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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

Web of Science, Highly Cited Researcher Award

2019

Awarded annually to an individual, department, administrative unit, or committee who has contributed to women’s equity at the University

University of Delaware E. Arthur Trabant

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)

Academy of Management Research, Decade Award

2020

Awarded to best annual paper addressing responsible management for “Bowing Before Dual Gods” (ASQ, 2019)

Responsible Research in Management Award

2019

Awarded annually to 20 women in business in the state of Delaware

Delaware Today, Women in Business Award

Academy of Management Journal : Editorial Board Member

Academy of Management : Member

European Group for Organization Studies : Member

Rapid problem formulation for Societal Impact: Lessons from a decade-long research-practice partnership

“What may be”: Inspiration from Mary Parker Follett for paradox theory

Today’s Most Critical Leadership Skill: Navigating Paradoxes

From a Label to a Metatheory of Paradox: If We Change the Way We Look at Things, the Things We Look at Change

Reflections on the 2021 AMR Decade Award: Navigating Paradox Is Paradoxical

Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems

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.

Organizational Behavior

Interpersonal Dynamics

Women in the Workplace

Leadership

Emotional Intelligence

University of Delaware Faculty Profile

University of Delaware Expert Profile

INSEAD Author Profile

University Research Magazine Association Profile

Amazon Author Profile

Google Scholar Citations

Can Biden and McCarthy avert a calamitous debt default? 3 evidence-backed leadership strategies that might help

Both/And Thinking

Stumped By False Dilemmas? Try Both/And Thinking

How many women does it take to change a broken Congress?

General University Research Grant

Ocean Frontier Institute

Institute for Global Studies

Professor, Management

Wendy Smith earned her Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior at Harvard Business School, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Alfred Lerner School of Business and Economics at the University of Delaware.

Wendy's research focuses on strategic paradoxes -- how leaders and senior teams manage commitments to contradictory agendas. She has explored how senior teams simultaneously explore new possibilities while exploiting existing competencies. She also explores how hybrid organizations, specifically social enterprises, manage social missions and financial goals simultaneously. Her research has been published in journals such as Academy of Management Review, Harvard Business Review, Organization Science, Management Science and Long Range Planning.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

The power of paradox: Dr. Wendy Smith at TEDxUD

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