About

Paul S. Adler is the Harold Quinton Chair of Business Policy at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business, where he serves as a Professor of Management and Organization, Sociology (by courtesy), and Environmental Studies (by courtesy). His academic background began in Australia, and he earned his doctorate in Economics and Management in France in 1974 while working as a Research Economist for the French government. He moved to the United States in 1981 and has been affiliated with prestigious institutions including the Brookings Institution, Columbia University, Harvard Business School, and Stanford's School of Engineering before joining USC in 1991. His areas of expertise encompass collaboration, coordination, corporate culture, democracy, digital transformation, hierarchy, high-performing organizations, organization, political economy, socialism, strategy development, sustainability, technological change, and value-rational organization. Adler's research and teaching focus on understanding organizational dynamics, strategic development, and the impact of technological and societal change on business practices. He has co-led initiatives such as a new sustainability course supported by industry experts and guest lecturers, emphasizing the integration of sustainability challenges and opportunities within business contexts.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Political economy
• Economics
• Law
• Economic system
• Market economy
• Development economics
• Public administration
• Management
• Public relations
• Finance

Selected publications

• Book Review: <i>The Master’s Tools: How Finance Wrecked Democracy (and a Radical Plan to Rebuild It)</i> . By Michael A. McCarthy The Master’s Tools: How Finance Wrecked Democracy (and a Radical Plan to Rebuild It). By McCarthyMichael A.London and New York: Verso, 2025. 272 pp. ISBN 9781788730662, $29.95 (hardcover).

  Industrial and Labor Relations Review · 2025-08-03

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Advancing International Comparative Research on National, Governmental and Organizational Responses

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

  article

  Climate change represents an existential threat, shaped by diverse factors that require the collaborative expertise of scholars across various fields and regions. In this plenary we focus on two key axes of collaboration – between disciplines, notably Management and Organization Studies and Public Administration – and across regions, notably the Global North and China. Despite the pressing need for integrative solutions, our field remains characterized by significant divides—disciplinary, methodological, and geographical—that hinder progress in tackling this global challenge. This plenary session, organized by the Public and Non-Profit (PNP) Division, aims to bridge these divides. Distinguished panelists from both Public Administration and Management fields will present conceptual frameworks and research insights that foster cross-disciplinary and cross-regional collaborations. The session will engage panelists and the audience in a critical discussion, exploring innovative approaches for advancing international comparative research to address the complexities of climate change more effectively.

  PublisherDOI

• Beyond the ‘Big Disconnect’: Pathways for Research on the System-Level Challenges of Climate Change

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Management and organization scholars have found it difficult to orient their research towards the threats posed by climate change (Nyberg & Wright, 2022). On the one hand, we have many studies that focuses on voluntary green innovation by businesses (see e.g. Delmas, Lyon, & Maxwell, 2019). But on the other hand, there is a “big disconnect” between micro-level voluntary corporate sustainability efforts—which regularly point toward progress—and the observed aggregate environmental outcomes—which just as regularly point toward catastrophe (Dyllick & Muff, 2016). The root problem can be simply stated: under the prevailing “rules of the game” (North, 1991)—set by the broader system within which firms operate—voluntary action by businesses cannot be far-reaching and rapid enough to meet the challenge of the climate crisis (Ergene, Banerjee, & Hoffman, 2021; Levy, 1997; Milne & Gray, 2013; Pagell & Shevchenko, 2014; Wright & Nyberg, 2015). But how can management studies address this system-level challenge? This Symposium will feature three teams of scholars (Bodrozic/Adler, Schuessler/Delmestri, and Nyberg/Wright) who offer alternative views, based on their contributions to a Point-Counterpoint submission to the Journal of Management Studies. Former JMS General Editor (Muzio) will offer some framing; and two discussants (Wickert, Liu) will offer their assessments. The three panelist teams deploy, respectively, neo-Schumpeterian theory of technological revolutions, (Bodrozic/Adler) new institutionalist theory of inter-institutional orders and logics (Schuessler/Delmestri), and post-structuralist theory of hegemony (Nyberg/Wright). Alternative Responses to the Climate Crisis: Discovering New Paths for Climate Action Author: Zlatko Bodrozic; University of Liverpool Author: Paul S. Adler; University of Southern California The Mission (Im)possible of Institutional Climate Action through Quixotic Institutional Work Author: Elke Sybille Schuessler; Author: Giuseppe Delmestri; Breaking the Fossil Fuel Hegemony: Capitalism, Climate Crisis, and the Path to Transformation Author: Daniel Nyberg; The University of Queensland Author: Christopher Wright; The University of Sydney

  PublisherDOI

• Control and Trust Dynamics in the Age of AI and Big Data

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

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  This symposium highlights the transformative interplay between control and trust dynamics in the age of AI and Big Data by integrating insights across macro, meso, and micro levels of analysis. Juxtaposing these insights in the discussion facilitated by Sim Sitkin, the symposium reveals a comprehensive understanding of how technological advancements redefine control and trust dynamics inherent in managerial practices, organizational structures, and broader societal governance. On a more macro level, Paul Adler examines how societal governance structures influence the trajectory of AI development, that is how governments and societal collectives engage with and control AI development to maximize benefits and mitigate risks, providing insights into the intersection of societal control, trust, and technological evolution. At the organizational level, Markus Kreutzer and Jorge Walter focus on algorithmic supervision and human-AI teams (HATs), exploring how these configurations influence control-trust dynamics within modern organizations and, thus, provide a detailed understanding of how AI-enabled controls shape trust among those being controlled and those implementing the controls. On the more meso/micro-level Mareike Möhlmann and colleagues adopt a grounded theory approach on how YouTube as a platform organization controls conflicts (e.g., freedom of speech, content diversity, and safety) while fostering trust and performance through human-machine collaboration. Finally, Kirsimarja Blomqvist’s work on fast expert teams addresses the orchestration of trust and control in high-stakes problem-solving, bridging the need for controls with interpersonal and system-based trust cues. By synthesizing these scholarly emphases, the symposium advances a unified perspective on control-trust dynamics in the age of AI and Big Data, uncovering their interconnectedness and implications across societal, organizational, and digital ecosystems. AI, Control, Trust, and Political-Economic Power Author: Paul S. Adler; University of Southern California Control-Trust Dynamics in the Context of Agentic Algorithms Author: Markus Kreutzer; EBS University of Business and Law Author: Jorge Walter; The George Washington University Algorithmic Stakeholder Governance on YouTube: A Lead Role Perspective Author: Mareike Möhlmann; Bentley University Author: Robert Wayne Gregory; University of Miami Author: Ola Henfridsson; University of Miami Building trust and control for orchestrating temporary online knowledge collaboration Author: Kirsimarja Blomqvist; LUT University, LUT Business School

  PublisherDOI

• System Change, Not Climate Change: Charting Alternative Responses to the Climate Crisis through International Comparative Research

  Journal of Management Studies · 2025-02-28 · 6 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract The climate crisis challenges management scholars to address the system‐level factors that constrain and enable firms’ climate action. We argue that to meet this challenge, we need to study the climate action capacity of alternative systems of political‐economic power. We proceed in three steps. First, we develop a historically grounded map of four main types of power systems: ‘Oligarchy’, ‘Localism’, ‘Authoritarianism’, and ‘Democratization’. These types represent analytical categories – not clichéd labels – to examine alternative responses to the climate crisis. Second, we use this map to compare four cases in the taxi transportation sector, a sector which exemplifies the confluence of the digital and green revolutions in today’s political‐economic landscape. Our analysis of these cases suggests that Oligarchy’s climate action capacity is weak because its climate action is limited to what is profitable for the dominant firms. Oligarchy has been challenged by Authoritarianism, whereas Localism and Democratization have yet to yield stable alternatives. Building on these insights, in the third step we identify three priorities for strengthening our field’s capacity for relevant climate action research: (a) a focus on the systems within which firms are embedded, (b) a focus on political‐economic power, and (c) a programme of international comparative research.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Material and Symbolic Aspects of Management Concepts

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2024-07-09

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  New management concepts serve as new guidelines for managers tackling challenges in technology, society, and the economy. Their longstanding popularity is reflected in the historical ebb and flow of various concepts, ranging from quality and business models, to agility and purpose, over the past century (Abrahamson, 1997; Barley & Kunda, 1992; Bodrožic & Adler, 2018). However, despite its significance, scholarly attention to management concepts in general remains notably limited. The complexity around understanding management concepts lies in how actors employ these concepts and the way these concepts diffuse, though little acknowledged. Specifically, management concepts can be conceived by what practices and techniques are developed and adopted; but the conception can be shifted as actors interpret and communicate them differently, expanding the scope of the conception or even leading to the emergence of new ideas (e.g., Höllerer, Jancsary, Barberio, & Meyer, 2020; Zbaracki, 1998). This symposium aims to bring cutting-edge ideas about management concepts to wider audiences, renewing attention to management concepts and their roles in the changing environments of modern organizations. We particularly discuss both material and symbolic facets of their development, change, and influence. As a new research program, this symposium explores theoretical perspectives and showcases methodological ideas to connect management concepts to the current scholarship in management.

  PublisherDOI

• Solving Societal Grand Challenges: A Debate and Future Directions

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2024-07-09 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Despite increasing attention of management scholars to the study of societal grand challenges and the progress made with promoting sustainability programs in the private sector, societal challenges such as economic inequality, public health hazards, climate change, and social divide, have worsened. The purpose of this symposium is to bring together leading scholars to engage in a debate and discuss their views and research concerning established and emerging approaches in management research for solving societal grand challenges. The panelists will identify advantages, limitations and contingencies of focused change interventions and broad system changes as well as debate the private versus public responsibilities for solving societal grand challenges, while considering new forms of economic systems and organizational governance. Thus, the panelists will share diverse views on the topic and deliberate with the audience about emerging perspectives, practices, and promising avenues for future research on solutions to societal challenges.

  PublisherDOI

• Solving Societal Grand Challenges: Emerging Frameworks and Practical Implications

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2023-07-24

  article1st authorCorresponding

  The study of societal grand challenges has drawn increasing attention in management research. Despite the various remedies that were proposed, challenges such as economic inequality and the concentration of wealth, climate change, overuse of resources, hunger, and social divide and unrest, have worsened. This symposium takes stock of extant approaches and offers novel approaches for overcoming these challenges. The panelists will share their views and research findings concerning the limitations of established approaches in management research for solving societal grand challenges and highlight the prospects of some emerging approaches. Finally, the panelists will engage in discussion with the audience to encourage and direct further research on possible solutions to these challenges.

  PublisherDOI

• We Are Boiling: Management Scholars Speaking Out on COVID-19 and Social Justice

  Journal of Management Inquiry · 2022-05-31 · 16 citations

  articleOpen access

  COVID-19 is the most immediate of several crises we face as human beings: crises that expose deeply-rooted matters of social injustice in our societies. Management scholars have not been encouraged to address the role that business, as we conduct it and consider it as scholars, has played in creating the crises and fostering the injustices our crises are laying bare. Contributors to this article draw attention to the way that the pandemic has highlighted long-standing examples of injustice, from inequality to racism, gender, and social discrimination through environmental injustice to migratory workers and modern slaves. They consider the fact that few management scholars have raised their voices in protest, at least partly because of the ideological underpinnings of the discipline, and the fact these need to be challenged.

  PublisherDOI

• Capitalism, Socialism, and the Climate Crisis

  Organization Theory · 2022 · 26 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Economic system
  • Market economy

  The climate crisis calls for a massive and rapid retooling of our economy and society. I argue that we have reasons to doubt that capitalism, even reformed, could meet that challenge. As an alternative solution, authoritarian socialism such as existed in the former Soviet Union or China would be neither attractive nor effective; by contrast, a democratic form of socialism might be both. In a democratic socialist society, we would govern democratically both our enterprises and our economy as a whole. Democratizing the governance of enterprises would help them make better tradeoff decisions and internalize some important externalities. But if they remain at the mercy of capitalist competition in product, labor, and financial markets, many enterprises will be economically unable to retool fast enough, so we also need to pool the country’s economic resources and manage them democratically, collectively, and strategically towards our shared environmental, social, and economic goals. Organizational research on corporate strategic management offers insights into how such an economic system could satisfy four key requirements for a successful fight against climate change—democracy, innovation, efficiency, and motivation.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Glenn Morgan

  University of Bristol

  35 shared

• Paul du Gay

  Copenhagen Business School

  31 shared

• Thomas A. Kochan

  20 shared

• Adrienne E. Eaton

  18 shared

• Robert B. McKersie

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  18 shared

• Mike Reed

  Duke University

  15 shared

• Bryan Borys

  University of Southern California

  15 shared

• Seok‐Woo Kwon

  14 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Economics and Management

  France

• Other

  Australia

Awards & honors

• Marshall School's Harold Quinton Chair in Business Policy