Deborah Kolb

Dr. Kolb is an authority on gender issues in negotiation and leadership, especially how women can negotiate the conditions for their own success while contributing to the effectiveness of their organization. Dr. Kolb has co-authored several books on this subject. Everyday Negotiation: Navigating the Hidden Agendas of Bargaining shows women (and men) how they can become more effective in their everyday negotiations by attending to the dual requirements of the shadow negotiation – advocacy for oneself and connection with others. Dr. Kolb’s most recent book, Her Place at the Table: A Woman’s Guide to Negotiating the Five Challenges of Leadership Success, describes how successful women negotiate for what they need to be effective in leadership roles at all levels of an organization. A revised paperback version is due in September, 2010. She is currently working on a new book, entitled, Negotiating Work, which outlines a new approach to negotiation in the workplace that connects individual actions to organization change.

Dr. Kolb publishes extensively on these topics and regularly presents her work to national and international audiences. Dr. Kolb is a principal in Negotiating Women, LLC., a company that provides negotiation training and consultation especially designed for women. Dr. Kolb joined the Simmons faculty in 1977. From 1991-1994, she was Executive Director of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. She is currently a Senior Fellow at the Program where she co-directs The Negotiations in the Workplace Project. For the fall term 2009-2010, Dr. Kolb will be the Faculty Research Fellow at Michelle Clayman Institute for Gender Research Stanford University

Courses Taught:

Negotiation & Conflict Management (MBA) – Simmons School of Management

Research Interests: Negotiation, gender and leadership

Select Publications:

Too Bad for the Women or Does it Have to Be?: Gender and Negotiation Research over the Past Twenty Five Years. Negotiation Journal. (2009).

Introduction: From Gender and Negotiation to Gendered Negotiation, with Kathleen McGinn. Negotiation and Conflict Management Research. (2009)

Kolb, D. with T. Nelson and S. Maxfield, Women Entrepreneurs and Venture Capital: Managing the Shadow Negotiation. International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship. (2009).

When Your Colleague is a Saboteur with Bronwyn Fryer.Harvard Business Review. (2008).

Asking Pays Off: Negotiating What You Need to Succeed. The Woman Advocate, American Bar Association. (2008).

“Negotiating in Academic Medicine: A Necessary Career Skill,” with Suzanne Sarfaty, MD, Rosalind Barnett, PhD, Laura Szalacha, EdD, Cheryl Caswell, MBA, Thomas Inui, MD, Phyllis L Carr, MD, Journal of Women’s Health, 2008.

“Strategic Moves and Turns” Cases and Teaching Notes in Negotiation: Readings, Exercises and Cases, Sixth Edition. Roy Lewicki, Bruce Barry, and David Saunders (editors). Prentice-Hall, 2010.

Link to website:

http://www.simmons.edu/som/about/faculty/kolb/