Wendy Smith
Professor, Management | University of Delaware
Newark, DE, UNITED STATES
Prof. Smith's research focuses on strategic paradoxes – how leaders and senior teams effectively respond to contradictory agendas.
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Biography
Wendy Smith earned her Ph.D. in organizational behavior at Harvard Business School, and is currently a professor of management at the Alfred Lerner College of Business & Economics and Co-director of the Women’s Leadership Initiative at the University of Delaware.
Wendy’s research focuses on strategic paradoxes – how leaders and senior teams effectively respond to contradictory agendas. She studies how organizations and their leaders simultaneously explore new possibilities while exploiting existing competencies, and how social enterprises simultaneously attend to social missions and financial goals. Her research has been published in journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, Harvard Business Review, Organization Science and Management Science. In 2018, she won the University of Delaware’s first Mid-Career Excellence in Scholarship Award. In 2015, she won the Lerner College Outstanding Scholar Award.
Wendy teaches leadership, organizational behavior and business ethics. She has taught MBAs and undergraduates at University of Delaware, Harvard and University of Pennsylvania – Wharton. Wendy was awarded the University of Delaware MBA Teaching Award in 2016. Wendy has also taught executive and senior leadership teams how to manage interpersonal dynamics, emotional intelligence, high performing teams, organizational change and innovation, managing in times of crisis, and managing strategic paradoxes.
Wendy’s book Both/And Thinking was published by Harvard Business School Press in August 2022.
Industry Expertise (3)
Research
Education/Learning
Writing and Editing
Areas of Expertise (5)
Organizational Behavior
Interpersonal Dynamics
Women in the Workplace
Leadership
Emotional Intelligence
Answers (1)
Media Appearances (5)
Can Biden and McCarthy avert a calamitous debt default? 3 evidence-backed leadership strategies that might help
The Conversation online
2023-05-04
The U.S. is teetering toward an unprecedented debt default that could come as soon as June 1, 2023. In order for the U.S. to borrow more money, Congress needs to raise the debt ceiling – currently US$31.4 trillion. President Joe Biden has refused to negotiate with House Republicans over spending, demanding instead that Congress pass a stand-alone bill to increase the debt limit.
Both/And Thinking
University of Delaware UDaily online
2022-09-08
For the University of Delaware’s Wendy Smith, who is the Dana J. Johnson Professor of Management at the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, making a tough business decision doesn’t always have to be either/or, the lesser of two evils, or even a compromise. There’s another option, it can be “Both/And.”
Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems
Next Big Idea Club online
2022-10-17
Wendy Smith is a professor of management and faculty director at the Women’s Leadership Initiative at the University of Delaware. Marianne Lewis is the dean of Carl H. Lindner College of Business at the University of Cincinnati, prior to which she was the dean of the Cass Business School in London, England.
Stumped By False Dilemmas? Try Both/And Thinking
Forbes online
2022-10-03
An insightful guide in making “dilemma-nade” can be found in Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems by Wendy K. Smith and Marianne W. Lewis.
How many women does it take to change a broken Congress?
The Conversation online
2018-12-29
The new United States Congress has 127 women in the House and Senate, including two Muslim-American women, two Native American women and a 29-year-old.
Articles (5)
Rapid problem formulation for Societal Impact: Lessons from a decade-long research-practice partnership
Journal of Business Venturing Insights2023 Problem-oriented research enables scholars to directly explore increasingly complex societal challenges, yet we still lack in-depth insight into the process of problem formulation. In this paper, we offer insight into this process by examining our 10-year engaged research study of Shorefast, a social enterprise based on Fogo Island, Canada, whose mission was to revitalize the community.
“What may be”: Inspiration from Mary Parker Follett for paradox theory
Strategic Organization2023 Scholars increasingly turn to paradox theory to offer insight into our world’s greatest challenges. Yet to contribute to radical strategy theorizing concerning those challenges and avoid premature convergence on a narrow set of ideas, paradox scholars need new insights. We turn to early 20th century scholar and activist Mary Parker Follett. We highlight the alignment between Follett’s philosophy and contemporary paradox theory, showing that the two approaches are well-suited traveling companions.
Today’s Most Critical Leadership Skill: Navigating Paradoxes
Leader to Leader2022 The authors, well-known for their research into the concept of paradox, explain that “It is one thing to label challenges as paradoxical and another to know what to do about them. In our own research, we have explored that question in depth over the last 25 years. We bring that research together into an integrated model.”
From a Label to a Metatheory of Paradox: If We Change the Way We Look at Things, the Things We Look at Change
Academy of Management Collections2022 Over the last 30 years, mounting insights into paradox have enabled a paradigm shift in organizational theory from linear, static, and rational toward more holistic, dynamic, and dualistic thinking. To gain insight into the nature and development of this scholarship, we curated articles from Academy of Management journals. We identified four approaches to paradox—as a label, a lens, a theory, and a metatheory.
Reflections on the 2021 AMR Decade Award: Navigating Paradox Is Paradoxical
Academy of Management Review2022 Over the past decade, paradox theory has developed impressively. Such advances have been fueled by a rising collective experience of paradox—as change, scarcity and plurality intensify awareness of conflicting, interdependent and persistent forces—and by a global community of paradox scholars—notably creative, dedicated and mutually supportive.
Research Grants (3)
General University Research Grant
University of Delaware $6,000
2016
Ocean Frontier Institute
Canada $4,000,000
2020
Institute for Global Studies
University of Delaware $3,000
2016
Accomplishments (5)
Web of Science, Highly Cited Researcher Award (professional)
2019, 2020, 2021 Awarded to top 0.1% of scholars based on research citations in the “Business and Economics” field, including less than 20 scholars in the area of management
University of Delaware E. Arthur Trabant (professional)
2019 Awarded annually to an individual, department, administrative unit, or committee who has contributed to women’s equity at the University
Academy of Management Research, Decade Award (professional)
2021 Awarded to the paper that has had the most impact across a decade for “Toward a Theory of Paradox: A Dynamic Equilibrium Model” (AMR, 2011)
Responsible Research in Management Award (professional)
2020 Awarded to best annual paper addressing responsible management for “Bowing Before Dual Gods” (ASQ, 2019)
Delaware Today, Women in Business Award (professional)
2019 Awarded annually to 20 women in business in the state of Delaware
Education (3)
Harvard University: MA, Psychology 2004
Yale University: BA, Political Psychology 1996
Harvard University: PhD, Organizational Behavior 2006
Affiliations (3)
- Academy of Management Journal : Editorial Board Member
- Academy of Management : Member
- European Group for Organization Studies : Member
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