Tolbert, Pamela S

Professor

Professor Tolbert is Professor and chair of the Department of Organizational Behavior. She came to the ILR School in 1983 after receiving her Ph.D. in sociology from UCLA. She is broadly interested in processes of organizational change, the role of organizations in social stratification, and the impact of occupations on organizational structures. Her current research includes studies of the use of tenure systems by higher education organizations, the effects of organizational and occupational demography on career patterns, and the effects of earnings differences within dual-career couples on spousal relationships. She currently serves on the editorial boards of the American Sociological Review, Sociological Forum, Organization Science and Organization and Environment. She also served as the book review editor for Administrative Science Quarterly and as an associate editor for Management Science and has co-edited a text, Organizations: Structure, Process and Outcome, with Richard Hall.

research

research and scholarship focus

  • Affirmative action
  • Complex organizations
  • Education (organizations and systems)
  • Entrepreneurial firms
  • Gender and families
  • Institutional structure and politics
  • Occupational segregation
  • Occupations and Professions
  • Organizations
  • Temporary and contract workers
  • Wage differentials and inequality
  • Work and families
  • Organization Theory and Design
  • Intergroup Relations
  • Professions and Occupations
  • Workplace Inequality Stratification
  • Higher Education Organizations

affiliations

head of

faculty appointment in

member of graduate field

other Cornell affiliations

teaching

teaching focus

  • Organization theory
  • Interorganizational/environment relations
  • Professions and occupations
  • Stratification and organizations
  • ILROB 122 Introduction to Organizational Behavior
  • ILROB 427 Professions: Organization and Control
  • ILROB 520 Organizational Behavior and Analysis
  • ILROB 626 Organizations and Social Inequality
  • ILROB 722 Macro-Organizational Behavior
  • ILROB 725 Analysis of Organizational Behavior Research

background

educational background

  • Ph.D., (Sociology) University of California, Los Angeles, 1983
  • M.A., (Sociology) University of California, Los Angeles, 1979
  • B.A.,  (Sociology) University of Tulsa, 1975

publications

selected publications (listing in progress)

Books

  • Oxford Handbook of Work and Organization (with co-edited, Stephen Ackroyd, Rose Batt and Paul Thompson) ; Oxford University Press: New York ; 2004
  • Organizations: Structure, Processes and Outcomes, 8th edition (with co-authored with Richard Hall) ; Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ ; 2004

Articles or Chapters

  • Gender, family and career in the era of boundarylessness: Determinants and effects of intra- and interorganizational mobility (with Monique Valcour) ; International Journal of Human Resource Management 14: 768-787 ; 2003
  • Structure, norms and outcomes: Organizational demography and individual careers (with Barbara Lawrence) ; In H. Gunz and M. Peiperl (eds.), Handbook of Career Studies ; Sage Publications, New York ; Forthcoming
  • Risky business? Entrepreneurship in the new independent –power sector (with Wesley Sine and Heather Haveman) ; Administrative Science Quarterly, 50: 200-232 ; 2005

Other Publications

  • The role of the physical environment in supporting organizational creativity (with Supaporn Vithayathawornwong and Sheila Danko) ; Journal of Interior Design 29: 1-16 ; 2003
  • Alternative employment arrangements: Are they a successful strategy for working couples? (with Janet Marler) ; Chapter 11 in P. Moen and S. Sweet (eds.), It's About Time: Work and Family Relations in Dual Career Couples ; Cornell University Press: Ithaca, NY ; 2003
  • Causes and Consequences of Variations in Groups' Gender Composiiton (with Mary Graham and Alice Andrews) ; G. Powell (ed.), Handbook of Gender Studies ; Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA ; 1999
  • Men's and Women's Definitions of 'Good' Jobs: Similarities and Differences By Age and Across Time (with Phyllis Moen) ; Work and Occupations: 25 ; 1998
  • Institutionalization as Structuration: Methods and Analytic Strategies for Studying Links Between Action and Structure (with S. Barley) ; Organization Studies ; 1997
  • Two-Tiered Faculty Systems and Organizational Outcomes ; New Directions for Higher Education, 104: 71-79 ; 1998