Academics

Faculty & Staff

photo of Pacey Foster

Pacey C. Foster, PhD

  • Assistant Professor of Management
  • Telephone: 617-287-7089
  • Office Location: M-5-223

Areas of Expertise

Creative industries, Social networks, leadership and negotiation

Degrees

PhD, Wallace E. Carroll School of Management, Boston College
MS, Wallace E. Carroll School of Management, Boston College
BA, Earlham College, Departmental and College Honors

Professional Publications & Contributions

  • Foster, Pacey. Hip-Hop in the Hub: How Boston rap remained underground. Forthcoming in Hess, Mickey. Ed. Representing Where I’m From: The Greenwood Guide to Regional Hip Hop. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
  • Foster, P. & Carboni, I. Using student-centered cases in the classroom: An action inquiry approach to leadership development. Forthcoming in the Journal of Management Education.
  • Foster, P. & Torbert, W. (2005) Leading through positive deviance: A developmental action learning perspective on institutional change. In Giacalone, R., Dunn, C., & Jurkiewicz, C. (eds.). Positive psychology in business ethics and corporate social responsibility. Greenwich: Information Age

Additional Information

Background
  • 2007, Lecturer, Simmons College, Boston, MA
  • 2006-2007, Organizational Scientist, Aptima, Inc., Woburn, MA
  • 1996-1998, Associate Director/Research Associate, Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA
Research Interests

Pacey Foster's research explores how social and organizational networks help individuals and businesses manage complex decision-making and selection processes in creative industries. I am particularly interested in how networks at one level of analysis (e.g., among individuals) affect the structure of networks at higher levels of analysis (e.g., among organizations and industry sectors). His early research explored how nightclub talent buyers use their social networks to manage the uncertainties and risks associated with selecting bands. I recently completed the first history of Boston hip-hop and am currently conducting a study on the local film and television industry which is being funded by a Creative Economy Initiatives Grant from the University of Massachusetts.

Professional and Service Activities

Member of the institutional review board at Aptima, Inc. and occasional reviewer for the Journal of Management History, Human Organization and the Journal of Organizational Behavior. Founder and director of the Library of Vinyl Experience, a cultural organization devoted to the preservation and documentation of vinyl record culture. Current member of the Undergraduate Program Committee and CEO program at the College of Management. 15 years of experience providing consulting, training and research services to private, public and not-for-profit organizations including IBM, Partners Health Care, The Center for Medical Simulation, The Program of Instruction for Lawyers at Harvard Law School, Polaroid Corp., Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, Syncline Inc. and Changewise.


Honors and Grants
  • Creative Economy Initiatives Grant, 2008, University of Massachusetts, Boston
  • Educational Technology Teaching Grant, 2008, University of Massachusetts, Boston
  • Graduate Research Fellowship, 2002, Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School Donald J. White Distinguished Teaching Award, 2001, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA
  • Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, 1990-1991, Thomas J. Watson Foundation, Providence, RI