Samuel Bacharach is the McKelvey-Grant Professor of Labor Management at Cornell University’s ILR School. He is the Director of ILR’s New York City based Institute for Workplace Studies as well as the Director of the Smithers Institute and the director of the New York City-based Master of Professional Studies. He received his BS in economics from NYU. His MS and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin.

For the last 10 years, Professor Bacharach has focused on bridging theory and practice. Integrating his earlier work on politics, negotiation, and complex organizations into his studies of the workplace, he has re-examined the role of leadership and has established his own frame of reference under the rubric of Proactive Leadership. Working closely with practitioners from various fields, conducting workshops, training sessions, and open discussions, he has developed his own leadership perspective. This work culminated with the publication of Get Them on Your Side: Win Support, Convert Skeptics, and Get Results (2005) and Keep Them on Your Side: Leading and Managing for Momentum (2006). He has created a five-day leadership workshop and a series of online courses (with eCornell) based on this material.  Additionally, he is the author of over 100 articles and author or editor of over 20 books.

He has been a speaker and trainer for numerous corporate events and the online version of his courses have been subscribed to by many Fortune 500 companies. Among the organizations that have been trained in his proactive leadership approach are: Computer Sciences Corporation, PepsiAmericas, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, March of Dimes, Wal-Mart Stores, Citigroup, International Monetary Fund, Mellon Financial, Starbucks, BASF, BMC Software, Boeing, InterContinental Hotels Group, Chubb, Nintendo, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Devon Energy, TeleTech, and Gap, Inc.

His work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Fast Company, HR Magazine, CIO Magazine, Investor’s Business Daily, Leadership Excellence, and Harvard Management Update.

Early in his career, he wrote about negotiation and organizational politics, publishing numerous articles and two volumes (Power and Politics in Organizations and Bargaining: Power, Tactics, and Outcome, both with Edward J. Lawler.

As director of the Smithers Institute, Professor Bacharach has lead a number of empirical studies such as: blue-collar workers in New York City, a study of New York City firefighters after 9/11, a study of transport workers in New York City, and a ten-year longitudinal study of retired workers. With his colleagues Peter Bamberger and William Sonnenstuhl he has published numerous articles on blue-collar workers, with emphasis on substance abuse in the workplace. His collaboration with Bamberger and Sonnenstuhl resulted in two books: Mutual Aid and Union Renewal: Cycles of Logics of Action and Member Assistance Programs: Labor’s Role in the Prevention and Treatment of Substance Abuse.

For more information on Professor Bacharach visit his ILR faculty page.