UMass Boston

Maureen Scully

Department:
Management
Title:
Associate Professor
Professor of Management & Sherry H. Penney Chair in Leadership
Location:
McCormack Hall Floor 05
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Biography

Maureen A. Scully studies how the ideology of meritocracy is invoked to legitimate inequality in the United States and thereby impedes efforts to address poverty. She also examines how “tempered radicals,” working from inside traditional corporate and workplace locations, can engage in change efforts that make a difference and improve social justice.

Area of Expertise

Organizational change efforts, grassroots employee initiatives, beliefs about Inequality and meritocracy, dimensions of diversity at work, labor and management joint efforts

Degrees

PhD, Business (Organizational Behavior), Stanford University

MA, Sociology, Stanford University

BA, Social Studies, Harvard-Radcliffe Colleges

Professional Publications & Contributions
  • Rich DeJordy, Maureen Scully, Marc Ventresca, and Douglas Creed. 2020. Inhabited ecosystems: Propelling transformative social change between and through organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly 65(4): 931-971.
  • Sunyu Chai and Maureen Scully. 2019. It’s about distributing rather than sharing: Using labor process theory to probe the ‘sharing’ economy. Journal of Business Ethics 159(4): 943-960.
  • Maureen Scully, Sandra Rothenberg, Erynn Beaton, and Zvi Tang. 2018. Mobilizing the wealthy: Doing ‘privilege work’ and challenging the roots of inequality, Business & Society 57(6): 1075-1113.
  • Maureen Scully, Stacy Blake-Beard, Diane Felicio, and Regina M. O’Neill. 2017. Climbing the ladder or kicking it over? Bringing mentoring and class into critical contact. In S. Blake-Beard and A. Murrell (Eds.), New Directions in Mentoring Research: 161-184.
  • Maureen Scully. 2016. Social movements and organizations through a critical management studies lens: Metaphor, mechanism, mobilization, or more? In A. Prasad, P. Prasad, A.J. Mills, and J.H. Mills (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Critical Management Studies: 233-247.
  • Betzaluz Gutierrez, Jennifer Howard Grenville, and Maureen Scully. 2010. The faithful rise up: Split identification and an unlikely change effort. Academy of Management Journal, 53(4): 673-699. [One of seven finalists for the “Best Paper in Organizational Behavior in 2010” award, Academy of Management.]
  • Mary Rowe and Maureen Scully. 2009. Bystander training within organizations. Journal of the International Ombudsman Association, 2(1): 85-94.
  • Maureen Scully. 2009. A rainbow coalition or separate wavelengths? Negotiations among employee network groups. Negotiation and Conflict Management Research, 2(1): 74-91.
  • Brenda Lautsch and Maureen Scully. 2007. Restructuring time: Implications of work-hours reductions for the working class. Human Relations, 60(5):719-743.
  • Levy, D. and Scully, M. (2007) “The institutional entrepreneur as Modern Prince: The strategic face of power in contested fields.” Organization Studies , 28(7):971-991.
  • "Implications of work-hours reductions for the working class.” Human Relations , 60(5):719-743.

Additional Information

Working with the Emerging Leaders Program at UMass Boston, she supports teams of mid-career professionals from the corporate, nonprofit, and government sectors who undertake projects to address affordable housing, economic development, and racial integration of communities. She works with the Center for Social Policy to facilitate inclusive change processes that involve multiple stakeholders from the community. She is a coauthor of a textbook widely used in MBA programs, Managing for the Future: Organizational Behavior and Processes, now in its 3rd edition, and a coeditor of a volume on gendered approaches to work and change, Reader in Gender, Work and Organization. Her research has appeared in Academy of Management Journal, Human Relations, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Organization Science, Organization Studies, and Stanford Social Innovation Review.

Background

Interim Dean, College of Management, UMass Boston
Founding Director, College of Management PhD Program, UMass Boston
Senior Research Consultant, Aspen Institute Business and Society Program
Research Faculty, Center for Gender in Organizations Simmons School of Management
Assistant Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management
Fellow, Program in Ethics and the Professions, Harvard University

Courses Taught

Organizational Processes, Business and Society, Human Resource Management, Diversity, Organization Theory

Professional Activities

Associate Editor, Organization (2011 - 2021)

Honors
  • 2020, Joanne Martin Trailblazer Award, Academy of Management, Organization and Management Theory (OMT) Division
  • 2020, Donald Shephard Research Award, College of Management, UMass Boston
  • 2018, Peter McClure Award for Diversity Research, College of Management, UMass Boston
  • 2010, 2006, Betty Diener Teaching Award for Graduate Teaching, College of Management, UMass Boston
  • 2000, “Breaking the Frame” best article award, Journal of Management Inquiry