Curtis Chan, PhD, MA, BA

Area of Study / Keywords

Occupations and professions Work and organizations Qualitative research Field research and ethnography

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About

Curtis K. Chan is an Associate Professor in the Strategy, Entrepreneurship, and Management department at the University of Alberta's School of Business. See a profile written about him here.

His research explores how people navigate the challenges and opportunities of their work. He studies work, occupations, and professions, and he is an inductive, qualitative field researcher. His projects begin with a puzzling phenomenon in the world. He then asks what is going on, and what it can teach us about organizations. A thread running through his research is how people carry out and make sense of their work when their occupation’s ideals meet the demands of managers, clients, new technologies, and the public. He has studied people as varied as airport security screeners, university career advisers, Finnish teachers asked to digitize their teaching, Instacart gig-workers suddenly hailed as heroes during the pandemic, police officers, and street dancers. His award-winning papers appear in top-tier academic journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, Academy of Management Journal, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and the Academy of Management Annals. He also has written work appearing in the Harvard Business Review. Curtis serves on the Editorial Review Boards for Administrative Science Quarterly and Organization Science.

As a teacher, he has taught organizational behavior and theory and has received “Teaching Star” distinctions. He was named one of the Poets&Quants Top 50 Undergraduate Professors.

He was previously an Assistant Professor at Boston College's Carroll School of Management. He received his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Harvard Business School and Harvard University, also earning a master’s degree in Sociology from Harvard University. His bachelor’s degree is also from Harvard University, where he graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

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Research

Occupational members are a “group of people who consider themselves to be engaged in the same sort of work… [and] who share a set of values, norms and perspectives” (Van Maanen & Barley, 1984: 294-295). When people are trained as members of an occupation (e.g., security screening, teaching, consulting), they adopt ideas and practices regarding what work to do, how to perform it, and why it matters—becoming expert professionals specialized in a particular line of work. Their specialization makes them essential to organizations, which employ a range of different specialists working together towards collective goals. 

Yet in organizations, an occupation’s ideals regularly meet the demands of others. Managers seek to align members’ work with organizational goals. Clients bring needs and expectations of their own. New technologies reshape how the work gets done, and the public can suddenly cast an occupation in a new moral light. Professor Chan studies how people carry out and make sense of their work as these demands meet, and what this reveals about organizations. His studies follow these dynamics wherever they lead, from how tasks get divided among coworkers to how a once-marginal practice gains legitimacy in the wider world.

How people carry out and make sense of their work entails complex social processes. These processes are subtle, discernible only through contextualized observation and insight into insider perspectives, and sensitive, relying on trust to fully uncover. Thus, Professor Chan conducts inductive, qualitative field research. His projects typically begin with a puzzling phenomenon in the world, and he asks what is going on and what it can teach us about organizations. He immerses himself ethnographically in occupations and organizations, building trust over time and observing contextualized practices firsthand. He also conducts interviews to build rapport and capture the subjective experiences of occupational members. While time-intensive, his method’s insights into contextualized processes and people’s insider perspectives transcend assumptions embedded in prior research, enabling the discovery of novel cognitive, behavioral, and social mechanisms. 

Research Awards

2024 Finalist for Best Submission with Practical Implications for Organizations, Academy of Management, Managerial & Organizational Cognition Division

2022 Administrative Science Quarterly Award for Scholarly Contribution

2021 Outreach Award, Academy of Management, Organizations and the Natural Environment and Social Issues in Management Divisions

2017 Academy of Management Annals Volume 10 Best Paper Award

2016 Saroj Parasuraman Award for Outstanding Diversity Publication, Academy of Management, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Division

2016 Wyss Award for Dissertation Excellence, Harvard Business School

2014 Best Student Paper Award, Academy of Management, Organization & Management Theory Division

2008 Thomas Temple Hoopes Prize for Undergraduate Thesis Excellence, Harvard College

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Teaching

Professor Chan’s teaching philosophy is grounded in four core principles: engagement, relevance, enthusiasm and care, and challenge. He makes his courses engaging and informative by incorporating activities, exercises, simulations, and practical applications, and by debriefing these experiences to deepen conceptual understanding. He strives to make course ideas relevant and applicable by connecting concepts to relatable events, drawing on students’ experiences, and providing the background they need to analyze real-world cases—an approach informed by his work as a management consultant and field researcher. He brings enthusiasm and care to the classroom, showing genuine passion for organizational behavior and a sincere investment in students’ well-being, growth, and inclusion. While fostering a supportive environment, he also challenges students with complex material, high expectations, and careful feedback, encouraging them to continuously improve their skills and knowledge.

Teaching Awards

2024-2022 Teaching Star, Boston College Carroll School of Management

2020 Poets & Quants Top 50 Best Undergraduate Business School Professors

SEM 301 - Behavior in Organizations

Provides an understanding of the behavior of individuals in organizations. Draws from psychology, sociology, organization theory and covers topics such as personality, motivation, leadership, communication, conflict, and group dynamics. Prerequisite: Not open to students in the Faculty of Business. Open only to students from other faculties where the course is a requirement. Not to be taken by students with credit in SEM 200, 201 or 310.

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SEM 703 - Seminar in Strategic Management

This course examines the current state of knowledge in strategic management. Topics may include the sources of competitive advantage, the role of industry evolution and technology, the organization of top management, and managerial decision-making and cognition. The course introduces students to alternative theoretical perspectives and available empirical evidence related to these topics. Prerequisite: Registration in Business PhD Program or written permission of instructor. Approval of the Business PhD Program Director is also required for non-PhD students. Not to be taken by students with credit in ORG A 703.

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SEM 704 - Individual Research

Prerequisite: Registration in Business PhD Program or written permission of instructor. Approval of the Business PhD Program Director is also required for non-PhD students.

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Browse more courses taught by Curtis Chan

Tomi Koljonen and Curtis K. Chan

Academy of Management Journal. 2024 January; 67 (3):798-828 10.5465/amj.2022.1093

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Curtis K. Chan and Luke N. Hedden

Academy of Management Journal. 2023 February; 66 (1):276-305 10.5465/amj.2020.1014

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Lindsey D. Cameron, Curtis K. Chan, Michel Anteby

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 2022 September; 172 10.1016/j.obhdp.2022.104179

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Michel Anteby and Curtis K. Chan

Organization Science. 2018 April; 29 (2):247-263 10.1287/orsc.2017.1175

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Curtis K. Chan and Michel Anteby

Administrative Science Quarterly. 2016 January; 61 (2):184-216 10.1177/0001839215611447

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Michel Anteby, Curtis K. Chan, and Julia DiBenigno

Academy of Management Annals. 2016 January; 10 (1):183-244 10.1080/19416520.2016.1120962

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