Associate Professor in the Department of Social Sciences
URL Associate Professor
Academic training
Ph.D. in Management. University of St. Gallen
Master of Science in Management. University of Bayreuth
Diploma in Clinical Organizational Psychology. INSEAD
Interest Areas
Fields of Interest: Leadership, Corporate Social Responsibility, Business Ethics, Social Entrepreneurship and International Management
Research Areas: Global Responsible leadership, Global Women Leaders, Talent Development, Diversity Management, Competence Models, Sustainable Business Models, Social Innovation
Biography
Dr Nicola Pless is Associate Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at ESADE Business School and a member of ESADE's Institute of Social Innovation. She also holds the honorary Jef van Gerwen Chair 2011 at the University of Antwerp (Belgium). Prior to joining ESADE she served on the faculty of the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland and was a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at INSEAD in France. She teaches leadership on the MBA and Global Executive MBA and on executive education programs; is responsible for the mandatory "Business in Society" courses on the Master of Finance, Master of Marketing and Master of Innovation & Entrepreneurship; and teaches responsible leadership on the PhD program.
Professor Dr Pless' research focuses on responsible global leadership, a research initiative that she has set up and co-directed since 2003. Research into responsible leadership focuses on the individual and the organizational levels and asks: What is responsible leadership? What makes a responsible leader? How can talented individuals be developed into responsible global leaders? How can organizational change towards responsible leadership be facilitated? Currently, she conducts quantitative research on different responsibility mindsets of business leaders and examines how they are linked to responsible decision making, dilemma resolution and coping with complex leadership challenges. Her research and publications on responsible leadership have been recognized internationally (e.g. AOM Best Paper Award for the most significant contribution to advance leadership and organizational studies, AOM meeting in 2011; Dexter Award Finalist at the AOM meeting in 2010) and were selected for Best Paper Proceedings at AOM meetings in 2005 and 2011.
Dr Pless has published three books and has authored/ co-authored numerous book chapters and several peer-reviewed journal articles on responsible leadership. Her book Responsible Leadership (co-edited with Thomas Maak, Routledge: New York 2006; Alpina: Moscow 2008) – a unique collaboration between leading scholars and successful senior executives – was praised by a global CEO as "a comprehensive study of what doing the right thing really is – of how Responsible Leadership can and should become a central feature of how we do business."
Dr Pless is a former Vice President and member of the group of directors of a leading international financial services firm. During her management career she worked in different functions in International Human Resource Management (IHRM): she worked as a Global Assessment & Development Manager for an international bank in New York; served as an HR Generalist with responsibility for the East Asia department at the World Bank Group (IFC) in Washington, DC; and managed and led as a sector leader the department of International Leadership Programs for a global financial services firm in Zurich. Until recently she served as an academic advisor in PricewaterhouseCooper's global flagship leadership development program "Ulysses". She has also delivered training and consulting services for different organizations, including the IFC, UBS, Volkswagen, Deutsche Telekom, Dong Energy and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Dr. Pless received a BA and MA in Business Administration from the University of Bayreuth in Germany, a PhD in Management from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland and an executive degree in Coaching and Consulting for Change from INSEAD in France. She is a member of the Academy of Management, the Academy of International Business, and serves on the Management Board of the Academy of Business in Society (EABIS).
Selected publications
Pless, N. M. & Maak, T. (2011). Levi Strauss & CO.: Addressing child labor in Bangladesh. In G. K. Stahl, M. E. Mendenhall, G. R. Oddou (eds.) (Ed.). Readings and cases in international human resource management and organizational behavior (5th ed.) (pp. 448-459). London: Routledge.[ISBN: 978-0-415-89298-8]
Pless, N. M. (2011). Women leading a responsible global business: A study of dame Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop. In P. Werhane & M. Painter-Morland (eds.) (Ed.). Leadership, gender and organisation (pp. 245-258). Dordrecht (Netherlands): Springer.[ISBN: 978-90-481-9014-0]
Maak, T. & Pless, N. M. (2009). Business leaders as global citizens. Advancing humanism on a global scale. Journal of Business Ethics, 88(3), 537-550.
Maak, T. & Pless, N. M. (2009). The leader as responsible change agent: Promoting humanism in and beyond business. In H. Spitzeck, M. Pirson, W. Amann, S. Khan & E. von Kimakowitz (eds.) (Ed.). Humanism in business (pp. 358-374). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.[ISBN: 978-0-521-72762-4]
Pless, N. M. & Maak, T. (2008). Responsible leadership: Verantwortliche Führung im Kontext einer globalen Stakeholder-Gesellschaft. Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Unternehmensethik, 9(2), 222-243.
Maak, T. & Pless, N. M. (2008). Responsible leadership in a globalized world: A cosmopolitan perspective. In A. G. Scherer & G. Palazzo (eds.) (Ed.). Handbook of research on global corporate citizenship (pp. 430-453). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.[ISBN: 978-1-84542-836-5]
Maak, T. & Pless, N. M. (2006). Responsible leadership in a stakeholder society: A relational perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 66(1), 99-115.
Maak, T. & Pless, N. M. (2006). Responsible leadership. Oxon: Routledge. [ISBN: 0-415-35581-8].
Pless, N. M. & Maak, T. (2005). Relational intelligence for leading responsibly in a connected world. 2005 Academy of Management Annual Meeting. Honolulu, T.H..
Pless, N. M. & Maak, T. (2004). Building an inclusive diversity culture: Principles, processes and practice. Journal of Business Ethics, 54(2), 129-147.
Pless, N. M. (1998). Corporate caretaking: Neue Wege der Gestaltung organisationaler Mitweltbeziehungen Theorie der Unternehmung. Marburg: Metropolis. [ISBN: 3-89518-217-6].
Contact
nicola.pless@esade.edu
Phone: +34 932 806 162 Ext. 5560
Fax: +34 932 048 105
Av. de la Torre Blanca, 59 E-08172 Sant Cugat
