Erik Dane

Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior

Erik Dane

Erik Dane

Erik Dane is an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior in the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. He is currently serving as Co-Coordinator of the Organizational Behavior (OB) Group and Coordinator of the OB PhD Program.

Dr. Dane received his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research has been published in a number of leading journals, including Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Discoveries, Administrative Science Quarterly, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. Before joining Olin, he was a faculty member in the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University, where he twice received the Jones School’s Scholarship Excellence Award.

Area of Expertise

Critical Thinking, Motivation, Innovation and Growth, Organizational Behavior

Education

  • Ph D 2007, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • MBA 2002, Tulane University
  • BA 2001, Tulane University

Awards/Honors

  • Poets and Quants' Professor of the Week, 2019
  • Best Paper Award "Exploring Intuition and its Role in Managerial Decision Making", Academy of Management Review, 2007

Teaching Interests

Organizational Behavior, Mindfulness and Performance in the Workplace, Leading Change

Research Interests

Dr. Dane studies managerial cognition. Through conceptual and empirical research projects, he explores how managers can focus their attention, solve problems, and make decisions as effectively as possible. Topics central to his research include epiphanies, expertise, intuition, mindfulness, and mind wandering.

Personal Interests

Physical fitness, mindfulness, philosophical conversations, and creative writing

Selected Publications

  • "Promoting and supporting epiphanies in organizations: A transformational approach to employee development", Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 104295, 2024
  • "Zoning out or breaking through? Linking daydreaming to creativity in the workplace", Academy of Management Journal, 1553-1577, with Markus Baer, Hector Madrid, 2021
  • "Attention, please: How the attention-related stories we tell our students in class influence their performance at work", Academy of Management Learning and Education, 73-88, 2021
  • "Suddenly everything became clear: How people make sense of epiphanies surrounding their work and careers", Academy of Management Discoveries, 39-60, 2020
  • "Exploring the hidden side of trust: Supporting and sustaining leaps of faith among firefighters", Administrative Science Quarterly, 398-434, with M. G. Pratt, D. A. Lepisto, 2019
  • "Where is my mind? Theorizing mind wandering and its performance-related consequences in organizations", Academy of Management Review, 179-197, 2018
  • "Affect, emotion, and decision making", Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 47-55, with J. M. George, 2016
  • "Mindfulness in organizations: A cross-level review", Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 55-81, with K. M. Sutcliffe, T. J. Vogus, 2016
  • "On the role of experience in ethical decision making at work: An ethical expertise perspective", Organizational Psychology Review, 74-96, with S. Sonenshein, 2015
  • "Unpacking affective forecasting and its ties to project work in organizations", Academy of Management Review, 181-201, with J. M. George, 2014

Contact

Erik Dane