Wharton Center for Leadership and Change Management

The intensifying competition for resources and demand for high performance are pressing firms to become more flexible, more results-focused, and more fast-acting.  Companies are finding that such initiatives require able leadership, and the challenge for organizations and business schools alike is to help build effective leadership both in the next generation of managers and throughout the organization today.   

The mission of Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change Management is consequently to 1) stimulate basic research and practical application in the area of leadership and change, 2) foster an understanding of how to develop organizational leadership, and 3) support the leadership development agendas of the Wharton School and University of Pennsylvania.    

Leadership Research:  With backing from a variety of outside sources, the Center has supported research projects on topics ranging from leadership in alliance formation and national variations in governing board structures to the performance consequences of executive succession and the leadership required in outsourcing relationships. 

The Center distributes an electronic bulletin – the Wharton Leadership Digest – to a growing roster of more than 15,000 subscribers.  The Center also maintains several websites as sources of research and academic information on leadership and change for students, faculty, and managers.

Global Initiatives:  The Leadership Center is dedicated to the development of global leaders, individuals who are prepared to lead organizations with multinational operations and diverse workforces, who are capable of working in a host of national settings across their career, and who appreciate that their leadership styles must be adapted to the culture of their country location.  Center initiatives include collaboration with the World Economic Forum and Wharton Center for Risk Management and Decision Process on issue of leadership in preparing for and responding to natural disasters; work with Hewitt Associates in association with Fortune magazine on identifying the world’s best companies for leadership development; and co-sponsorship with France’s INSEAD business school of a research conference on leadership.  It also supports three nation-centered programs briefly described here.    

Leadership Outreach:  Center faculty and associates have presented on leadership to dozens of companies and associations; worked with public and non-profit organizations on leadership ranging from the National Interagency Fire Center and U.S. Naval Academy to the President’s Economic Forum and the Women's World Banking; offered frequent seminars on leadership to university students, alumni, and administrators; and worked with numerous print and electronic journalists on the issues of leadership and change.

Leadership Conferences:  The Center co-sponsors the annual Wharton Leadership Conference which features prominent leaders from business, government, and non-profits along with Wharton faculty.  It also co-sponsors a number of academic research conference, including an annual leadership research conference with INSEAD, Wharton’s partner business school in France.  The themes of the annual Wharton Leadership Conference in recent years include:

Leadership Ventures:  Wharton Leadership Ventures are experiential learning opportunities for Wharton students and graduates, and managers who have completed a Wharton Executive Education program.  Co-sponsored by the Center, the leadership ventures include programs that range from work with the U.S. Marine Corps and the Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg to treks in Patagonia.

The ventures are designed to bring participants into environments where they can learn from the experience of others whose leadership was on the line – and also from their own experience in confronting challenges, solving problems, and leading teams.  More than 500 MBA students and alumni participated in the 15 leadership ventures in 2008-09. 

Leadership Advisory Board:  During the past decade, the Wharton School has built a wide array of leadership learning opportunities in response to the intensifying demand for leadership coming from firms and institutions in the U.S. and abroad.  The learning experience now includes core courses on leadership for all undergraduate and MBA students, leadership ventures for students and alumni, leadership conferences for the public, and leadership research for the faculty.  To ensure the continued evolution and expansion of these leadership initiatives, the Center established the Wharton Leadership Advisory Board in 2004. The advisory board engages with both faculty and students and provides advice on evolving, innovating, and expanding the Wharton School’s leadership initiatives.                  

Administration 

Support:  The center and its programs have been supported by the Wharton School, A. T. Kearney Executive Search, Grant Behrman (of Behrman Capital), David B. Ford (of DBF Associates), Cigna Corporation, Jacalyn and William Egan (of Alta Communications/Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co.), General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Heidrick & Struggles, Howard Fischer Associates, ING Direct, Johnson & Johnson (Centocor, Cordis, Janssen Pharmaceutica, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products, and Ortho Biotech), Richard B. Leib (of SEI Investments), Lehman Brothers, McKinsey & Co., Merrill Lynch, Nicola and Harold Pasha (of the Jack and Lily Pasha Charitable Trust), Peco/Exelon, David Pottruck (of Red Eagle Ventures) Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Lewis Sanders (formerly of AllianceBernstein), Sprint Corporation, and Todd Thomson (of Headwaters Capital).