George Maverick Bunker Professor of Management
Professor of Engineering Systems
Co-director, Institute for Work and Employment Research at MIT Sloan School of Management
Chair of the Faculty, MIT, 2009

Thomas A. Kochan is the George Maverick Bunker Professor of Management at MIT's Sloan School of Management and Co-Director of both the MIT Workplace Center and of the Institute for Work and Employment Research. He came to MIT in 1980 as a Professor of Industrial Relations. From 1988 to 1991 he served as Head of the Behavioral and Policy Sciences Area in the Sloan School. Prof. Kochan came to MIT from Cornell University where he was on the faculty of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations from 1973 to 1980.

In 1973, he received his Ph.D. in Industrial Relations from the University of Wisconsin. Since then he has served as a third-party mediator, fact finder, and arbitrator and as a consultant to a variety of government and private sector organizations and labor-management groups. He was a consultant for one year to the Secretary of Labor in the Department of Labor’s Office of Policy Evaluation and Research.

He has done research on a variety of topics related to industrial relations and human resource management in the public and private sector. Some of his recent books include: Restoring the American Dream: A Working Families’ Agenda for America; Management: Inventing and Delivering its Future; Working in America: A Blueprint for the Labor Market, Learning from Saturn; Managing for the Future: Organizational Behavior and Processes, 3rd edition, 2004; An Introduction to Collective Bargaining and Industrial Relations, 3rd ed. 2003; In 1988 his book, The Transformation of American Industrial Relations received the annual award from the Academy of Management for the best scholarly book on management.

Professor Kochan is a Past President of both the International Industrial Relations Association and the Industrial Relations Research Association (IRRA). In 2001 he was listed in Who’s Who in America and in 2000 he was listed in Blackwell’s Dictionary of Management Scholars. In 1999 he was awarded Doctor Honoris Cause from the University de San Martin de Porres de Lima. He received the Heneman Career Achievement Award from the Human Resources Division of the Academy of Management in 1996. He was elected to the National Academy of Human Resources in 1997. He was named the Centennial Visiting Professor from The London School of Economics in 1995. From 1993 to 1995 he served as a member of the Clinton Administration's Commission on the Future of Worker/Management Relations.

News and announcements:

Books Published by Thomas A. Kochan

Prof. Thomas Kochan quoted in Boston Globe story on union membership (September 4, 2008)

Sloan Prof. Thomas Kochan in the Hartford Courant, on Connecticut's minimum wage – Lawmakers to Take Up Rell's Wage Hike Veto (June 25, 2008)

Boston Globe: Prof. Kochan on board recommending pay hikes for Mass. judges and political leaders (June 23, 2008)

Prof. Kochan in Hartford Courant – Gas Prices Reshaping Hiring Practices (June 18, 2008)

Prof. Thomas Kochan in the Christian Science Monitor, on a boost in the number of minorities working toward PhDs (June 5, 2008)

Prof. Kochan in Washington Post – Rising Health Costs Cut into Wages (April 1, 2008)

Prof. Kochan featured in Financial Times (June 16, 2006)

Prof. Tom Kochan quoted in USA Today on do-it-yourself airline service (February 22, 2006)

Prof. Tom Kochan Publishes New Book, Restoring the American Dream: A Working Families' Agenda for America (October 5, 2005)

Tom Kochan, Colleagues Win Award for Diversity Paper (July 7, 2004)

Tom Kochan, Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld Give Keynote Address at National Labor-Management Conference (June 4, 2004)