Michael Sacks
Professor in the Practice of Organization & Management, Goizueta Business School; Professor of Sociology (by courtesy), Emory College of Arts & Sciences; Faculty Director, Woodruff Leadership Academy, Woodruff Health Sciences Center | Emory University, Goizueta Business School
Atlanta, GA, UNITED STATES
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Biography
Michael Sacks has been a faculty member at the Goizueta Business School for the past twenty-three years after earning his Ph.D. in Organization Behavior and Sociology at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Michael recently completed a term as Emory’s Vice Provost for University Strategies where he integrated multiple school initiatives towards common university goals. He also previously served as Associate Dean and Director of Emory’s Evening MBA Program.
Michael’s teaching is centered in the area of Strategic Leadership -- aligning the leadership skills of employees with an organization’s culture in order to best execute strategy. This approach integrates traditional leadership topics with the cultural and strategic contexts in which an organization operates. As such, Michael’s teaching spreads across topics such as leadership development, organizational management, and strategic thinking.
Professor Sacks teaches extensively in Goizueta’s executive education programs, currently serving as Faculty Director for several open enrollment sessions and custom clients. Michael additionally serves as Faculty Director for Emory Health Science's Woodruff Leadership Academy, and he coordinates multiple leadership programs across Emory’s campus. Professor Sacks has customized many executive education programs for specific business clients on such topics as Leading Organizational Change, Aligning Organization Culture with Strategy, Influence without Authority, Diversity & Inclusion, Situational Leadership, Personality and Performance, Conflict Management, Negotiations, and Strategic Thinking.
Some of Michael's current and previous clients include Microsoft, Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), Toyota, Delta Airlines, Turner Broadcasting Services (TBS), Newell Brands, Genuine Parts Company, United Parcel Service (UPS), The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, The American Bankers Association, Alston & Bird, King & Spalding, Mailchimp, and Spanx.
The high quality of his teaching has been formally recognized via several teaching awards over the course of his career. Michael has also presented papers at international conferences and has published his research in several international outlets. Michael’s work has been supported by grants from the Dispute Resolution Research Center, the Heizer Center for Entrepreneurship, the MacArthur Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Michael can be reached at: michael.sacks@emory.edu
Education (3)
Northwestern University, Kellogg Graduate School of Management: PhD, Organization Behavior and Sociology 2001
Northwestern University, Kellogg Graduate School of Management: MS, Organization Behavior and Sociology 1996
University of California, Santa Barbara: BA, Sociology 1993
Areas of Expertise (8)
Leadership Development
Organizational Culture and Firm Performance
Organizational Change
Strategic Alignment
Strategic Planning
Negotiations and Conflict Resolution
Executive Education
Expert Witness
In the News (6)
Signs It’s Time to Step Down From Your Leadership Role
Bloomberg online
2023-01-21
Fitting in with a company’s culture is just as important a consideration for executives as it is for entry-level and new hires. “Some leaders might thrive at a different organization rather than the one in which they currently serve,” said Michael Sacks, professor at Emory University Goizueta Business School.
There’s reason to be skeptical of Elon Musk’s Twitter polls
Fast Company online
2022-12-19
“In psychology, there’s something called sense making, which is we don’t gather data objectively to help us make decisions, we already have an opinion, [so] we gather data to back up our opinions and justify what we already want to do,” says Michael Sacks, a professor who specializes in organization and management at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School.
How Mailchimp University Helps Us Stay Weird and Grow Strong
Mailchimp online
2015-08-11
We partnered with Michael Sacks, an organizational development expert at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, to design a leadership development program to help Mailchimp grow the right way. We wanted something that made sense for our culture and that employees at every level would get excited about.
5 strategies for corporate rate negotiations
Hotel News Now online
2012-07-30
It’s a matter of identifying strategic partners, said Michael Sacks, associate professor in the practice of organization and management at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University, during that same panel discussion.
Building a Biotech Nation
Chemical and Engineering News online
2008-09-15
The finalists got free passes to an executive education program held in Cape Town last week by three professors from Emory's business school—Steve Walton, Michael Sacks, and Kristy Towry—and professors from the University of Cape Town. It's the same weeklong crash course given to corporate clients such as Home Depot and Coca-Cola, Sencer says.
Unreal Options
Harvard Business Review online
2002-12-01
A similar social dynamic was revealed in a recent experiment conducted by Russell W. Coff and Michael Sacks of Emory University’s Goizueta Business School in Atlanta and Kevin J. Laverty from the University of Washington at Bothell, which showed that so-called social capital can distort funding decisions.
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