Wendy Smith

Wendy Smith earned her Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior at Harvard Business School, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Alfred Lerner School of Business at the University of Delaware.

Wendy’s research focuses on strategic paradoxes – how leaders and senior teams manage commitments to contradictory agendas. She has explored how senior teams simultaneously explore new possibilities while exploit existing competencies. She also explores how hybrid organizations, specifically social enterprises, manage social missions and financial goals simultaneously. Her research has been published in journals such as Academy of Management Review, Harvard Business Review, Organization Science, Management Science and Long Range Planning.

Wendy teaches organizational behavior and leadership. She has taught executives, MBAs and undergraduates at University of Delaware, Harvard, and Wharton. She was nominated for the MBA Teacher Award at the Lerner Business School each year from 2007-2011 and nominated for the University of Delaware Excellence in Teaching Award in 2008 and 2009.

Wendy has also taught executive and senior leadership teams how to manage interpersonal dynamics, emotional intelligence, high performing teams, organizational change and innovation, managing in times of crisis, and managing strategic paradoxes. She facilitated over 20 senior leadership teams in executive workshops at the Harvard Business School Executive Education program, Leading Change and Organizational Renewal. These senior teams include international teams from Fortune 100’s in industries including retail, oil and gas, services, software, hardware. She has also worked with senior teams at organizations such as American Automobile Association (AAA), Wilmington Trust, DHL, and IBM.

Wendy lives in Philadelphia with her husband, Michael Posner and five year old twins.