Roberto M. Fernandez is the William F. Pounds Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. From 2008-2010, he served and the Head for the Sloan School’s Behavioral and Policy Sciences area. He currently serves as the Co-Director of the MIT Sloan School’s Ph.D program in Economic Sociology.
Before joining MIT in 2000, Fernandez was a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business from 1994 to 2000, serving as the area coordinator in charge of the school’s organizational behavior faculty. Prior to Stanford, he was associate professor of sociology and urban affairs at Northwestern University from 1989 to 1994. His first academic job was as an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Arizona from 1984 to 1989.
Fernandez has extensive experience doing field research in organizations, including an exhaustive five-year case study of a plant retooling and relocation. He is continuing his research on networks and hiring by studying financial services, market research, manufacturing, and retail sales jobs. His current research focuses on the organizational processes surrounding the hiring of new talent using data collected in 16 organizations.
Fernandez is a recognized expert in the areas of organizational behavior, social networks, and human resources, and is the author of over 50 articles and research papers published in these areas. He has received numerous research and teaching honors and awards. He holds a BA in sociology from Harvard University, and both an MA and a PhD in sociology from the University of Chicago. He has traveled extensively, lecturing in Abu Dhabi, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Mexico, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam.
