Thomas A. Kochan is the George Maverick Bunker Professor of Management at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and Co-Director of the Institute for Work and Employment Research. Hecame to MIT in 1980 as a Professor of Industrial Relations. From 1988 to 1991 he served as Head of the Behavioral and Policy Sciences Area in the Sloan School. From 2009 to 2011 he served as Chair of the MIT Faculty. In 1973, he received his Ph.D. in Industrial Relations from the University of Wisconsin.
He has done research on a variety of topics related to industrial relations and human resource management in the public and private sector. Some of his recent books include: Shaping the Future of Work: A Handbook for Action and a New Social Contract, 2017; Up in the Air: How Airlines can Improve their Performance by Engaging Their Employees; Healing Together: The Kaiser Permanente Labor Management Partnership, 2009. In 1988 his book, The Transformation of American Industrial Relations received the annual award from the Academy of Management for the best scholarly book on management.
Professor Kochan is a Past President of both the International Industrial Relations Association and the Industrial Relations Research Association (IRRA). In 2001 he was listed in Who’s Who in America and in 2000 he was listed in Blackwell’s Dictionary of Management Scholars. In 1999 he was awarded Doctor Honoris Cause from the University de San Martin de Porres de Lima. In 2014 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Sydney University. He received the Heneman Career Achievement Award from the Human Resources Division of the Academy of Management in 1996. In 2010 he received the Academy of Management’s Scholar-Practitioner Award. In 2016 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Labor and Employment Relations Association. He was elected to the National Academy of Human Resources in 1997 and the National Academy of Arbitrators in 2010. He was named the Centennial Visiting Professor from The London School of Economics in 1995. From 1993 to 1995 he served as a member of the Clinton Administration’s Commission on the Future of Worker/Management Relations.