Joshua D. Margolis

Joshua Margolis is Professor of Business Administration in the Organizational Behavior unit and the Faculty Chair of the Christensen Center for Teaching and Learning. His research and teaching revolve around leadership and ethics. He has taught courses on Leadership and Organizational Behavior, Leadership and Corporate Accountability, and Authentic Leadership Development, and currently teaches the new required first-year course, Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development (FIELD).

Professor Margolis’ research focuses on the distinctive ethical challenges that arise in organizations and how managers can navigate these challenges with practical effectiveness and moral integrity, especially in perform-or-else settings. Professor Margolis has published his work in Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, Business Ethics Quarterly, Harvard Business Review, and Journal of Management; and along with James P. Walsh, he authored the book, People and Profits: the Search for a Link between a Company’s Social and Financial Performance. Professor Margolis is currently engaged in two research projects. One focuses on how professionals in a variety of setting perform “necessary evils” — difficult and often unsettling tasks that require harming other human beings in order to advance a worthy purpose. The other project examines global business standards.

Professor Margolis received his B.A. from Yale University and his A.M. (Sociology) and Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Harvard University, where he was also a Fellow in the Program in Ethics and the Professions. Joshua joined the HBS faculty in 2000 after spending three years on the faculty at the University of Michigan as a Fellow in the Society of Scholars.

He has received the Robert F. Greenhill Award, the Student Association Faculty Award for teaching excellence, the Apgar Award for Innovation in Teaching, and the Academy of Management award for Outstanding Publication in Organizational Behavior.