Thomas Kochan

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Thomas Kochan

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Thomas A. Kochan is the Post-Tenure George Maverick Bunker Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a faculty member in the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research.

Kochan focuses on the need to update America's work and employment policies, institutions, and practices to catch up with a changing workforce and economy. His recent work calls attention to the need for a new social contract at work, one that anticipates and engages current and future technological changes in ways that build a more inclusive economy and broadly shared prosperity. Through empirical research, he demonstrates that fundamental changes in the quality of employee and labor‐management relations are needed to address America's critical problems in industries ranging from healthcare to airlines to manufacturing. His most recent book is Shaping the Future of Work:  A Handbook for Action and a New Social Contract (Routledge, 2021). 

He is a member of the National Academy of Human Resources, the National Academy of Arbitrators, and past president of the International Industrial Relations Association and the Industrial Relations Research Association. Currently he is member of the MIT Task Force on Work of the Future.

Kochan holds a BBA in personnel management as well as an MS and a PhD in industrial relations from the University of Wisconsin​.

Publications

"What It Takes to Form a Union — and Where to Begin."

Kochan, Thomas and John S. Ahlquist. Harvard Business Review, October 7, 2024.

"Vote Yes to Let Workers in the Rideshare Sector Unionize."

Kochan, Thomas. CommonWealth Beacon, October 2, 2024.

"Good Labor Day News: Young Workers Driving Union Activism. We Need Them to Keep Momentum."

Kochan, Thomas. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, September 2024.

"The Rise of the 'Union Curious'."

John S. Ahlquist, Jake Grumbach, and Thomas Kochan. July 2024.

"Bringing Worker Voice into Generative AI."

Kochan, Thomas A., Ben Armstrong, Julie Shah, Emilio J. Castilla, Ben Likis, and Martha E. Mangelsdorf, Working Paper. March 2024.

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Recent Insights

Ideas Made to Matter

The rise of the union-curious worker, and how to win them over

In the U.S., front-line workers’ attitudes toward unions are softening, especially among people under 30. Here’s what they want from their workplaces.

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Press

Integrate worker voices to maximize generative AI’s benefits

From ChatGPT to advanced industrial design AI tools, companies in every industry are turning to generative AI to cut costs and increase productivity.

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Executive Education

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