Crossroads—Bridging Academia and Business: A Conversation with Steve Kerr

Interview with Steve Kerr, Vice President, Corporate Leadership Development at General Electric, has had a remarkable career to date. Like other academics, he has been a researcher and a teacher; like some, he has been an administrator, among other things serving for a time as Dean of Faculty of the Business School at USC. He is part of an even smaller cohort who have been President of the Academy of Management. He is in very select company as the “Dean” of a corporate business school. Crotonville is the leadership development facility at GE. Fortune has called it “The Harvard of Corporate America.” His article, “The Folly of Rewarding A, While Hoping for B.” published in the Academy of Management Journal in 1975, has become a classic, read by generations of students in universities and by managers. He is well known for his provocative work on “substitutes for leadership.” Well respected as a scholar, he has gained a fine reputation as a consultant and as a leader of management education in business settings.