Faculty
Nelson P. Repenning is the Faculty Director of the MIT Leadership Center, and the School of Management Distinguished Professor of System Dynamics and Organization Studies at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
His early work focused on understanding the inability of organizations to leverage well-established tools and practices. He has worked extensively with organizations trying to develop new capabilities in both manufacturing and new product development. Nelson has also studied the failure to use the safety practices that often lead to industrial accidents and has helped investigate several major incidents. This line of research has been recognized with several awards, including best paper recognition from both the California Management Review and the Journal of Product Innovation Management.
Building on his earlier work, Nelson now focuses on developing the theory and practice of Dynamic Work Design—a new approach to designing work that is both effective and engaging—and Dynamic Management Systems, a method for insuring that day-to-day work is tightly linked to the strategic objectives of the firm. He is also a partner at ShiftGear Work Design and serves as its chief social scientist.
In 2003, Nelson received the International System Dynamics Society’s Jay Wright Forrester Award, which recognizes the best work in the field in the previous five years. In 2011 he received the Jamieson Prize for Excellence in Teaching.
He holds a BA in economics from Colorado College and a PhD in operations management and system dynamics from MIT.
Somlo, Diane R.M., Nelson P. Repenning, and Abeel A. Mangi. The Annals of Thoracic Surgery Vol. 106, No. 4 (2018): 1143-1149.
Dodge, Sheila, Don Kieffer, and Nelson P. Repenning. MIT Sloan Management Review, September 2018.
Dodge, Sheila, Timothy De Smet, James Meldrim, Niall Lennon, Danielle Perrin, Steve Ferriera, Zachary Leber, Dennis Friedrich, Stacey Gabriel, Eric S. Lander, Don Kieffer, and Nelson Repenning, MIT Sloan Working Paper 5380-18. Cambridge, MA: MIT Sloan School of Management, April 2018.
Rahmandad, Hazhir, Nelson Repenning, and Rebecca Henderson. Management Science Vol. 64, No. 3 (2018): 1328-1347. Online Appendix. Download Paper.
Repenning, Nelson P., Don Kieffer, and James Repenning. MIT Sloan Management Review, December 11, 2017.
Repenning, James, Don Keifer, and Nelson Repenning, MIT Sloan Working Paper 5198-17. Cambridge, MA: MIT Sloan School of Management, June 2017.
During September's iLead Speaker Series event, Analysis Group’s Martha Samuelson, SF ’86, and Rebecca Kirk Fair, MBA ’02, discussed their professional journeys, as well as the culture and leadership of their firm.
Since 2019, hundreds of first-year MBA students have taken ID Lab, a unique course dedicated to discovering and developing leadership skills.
Nelson Repenning is listed as one of the professors making the biggest impact on Executive MBAs.
"Anne is ... a gifted mentor, as evidenced by the success of her mentees."
For many companies, the topic of sustainability is at the forefront of business agendas. Consumers and stakeholders are demanding greater accountability from organizations, and the regulatory environment is becoming increasingly stringent. However, pursuing the environmental, social, and governance impacts of business is often met with tension. Leaders now need to manage the misconception within business that meeting sustainability goals means compromising profits.
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