Ruth Wageman is Director of Research for Hay Group and Visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. Professor Wageman received her Ph.D. from Harvard University’s Joint Doctoral Program in Organizational Behavior in 1994.  She received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Columbia University in 1987, and returned there to join the faculty of the Graduate School of Business, making her the first female alum of Columbia College to join Columbia’s faculty.  She then joined the faculty of the Amos Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College in 2000, and Harvard in 2005.  Her area of specialization is Organizational Behavior, and her teaching, consulting, and research are focused on the effective leadership of task-performing teams.  Her current research interests include the design and leadership of effective leadership teams, self-organizing civic and political movements, the uses and misuses of power in teams, and the theory and practice of leadership development. 

Her recent book “Senior Leadership Teams: What it Takes to Make Them Great,” coauthored with Debra A. Nunes, James A. Burruss, and Richard Hackman, summarizes their 10 years of research on leadership teams around the world.  Selected articles include “Leading teams when the time is right: Finding the best moments to act,” with C. Fisher and R. Hackman, Organization Dynamics; “Deciding how to decide: CEO decision-making in theory and practice,” with D. Nunes, Chief Executive;  “Asking the Right Questions about Leadership”, with Richard Hackman, American Psychologist,  “As the twig is bent: The effects of shared values on emergent interdependence in teams” with F. Gordon, Organization Science; “A theory of team coaching,” with Hackman, Academy of Management Review, “How Leaders Foster Team Self-management,” Organization Science; "Interdependence and Group Effectiveness,” Administrative Science Quarterly;  "Incentives and Cooperation: The Joint Effects of Tasks and Rewards on Group Effectiveness," with G. P. Baker, III, Journal of Organizational Behavior.