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Photo of Leslie A. Perlow

Unit: Organizational Behavior

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(617) 495-6173

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  • Working Knowledge Articles
  • My Website

Areas of Interest

  • corporate culture
  • ethnography
  • leading change
  • qualitative research
  • work/family balance

Additional Topics

  • conflict
  • conflict management
  • cross-cultural/cross-border
  • entrepreneurship
  • gender
  • group dynamics
  • interactions
  • interactive communication
  • leadership
  • organizational behavior
  • organizational development
  • organizational learning
  • power and influence
  • professional service firms
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Leslie A. Perlow

Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership
Senior Associate Dean for Research

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Leslie Perlow is the Senior Associate Dean for Research and the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership in the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School.

Professor Perlow’s research focuses on the micro-dynamics of work. She studies how individuals act within an organization – i.e., what do people do all day, how do they spend their time, with whom do they interact– and the consequences for organizations and individuals. She documents individuals’ work practices including the use of technology, meetings, virtual interactions, and managing across cultures with global teams, and explores the implications of these practices for organization productivity, individuals’ careers, and family lives. Professor Perlow engages with organizations and identifies ways leaders can change their practices to the benefit of both the organization’s productivity and the individuals’ personal lives.

Professor Perlow is currently developing a new elective course that strives to enable students to think proactively about how they spend the first 10 years after earning their MBAs. This course will encourage students to be more intentional about their choices, and provide guidance to help them in terms of managing their careers, relationships, and lives.

Before joining the Harvard faculty, Professor Perlow was on the faculty of the University of Michigan Business School. She earned her B.A. in Economics from Princeton University and her Ph.D. in Organization Studies from MIT. Prior to her academic career, she worked as a management consultant.


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Featured Work Publications Research Summary Awards & Honors
  1. Stop the Meeting Madness

  2. Manage Your Team's Collective Time

    Time management is a group endeavor. Harvard Business School Professor Leslie Perlow shares how the payoff goes far beyond morale and retention.
  3. Sleeping with Your Smartphone

    How to Break the 24/7 Habit and Change the Way You Work

    Does it have to be this way? Can't resist checking your smartphone or mobile device? Sure, all this connectivity keeps you in touch with your team and the office--but at what cost? In "Sleeping with Your Smartphone," Harvard Business School professor Leslie Perlow reveals how you can disconnect and become more productive in the process. In fact, she shows that you can devote more time to your personal life and accomplish more at work.
    ExcerptReview
  4. TED Institute

    Leslie Perlow: Thriving in an overconnected world

    While email and mobile technology have greatly accelerated the way we do business, Leslie Perlow argues that the always “on” mentality can have a long-term detrimental effect on many organizations. In her sociological experiments at BCG and other organizations, Perlow found that if the team – rather than just individuals - collectively rallies around a goal of personal value, it unleashes a process that creates better work and better lives.
  5. The Economist Intelligence Unit report

    The Personalization Challenge: Business culture and mobile security

    Video Interview: EIU Editor Riva Richmond interviews Harvard Business School Professor Leslie Perlow about the risks to organisations from the undirected, always-connected work enabled by mobile devices.
  6. Switching off an "Always on" Culture

    Leslie talks about the pervasive responsiveness trap in the workforce.

    “The problem is that now everyone's on all the time and we come to expect that of each other. And then, we email each other late at night and we actually may or may not expect a response, initially.  But the person getting the e-mail, their response is, 'Well, maybe it’s not urgent but I should respond anyway and maybe it’s because I want to prove that had it been the clients, I was on.'"
  7. CBS: Unplugging at Night

    CBS Boston segment about Leslie Perlow's work at Boston Consulting Group.

In the News

16 Jan 2019
Harvard Business Review
How to Make Any Business Trip Less Boring
10 Sep 2018
Livemint
Get your team to help you to switch off the ‘always on’ culture
12 Mar 2018
CNBC
Billionaire Richard Branson says this is the key to happiness and success
21 Aug 2017
Harvard Business Review
Help Your Team Achieve Work-Life Balance — Even When You Can’t
07 Aug 2017
Sydney Morning Herald
Could this be the real reason your boss emails you outside business hours?

See more news for Leslie A. Perlow »

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