Faculty Guide

Title

Professor

The Heller School for Social Policy and Management

Expertise

Organizational change; organizational effectiveness; organizational resilience; organizational theory; human resource management; relational coordination

Profile

JODY HOFFER GITTELL IS PROFESSOR OF MANAGEMENT at Brandeis University's Heller School for Social Policy and Management. She serves as Executive Director of the Relational Coordination Research Collaborative, which brings practitioners and researchers together to transform organizational relationships for high performance. She also serves as Chief Scientific Officer of Relational Coordination Analytics, Inc., a spinoff from Brandeis University offering measurement, evaluation and visualization of relational coordination networks to organizations seeking to improve performance.

Dr. Gittell’s research explores how coordination by front-line workers contributes to quality and efficiency outcomes in service settings. She has developed a theory of relational coordination, proposing that work is most effectively coordinated through relationships of shared goals, shared knowledge and mutual respect, and demonstrating how organizations can support relational coordination through the design of their work systems.

Gittell's discovery of relational coordination and its performance effects is documented in The Southwest Airlines Way: Using the Power of Relationships to Achieve High Performance (McGraw-Hill), and in High Performance Healthcare: Using the Power of Relationships to Achieve Quality, Efficiency and Resilience (McGraw-Hill). In Up In the Air: How the Airlines Can Improve Performance by Engaging Their Employees (Cornell University Press), Gittell, Bamber, Kochan and von Nordenflycht analyze the transformation of the global airline industry. In Sociology of Organizations: Structures and Relationships (Sage Publications), Gittell and Godwyn compare the relational organizational form to the bureaucratic form, proposing a hybrid driven by reciprocal relationships that are scalable, replicable and sustainable. Her newest book, Learning to Coordinate: A Relational Model of Organizational Change (Stanford University Press), under development with Edmondson and Schein, will offer a dynamic multi-interventional model of change.

In addition to writing books, Gittell has published the underlying research in scientific journals including Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, Management Science, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Service Research, Journal of Management Studies, Human Resource Management, Human Resource Management Journal, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Harvard Business Review, California Management Review, Medical Care, Health Services Research, Health Care Management Review, Journal of Nursing Management, and Journal of Early Childhood Research.

Gittell was selected Outstanding Young Scholar of the Year by the Labor and Employment Relations Association. She has won a Best Book Award from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, a Best Paper award from the Human Resource Division of the Academy of Management, the Douglas McGregor Memorial Award for Best Paper of the Year in the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, and an Honorable Mention for the Douglas McGregor Memorial Award for Best Paper on Organizational Change.

Gittell received her PhD from the MIT Sloan School of Management, her MA from The New School and her BA from Reed College, and taught for six years at the Harvard Business School before joining the faculty of Brandeis University. She has served as Chair of the Board for Families First Health and Support Center, as MBA Program Director at the Brandeis Heller School, and as Acting Director of the MIT Leadership Center. She currently serves on the boards of Reed College, the Labor and Employment Relations Association and the Endowment for Health. She lives in Portsmouth, New Hampshire with her husband Ross and their daughters Rose and Grace.

Awards and Honors

Chief Scientific Officer, Relational Coordination Analytics, Inc. (2013)

Executive Director, Relational Coordination Research Collaborative (2013)

Board of Directors, Endowment for Health (2012)

International Visiting Fellow, Australian Health Workforce Institute (2012)

Board of Trustees, Reed College (2011)

Industry Studies Association, Awards Committee (2011)

Acting Faculty Director, MIT Leadership Center (2010)

Executive Board, Labor and Employment Relations Association (2010)

Douglas McGregor Memorial Award, Best Paper of the Year, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science (2009)

Best Paper Award, Human Resources Division, Academy of Management (2008)

Co-Chair, Health Care Industry Council (2008)

Douglas McGregor Memorial Award, Best Article on Organizational Change, Honorable Mention, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science (2006)

MBA Program Director, The Heller School for Social Policy and Management (2006)

Best Book Award, Sloan Industry Studies Program, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (2005)

Chair of the Board, Families First Health and Support Center (2003)

Robert Wood Johnson and Atlantic Philanthropies grant for study of nursing home practices and outcomes (2003)

Commonwealth Fund grant for study of patient care coordination (2002 - 2004)

Harvard Business School Division of Research grant for study of patient care coordination (1996 - 1998)

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant for study of coordination in the airline industry (1993 - 1994)

Industrial Performance Center Fellowship for dissertation research on airline performance (1993 - 1994)

National Research Council Fellowship for dissertation research on airline performance (1993 - 1994)

Outstanding Young Scholar of the Year, Labor and Employment Relations Association (1991 - 1993)

Courses Taught

HS	254a	Human Resource Management
HS	258a	Operations Management in Service Organizations
HS	526a	Organizational Theory and Behavior

Scholarship

Gittell, Jody Hoffer and Suchman, Anthony. "Relational Leadership and Organizational Change." Leading Change and Changing the Way We Lead. Ed. Gene Beyt and Margaret Plews-Ogan. London: Radcliffe Publishing, 2012 (forthcoming)

Bamber, Greg and Gittell, Jody Hoffer. "A Tale of Two Airlines: Can Low-Cost Carriers be Sustainable and Good Places to Work?." The Conversation (2012)

Douglass, Anne and Gittell, Jody Hoffer. "Transforming Professionalism: Relational Bureaucracy and Parent-Teacher Partnerships in Child Care Settings." Journal of Early Childhood Research (2012).

Gittell, Jody Hoffer and Douglass, Anne. "Relational Bureaucracy: Structuring Reciprocal Relationships Into Roles." Academy of Management Review 37. 4 (2012).

Gittell, Jody Hoffer, Patrick Flood and Yseult Freeney. "Relational Coordination." Encyclopedia of Management: Organizational Behavior. 2012.

Gittell, Jody Hoffer. "New Directions for Relational Coordination Theory." Oxford Handbook of Positive Organizational Scholarship. Ed. Kim S. Cameron and Gretchen Spreitzer. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011

Godwyn, Mary and Gittell, Jody Hoffer. Sociology of Organizations: Structures and Relationships. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2011.

Bamber, Greg, Gittell, Jody Hoffer, Kochan, Thomas A. and von Nordenflycht, Andrew. "Contrasting Employment Relations Strategies in European Airlines." Journal of Industrial Relations 51. 5 (2010): 635-652.

Bamber, Greg, Gittell, Jody Hoffer, Kochan, Thomas A., von Nordenflycht, Andrew. "Contrasting Strategic Choices in the Airline Industry: Deregulation and Employment Relations in the Asia Pacific Region and the Middle East." Aviation Security and Safety: Some Legal Dimensions. Ed. R. Jilla. Icfai: Icfai University Press, 2010

Bond, Brenda and Gittell, Jody Hoffer. "Cross-Agency Coordination of Offender Reentry: Testing Outcomes of Collaboration Policies." Journal of Criminal Justice (2010).

Gittell, Jody Hoffer and Bamber, Greg. "High and Low Road Strategies for Competing on Costs and Their Implications for Employment Relations: Studies in the Airline Industry." International Journal of Human Resource Management 21. 2 (2010): 165-179.

Gittell, Jody Hoffer, Seidner, Rob, Wimbush, Julian. "A Relational Model of How High-Performance Work Systems Work." Organization Science 21. 2 (2010): 490-506.

Sullivan, Donna Havens, Vasey, Joseph, Gittell, Jody Hoffer and Lin, Wei Ting. "Relational Coordination among Nurses and other Disciplines: Impact on the Quality of Patient Care." Journal of Nursing Management (2010).

Appelbaum, Eileen, Gittell, Jody Hoffer and Leana, Carrie. "High Performance Work Practices and Economic Recovery." LERA Commons (2009)

Bamber, Greg, Gittell, Jody Hoffer, Kochan, Thomas A., von Nordenflycht, Andrew. Up in the Air: How the Airlines Can Improve Performance by Engaging Their Employees. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009.

Carmeli, Abraham and Gittell, Jody Hoffer. "High Quality Relationships, Psychological Safety and Learning from Failures in Work Organizations." Journal of Organizational Behavior 30. 6 (2009): 709-729.

Gittell, Jody Hoffer, Seidner, Rob. "Human Resource Management in the Service Sector." Handbook of Human Resource Management. Ed. A. Wilkinson, T. Redman, S. Snell and N. Bacon. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2009

Gittell, Jody Hoffer, Von Nordenflycht, Andrew, Kochan, Thomas A., McKersie, Robert and Bamber, Greg. "Labor Relations and Human Resource Management in the Airline Industry." The Global Airline Industry. Ed. Peter Belobaba, Cynthia Barnhardt and Amadeo Odoni. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2009

Gittell, Jody Hoffer. "Lack of Coordination Hampers U.S. Healthcare System." Modern Healthcare August 20.

Gittell, Jody Hoffer. High Performance Healthcare: Using the Power of Relationships to Achieve Quality, Efficiency and Resilience. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009.

Gittell, Jody Hoffer, Weinberg, Dana Beth, Pfefferle, Susan, Bishop, Christine. "Impact of Relational Coordination on Job Satisfaction and Quality Outcomes: A Study of Nursing Homes." Human Resource Management Journal 18. 2 (2008): 154-170.

Gittell, Jody Hoffer. "Relationships and Resilience: Care Provider Responses to Pressures from Managed Care." Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 44. 1 (2008): 25-47.

Gittell, Jody Hoffer; Weinberg, Dana, Bennett, Adrienne and Miller, Joseph A.. "Is the Doctor In? A Relational Approach to Job Design and the Coordination of Work." Human Resource Management 47. 4 (2008): 729-756.

Kautz, Cori, Gittell, Jody Hoffer, Lusenhop, Will, Weinberg, Dana Beth, Wright, John. "Patient Benefits from Participating in an Integrated Delivery System: Impact on Coordination of Care." Health Care Management Review 32. 3 (2007): 1-11.

Miller, Joseph A., Dorsey, Joseph, Gittell, Jody Hoffer. "Establishing a Teamwork Model of Care for Hospital Medicine." Comprehensive Hospital Medicine: An Evidence-Based and Systems Approach. Ed. M.V. Williams and R. Hayward. New York: Elsevier Publishing, 2007

Weinberg, Dana, Gittell, Jody Hoffer, Lusenhop, Will, Kautz, Cori, Wright, John. "Beyond Our Walls: Impact of Patient and Provider Coordination Across the Continuum on Outcomes for Surgical Patients." Health Services Research 42. 1 (2007): 7-24.

Weinberg, Dana, Lusenhop, Will, Gittell, Jody Hoffer, Kautz, Cori. "Coordination between Formal Care Providers and Informal Caregivers." Health Care Management Review 32(2). 140-150 (2007).

Gittell, Jody Hoffer, Briscoe, Forrest. "Layoffs and Organizational Resilience: Lessons for Workers, Managers and Investors." Perspectives on Work 10. 1 (2006): 6-8.

Gittell, Jody Hoffer, Cameron, Kim, Lim, Sandy, Rivas, Victor. "Relationships, Layoffs and Organizational Resilience: Airline Industry Responses to September 11." Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 42. 3 (2006): 300-329.

Gittell, Jody Hoffer. "Connecting with Employees Through Front-Line Leadership: Lessons from Southwest Airlines." What Managers Say, What Employees Hear. Ed. R. Maruca. New York: Praeger Publishing, 2006

Gittell, Jody Hoffer. "Relational Coordination: Coordinating Work Through Relationships of Shared Goals, Shared Knowledge and Mutual Respect." Relational Perspectives in Organizational Studies: A Research Companion. Ed. O. Kyriakidou and M. Ozbilgin. London: Edward Elgar, 2006

Pfefferle, Susan, Gittell, Jody Hoffer, Hodgkin, Dominic, Ritter, Grant. "Pediatrician Coordination of Care for Children with Mental Illnesses." Medical Care 44. 12 (2006): 1085-1091.

Gittell, Jody Hoffer and Weiss, Leigh. "Coordination Networks Within and Between Organizations: A Multi-Level Framework." Journal of Management Studies 41. 1 (2004): 127-153.

Gittell, Jody Hoffer, von Nordenflycht, Andrew and Kochan, Thomas. "Mutual Gains or Zero Sum? Labor Relations and Firm Performance in the Airline Industry." Industrial and Labor Relations Review 57. 2 (2004): 163-179.

Gittell, Jody Hoffer. "The Power of Relationships." Sloan Management Review 45. 2 (2004): 16-17.

Perlow, Leslie, Gittell, Jody Hoffer and Katz, Nancy. "Contextualizing Patterns of Work Group Interaction: Toward a Nested Theory of Structuration." Organization Science 15. 5 (2004): 520-536.

Gittell,Jody Hoffer. "A Theory of Relational Coordination." Positive Organizational Scholarship: Foundations of a New Discipline. Ed. Kim S. Cameron, Jane E. Dutton and Robert E. Quinn. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2003

Gittell,Jody Hoffer. "Achieving Focus in Hospital-Based Health Care: The Role of Relational Coordination." Consumer Driven Health Care: Implications for Providers, Payers and Policy-Makers. Ed. Regina Herzlinger. John Wiley and Sons., 2003

Gittell,Jody Hoffer. "Options for Rebuilding Labor Relations." Perspectives on Work 7. 2 (2003).

Gittell,Jody Hoffer. The Southwest Airlines Way: Using the Power of Relationships to Achieve High Performance. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003.

Austin, Rob and Gittell,Jody Hoffer. "When It Should Not Work but Does: Anomalies of High Performance." Business Performance Measurement. Ed. Andy Neely. Cambridge University Press, 2002

Gittell,Jody Hoffer. "Coordinating Mechanisms in Care Provider Groups: Relational Coordination as a Mediator and Input Uncertainty as a Moderator of Performance Effects." Management Science 48. 11 (2002): 1408-1426.

Gittell,Jody Hoffer. "Relationships between Service Providers and their Impact on Customers." Journal of Service Research 4. 4 (2002): 299-311.

Gittell,Jody Hoffer. "Investing in Relationships." Harvard Business Review 79. 6 (2001).

Gittell,Jody Hoffer. "Supervisory Span, Relational Coordination, and Flight Departure Performance: A Reassessment of Post-Bureaucracy Theory." Organization Science 12. 4 (2001): 467-482.

Gittell,Jody Hoffer with Martin Charns. "Work Design." Healthcare Management: Organization Design and Behavior. Ed. Stephen Shortell and Arnold Kaluzny. Delmar Press, 2000

Gittell,Jody Hoffer, Fairfield, Kathleen, Bierbaum, Benjamin, Head, William, Jackson, Robert, Kelly, Michael, Laskin, Richard, Lipson, Stephen, Siliski, John, Thornhill, Thomas and Zuckerman, Joseph. "Impact of Relational Coordination on Quality of Care, Post-Operative Pain and Functioning, and Length of Stay: A Nine Hospital Study of Surgical Patients." Medical Care 38. 8 (2000): 807-819.

Gittell,Jody Hoffer. "Organizing Work to Support Relational Coordination." International Journal of Human Resource Management 11. 3 (2000): 517-539.

Gittell,Jody Hoffer. "Paradox of Coordination and Control." California Management Review 42. 3 (2000): 177-183.

Gittell,Jody Hoffer with Thomas A. Kochan and Brenda Lautsch. "Total Quality Management and Human Resource Systems: An International Comparison." International Journal of Human Resource Management 6. 2 (1995): 201-222.

Gittell,Jody Hoffer. "Cost/Quality Tradeoffs in the Departure Process? Evidence from the Major U.S. Airlines." Transportation Research Record 1480. (1995): 25-36.