Michael Boyer O'Leary's BC Home Page

Research (Vitae)	Click to obtain PDFs of the papers listed below or an Endnote library with citations to these papers My research focuses on geographically-dispersed work, especially in a team context, and employs a mixture of quantitative, qualitative, and historical methods. More generally, I am interested in the intersection of team performance, working relationships, and the social and behavioral aspects of information technology use. Samples of my work include: "The Spatial, Temporal, and Configurational Characteristics of Geographic Dispersion in Work Teams," with Jonathon Cummings (Duke) in MIS Quarterly (2007). (Abstract) "Perceptions of Proximity: Explaining the Paradox of Far but Close," with Profs. Jeanne Wilson (William & Mary), Anca Metiu (ESEC), and Quintus Jett (Dartmouth), is forthcoming in Organization Studies. (Abstract) "Conditions Enabling Effective Multiple Team Membership," with Mark Mortensen (MIT Sloan) and Anita Woolley (Harvard), in the 2007 volume Virtuality and Virtualization. (Abstract) "Which Organizations, What Work? The Industry, Job Level, Firm Size and Occupational Contexts of Leading Management Research, 1988-2002,” was nominated for the Academy of Management's Research Methods Best Paper Award and appears in the 2006 Best Paper Proceedings. (Abstract) "Subgroups with Attitude: Imbalance and Isolation in Geographically Dispersed Teams" with Mark Mortensen (MIT Sloan) at the 2005 Academy of Management and as "Isolation and Ambiguity: Subgroup Members’ Perceptions of Local and Distant Teammates in Geographically Distributed Teams," at the 2006 INGRoup Conference. (Abstract) My historically-grounded work about the Hudson's Bay Company's management of its far-flung and 336+ year-old operations includes "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 I wrote with Wanda Orlikowski and JoAnne Yates. The book and chapter have been reviewed in ASQ, Personnel Psychology, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, and Computer Supported Cooperative Work My dissertation (MIT, 2002) explored "Geographic Dispersion in Teams: Its History, Experience, Measurement, and Change."

Teaching	I teach organizational behavior and change at the undergraduate, MBA, PhD, and exec ed levels. In 2006, I received BC's 2006 Summa Cum Laude Teaching with New Media Award for outstanding use of technology to enhance learning. I also developed The OB Toolkit -- an online collection of resources, including digital video clips, for use in BC’s core OB courses. The Toolkit was developed with support from BC's Instructional Design and eTeaching Services staff and Faculty Summer Workshop grant.

Education	I received a B.A. in Public Policy Studies from Trinity College, Duke University, where I served as a member of the Board of Trustees from 1991 to 1995. I earned my Ph.D. in organization studies from the MIT Sloan School of Management, where I received fellowships from the NSF SeeIT Project, Center for Innovation & Product Development, International Center for Research on the Management of Information Technology, MIT/Ford Motor Company Alliance, and Zanetos Fund. I joined the Organization Studies faculty in the Carroll School of Management at Boston College in 2002.

Consulting	Before graduate school, I worked as management consultant for Coopers & Lybrand, L.L.P. (since absorbed by PricewaterhouseCoopers and IBM Global Services) and as an educational researcher, consultant, and policy analyst for Pelavin Associates (now part of the American Institutes for Research). At Coopers & Lybrand, I 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 non-profit organizations (e.g., the Educational Testing Service and the NCAA). My 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, my primary clients were the Secretary's Office of the U.S. Department of Education and the National Center for Education Statistics. I have also worked as an independent consultant in collaboration with Act IV Consulting and serve as an Advisory Board member for Creative Realities, Inc., a Boston-based innovation advisory and consulting firm.

School	Home
Boston College Carroll School of Management, Department of Organization Studies 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Fulton Hall, Room 434 Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3808 USA 617/552-6823 or mike.oleary@bc.edu	Winchester, Massachusetts michael.oleary@sloan.mit.edu or michael.oleary@alumni.duke.edu (both lifetime)