Gies Faculty Profile – Matt Kraatz

Reflecting on his journey as a professor, Gies College of Business Professor Matt Kraatz says he had an early fascination with organizational behavior from studying the topic in a high school psychology class. That fascination set him on the path to academia.

Kraatz has been a part of the Gies family since 1994, after earning a BA in Psychology from Illinois College, and both an MS and Ph.D. in Organization Behavior from Northwestern University. Kraatz won the Best Published Paper award from the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation in 2015.

“I think deeply about questions that are difficult and important (for organizations and the people who inhabit them),” he says. “I encourage students to do the same thing.”

Kraatz advocates for a greater emphasis on purpose in business education, believing it to be essential for organizations as much as for individuals. His current research delves into corporate purpose and value pluralism, exploring the alignment of organizational values and its implications. By focusing on the difficult and pertinent questions in both his research and teaching, he aims to inspire similar critical thinking in his students.

Outside of academia, Kraatz enjoys spending time on his hobby farm, where he spends time restoring prairie habitat, hunting, and fishing.

Title:  Merle H. and Virginia Downs Boren Professor 

At current institution since what year? 1994

Education: BA 1989 – Illinois College (Psychology)

MS 1991 – Northwestern University (Organization Behavior)

PhD 1994 – Northwestern University (Organization Behavior)

Professional bio, highlighted awards/achievements:

• Editor of Strategic Organization, 2023-present
• Merle H. and Virginia Downs Boren Professorship, 2020
• Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation, Best Published Paper, 2015 (with Michael Bednar and Geoffrey Love)
• Macro Organizational Behavior Society, Inducted 2014
• Division Chair, Organization and Management Theory Division of the Academy of Management, 2011-2012
• MBA Professor of the Year, 2013
• Executive MBA Professor of the Year, 2010

List of courses you currently teach: 

• BADM 509 – Designing and Managing Organizations (MSTM)
• BADM 519 – Macro Foundations (PhD Seminar on Organization Theory)

TELL US ABOUT LIFE AS A BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFESSOR

I knew I wanted to be a business school professor when… 

I first learned about the field of organizational behavior in a high school psychology class (with George Valentine at Champaign Centennial High School in 1985).

What are your major research interests?

Values, purpose, learning, adaptation, and leadership.  These issues are important for reasons that are both theoretical and highly practical in nature.

What are you currently studying?

Corporate purpose and value pluralism.  Willie Ocasio, David Chandler and I co-edited a special issue of Strategy Science on the topic of purpose in 2023 and I have ongoing work in this area with other colleagues.  Value pluralism is the situation faced by an organization that has multiple values that are not well-aligned.  It’s something that philosophers have written a lot about, but organizational theorists haven’t paid much attention to it.  It’s related to the phenomenon of purpose in a lot of ways.

What is the most significant discovery you’ve made from your research?

I’m not sure that I’ve ever discovered anything brand new.  I have rediscovered some things that seem to have been forgotten.  Values is one of these things.  They are a core part of culture and organizations more generally.  But, sociologists and organizational theorists largely ignored them for several decades.

If I weren’t a business school professor… 

Looking ahead, I’d be a full time farmer and outdoorsman.  Looking back, I really don’t know.  I made the decision pretty early in my life.

What do you think makes you stand out as a professor?

I think deeply about questions that are difficult and important (for organizations and the people who inhabit them).  I encourage students to do the same thing.  There used to be a big gap between my teaching and my research, but it has largely disappeared.

One word that describes my first time teaching: 

Petrified.  I was 25 years old teaching a class full of evening MBA students at Northwestern.  They were all older than me and had real jobs.  The second word to describe it is “amazed”.  I acted like I knew what I was doing and they bought my act.

Here’s what I wish someone would’ve told me about being a business school professor: 

I received all of the advice that I needed and then some.  I just wish I had been better and sorting through it and knowing who to listen to.  Everyone needs to find their own way and the people who have it all figured out are the ones to be most wary of.

Professor I most admire and why: 

Larry DeBrock.  He is a walking example of everything that is great about this job and this college.  There should be a statue of him in front of the building.  He also told me that I needed to wear a tie when I taught because I looked to young to be a professor (in 1995).

TEACHING GIES STUDENTS

What do you enjoy most about teaching business students?

Teaching them things that they don’t learn in other business school classes (or at least giving them a chance to talk about these issues).  My classes are about the nature of organizations and the human stuff that goes on within them.  The lessons have applications to business, but these are not the main point.

What is most challenging?

Meeting students halfway and engaging them on their own terms.  Even if you have the answers, you still need to sell the questions.

In one word, describe your favorite type of student: 

If I have just one word it is “engaged.”  I can take more I would add curious, thoughtful, self-motivated, inquisitive, and prepared.

In one word, describe your least favorite type of student: Checked-out.

When it comes to grading, I think students would describe me as… Soft.

LIFE OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM

What are your hobbies?

I own a hobby farm 40 minutes south of Champaign.  Most of it is now a restored prairie and I am a self-described “grass farmer.”  I own German Shorthairs and hunt pheasants and deer on my farm.  I also do a lot of fishing in Wisconsin and love the Chicago Cubs.

Favorite book(s):

• Leadership in Administration by Philip Selznick.
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig.
• The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James.
• The View from Nowhere by Thomas Nagel
• On Thinking Institutionally by Hugh Heclo
• The Genesis of Values by Hans Joas.
• Sources of the Self by Charles Taylor.

And the list goes on…

What is currently your favorite movie and/or show and what is it about the film or program that you enjoy so much? 

I’m currently enjoying Loudermilk starring Ron Livingston on Netflix.  It’s a dark comedy series about a recovering alcoholic trying to heal his wounds and help others stay sober.  He’s a great actor and this show reveals a side of him that we didn’t see in his previous works (e.g., Office Space and Band of Brothers).  He’s very different, but also the same in this show.  The show was created by Peter Farrelly (of Dumb and Dumber and Kingpin fame).  I’ll confess that I also love those movies, and Farrelly is also evolving even as he stays the same.

What is your favorite type of music or artist(s) and why?

John Prine. Just listen to Angel from Montgomery one time and then you’ll know.

THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS

If I had my way, the business school of the future would have much more of this… Purpose.

In my opinion, companies and organizations today need to do a better job at… Understanding and realizing their purposes.

I’m grateful for… My wife, my kids, my dog, my friends, my health, my farm, my job, my education, my good fortune, my capacity to feel gratitude.  This is an incomplete list that could be much longer, and you shouldn’t read too much into the ordering (beyond my wife and kids being first).