Action Learning at MIT Sloan

Name: Lisa Miyake
Tel: (617) 324-6246
E-mail: miyake@mit.edu

Institute for Work and Employment Research

Argentina; Comparative Political Economy; Environmental regulation; Labor standards; Latin America; Regulation; Sustainability

Mathew Amengual is an Assistant Professor in the Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER) at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Professor Amengual’s research is motivated by a desire to understand how institutions can promote economic development that is both socially equitable and environmentally sustainable.  To that end, he studies labor and environmental politics, regulatory institutions, and state-society relations in Latin America.  His current project, focused on Argentina, explores how states with weak and politicized bureaucracies implement labor and environmental regulations.  This work compares government agencies and industries across Argentine regions, identifying the key factors that explain the state’s capacity to enforce regulations.  He also conducts research on global labor standards, which has been recently published in the journals World Development and Politics & Society.

Professor Amengual is part of the MIT Sloan Initiative for Sustainable Business and Society.  He teaches the Sustainability Capstone class and is a member of the faculty team teaching Strategies for Sustainable Business (SSB) and the Sustainability Lab (S-Lab). 

He holds an AB in environmental studies from Brown University, an MS in city planning and a PhD in political science from MIT.  

“Cambios en la capacidad del Estado para enfrentar las violaciones de las normas laborales: los talleres de confección de prendas de vestir en Buenos Aires.” Desarollo Económico (Argentina), Forthcoming.  [2012]

"Changes in State Capacity to Respond to Labor Standard Violations: Enforcement in the Garment Workshops of Buenos Aires" [2012]

“Complementary Labor Regulation: The Uncoordinated Combination of State and Private Regulators in the Dominican Republic”, World Development Vol. 38 No. 3, pp. 405- 414, 2010.

“Virtue out of Necessity?: Compliance, Commitment and the Improvement of Labor Conditions in Global Supply Chains” with Richard Locke and Akshay Mangla, Politics & Society, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 319-351, 2009.

“Norms of Deliberation” with Jane Mansbridge, Janette Hartz-Karp and John Gastil, Journal of Public Deliberation, Vol. 2 No. 1, 2006.

Name: Kaitlin Hallet
Tel: (617) 258-5583
E-mail: khallet@mit.edu

System Dynamics
Operations Management
Organization Studies

MIT Center for Collective Intelligence

Alternative energy; B-school; Business education; Business process modeling; Carbon footprint; Change management; Climate policy; Energy; Environment; Environmental leadership; Managing change; Nonlinear dynamics; Organizational behavior; Organizational learning; Strategic planning; Strategy; Supply chain management; Sustainability; System dynamics

John D. Sterman is the Jay W. Forrester Professor in Computer Science, a Professor of System Dynamics and Engineering Systems,and the Director of the System Dynamics Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

His research includes systems thinking and organizational learning, computer simulation of corporate strategy and public policy issues, and environmental sustainability. He is the author of many scholarly and popular articles on the challenges and opportunities facing organizations today, including the book, Modeling for Organizational Learning, and the award-winning textbook, Business Dynamics. Sterman’s research centers on improving decision making in complex systems, including corporate strategy and operations, energy policy, public health, environmental sustainability, and climate change. He has pioneered the development of “management flight simulators” of corporate and economic systems, which are now used by corporations, universities, and governments around the world. His research ranges from the dynamics of organizational change and the implementation of sustainable improvement programs to climate change and the implementation of policies to promote a sustainable world.

Sterman has twice been awarded the Jay W. Forrester Prize for the best published work in system dynamics, has won an IBM Faculty Award as well as the Accenture Award for the best paper of the year published in the California Management Review, has seven times won awards for teaching excellence, and was named one of MIT Sloan’s “Outstanding Faculty” by the BusinessWeek Guide to the Best Business Schools. He has been featured on Public Television’s News Hour, National Public Radio’s Marketplace, CBC television, Fortune, the Financial Times, BusinessWeek, and other media for his research and innovative use of interactive simulations in management education and policymaking.

Sterman holds an AB in engineering and environmental systems from Dartmouth College and a PhD in system dynamics from MIT.

Web Site: http://web.mit.edu/jsterman/www

Name: Lisa Miyake
Tel: (617) 324-6246
E-mail: miyake@mit.edu

Organization Studies

Cross-sectoral collaboration; Hybrid organizations; Overcoming organizational barriers to energy efficiency

Jason Jay is a Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Director of the MIT Sloan Initiative for Sustainable Business and Society.

He teaches courses on sustainable business as part of the Sustainability Certificate, and gets students and alumni engaged in hands-on projects with leading companies and organizations. Jason is an active leader of sustainability initiatives across MIT. Through the MIT Sustainable Societies Research Group, he brings together scholars from across the Institute to examine the invention, implementation, and transformation required for a sustainable society. He has helped improve the energy and environmental footprint of the MIT campus by founding the MIT Generator and the Greening MIT community engagement campaign, and serving as founding member of the Campus Energy “Walk the Talk” Task Force.

Jason’s own research focuses on cross-sectoral collaboration and hybrid organizations aiming to promote more sustainable business practices. His dissertation focused on “Paradoxes of Hybrid Organizing” that arise when organizations combine institutional logics from business, government, and civil society organizations. This work builds on in-depth ethnographic research on cross-sectoral partnerships such as the Cambridge Energy Alliance. As a research partner of the Sustainable Food Lab, Dr. Jay has also written case studies of company-NGO collaboration to foster sustainable and equitable food value chains.

Prior to MIT, Jason ran an Internet startup, traveled around the world, taught kindergarten in a progressive preschool, and worked as a consultant with Dialogos International, where he consulted on leadership development and organizational change for major international corporations and NGO's including BP, the World Bank, and the Instituto Libertad y Democracia.

Jason holds an AB in psychology, an MEd from Harvard University, and a PhD in organization studies from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Navigating paradox as a mechanism of change in hybrid organizations.  Forthcoming in Academy of Management Journal. [2012]