teaching awards in both MBA and executive programs. Most recently, he was named Professor of Excellence in the Broad School Executive MBA Program.
He is the author of numerous journal articles and two books: Innovations and Organizations (with G. Zaltman and J. Holbeck, Wiley-Interscience) and Strategies for Planned Change (with G. Zaltman, Wiley-Interscience). His research deals with strategy formulation, implementing strategic change, and creating and changing corporate culture. His most recent research focuses on how top management shapes corporate strategy, with a specific emphasis on how CEOs develop and implement corporate strategic visions.
He is a Fellow of the Academy of Management and served as its president in 1983. He has been on the editorial boards of the Academy of Management Journal, the Academy of Management Executive, Administrative Science Quarterly, and the Strategic Management Journal. He also served as a member of the Committee on Issues in Management Education, and the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors of the Association for the Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).
He is a frequent consultant to senior management and chief executive officers on strategy formulation, leading corporate culture change, organizational design, implementing strategic change, developing corporate strategic vision, and building top management teams. Some of the organizations he has worked with include: American Bankers Association, American Medical Association, Baker & McKenzie Law Firm, Booz Allen, Clorox Company, the Walt Disney Company, Ernst and Young, the FBI, General Motors Corporation, General Electric, IBM, International Paper, Johnson & Johnson, Kellogg’s, Kerr McGee, Motorola, Mobil Oil Corporation, 3M Company, United Parcel Service and Zurich Insurance.
(updated 1/09)