Keith Rollag's Website

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Organizational Theory Website

Research Interests:
Rapid on-boarding and socialization of new employees, social networks, knowledge management, organizational design and human resource strategies for small, fast-growing high-tech startups.

Education
9/95 - 6/00 STANFORD UNIVERSITY
Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering
Concentration: Organizational Studies
Future Professor of Manufacturing Program

8/83 - 5/87 WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS
B.S. & M.S. in Chemical Engineering (completed both in four years)

Professional Awards

2005 New Educator Award, given by the Organizational Behavior Teaching Society to a new management professor. The award recognizes a person who has shown early promise to make a difference in the field of management education, bringing new ways of thinking about leadership, teamwork, and employee motivation. Presented at the OBTC Conference, Scranton, PA, June 2005.

Research Experience :

10/03-Present Knowledge Management and Social Networks
• Through Babson’s Working Knowledge Consortium, helping conduct social network studies in several organizations. Research involves both surveys and interviews and focuses on the correlation between network position, network tie development, and individual performance.

10/98- Present Rapid On-Boarding of New Employees
• Conducted surveys and interviews among four "hot" Silicon Valley startups. Results show that perceptions of socialization and learning rate are strongly shaped by the organization's job tenure distribution.
• Extended research to more organizations, and exploring the impact of knowledge management systems on rapid on-boarding. Recently conducted over 40 interviews with managers and newcomers.

3/99-Present Strategies for Fast Organizational Growth in Startups
• Interviewed CEO's, founders, and HR Managers in several fast-growing Silicon Valley startups
• Developed set of "best practices" for balancing rapid growth, flexibility, and structure as startups attempt to quickly exploit emergent technical opportunities.

6/96 – 8/01 Startup Journaling Project
• Over 65 engineers journaled their summer internship experiences in Silicon Valley startups. Participants produced over 2600 pages of rich description of work life in startups. Using data to develop and refine theories about newcomer socialization and rapid on-boarding in entrepreneurial organizations.
• Research was featured in IEEE Spectrum, Wired News, New Venture Development, and Stanford Report

Published/Accepted Papers:

Rollag, Keith (2006) “Defining the Term “New” in New Employee Research,” forthcoming in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology.

Cross, Rob; Parise, Sal, and Rollag, Keith (2006), “Rapid On-boarding and the “New” Newcomer,” forthcoming in Gandossy, Robert editor “Workforce Wakeup Call,” John Wiley & Sons.

Rollag, Keith (2006), “Theories of Work, Technology, and Organization
in Sociotechnical Systems Theory and Business Process Re-engineering,” forthcoming in Barley, Stephen ed. “Work, Technology, and Organization.”

Rollag, Keith (2005), “Just the Same but Five Times as Fast: Reflections on a Visit to Chinese Manufacturing and Management Education,” Babson Insight, November. www.babsoninsight.com/contentmgr/showdetails.php/id/850

Greenberg, Danna and Rollag, Keith (2005), “Chris Pierce and the Yankee Donut Company: An Email Based Simulation that Introduces Students to the Complexities of Management and Organizational Behavior” Journal of Management Education, Vol. 29, No. 4; p. 564-58.

Rollag, Keith and Parise, Sal (2005), “The BikeStuff Simulation: Experiencing the Challenge of Organizational Change,” Journal of Management Education, Vol. 29, No. 5; p. 769 - 787

Rollag, Keith; Parise, Sal, and Rob Cross (2005), “Rapid Readiness Required,” Contingent Workforce Strategies, July/August Issue, p. 30-32.

Rollag, Keith; Parise, Sal, and Rob Cross (2005), “Getting New Hires Up to Speed Quickly,” MIT/Sloan Management Review, Winter Issue, p. 35-44.

Rollag, Keith (2004), "The Impact of Relative Tenure on Newcomer Socialization Dynamics" Journal of Organizational Behavior. Volume 25, Issue 7. Pages 853-872.

Rollag, Keith; Parise, Sal, and Rob Cross (2004), “A Relational View of Rapid On-boarding: Getting Newcomers Connected and Productive Quickly,” Research Paper, Working Knowledge Research Consortium, Babson College.

Rollag, Keith (2002), “Fast Growth – Successful Managers Offer a Peek,” Boston Business Journal, June 28 – July 4.

Rollag, Keith (2002), “Fast Organizational Growth: Ten Insights From Successful Managers.” Babson Insight, April 2002.

Rollag, Keith (2001), "How Fast Growth Promotes Rapid Socialization in Entrepreneurial Firms" Frontiers in Entrepreneurship Research 2001.

Rollag, Keith (1997), "How Startups Motivate New Engineers", IEEE Spectrum, New York, November p. 58-59

Business Cases, Simulations, and Technology-Based Materials:

Rollag, Keith (2005), “Managing Conflict on Project Teams,” Web-based interactive “toolkit” that focuses on the different conflict-handling styles students use to resolve conflict and gives advice on how to resolve conflict and tension on teams. Funded by the Alden grant.

Rollag, Keith (2005), “Dealing with Problematic Behavior on Project Teams.” Web-based interactive "toolkit" that gives advice on how to deal with Free-Riders, Dictators, Procrastinators, and other problem types commonly seen on project teams. Funded by the Alden grant.

Rollag, Keith (2005), “Effective Teamwork in Student Project Groups.” Web-based interactive "toolkit" that provides nine secrets for highly effective teams, including discussion of Tuckman’s “Forming, Storming, Norming” as well as social network analysis. Funded by the Alden grant.

Parise, Sal; Rollag, Keith, and Vic Gulas (2004) “Montgomery Watson Harza and Knowledge Management” Babson Business Case #BAB102. The case has been piloted in a Babson MBA class on Knowledge Management and received good reviews. We also have developed a teaching note for the case.

Greenberg, D. and Keith Rollag (2002), “Chris Pierce and the Yankee Donut Company” E-mail based management simulation currently being used in Babson’s integrated undergraduate program.

Rollag, Keith (2002) “The BikeStuff Management Simulation.” A management simulation currently being used in MBA8500, the evening MBA cluster class integrating information technology and organizational behavior. The simulation is also used in Babson’s integrated management course for freshman undergraduates.

Conference Presentations/Acceptances

Rollag, Keith and Greenberg, Danna (2005) “Teaching OB in an Integrated Curriculum: Challenges and Opportunities.” Plenary session at the Organizational Behavior Teaching Conference, Scranton, PA. June 2005

Rollag, Keith (2004) “The Impact of Relative Tenure in Newcomer Socialization Dynamics,” invited presentation at Boston University, September 23, 2004.

Rollag, Keith (2004) “Defining the Term “New” in New Employee Research,” presented at the 2004 Academy of Management Conference, New Orleans, LA, August 6-11.

Rollag, Keith (2004) “The BikeStuff Simulation: Experiencing the Challenge of IT-Based Organizational Change,” presented at the Organizational Behavior Teaching Conference, Redlands, CA. June 23-25.

Rollag, Keith, Sal Parise, and Rob Cross (2004) “Rapid On-Boarding: Knowledge Management and the Newcomer.” Presented at the Working Knowledge Research Consortium, Babson College, April 24, 2004.

Rollag, Keith and Cardon, Melissa (2003). “How Much Is Enough? Comparing Socialization Tactics And Newcomer Experiences In Start-Up Versus Large Organizations.” Accepted for the 2003 Babson Kauffman Entrepreneurship Conference.

Greenberg, Danna and Rollag, Keith (2003), “Electronic In-Box Exercises: Using Technology to Support Student’s Intellectual and Aesthetic Learning about the World of Managers,” Presented at the 2003 Organizational Behavior Teaching Conference, Springfield, MA.

Rollag, Keith (2002). “First-Week Experiences: A Journal Study Of Newcomers In High-Tech Startups,” Presented at the Babson-Kauffman Entrepreneurship Conference in Boulder, CO. June 5-8.

Rollag, Keith (2001), "How Fast Growth Promotes Rapid Socialization in Entrepreneurial Firms" Presented at the 2001 Babson - Kaufmann Entrepreneurship Conference in Jonkoping, Sweden.

Rollag, Keith (1999), "Collaborative Management of Emergent Constraints: Participant Observation of a Software Development Team" - presented at the 1999 Academy of Management Conference in Chicago.

Articles About My Research

Snibbe, Alana Conner (2005), “Turning Over Without Going Belly-Up,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, Summer 2005; Volume 3, Issue 3 pp. 9-11. This article reviews and discusses my rapid on-boarding research described in the 2005 Sloan Management Review article.

Johnson, Lauren Keller (2005), “Get Your New Managers Moving,” Harvard Management Update, June 2005, p. 3-5. This article also reviews the findings from the 2005 Sloan Management review article on rapid on-boarding.

Perry, Tekla S. (1997), “The Stanford Diaries,” IEEE Specturm, Vol. 24, No. 11, pp. 49-61

Brown, Janelle (1997), “Intern Diaries: Bottom-Up Look at Start-Ups,” Wired News, November 7.

Working Papers:

Rollag, Keith and Cardon, Melissa (2003), “How Much Is Enough? Comparing Socialization Tactics And Newcomer Experiences In Start-Up Versus Large Organizations.”

Rollag, Keith (2002), "Newcomers, Oldtimers and Relative Tenure: A Structural Theory of Socialization"

Rollag, Keith (2002), “Getting the First Week Right – Newcomer Experiences in High-Tech Startups.”

Rollag, Keith (2000), "Newcomers, Oldtimers, and Relative Tenure: Organizational Assimilation as an Outcome of Social Comparison." Unpublished dissertation.

Rollag, Keith (2000), "Strategies for Fast Organizational Growth - Ten Insights from Entrepreneurs"

Rollag, Keith (1999), "Collaborative Management of Emergent Constraints: Participant Observation of a Software Development Team" - presented at the 1999 Academy of Management Conference in Chicago.

Rollag, Keith (2001), "Designing a Socialization Process for New Engineers: Applied Reflections from Organizational Literature"

National Academic Service Activities:

11/05 – present Board Member, Organizational Behavior Teaching Society
• appointed to a three- year position as webmaster and Chair of the Electronic Outreach Committee. Leading the re-design and expansion of the Society’s website.
• Ad Hoc Reviewer for Journal of Management Education and International Journal of Human Resource Managment
• Reviewer for Academy of Management Conference. Received the Best Reviewer Award for the Careers Division at the 2004 Academy of Management Conference.
• Reviewer for Organizational Behavior Teaching Conference

Teaching Experience

8/01 - Present BABSON COLLEGE
Assistant Professor of Management
• Teach organizational behavior to undergraduates and MBA students
• MBA8500 – Leading Dynamic Organizations in the Information Age
• IMC2231 and IME2332 – Intermediate Management Core (Organizational Behavior)

1/98- 6/01 STANFORD UNIVERSITY
Consulting Assistant Professor
· In Fall 2000 taught core undergraduate course on organizational behavior
Teaching Assistant
· IE223 Technology and Work (taught lecture on Reengineering)
· IE100 Introduction to Organizational Theory (taught lecture on Leadership)
· IE180 Senior Project Competition (2 of the 3 teams I coached received special honors)

3/92 - 7/94 PROCTER AND GAMBLE FAR EAST, INC
Developed and taught over 75 seminars in eight countries on various topics including:
· R&D Development Process
· Project/Risk Management
· Consumer research (interviews, focus groups,etc.)
· Survey design, analysis, & statistics
· Ethics

1987 WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS
Inventive Reasoning (Chem Eng #143)
· For master's project, developed and taught semester-long course on creative problem solving to 16 undergraduates

Academic Community Service
12/05 – present UGDMB Curriculum Implementation Committee
• Six person committee charged with implementing all the undergraduate management core changes approved by the UGDMB in October 2005..

6/04 – 10/05 UGDMB Curriculum Re-Design Committee
• Six-person committed charged with re-designing the undergraduate management core. Met bi-weekly since November 2004 until UGDMB approval of the proposed changes in October 2005..

6/04 – present IME3 Faculty Coordinator
• Coordinate 12 faculty members to roll-out and deliver a new integrated business curriculum for all 1st semester juniors at Babson.

6/04 – present Alden Trust Design Team
• Helping develop technology-based course materials for Babson’s undergraduate integrated management curriculum.

9/03 – present Undergraduate Decision Making Board
• Part of five-person faculty group that approves all curriculum changes at Babson.
• Member of sub-committee that re-designed the undergraduate management curriculum.

6/03 – 12/04 Intermediate Management Experience Design Team
• Helped lead the re-design of the sophomore/junior integrated curriculum

6/02 – present Captain/Co-Captain Faculty Softball Team

8/01 – 12/02 PRT2700 Faculty Advisor

9/02 – 12/02 Faculty Experience Task Force
• Helped developed a report making recommendations for faculty development and teaching loads for Babson 2008

7/01 - 12/03 Evening MBA Curriculum Redesign
• Designed and taught a new course combining OB with IT

11/01 – 11/02 Technology Advisory Board/ Advisory Board to CIT
• elected to a three-year term in November, 2001 to help integrate technology into teaching at Babson. Board was disbanded in November 2002.

Work Experience

11/89 - 7/94 PROCTER AND GAMBLE FAR EAST, INC
Kobe, Japan
Technical Brand Manager - Paper Products
Technical Training Manager- R&D Far East
· Managed a Japanese product development team designing baby diapers for the Pacific Rim.
· Developed & taught several courses in project/risk management, consumer research, and statistics to R&D engineering and scientists throughout the Far East
· Assisted R&D top management in organizational development activities

8/87 - 1/90 PROCTER AND GAMBLE COMPANY
Cincinnati, OH
Product Design Engineer - Paper Products

Patents:
U.S. Patent # 5,591,155 Disposable training pant having improved stretchable side panels, issued January 7, 1997

U.S. Patent # 5,575,783 Absorbent article with dynamic elastic feature comprising elasticized hip panels issued November 19, 1996

Community Service:

6/02 – present Boston Bluegrass Union
Newsletter Editor of Bi-Monthly Newsletter “Bluegrass Breakdown”
Webmaster for organization website at http://www.bbu.org
• Help promote bluegrass in the New England area
• Newsletter sent to over 1000 members, bluegrass fans, and promoters

2/99- 6/01 Northern California Bluegrass Society
President and Editor of Monthly Magazine "Bluegrass By the Bay"
· Help promote bluegrass and old-time music in the Bay Area
· Magazine read by over 1000 members, radio DJ's, bands, and promoters

Computer:
Desktop Publishing (Quark, Illustrator, Photoshop), Web Design (HTML), Statistical Analysis (SAS, SPSS)

Hobbies:
Play guitar, banjo, fiddle, and mandolin. Songwriting.

Rev: 12/23/05