Dr. Frank Dobbin

Biography

Frank Dobbin is the Henry Ford II Professor of Sociology at Harvard University. He received his BA from Oberlin College in 1980 and his PhD from Stanford University in 1987. His research primarily focuses on organizations, inequality, economic behavior, and public policy. His influential book, 'Inventing Equal Opportunity,' published in 2009, critically analyzes how corporate personnel management defined discrimination and the evidence-based research on corporate diversity programs. Working with Alexandra Kalev, Dobbin found that mentoring programs, diversity taskforces, and special recruitment initiatives are effective in promoting diversity while engaging managers. He has been featured in multiple prestigious outlets, including The New York Times, Washington Post, and National Public Radio. His extensive publication record includes works like 'Forging Industrial Policy: United States, Britain, France Railway Age' (1994) and 'Global Diffusion Markets Democracy' (2008). His recent studies have explored the emergence of the shareholder value model in corporate management, with research interests that span comparative/historical sociology, organizational theory, economic sociology, public policy, and stratification.

Research Interests