Sue Ashford

Michael & Susan Jandernoa Professor of Management and Organizations

Education
PHD Northwestern University 1983
MS Northwestern University 1981
BA San Jose State University 1977
Biography

Susan (Sue) Ashford holds the Michael and Susan Jandernoa Professorship in Management and Organization at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. She was previously on the faculty of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and received her MS and Ph.D. degrees from Northwestern University. She served as the Ross school’s Senior Associate Dean from 1998 – 2002, the Associate Dean for Leadership Development Programming from 2007 – 2010, the faculty director of the Executive MBA program from 2002 - 2012,  and the Area Chair for the Management and Organizations group from 2014 - 2021.

Sue has made research contributions in the areas of leadership development and leader effectiveness, middle management voice and issue selling, job insecurity, and individual proactivity (e.g., self-management and feedback seeking). She is currently researching how to thrive in the gig economy. Her research has been published in a variety of outlets, including the: Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Strategic Management Journal, and the Journal of Applied Psychology. Her research has been summarized as advice for managers in the Harvard Business Review, the Harvard Business Review blog, the Washington Post, and New York Magazine. Sue has served as an Associate Editor for the Academy of Management Journal and currently serves on its editorial board. In 2002, Sue was named a Fellow of the Academy of Management, recognizing the top 1% of scholars in a world-wide professional association of nearly 20,000 professors and practitioners interested in improving management scholarship, education, and practice. The Academy of Management also awarded her the prestigious Career Achievement Award for Distinguished Scholarly Contributions to Management in 2017. In 2020, Sue won the Lifetime Achievement award offered by the Organizational Behavior division of the Academy of Management and was also named the Ross school's researcher of the year. Sue and her team won the inaugural visionary circle research grant offered by the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

Sue’s passion is using her teaching and research work to help people to be maximally effective in their work settings, with an emphasis on self-leadership, proactivity, change from below, and leadership and its development. She teaches at the Ross School, focusing on negotiation skills in the Executive  and online MBA programs, and Is the faculty director for the Emerging Leaders Program in Ross’ Executive Education portfolio. She also teaches in Two programs aimed at accelerating careers for women: Ascending to the C-suite program for Inforum, a professional organization committed to Women's careers in Michigan and the Leading Women Executives program in Chicago.

Latest Faculty News & Research
Featured Books
The Power of Flexing: How to Use Small Daily Experiments to Create Big Life-Changing Growth
Susan Ashford
A personnel shift at your organization puts you into a leadership role you don't feel prepared for. Your boss tells you that you seem aloof and unapproachable in client meetings. You need to win the support of the members of a local community group for a project you feel passionate about. Addressing these diverse issues depends on improving your soft skills—such as time management, team building...
Research Handbook of Careers in the Gig Economy
Published Date
03/2025
Authors
Reid, E. Ashford, S. J., Caza, B. & Granger, S
Source
Northhampton, MA: Edward Elgar
Pages
67-84
Developing professionally while working independently: Career development of professionals working in the gig economy.
J. I Akkermans, F. Pichault, & A. Keegan
Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior
Published Date
2018
Authors
Lee, C., Huang, G.H., & Ashford,S. J.
Source
Annual Reviews
Pages
335-359
Job insecurity and the changing workplace: Recent developments and future trends in job insecurity research.
Morgeson, F.
Proactivity at Work
Published Date
2017
Authors
Ong, M. & Ashford, S. J.
Source
Routledge.
Pages
138-168
Issues Selling: Proactive Efforts Toward Organizational Change.
Parker, S. & Bindl, U.
In Exploring Positive Identities and Organizations: Building a Theoretical and Research Foundation
Published Date
2009
Authors
DeRue, D. S., Ashford, S. J., & Cotton, N. C.
Source
Routledge
Pages
213-232
Assuming the mantle: Unpacking the process by which individuals internalize a leader identity.
L. M. Roberts & J. E. Dutton
Voice and Silence in Organizations
Published Date
2009
Authors
Ashford, S. J., Sutcliffe, K. M., & Christianson, M. K.
Source
Emerald group publishing Ltd.
Pages
175-202.
Speaking up and speaking out: The leadership dynamics of voice in organizations.
J. Greenberg and M. S. Edwards
Personal growth in organizations: a review and integrative theoretical framework
Published Date
01/2025
Authors
Ganti, M., Ashford, S. J.. & Cormier
Source
Academy of Management Annals
Volume
19
Issue
1
Pages
180-229
When Qualified Women Resist the Leader Label.
Published Date
02/2025
Authors
Lee-Cunningham, J. Ashford, S. J., & Sonday, L.
Source
MIT Sloan Management Review
Volume
66
Issue
2
Pages
20-22
When Qualified Women Resist the Leader Label
Published Date
10/2024
Authors
Lee-Cunningham, J. Ashford, S. J., & Sonday
Source
MIT Sloan Management Review
Volume
66
Issue
2
Pages
20-22
Adapting to Isolated Work in Isolation: How Gig Workers Proactively Manage Relationships To Support Their Mental Health
Published Date
10/2022
Authors
Reid, E., Caza, B., Ashford, S. & Granger, S
Source
The Conversation
Do I Dare? The Psychodynamics of Anticipated Image Risk, Leader Identity Endorsement, and Leader Emergence
Published Date
2022
Authors
Lee, J., Sonday, L., & Ashford, S. J.
Source
Academy of Management Journal
Individual-centered interventions: Identifying what, how, and why interventions work in organizational contexts
Published Date
2022
Authors
Lambert, B.20, Caza, B., Trinh, E. & Ashford, S. J.
Source
Academy of Management Annals
Volume
16
Issue
2
Pages
508-546
Are you ready to go freelance?
Published Date
2019
Authors
Caza, B., Ashford, S. J., Reid, E., & McCallum, D.
Source
HBR.org
Individuals and the New World of Work: A Research Agenda
Published Date
2019
Authors
Ashford, S. J., Caza, B. & Reid, E.
Source
Research in Organizational Behavior
Volume
38
Issue
1
Pages
23-41
A self-consistency motivation analysis of employee reactions to job insecurity: The roles of organization-based self-esteem and proactive personality.
Published Date
2018
Authors
Lin, X. S., Chen, Z. X., Ashford, S. J., Lee, C., & Qian, J.
Source
Journal of Business Research
Volume
92
Issue
1
Pages
168-178
Acting professional: an exploration of culturally bounded norms against nonwork role referencing
Published Date
2013
Authors
Uhlman, E. L., Heaphy, E., Ashford, S. J., Zhu, L. & Sanchez-Burks, J. S.
Source
Journal of Organizational Behavior
Volume
34
Issue
1
Pages
866-886
Having scholarly impact: The art of hitting academic home runs
Published Date
2013
Authors
Ashford, S. J.,
Source
Academy of Management Learning & Education
Volume
12
Issue
4
Pages
623-633
Reducing job insecurity and increasing performance ratings: does impression management matter?
Published Date
2013
Authors
Huang, G.-h, Zhao, H. H., Niu, X.-y., Ashford, S. G. & Lee, C.
Source
Journal of Applied Psychology
Volume
98
Issue
5
Pages
852-862
The Power of Flexing: How to Use Small Daily Experiments to Create Big Life-Changing Growth
Published Date
10/2021
Authors
Ashford, S. J.
Source
Harper Collins Business
Proactive Feedback Seeking: The Power of Seeing Yourself as Others See you.
Published Date
2013
Authors
Ashford, S. J.
Source
Best Practices for Experience-Based Leadership Development.