Francis J. Flynn

Professor, Organizational Behavior
+1 (650) 724-0312
CV

Francis J. Flynn

The Paul E. Holden Professor of Organizational Behavior

Academic Area:

Additional Administrative Titles

Director, Executive Leadership Development

Research Statement

Professor Flynn’s research focuses on three topics of interest: (1) How employees can develop healthy patterns of cooperation; (2) How the negative impact of racial and gender stereotyping in the workplace can be mitigated; and (3) How people can emerge as leaders and assume positions of power in organizations. His work bridges the fields of management and social psychology, leading to scholarly as well as practical insights on organizational life.

Bio

Francis (Frank) Flynn received his PhD in organizational behavior from the University of California, Berkeley. From 2000–2006, he served as an assistant and then an associate professor at Columbia Business School, joining Stanford GSB in September 2006. A winner of multiple teaching awards, Professor Flynn’s courses focus on leadership issues, particularly how young managers can learn to navigate complex political environments and build interpersonal influence.

Professor Flynn’s research centers on the topics of employee cooperation, work group dynamics, and leadership in organizations. His articles have appeared in Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Psychological Science, Strategic Management Journal, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, the discipline’s top research outlets. 

Professor Flynn has worked for the Department of Commerce in the International Trade Administration, the Institute for Business and Economic Development, and the Institute for Urban and Regional Development. He has provided executive education for various companies, including Bank of America, Boston Consulting Group, Box, Caterpillar, Cisco, Cooley, Facebook, Flextronics, Genentech, Goldman Sachs, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Intuit, Johnson & Johnson, Kaiser, LinkedIn, Logitech, Medtronic, Merrill Lynch, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Prudential, Standard & Poor’s, Symantec, Twitter, Yammer, Yelp, and Yahoo! — training that focuses on improving employee decision making and interpersonal leadership skills.

Frank is also a graduate of the University of Notre Dame. He lives close to the Stanford campus with his wife, Christina, and his three sons, Colin, Jack, and Aiden.

Academic Degrees

  • PhD in Organizational Behavior, UC Berkeley, 2000
  • MS in Business, UC Berkeley, 1999
  • BBA, University of Notre Dame, 1994

Academic Appointments

  • At Stanford University since 2006
  • Class of 1967 Associate Professor of Business, Columbia Business School, Columbia University, 2006
  • Associate Professor of Business, Columbia Business School, Columbia University, 2004-2006
  • Assistant Professor of Business, Columbia Business School, Columbia University, 2000-2004

Awards and Honors

  • Spence Faculty Fellow for 2020–21
  • James & Doris McNamara Faculty Fellow, 2013–14

Publications

Journal Articles

Teaching

Executive Education & Other Non-Degree Programs

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