My research interests are at the intersection of individual expertise and group interdependence. I study the development and realization of exceptional performances in interdependent contexts such as work teams. I am particularly interested in the nontraditional, arational bases of expertise, including intuition, tacit knowledge, and virtue, and how these are influenced by interdependence.

Aristotle suggests there are three aspects of ethics, episteme, techne, and phronesis. I believe that these suggest an alternative way of understanding expertise. Episteme is the root of the word epistemology, and refers to the universal, the inevitably true. It is typically translated as ‘science.’ Techne concerns what Aristotle calls ‘the sphere of the variable.’ Techne often involves the application of episteme to achieve a chosen end. The term is typically translated as ‘art’ or ‘craft,’ and is the root of words such as technique and technical. Phronesis is translated as ‘prudence,’ ‘practical wisdom,’ or sometimes simply ‘ethics.’ It is an action-oriented concept, associated with doing the correct thing in a given situation, and is often characterized as wise deliberation.

I believe the notion of phronesis is important for two reasons. First, consistent with the primary concerns of Positive Organizational Scholarship, it is informative that there is no common English word with phronesis as its direct root; the concept has been overlooked. This is regrettable, since it is the peak of the three aspects of ethics. Moreover, for my own work, phronesis offers a name for the issue with which I am most concerned. Expertise is the ability to achieve phronesis and to take the correct action at the correct time. In addition, understanding expertise as phronesis, as something more than episteme and techne, highlights the arational components of exceptional performance, and links expertise to virtue.

As a result, much of my recent work has focused on the role of virtue in extraordinary performance. This has included work on leadership – how virtues create leadership, and how leader virtue may improve outcomes. I have been part of a project collecting evidence on the link between virtuousness and organizational performance. I am also engaged in a series of experiments exploring how team members’ priorities and virtues influence their collective performance.