Changes in Perspective and Perspectives on Change: Reflections on a Career

Abstract

This article describes my journey as an organizational behavior scholar, including reflections on the state of the field of organizational scholarship. I organize the article into two main sections. First, I provide my autobiographical review, beginning with my early years and ending with the five universities where I have been employed in my career. Second, I provide a set of observations about the state of the organizational sciences, focusing specifically on the two areas of my most significant focus—personality and leadership—as well as offering some general observations about the field. The organizational sciences have seen many positive advances: Research is more rigorous theoretically and methodologically, and more concern is devoted to replication and research ethics. However, partly owing to prioritizing these advancements over other concerns, new problems have developed, and other long-standing concerns have been exacerbated. I discuss my own changing perspectives on these issues and present some thoughts on how they might be addressed.