Tsedal Neeley

Tsedal Neeley (@tsedal) is the Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration and Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Research Strategy at the Harvard Business School. Her work focuses on how leaders can scale their organizations by developing and implementing global and digital strategies. She regularly advises top leaders who are embarking on virtual work and large scale-change that involves global expansion, digital transformation, and becoming more agile.

Her book, Remote Work Revolution: Succeeding from Anywhere (2021, Harper Collins Business), provides remote workers and leaders with the best practices necessary to perform at the highest levels in their organizations. Her award-winning book, The Language of Global Success: How a Common Tongue Transforms Multinational Organizations chronicles the behind-the-scenes globalization process of a company over the course of five years. She has also published extensively in leading scholarly and practitioner-oriented outlets such as Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Management Science, Journal of International Business, Strategic Management Journal and Harvard Business Review, and her work has been widely covered in media outlets such as BBC, CNN, Financial Times, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, and the Economist. Her HBS case, Managing a Global Team: Greg James at Sun Microsystems, is one of the most used cases worldwide on the subject of virtual work.

Tsedal co-chairs the executive offering, Leading Global Businesses, which helps top leaders develop emerging and mature market strategies in a global and increasingly digital economy. She also teaches extensively in executive programs such as the Harvard Business Analytics Program. She has previously been the course head for the first-year required Leadership and Organizational Behavior course in the MBA program that focuses on how to lead effectively; the curriculum addresses group behavior and performance, organization design, change and how to align people behind a common vision.

Prior to her academic career, Tsedal spent ten years working for companies like Lucent Technologies and The Forum Corporation in various roles, including strategies for global customer experience, 360-degree performance software management systems, sales force/sales management development, and business flow analysis for telecommunication infrastructures. A sought-after speaker with extensive international experience, she is fluent in four languages. She holds a patent for her software simulation on global collaboration and is a member of Rakuten People & Culture Lab Advisory Board.

Tsedal is a recipient of the prestigious Charles M. Williams Award for Outstanding Teaching in Executive Education and the Greenhill Award for outstanding contributions to Harvard Business School (two-time recipient). She serves on the Board of Directors of Brightcove, Brown Capital Management, Harvard Business Publishing and the Partnership Inc.

Tsedal received her Ph.D. from Stanford University in Management Science and Engineering, specializing in Work, Technology and Organizations. Tsedal was named to Thinkers50 2018 On the Radar list for making lasting contributions to management, honored as a Stanford Distinguished Alumnus Scholar and was a Stanford University School of Engineering Lieberman award recipient for excellence in teaching and research.

BOOKS

• Neeley, Tsedal. Remote Work Revolution: Succeeding from Anywhere. New York: Harper Business, 2021.
• Neeley, Tsedal. The Language of Global Success: How a Common Tongue Transforms Multinational Organizations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

• Neeley, Tsedal, and Sebastian Reiche. "How Global Leaders Gain Power Through Downward Deference and Reduction of Social Distance." Academy of Management Journal (forthcoming). (Pre-published online November 25, 2020.)
• Reiche, Sebastian, and Tsedal Neeley. "Head, Heart or Hands: How Do Employees Respond to a Radical Global Language Change Over Time?" Organization Science 30, no. 6 (November–December 2019): 1252–1269.
• Neeley, Tsedal, and Paul Leonardi. "Enacting Knowledge Strategy Through Social Media: Passable Trust and the Paradox of Non-work Interactions." Special Issue on Strategy Processes and Practices: Dialogues and Intersections. Strategic Management Journal 39, no. 3 (March 2018): 922–946.
• Reiche, B. S., T. B. Neeley, and N. Overmeyer. "Affective, Cognitive and Behavioral Trajectories of Change Recipients in Global Organizations." Academy of Management Proceedings (2017). (Proceedings of the 77th Annual Meeting (2017), edited by Guclu Atinc. Online ISSN: 2151-6561.)
• Leonardi, Paul, and Tsedal Neeley. "What Managers Need to Know About Social Tools: Avoid the Common Pitfalls So That Your Organization Can Collaborate, Learn, and Innovate." Harvard Business Review 95, no. 6 (November–December 2017): 118–126.
• Neeley, Tsedal, and Tracy Dumas. "Unearned Status Gain: Evidence from a Global Language Mandate." Academy of Management Journal 59, no. 1 (February 2016): 14–43.
• Neeley, Tsedal. "Global Teams That Work." Harvard Business Review 93, no. 10 (October 2015): 74–81.
• Neeley, Tsedal. "The Language of Global Management." In Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, Volume 6: International Management. 3rd ed. Edited by Markus Vodosek and Deanne den Hartog. John Wiley & Sons, 2014.
• Neeley, Tsedal, and Robert Steven Kaplan. "What's Your Language Strategy? It Should Bind Your Company's Global Talent Management and Vision." R1409D. Harvard Business Review 92, no. 9 (September 2014): 70–76.
• Hinds, Pamela J., Tsedal Neeley, and Catherine Durnell Cramton. "Language as a Lightning Rod: Power Contests, Emotion Regulation, and Subgroup Dynamics in Global Teams." Journal of International Business Studies 45, no. 5 (June–July 2014): 536–561.
• Neeley, Tsedal. "Language Matters: Status Loss & Achieved Status Distinctions in Global Organizations." Organization Science 24, no. 2 (March–April 2013): 476–497.
• Mortensen, Mark, and Tsedal Neeley. "Reflected Knowledge and Trust in Global Collaboration." (pdf) Management Science 58, no. 12 (December 2012): 2207–2224. (equal authorship.)
• Neeley, Tsedal, Pamela J. Hinds, and Catherine D. Cramton. "The (Un)Hidden Turmoil of Language in Global Collaboration." Organizational Dynamics 41, no. 3 (July–September 2012): 236–244.
• Neeley, Tsedal. "Global Business Speaks English: Why You Need a Language Strategy Now." Harvard Business Review 90, no. 5 (May 2012): 116–124.
• Leonardi, Paul, Tsedal Neeley, and Elizabeth M. Gerber. "How Managers Use Multiple Media: Discrepant Events, Power, and Timing in Redundant Communication." Organization Science 23, no. 1 (January–February 2012): 98–117.
• Neeley, Tsedal, and Paul Leonardi. "Effective Managers Say the Same Thing Twice (or More)." Harvard Business Review 89, no. 5 (May 2011): 38–39.