Ryan W. Quinn

Ryan W. Quinn, Assistant Professor of Business Administration

  • BS, Brigham Young University; PhD, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Office: FOB 192D
Phone: +1-434-924-7735
E-mail: QuinnR@darden.virginia.edu

More Information

MBA Courses

First Year Organizational Behavior

Biography

Ryan Quinn teaches and conducts research on change management, with specific interests in integration, conversations, innovation, energizing the workplace, high-performance experiences, organizational learning, power and courage.

His research has appeared in journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Review, Organization Science and Human Resource Management. He serves on the editorial boards of Organization Science and Academy of Management Review.

Prior to taking a position at Darden in 2005, he taught at Washington University in St. Louis. He completed his PhD in management and organizations in the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Quinn has consulted around the world with Fortune 500 companies, private firms and start-up businesses. He also teaches in Darden’s Executive Education programs, including the Turnaround Specialist program for principals of public schools throughout the United States.

Teaching Materials

This area contains links two sections: (1) a summary of links to materials that educators can use to teach Lift: Becoming a Positive Force in Any Situation in courses on leadership, change management, or power and influence, and (2) a list of cases and teaching materials that Ryan has authored.

Course Materials for Teaching Lift

Course Module Overview

Click HERE for an overview of the module.

Class One: An Introduction to Lift

  • Purpose: To help students understand what the four questions of lift are and how they can help with leadership, change management, or power and influence.
  • Case study: CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL AND CLINICS. The original teaching note for this case is available at the same site for registered educators.
  • An ADDENDUM to the teaching note is available to help instructors use this case to introduce the students to lift. The addendum will be integrated with the teaching note after it goes through the editing and publishing process.

Class Two: Becoming Purpose-Centered

  • Purpose: To help students develop skills for becoming purpose-centered and to see how becoming purpose centered will affect their leadership, change management, or power and influence.

Class Three: Becoming Internally-Directed

  • Purpose: To help students learn how to become internally-directed in spite of organizational pressures to be externally-directed and to see how being internally-directed can affect a person’s leadership, change management, or power and influence.
  • Case study: NICHOLAS GRAY. The original teaching note for this case is available at the same site for registered educators.
  • An ADDENDUM to the teaching note is available to help instructors use this case to teach students about becoming internally-directed. The addendum will be integrated with the teaching note after it goes through the editing and publishing process.

Class Four: Becoming Other-Focused

  • Purpose: To help students learn how to become other-focused in organizational settings and to see how being other-focused can affect a person’s leadership, change management, or power and influence.
  • Case study: ALVAREZ. The original teaching note for this case is available at the same site for registered educators.
  • An ADDENDUM to the teaching note is available to help instructors use this case to teach students about becoming other-focused. The addendum will be integrated with the teaching note after it goes through the editing and publishing process.

Class Five: Becoming Externally-Open

  • Purpose: To help students develop skills for becoming externally open and see how becoming externally-open will affect their leadership, change management, or power and influence.
  • Teaching plan: BECOMING EXTERNALLY OPEN.

Class Six: Integrating Positive Opposites

  • Purpose: To help students integrate the concepts for the module and explore how they can be used by groups as well as individuals.
  • Case study: GENTLEMEN'S FURNITURE. The original teaching note for this case is available at the same site for registered educators. 

Teaching Materials

OB-0982TN Quinn, Ryan W. (2009). "From Problem-Solving to Purpose-Finding." Darden Case

Collection.

OB-XXXXTN Quinn, Ryan W. (2009). "Becoming Externally Open." Darden Case Collection.

OB-0880 Yemen, Gerry & Quinn, Ryan (2007). “The Breakfast of Champions: Can General Mills

Make the Dough with Pillsbury? (A).” Darden Case Collection.

OB-0891 Yemen, Gerry & Quinn, Ryan (2007). “The Breakfast of Champions: Can General Mills

Make the Dough with Pillsbury? (B).” Darden Case Collection.

OB-0880TN Yemen, Gerry & Quinn, Ryan (2007). “The Breakfast of Champions: Can General Mills

Make the Dough with Pillsbury? (A) and (B): Teaching Note.” Darden Case Collection.

OB-0907 Quinn, Ryan (2007). “Learning in Real Time: Role-Plays in Educational Scenarios.”

Darden Case Collection.

OB-0928 Quinn, Ryan (2007). “Gentleman’s Furniture Role Play” Darden Case Collection.

OB-0915S Chakalakonda, Sharmilla; James, Erika Hayes; Quinn, Ryan W. (2007). “Internal Labor

Market.” Darden Instructional Technology Simulation.

OB-0915S-TN Yemen, Gerry; James, Erika Hayes; Quinn, Ryan W. (2007). “Internal Labor Market:

Teaching Note.” Darden Case Collection.

Expertise

Change Management
Strategic Integration
Conversations
Power and Influence
Innovation
Courage
Energizing Work and High-Performance Experiences

Publications

Quinn, Ryan W. & Quinn, Robert E. (2009). Lift: Becoming a Positive Force in Any Situation, San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

  • Selected as "Book of the Year" by the Huntington School of Business and by Albemarle County Public Schools

Quinn, Ryan W. & Worline, Monica C. (2008). Enabling Courageous Collective Action: Conversations from United Airlines Flight 93. Organization Science, 19(4): 497-516.

Quinn, Ryan W. (2007). “Energizing others in work relationships.” In Dutton, J. E. & Raggins, B. R. (Eds.), Positive Relationships at Work, Lawrence Erlbaum.

Quinn, Ryan W. & Brockbank, Wayne (2006). The development of human resource professionals at BAE Systems. Human Resource Management, 45(3): 477-494.

Quinn, Ryan W. (2005). Flow in Knowledge Work: High Performance Experience in the Design of National Security Technology. Administrative Science Quarterly, 50(4): 610-641.

Quinn, Ryan W. and Dutton, Jane E. (2005). Coordination as Energy-in-Conversation. Academy of Management Review 30(1): 36-57.

Worline, Monica C. and Quinn, Ryan W. (2003). Courageous Principled Action. In Cameron, K. S., Dutton, J. E., & Quinn, R. E. (Eds.) Positive Organizational Scholarship. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. 

Current Research

Quinn, Ryan W. & Golsby-Smith, Tony. “Generating Corporate Innovation through Strategic Conversations,” under review.

Quinn, Ryan W. & Parmar, Bidhan. “Conversational Empowerment,” under review.

Quinn, Ryan W. & Bunderson, J. S. "Can We Huddle on This? Participant Learning in Informal Conversations," under review.

Lam, Chak Fu, Spreitzer, Gretchen M., & Quinn, Ryan W. "Toward an Integrative Theory of Energy in Organizations," under review.

Baker, Wayne & Quinn, Ryan W. (2006). A Theory of Resource/Affect Tradeoffs in Organizational Networks. Working Paper.

Quinn, Ryan W. & Bunderson, J. S. “Collective Flow as High Performance Conversations,” research project.

Featured Video

Professor Quinn on Ethics at Darden

Darden faculty and administration highlight some of the ways they incorporate business ethics into their specialty areas across the Darden enterprise and not just in the core ethics classes. In this video, we hear from Professor Ryan Quinn of Darden's Change Management faculty.