School Notes: School of Management
September/October 2014

Professor’s research featured in New York Times

In recent research, Amy Wrzesniewski, associate professor of organizational behavior, and coauthor Barry Schwartz examined the nature of motivation. They reported on their research in a July 6 article in the New York Times, “The Secret of Effective Motivation,” which became the most e-mailed piece on the Times website.

Wrzesniewski and Schwartz describe the results of a long-term study of West Point cadets examining the effectiveness of internal versus external—or instrumental—motives. They found that cadets with strong internal motives and weak instrumental motives outperformed those with strong internal and instrumental motives. Sometimes, they argue, one strong motive is better than two. The authors consider possible implications of these findings in a number of fields. “Helping people focus on the meaning and impact of their work, rather than on, say, the financial returns it will bring, may be the best way to improve not only the quality of their work but also—counterintuitive though it may seem—their financial success.”

Global leadership program draws international students

Yale SOM’s 2014 Global Pre-MBA Leadership Program, held in June, gave 59 students from around the world a look at business education and the Yale SOM MBA curriculum.

The two-week program, which launched in 2009, introduces a diverse group of students—drawn from underrepresented minority populations in the US as well as schools in the Global Network for Advanced Management—to the coursework and fundamental skills that are part of the SOM MBA curriculum. Students take compressed versions of MBA courses and attend networking, leadership development, and test preparation sessions. 

A new director of core curriculum

Olav Sorenson, the Frederick Frank ’54 and Mary C. Tanner Professor of Management, begins his new role as director of SOM’s integrated MBA curriculum in the fall 2014 semester. Instituted in 2006, the integrated MBA curriculum takes a multidisciplinary approach to management education with a focus on real-world problems. Faculty members coordinate their curricula to find connections between core courses. Sorenson will help facilitate these connections.