 | Victor H. Vroom |
Victor H. Vroom, an authority on the psychological analysis of behavior in
organizations, has been appointed the inaugural BearingPoint Professor of Management.
T H I S
ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS
Victor Vroom is named the
inaugural BearingPoint Professor
Vroom, who will also continue his appointment as professor of psychology, is
widely recognized for his development of expectancy theory and for his work on
leadership and decision making.
This new professorship at the Yale School of Management (SOM) was established
through the generosity of BearingPoint, the management and technology global
consulting firm.
In commenting on Vroom’s appointment, BearingPoint chief executive officer
Harry L. You (GRD ’83), a member of the Yale SOM board of advisors, remarked, “We
are deeply honored to have an educator of Victor Vroom’s reputation and
distinction as the first incumbent of the BearingPoint Chair in Management. His
scholarly accomplishments, unique vision and broad perspective on the global
marketplace have already had a profound impact on some of our most talented people
through his classes in the BearingPoint Leadership Program at the Yale School
of Management. Professor Vroom’s insights have already enhanced our approach
to solving our clients’ most pressing challenges, and so we are delighted
that he has been named to the BearingPoint Chair.”
Vroom joined the Yale faculty in 1972, after appointments at Carnegie-Mellon
University (1963-1972), The University of Pennsylvania (1960-1963) and the University
of Michigan (1958-1959). He served as chair of Yale’s Department of Administrative
Sciences and associate director of the Institution of Social and Policy Studies
from 1972 to 1975. He was part of the Yale task force on management education,
whose work resulted in the founding of the Yale School of Management. From 1973
until his appointment to the BearingPoint Chair, he was the John G. Searle Professor
of Organization and Management and Professor of Psychology.
Early in his career Vroom developed a normative model of situational leadership
with one of his students, Philip Yetton. The Vroom-Yetton model provided managers
with a research-based framework for matching their decision-making processes
to the challenges that they faced. Later, Vroom developed a method for assessing
the “models” that managers use by studying their choices on a set
of standardized cases. This method has been widely used in management and leadership
development programs around the world and has contributed to a unique database
for research on leadership.
In addition to writing over 100 articles, Vroom has written nine books, including “Work
and Motivation,” which is regarded as a landmark in the field. Other books
include “Leadership and Decision Making” (with Yetton), “The
New Leadership: Managing Participation in Organizations” (with A. Jago)
and “Management and Motivation” (with E. Deci).
Among his numerous professional affiliations, he is a fellow of the American Psychological Society and the Academy of Management and the Society of Industrial-Organizational Psychology, where he also served as president.
Vroom has also received numerous awards during the course of his scholarly career,
including the Scholarly Contributions Award from the Academy of Management, the
Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the Society of Industrial and
Organizational Psychology and the Excellence in Teaching Award from the Yale
SOM Alumni Association.
Born in Montreal, Canada, Vroom received a B.Sc. and M.Ps.Sc. in psychology from
McGill University in 1953 and 1955, respectively. He received his Ph.D. in psychology
from the University of Michigan in 1958. An avid sailor, he has sailed up and
down the East Coast from the Caribbean to Nova Scotia on his sloop, Leadership.
He is also an accomplished saxophone and clarinet player who began playing professionally
with a big band at age 15. Vroom still sits in with jazz bands in the New Haven
area and wherever his travels take him. 
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