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Faculty - Richard Boland, Jr.

Eliz. M. and Wm. C. Treuhaft Professor of Management
Department Chair
Department Chair, Information Systems
Professor, Information Systems
Senior Research Fellow, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge

Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University, 1976
M.A., Northwestern University, 1968
B.A., Northwestern University, 1967

I do qualitative studies of individuals as they design and use information. My interest is in how people make meaning as they interpret situations in an organization, or as they interpret data in a report. I have studied this hermeneutic process in a wide range of settings and professions, but primarily I have focused on how managers and consultants turn an ambiguous situation into a problem statement and declare a particular course of action to be rational. I have approached this in a variety of ways, including symbolic interaction, metaphor, cause mapping, frame shifting, language games and exegesis. Most recently I am fascinated with narrative and design as modes of cognition which are systematically undervalued yet dominate our meaning making.

I enjoy visiting at The Judge School of Business at the University of Cambridge for several weeks each semester, where I am a Senior Research Associate, as well as a Visiting Fellow at Sidney Sussex College.

Selected Publications

  • Zhao, L., Grant, J. E., Collopy, F., Boland, Jr., R. J. (2010). Dynamic Graphical Representation of Financial Statements: A Design Inquiry and Empirical Results
  • Boland, Jr., R. J., Collopy, F., Lyytinen, K. J., Yoo, Y. (2008). Managing as Designing: Lessons for Organization Leaders from the Design Practice of Frank O. Gehry (vol. 24, pp. 10-25). Cambridge, MA: Design Issues.
  • Lyytinen, K. J., Boland, Jr., R. J. Communicating through Thick Boundaries: the Case of Informing National Policy Making AoM 2012, Annual Meeting.
  • Lyytinen, K. J., Boland, Jr., R. J., Jr, M. A. Introduction to Designing Information and Organizations with a Positive Lens (vol. 19, issue 3, pp. 1-9). Elsevier.

Awards

  • 2008 Best Published Paper Award, Academy of Management OCIS. (2008).