Knowledge Labs: How a leader’s characteristics and management styles are manifested in the organizations they lead

Yair Berson (Ph.D. SUNY Binghamton) joined McMaster University in 2020 as an Associate Professor at the Department of Human Resources and Management and as the Director of the DeGroote Leadership Centre, at the DeGroote School of Business.

He Most recently served on the faculties of Bar-Ilan University as a professor of psychology and at NYU’s Stern School of Business as a visiting research professor. Prior to these positions, he was on the faculty of Polytechnic Institute of New York University, The University of Haifa, and as a visitor at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Business.

His research helps demonstrate how leaders’ characteristics (e.g., values) and actions (e.g., visionary style) affect followers, organizational processes, and outcomes. Using diverse methodologies, from biological and neuroscience to surveys and financial indices, his work provides insights into the methods through which leaders become reflected in the groups and organizations they lead. Dr. Berson’s work has been published in leading venues both in management and general psychology, such as Academy of Management Annals, the Journal of Applied Psychology, Psychological Science, OBHDP, Personnel Psychology, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Journal of Organizational Behavior, and The Leadership Quarterly.

He is a coauthor and co-editor of two books and serves on the board of Personnel Psychology, The Leadership Quarterly, and is an associate editor of the Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies. He recently became Program Chair and will be the future Division Chair of the newly instituted Neuroscience Interest Group of the Academy of Management. Dr. Berson’s work has also been featured several times in the business literature in such venues as Forbes, Financial Times. Psychology Today, and Israel’s business magazines Globes and The Marker.

Dr. Berson teaches regularly in executive education programs at Yale’s SOM and Tel Aviv University and has previously taught in MBA and executive programs at Kellogg (Northwestern). He has also conducted leadership training with such organizations as Intel, the UN, a large Japanese semiconductor in Europe, and several Israeli government organizations, including the Supreme Court.