Olffen, Woody van

Associate Professor  
Kamer T7-37
Phone: +31 10 408 2533
Fax: +31 10 408 9013
E-mail: wolffen@rsm.nl

Professional mission and values

I want to do innovative and exciting academic research in synergetic cooperation with others. I am ambitious though realistic toward myself and others. I hold humanistic values. I value working relationships that are based on personal consideration, fairness, trust and reciprocity. As a researcher I feel privileged and strive to combine following my (wide-ranging) curiosity with doing research that really matters to individuals in organizations and society at large.

Biography

Woody van Olffen (1969) graduated in 1993 (cum laude) from the faculty of Economics and Business Administration of Maastricht University. In 1992 he spent half a year at the Social Sciences faculty of Bristol University in the UK, studying Economics. After obtaining his PhD from Maastricht University in 1999, he worked there as an assistant professor teaching subjects in the Organization Theory area, particularly organizational change and development. From 1998 to 2003 he worked as a post doc researcher for the Netherlands Institute for Scientific Research (NWO). In November 2007, he joined the Department of Strategy and Business Environment of Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, as an associate professor of organization theory.

Educational career

1994 - 1998 PhD student at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of Maastricht University, the Netherlands. Thesis: Team level locus of control and competitive team behavior. An experimental study. PhD degree awarded: February 26, 1999. Promotor: prof. dr. C. Boone (now at Antwerp University).
1991 - 1992 Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Bristol, UK. Certificates in Developmental economics, Urban and environmental economics and Industrial economics.
1987 - 1993 MSc. Economics and Business Adminstration (cum laude), Maastricht University.
                              


Research interests

I like to think of myself as a generalist, so I work on a range of subjects in the realm of empirical organization sciences, such as team composition and -dynamics, organizational commitment, change and development, individual turnover and migration, institutional theory, professionalism and the development of professional industries.

Publications after PhD.


  • (Forthcoming, 2008) Shaping organizational commitment. In: S. Clegg & C. Cooper (Eds.) Handbook of Macro-Organizational Behaviour. London: Sage (with Roe and Solinger)
  • (Forthcoming, 2008) Beyond the Three-Component Model of Organizational Commitment, Journal of Applied Psychology (with Solinger and Roe).
  • 2007
  • Who Cares about Organizational Justice? How Personality Moderates the Effects of Perceived Fairness on Organizational Attachment. In European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 16(4), 386-406 (with De Cremer).
  • 2005
  • Temporary liaisons: the commitment op ' temps' toward their agencies, Journal of Management Studies, 42 (3), pp. 539-566 (with Van Breugel and Olie).
  • Team locus-of-control composition, leadership structure, information acquisition and financial performance: a simulation game study, Academy of Management Journal, 48 (5), pp. 889-909 (with Boone and Van Witteloostuijn).
  • 2004
  • Selection on the road to a career: evidence of personality sorting in educational choice, Journal of Career Development, 31 (1), pp 61-78 (with Boone and Roijakkers).
  • The genesis of top management team diversity: selective turnover among management teams in Dutch newspaper publishing, 1970-94, Academy of Management Journal, 47(5), pp. 633-656 (with Boone, Van Witteloostuijn and De Brabander).
  • 2003
  • Locus of control and learning to cooperate in a prisonner’s dilemma game, Personality and Individual Differences, 32 (5), pp. 929-946 (with Boone, De Jong, Van Witteloostuijn and De Brabander).
  • 1999
  • Team level locus of control and competitive team behavior - An experimental study, PhD. Thesis, Universiteit Maastricht, Maastricht: Datawyse.

Academic review work

Regular reviewer for Journal of Organizational Behavior. Ad hoc reviewer for Organization Studies, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Executive, Journal of Management Studies, Leadership Quarterly.

Professional research activities

2007 Co-supervisor of the PhD project carried out by Evgenia Dolgova (Rotterdam School of Management Erasmus University, with Volberda and Van den Bosch).
2007 Initiator and co-supervisor of the PhD project carried out by Sarah Horn (Maastricht University, with Heijltjes).
2004 Initiator and supervisor of the PhD project carried out by Omar Solinger (Maastricht University, with Roe).
2006 Chair of Division paper session on The Embeddedness of Work and Employment Relations: Linkages to Institutions, Culture, and Community, at the 2006 Academy of Management Annual Meeting, August 11-16, Atlanta, Georgia.
1998 - 2004  1998-2004 Post doctoral researcher of the 5-year research project Market functioning and learning behavior funded by the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).
1992 - 1993 Internship at KPMG Klynveld Management Consultants in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Research on the application of strategic value management in Dutch firms.
1988 - 1991 Student-assistant at the Department of Organization Studies, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Maastricht University.
                              


Academic management/ leadership experience

2004 Member and (from 2006) chair of the Student Admission Board, selecting 450 first year students for the International Business bachelor programme.
2002 - 2006 Coördinator of the faculty’s behavioral laboratory.
2002 Member appointment committee Chair Organization theory and - behavior.
1998 - 2004 Coordinator of the 5-year research project Market functioning and learning behavior funded by the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).
1998 Member appointment committee special Chair in Sociocracy.
                             

Awards

2007 High performance member of the Erasmus Research Institute of Management ( ERIM) of Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.
2006 Top-3 nomination for Excellent Fellow Award at the Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organizations ( METEOR).
2006 Finalist in the SMS Best Conference Paper Prize of the Strategic Management Society, Vienna, Austria (paper with Belderbos and Zou).
1999 Winner of the 1999 Best Paper Award for PhD. students, issued by the Dutch academic management periodical MAB (Monthly journal of management and accounting).
                             


Other professional activities

2006 Invited address to a PhD network symposium entitled Early choices in a research career.
2006 Personal coach, specialization: academics, career and personal development.
2000 - 2006 Member editorial board university newspaper Observant, Maastricht.
1999 - 2003 Secretary of the Student Chaplaincy Tafelstraat 13, Maastricht.
1998 - 2000 Member Studium Generale Maastricht.
1997 Member organizing committee of the annual meeting of the Dutch-Flemish Academy of Management (NVAM) in Maastricht in 1998.
1997 Member of the organizing EGOS Colloquium in Maastricht in 1998; convenor of the subtheme 'top management teams'.
1995 - 1997 Board member of the PhD student association of Maastricht University.
1994 - 1996 Member PhD-student’s colloquium committee.