Ronald Fry, PhD

Ron Fry is a Professor in the Department of Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. He holds a BS in Engineering at the University of California at Los Angeles (1969), and an SM in Management from the Alfred P. Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1971) where he also received a PhD in Organizational Psychology (1978).

A co-creator of Appreciative Inquiry, Fry has conducted research and consulted with industrial, service and public sector organizations in the areas of human resource development and organizational change for more than twenty-five years. His work with such organizations as Ford, General Electric, Northern Telecom, Mittal Steel, and the Greater Houston Mental Health Association has focused on projects related to employee involvement, participatory management systems, fundamental cultural change, team building and executive development, and strategic planning.

Fry joined the faculty of the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in 1978 and was tenured in 1984. Fry directed the redesign and launch of the new Masters Program in Positive Organizational Development and Change, after having directed the Executive MBA Program for fifteen years. Both programs have consistently earned high national and international rankings in their respective areas.

Fry is widely published in the areas of Organizational Development, Appreciative Inquiry, Team Building, Change Management, Executive Development and the role and functions of the CEO. He continues to both apply and study the applications of AI in the field. His books include Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Approach to Building Cooperative Capacity, with Frank Barrett and Appreciative Team Building (with Diana Whitney, Amanda Trosten-Bloom, and Jay Cherney). He also co-edited Appreciative Inquiry and Organizational Transformation: Reports from the Field (Quorum, 2001).

He has developed and conducted a Certificate Program in Appreciative Leadership and Organizational Capacity Building for over 150 leaders of voluntary social change organizations in more than 30 countries. With David Cooperrider, he co-directs the Case Weatherhead Certificate Program in Appreciative Inquiry in Positive Business and Society Change. He is Editor and Chief of the Case Center for Business as Agent of World Benefit’s global inquiry and directs the Center’s Institute for Advances in Appreciative Inquiry. He currently oversees AI applications in a variety of systems including World Vision, Lubrizol, Roadway Express, and the US Navy.

Fry has served as a visiting faculty to Canterbury University in Christchurch, New Zealand, Katholieke University in Leuven, Belgium and to the Administrative Staff College of India. He has been honored with the University Award for Outstanding Teacher in the Professional Schools and the Weatherhead School’s Lifetime Service Award.

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