GRETCHEN M. SPREITZER

Gretchen Spreitzer is the Keith E. and Valerie J. Alessi Professor of Business Administration at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan (RSB).  She joined the Michigan faculty in 2001 after spending nine years on the faculty at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business.  She was also a Visiting Professor at the Australian School of Business in Sydney in 2008.

Her research focuses on employee empowerment and leadership development, particularly within a context of organizational change and decline.  Her most recent research is examining how organizations can enable thriving.  This is part of a new movement in the field of organizational behavior, known as Positive Organizational Scholarship (www.bus.umich.edu/positive).  

Based on extensive field research, she has authored many articles on contemporary issues in organizational behavior in leading journals such at the Academy of Management Journal, the Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, and the Journal of Applied Psychology. She is the co-author of seven books including:
•    How to Be a Positive Leader (2014) with Jane Dutton
•    The Best Teacher in You (2014) with Bob Quinn, Kate Heynoski and Michael Thomas.
•    The Oxford Handbooks of Positive Organizational Scholarship (2012) with Kim Cameron.
•    The Leader's Change Handbook:  An Essential  Guide to Setting Direction and Taking Action (1999) with Jay Conger and Edward Lawler,
•    The Future of Leadership:  Speaking to the Next Generation (2001) with Warren Bennis and Thomas Cummings,
•    A Company of Leaders:  Five Disciplines for Unleashing the Power in Your Workforce (2001) with Robert Quinn,

Gretchen has previously directed the Center for Positive Organizations and the Ross Leadership Initiative.  She teaches electives on Leading Organizational Change for MBAs and BBAs, and the Multidisciplinary Action Project (MAP) Program.  

Prior to her doctoral education, Gretchen worked with the management consulting group at Price Waterhouse's Government Services Office and with Partners for Livable Places, a not-for-profit urban planning firm in Washington, D.C.  She has a Bachelor of Science in Systems Analysis from Miami University (in Ohio) and completed her doctoral work at the Michigan Business School.  She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with her husband, who is a public policy economist and two teenage daughters.