Rosabeth Moss Kanter

11 overall—in a 2002 study of Top Business Intellectuals by citation in several sources. She was named one of the "50 most powerful women in Boston" by Boston Magazine and named one of "125 women who changed our world" over the past 125 years by Good Housekeeping magazine in May 2010.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter studied at Bryn Mawr College and University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is business administration, sociology and sociology of management. Employment is recorded with Harvard University and Yale University. Distinctions recorded are Guggenheim Fellowship and Ohio Women's Hall of Fame.

• Name — Rosabeth Moss Kanter • Birth Name — Rosabeth Moss • Born — 15 March 1943 • Birthplace — Cleveland, Ohio, US • Other Names — Rosabeth M. Kanter • Occupation — * Scholar • management consultant • Spouse — * Stuart A. Kanter (died 1969) • Alma Mater — * Bryn Mawr College • University of Michigan • Thesis Title — Utopia • Thesis Year — 1967 • Influences — C. Wright Mills • Discipline — * Business studies • sociology • Workplaces — * Brandeis University • Yale University • Harvard University • Main Interests — Tokenism

Rosabeth Moss was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Helen (Smolen) Moss, a schoolteacher, and Nelson Nathan Moss, a lawyer and small-business owner. She has a younger sister, Myra. Kanter described her childhood as "benign" and herself as ambitious, having written a novel and entered essay contests as early as 11 years old.

Kanter graduated from Cleveland Heights High School in 1960 and then went on to study sociology and English literature at Bryn Mawr College, graduating magna cum laude in 1964. The following year she received an MA in sociology and, in 1967, a PhD from the University of Michigan. Her dissertation was on 19th-century utopian communes. Although Kanter later decided to pursue a career in business research, her training as a sociologist informed her thinking and subsequent work.

Kanter was assistant professor of sociology at Brandeis University from 1967 to 1973 and again from 1974 to 1977, visiting associate professor of administration at Harvard University, as well as professor of sociology at Yale University from 1977 to 1986. She served as editor of the Harvard Business Review from 1989 to 1992, the last academic to hold the job. She is chair and director of the Harvard University Advanced Leadership Initiative. Kanter's earliest work as a sociologist focused on utopian communities and communes in the United States. In her 1972 book, Commitment & Community: Communes and Utopias in Sociological Perspective, she argued that the internal characteristics of a utopian community lead to its success or failure. Kanter defined a "successful" commune as one that lasted for longer than thirty-three years. After surveying ninety-one communal projects from the period between 1780 and 1860, she determined that communal groups such as the Shakers, Amana, and Oneida were among the most successful nineteenth-century communes. To explain their success, Kanter noted these groups' rituals and clear boundaries for membership, as well as the "commitment mechanisms" that utopians utilized: sacrifice, investment, renunciation, communion, mortification and transcendence. She concluded that the more that a utopian community asked of its members, the more cohesive and long-lasting it was. Kanter has written numerous books on business management techniques, particularly change management; she also has a regular column in the Miami Herald. She is known for her 1977 study of tokenism—how being a minority in a group can affect one's performance due to enhanced visibility and performance pressure. Her development of the concept of tokenism has greatly impacted work on minority experiences in the workplace, the paper has been cited 1,945 times. Her book Men and Women of the Corporation is a classic in critical management studies, bureaucracy analysis and gender studies. Kanter was an economic adviser to Michael Dukakis in his 1988 bid for presidency. Together they wrote a book entitled Creating the future: the Massachusetts comeback and its promise for America, an examination of the Massachusetts Miracle. She co-founded the Harvard University-wide Advanced Leadership Initiative, guiding its planning from 2005 to its launch in 2008 and serving as Founding Chair and Director from 2008-2018 as it became a growing international model for a new stage of higher education preparing successful top leaders to apply their skills to national and global challenges. Kanter co-founded the consulting firm Goodmeasure Inc. and has served as chair since 1980. She advises CEOs of companies and has served on various business and non-profit boards. Her consulting clients have included large companies such as IBM, Gap Inc., Monsanto, British Airways, and Volvo. Kanter has spoken in national and international events along with Presidents, Prime Ministers and CEOs. Her main focus is speaking out on addressing educational dilemmas.

Kanter's first husband, Stuart A. Kanter, whom she had married in her junior year at Bryn Mawr, died in 1969. She married consultant Barry Stein in 1972; he died in 2023. Together they have one son.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter is recorded as university teacher, sociologist, economist and writer.