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Claus Rerup

Associate Professor, Organizational Behaviour

Education

Contact Information

Profile

Claus Rerup is an associate professor of Organizational Behavior at Ivey.  He earned his Ph.D. from the Aarhus School of Business, Denmark in 2001. He joined Ivey in 2003 after completing his Post Doctoral studies at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

A large body of work in organization theory assumes that as firms gain experience, their processes converge around smaller, more homogeneous sets of activities and outcomes. In contrast, my research focuses on how heterogeneity in activities and outcomes influence organizational attention, sensemaking, and learning. In particular, I am currently exploring how organizational heterogeneity influences problem detection (including cross-level asymmetries in attention and sensemaking to complex cues), the dynamics of routines, and learning (including learning from near-failure / near-success, delays, rich political accounts, and subtle semantic processes). An important feature of my work is that it focuses on both successful and less-successful cross-level coordination of cognition and action.

My research is time-consuming because I use qualitative methods and cross-level micro data to track variations in cognition and action over extended periods. For example, my work on the Estonia ferry disaster draws on 15 years of data collection. Similarly, my current projects on both the Pearl Jam concert accident at Roskilde Festival and Maverick's rise and fall draw on longitudinal cross-level micro data collected over more than 10 years.

Teaching

  • Organization and Management Theory (PhD)
  • Leading People in Organizations (HBA/MBA)
  • Organizational Change and Design (HBA/MBA)
  • Creative Approaches to Leadership (HBA)

Selected Publications

  • Rerup, Claus & Salvato, Carlo. 2012. "The role of attention triangulation in organizational learning processes." In Seel, N. M (Eds)., Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning.  Berlin: Springer.
  • Rerup, Claus & Feldman, Martha. 2011. "Routines as a source of change in organizational schemata: The role of trial-and-error learning." Academy of Management Journal, 54 (3): 577-610.
  • Salvato, Carlo & Rerup, Claus. 2011. "Beyond collective entities: Multi-level research on organizational routines and capabilities." Journal of Management, 37 (2): 468-490.
  • Rerup, Claus. 2009. "Attentional triangulation: Learning from unexpected rare crises." Organization Science, 20 (5): 876-893.
  • Barry, David, & Rerup, Claus. 2006. "Going Mobile: Aesthetic design considerations from Calder and the Constructivists", Organization Science, 17 (2): 262-276.
  • Levinthal, D., & Rerup, C. 2006. "Crossing an Apparent Chasm: Bridging Mindful and Less-Mindful Perspectives on Organizational Learning", Organization Science, 17 (4): 502-513.
  • Rerup, Claus. 2005. "Learning from past experience: Footnotes on mindfulness and habitual entrepreneurship", Scandinavian Journal of Management, 21: 451-472.
  • Rerup, C. 2001. "'Houston, we have a problem': Anticipation and improvisation as sources of organizational resilience." Comportamento Organizacional e Gestão, 7 (1): 21-44.

Work In Progress

  • Rerup, Claus & Gioia, Dennis. “Organizational identity, learning and loss: Parallel organizational identity and organizational learning trajectories over the life-cycle of an organization.” R&R invited from Administrative Science Quarterly.
  • Maslach, David, Branzei, Oana, Rerup, Claus, & Zbaracki, Mark. “Re-imagining the learning curve: Towards a flow-based theory of learning from others’ failure.” R&R invited from Organization Science.
  • Vera, Dusya, Crossan, Mary, Rerup, Claus & Werner, Steve. “Improvisation: Reconciling cognitive and behavioral perspectives to new situations.” R&R invited from Journal of Management Studies.
  • Rerup, Claus & Vendelø, Morten. “Organizing to preclude tragedy: Sensemaking, heterogeneity and cross-level coordination at Roskilde Festival.”
  • Rerup, Claus & Zbaracki, Mark. “Risk, rare events, and the politics of organizational learning.”
  • Salvato, Carlo & Rerup, Claus. “Entwining artwork and blockbusters: Individual interactions and the coordination of contrasting routine interpretations.”

Experience

  • Member of the board of directors, HA Graphic Marketing
  • Consultant, Danish Ministry of Trade and Industry - technology transfer from universities to private sector
  • Consultant, Incentive Group - M&A's in Denmark, France, England and Germany

Expertise

 

Research Links

 

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