Harlow Cohen

Faculty Director, MPOD Program Weatherhead School of Management

Harlow Cohen is a professor of Organizational Behavior and is also the faculty director for the MS in Positive Organization Development & Change (MPOD) program. Cohen teaches courses in Strategic Thinking, Organization Design, Effective Consulting & Implementation Methods, and Individual Field Projects which is the capstone course in MPOD. He has been nominated multiple times for the Weatherhead Teaching Excellence Award. In addition, he has been a faculty coach for the MBA Action Learning Program, and is a certified coach in Developing Leadership through Emotional Intelligence.

Cohen’s doctoral degree in organizational behavior and his master’s in organization development and analysis are both from Case Western Reserve University. Prior to returning to his alma mater as a professor, he was president of Integrated Profit Solutions, a change management consulting firm; a senior consultant and project manager for Robert H. Schaffer & Associates; vice president of organization planning and development for Ameritrust Company, N.A.; senior vice president of operations and administration for Boykin Management Company; and director of human resources for Cole National Corporation and Cole Consumer Products. In addition to his executive background, Cohen’s consulting assignments have spanned a broad range of industries, serving clients like Panther Expedited Services, Abarta, Laketran, Manufacturers Alliance for Performance & Innovation, The Society of the Plastics Industry, TRW, Allied Signal, Ford, Schuller/Manville, Navistar, Mohawk Industries, Sherwin-Williams, Utilimaster, Dekko International, ASC Incorporated, Ricerca Inc., and National City Corporation.

Cohen has written articles for the Academy of Management Executive, the Advanced Management Journal, Human Resource Professional, Cases in Organizational Development, and Cornell Quarterly on topics that range from tapping into an organization’s hidden potential and generating bottom line results to identifying and developing managerial high performers, maximizing the contributions of human resource professionals, and enhancing team effectiveness. Cohen has also published a book entitled, The Dinosaur in the Living Room: Achieving Positive Change by Tackling the Obvious (2005). More recently he designed and copyrighted three different strategic decision making simulations on disruptive innovation, performance, and industry leadership.