Department of Strategic Management & Public Policy

About the Department

The Department of Strategic Management and Public Policy (SMPP) brings together professors who bridge the issues of vital importance to business today, including competitive corporate strategy, corporate responsibility, business ethics, strategic environmental management, social networks and social capital, and the relationships between business and politics and between business and society, sustainability, and labor market equality and diversity.

Reflecting the vision, mission and goals of the GW School of Business, SMPP works to cultivate ethical, diverse, and inclusive leaders who make a positive impact on the environment, on society, and on governance through our teaching and research. We also take advantage of our Washington, D.C. location to engage with stakeholders in the wider business and policy communities.

Our department includes 15 full-time faculty and several well-experienced adjunct faculty, who together bring a wealth and depth of experience in the business, not-for-profit and public policy arenas. Faculty engage in scholarly research which is published in leading academic journals as well as important practitioner journals to connect their research to the individuals who apply this work in real-world private and public sector settings. Faculty currently serve in senior editorial positions at Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, Journal of Business Ethics, and Organization Theory.

SMPP offers three core courses in GWSB’s undergraduate degree programs: Markets and Politics, Business Ethics and the Legal Environment, and Strategy Formulation and Implementation. We offer two core courses on Strategic Management and on Business Ethics and Public Policy in the various GWSB graduate programs. The department also offers graduate elective seminars, including Strategic Environmental Management, Corporate Governance, Social Capital, and Impact Investing.

In addition to our core course offerings, SMPP offers two academic programs: a BBA with a concentration in Business Economics and Public Policy, and a Ph.D. in Business with a Management and Strategy Area of Focus.

Read the Latest News from the Department of Strategic Management & Public Policy

Prof. Joel Gehman and his coauthor Michael Lounsbury (at the University of Alberta) published "Concise Introduction to Organization Theory" (Edward Elgar), an overview of organization theory that clarifies how to cultivate a robust scholarly identity in a field rich with diverse research traditions. Providing a summary of rationalist, pragmatic and co-constitutive theories, they highlight how scholars can meaningfully contribute to the academic conversation and maximize the practical relevance of their work.

Prof. Vikram Bhargava was named an International Research Fellow at the University of Oxford's Centre for Corporate Reputation at the Saïd Business School. Fellows are leading scholars across a range of disciplines related to research into social evaluations who support the center's activities and provide advice and expertise to help further the work of the center.

Prof. Jorge Walter and his coauthor Prof. Markus Kreutzer (at European Business School) just published their new book titled "Reconceptualizing Organizational Control — Managing in the Age of Hybrid Workplaces, Artificial Intelligence, and the Gig Economy" at Cambridge University Press. This book integrates new and evolving trends in technology, organizations, and society into a reconceptualization of organizational control — i.e., aligning workers' capabilities, activities, and performance with organizational goals and aspirations — for twenty-first-century organizations.

Prof. Emeritus Howard Beales recently provided expert testimony to congress. His testimony appeared before the Subcommittee on Innovation, Data, and Commerce of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, on Federal Trade Commission Practices: A Discussion on Past Versus Present. The testimony was based on the paper Prof. Beales wrote with Tim Muris on change eras at the FTC, contrasting current FTC leader Lina Khan with prior major changes in 1970 and 1980. Prof. Beales also published a related opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal.

Over four days this past summer, graduate students heard from guest speakers and delved into frameworks and analyses about AI and its future potential in Professor Thomas Debass's course, Business & Society: AI. In addition to being a lecturer in Strategic Management and Public Policy at GW, Professor Debass serves as managing director of the Office of Global Partnerships in the U.S. Department of State, a role he has held since 2016. In this capacity, Debass leads public-private partnerships that advance foreign policy aims, many of them intended to promote entrepreneurship and innovation and each one requiring the interdisciplinary cooperation of business and society.

Research Seminar Series

The SMPP Research Seminar Series features lectures given by distinguished professors from other leading business schools.

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Philip L. Cochran, Thomas W. Binford Chair of Corporate Citizenship and Professor of Management, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University
Topic: TBA

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Linda Treviño, Distinguished Professor of Organizational Behavior and Ethics in the Department of Management and Organization in the Smeal College of Business at the Pennsylvania State University
Topic: TBA

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Exequiel (Zeke) Hernandez, Max and Bernice Garchik Family Presidential Associate Professor (of Management), Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Topic: TBA
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Paula Jarzabkowski, Professor of Strategic Management at University of Queensland, Australia and City, University of London, UK
Scholar in Residence Session with SMPP & MGT PhD students

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Matthew Grimes, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Futures at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge
“Values Homophily in Action: Co-Founder Authentication Processes During Team Formation”

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Aloysius Marcus Kahindi, Canada Research Chair in International Sustainable Development, and Professor, at the Gustavson Business School, University of Victoria in Canada
“The Organization as Anthropologist: Grand Challenges and NGOs in East African Slums”
Spring 2024: Raj Choudhury, Lumry Family Associate Professor, Harvard Business School
“Loss of Peers and Individual Worker Performance: Evidence From H-1B Visa Denials”

Ryan Raffaelli, Marvin Bower Associate Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
“Organizational emplacement as a response to digital threat: The novel resurgence of independent bookstores”

Erin Reid, Professor of Human Resources & Management, DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University
“Earning inherent dignity? How a living wage gentrifies work roles”

Justin W. Webb, Belk Distinguished Professor of Business Innovation, Belk College of Business at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte
“How informal entrepreneurs organize market governance: The emergence and evolution of organizing rules”

Tyler Wry, Associate Professor of Management, Wharton
“Getting into the set: The effects of impact investing in global microfinance”

Contact Us

The George Washington University School of Business
Department of Strategic Management and Public Policy
2201 G Street NW, Funger Hall, Ste. 615
Washington, D.C. 20052
Phone: (202) 994-6677
Fax: (202) 994-8113

Staff Contact:
Rochelle Rediang
Senior Academic Department Administrator
email: redianggwu [dot] edu (rediang[at]gwu[dot]edu)
phone: 202-994-6677

The Institute for Corporate Responsibility (ICR)
Professor John Forrer, Director

Learn More About ICR