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Adam Grant
Associate Professor


Dr. Grant is an award-winning researcher and teacher on the faculty at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in organizational psychology and his B.A. from Harvard University magna cum laude with highest honors in psychology and Phi Beta Kappa honors.

Dr. Grant's research focuses on work motivation, job design, prosocial helping and giving behaviors, meaningful work, initiative and proactive behaviors, and employee well-being, with an emphasis on when and how "making a difference makes a difference". His articles have been published in a wide range of leading management and psychology journals, including Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Organization Science, Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Research in Organizational Behavior. His studies have been covered by USA Today, US News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, BusinessWeek, Forbes, Yahoo!, ABC News, CBS, and the Financial Times. His research has earned awards from the NSF, APA, SIOP, and AAPSS, and he has served on a number of editorial boards, including AMR, AMJ, and JAP. He is currently an Associate Editor at AMJ.

Dr. Grant has taught executive education, consulted, and presented for a variety of clients, including Google, Borders Group, Yahoo!, Time-Warner Cable, Medco, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Duke Energy, Grant Thornton, the American Financial Services Association, the North Carolina National Guard, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and the U.S. Air Force, Army, and Navy. At Wharton, Dr. Grant has earned the Excellence in Teaching Award at both the MBA and undergraduate levels. He was previously a professor at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, where he earned the Tanner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the Weatherspoon Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and was named an MBA Teaching All-Star. He also designed a new hands-on experiential learning class based on The Apprentice in which MBA students raised over $33,000 in 48 hours for the Make-A-Wish Foundation while developing leadership, motivation, and influence skills.

Before graduate school, Dr. Grant worked at Let’s Go Publications, where he set numerous company records for advertising sales. In his position as the Director of Let’s Go Advertising Sales, he earned the Manager of the Year award for leadership, commitment, and business acumen. He also supervised the hiring of over 300 employees and served as Director of Marketing and Business Development. He is a former All-State and All-American springboard diver and has performed for over a decade as a professional magician.

Publications
Adam Grant, F. Gino, D. A. Hofmann (2011), Reversing the extraverted leadership advantage: The role of employee proactivity, Academy of Management Journal
Adam Grant, J. Berry (2011), The necessity of others is the mother of invention: Intrinsic and prosocial motivations, perspective-taking, and creativity, Academy of Management Journal
Adam Grant, B. Schwartz (2011), Too much of a good thing: The challenge and opportunity of the inverted-U, Perspectives on Psychological Science
Adam Grant, F. Gino (2010), A little thanks goes a long way: Explaining why gratitude expressions motivate prosocial behavior, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98: 946-955
Adam Grant, S. Sonnentag (2010), Doing good buffers against feeling bad: Prosocial impact compensates for negative task and self-evaluations, Organizatiional Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 111: 13-22
Adam Grant, S. K. Parker (2009), Redesigning work design theories: The rise of relational and proactive perspectives, Academy of Management Annals, 3: 317-375

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In The News
Social Science Palooza, New York Times, 12/2010
Leadership is Not Just for the Extroverts, Financial Times, 11/2010
Is purpose really an effective motivator?, Dan Pink, 03/2010
Small Steps, Big Leaps Briefing: The Science of Getting People to Do the Right Thing, Stanford Center for Social Innovation, 03/2010
A Low-Cost Way to Improve Performance, Business Week, 12/2009

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Knowledge@Wharton
If Not a Raise, Then What? 01/31/2012
Short-sighted Frugality? Employers Who Rein in Compensation Too Much Could Pay a Price Later 01/18/2012
When Your Job Makes You Sick: Employees Find Little Leverage in Today's Workplace 09/28/2011
A Recession for Perks? What Companies Offer and What Employees Want 06/22/2011
Global Philanthropy: Why Western Models May Not Work Everywhere 05/19/2011
The Problem with Financial Incentives -- and What to Do About It 03/30/2011

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Honors And Awards
Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Applied Psychology, American Psychological Association, 2011
Distinguished Early Career Contributions Award – Science, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 2011
40 Best Business School Professors Under the Age of 40, 2011
Excellence in Teaching Award: Core Curriculum, 2011
Fall Core Teaching Award (“Goes above and beyond the call of duty"), 2011
Helen Kardon Moss Anvil Award Nomination, 2011

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Grant Adam

Adam  Grant
2107 SH-DH
3620 Locust Walk
Philadelphia, PA19104
Phone: (215) 746-2529
Fax: (215) 898-0401
grantad@wharton.upenn.edu

Personal Website

Research Interests:
Work motivation; job design; meaningful work; helping and giving behaviors; proactive behavior and initiative; employee well-being.