Christopher G. Myers, PhD

Christopher Myers is an Associate Professor of Management & Organization and the founding Faculty Director of the Center for Innovative Leadership at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. He also holds a joint appointment in Anesthesiology & Critical Care Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. His research and teaching focus on individual learning, leadership development, and innovation, with particular attention to how people learn vicariously and share knowledge in health care organizations and other knowledge-intensive work environments.

He has received a variety of awards and honors for his research and teaching, including being named by Poets & Quants as one of the top 40 business school professors under 40 world-wide. Prior to joining the faculty at Johns Hopkins University, Chris was an Assistant Professor at the Harvard Business School and received his PhD in management and organizations from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisGMyers.

Education

• Ph. D, Business Administration (Management & Organizations), University of Michigan
• BS, Business Administration, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

Research

Selected publications

• Myers, C.G. 2022. Storytelling as a tool for vicarious learning among air medical transport crews. Administrative Science Quarterly, 67(2): 378-422.
• Nurmohamed, S., Kundro, T., & Myers, C.G. 2021. Against the odds: Developing underdog versus favorite narratives to offset prior experiences of discrimination. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 167: 206-221.
• Spreitzer, G.S., Myers, C.G., Kopelman, S., & Mayer, D.M. 2021. The conceptual and empirical value of a positive lens: An invitation to organizational scholars to develop novel research questions. Academy of Management Perspectives, 35(3): 517-534.
• Mayo, A.T., Myers, C.G., & Sutcliffe, K.M. 2021. Organizational science and health care. Academy of Management Annals, 15(2): 537-576.
• Myers, C.G. 2021. Performance benefits of reciprocal vicarious learning in teams. Academy of Management Journal, 64(3): 926-947.
• Quinn, R.W., Myers, C.G., Kopelman, S., & Simmons, S. 2021. How did you do that? Exploring the motivation to learn from others' exceptional success. Academy of Management Discoveries, 7(1): 15-39.
• Helzer, E.G., Myers, C.G., Fahim, C., Sutcliffe, K.M., & Abernathy, J.H. 2020. Gender bias in collaborative medical decision-making: Emergent evidence. Academic Medicine, 95(10): 1524–1528.
• Myers, C.G., Sateia, H.F., & Desai, S.V. 2018. Association between team learning behavior and reduced burnout among medicine residents. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 33(12): 2037–2039.
• Myers, C.G. 2018. Coactive vicarious learning: Toward a relational theory of vicarious learning in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 43(4): 610–634.
• Myers, C.G., Kudsi, O.Y., & Ghaferi, A.A. 2018. Social media as a platform for surgical learning: Use and engagement patterns among robotic surgeons. Annals of Surgery, 267(2): 233–235.

Teaching

MBA Courses

• Leadership Development Expedition: Belize and Norway

Executive Education

• Foundations of Leadership & Management
• The Academy for Health Care Leadership & Management

Honors and distinctions

• Editorial Board Member: Academy of Management Discoveries, Academy of Management Learning & Education, and Group & Organization Management
• 40 Best Business School Professors Under 40 (Poets and Quants), 2022
• Research Advisory Board Member, Center for Positive Organizations, 2019 – Present
• Elected Representative-at-Large, Academy of Management MOC Division, 2018 – Present
• Dean’s Award for Faculty Excellence (Johns Hopkins Carey Business School), 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
• Alumni Graduation Speaker (UM Ross School of Business PhD Celebration), 2018
• Visiting Education Overseas Expert (National Healthcare Group, Singapore), 2017
• Best Dissertation-based Paper Award (Academy of Management MOC Division), 2016
• Making Connections Award (Academy of Management OB Division), 2011
• Phi Beta Kappa Society (Alpha of North Carolina Chapter)
• Beta Gamma Sigma Business Honor Society (Alpha of North Carolina Chapter)

Impact and engagement

Business

Selected Articles for Practicing Leaders

• Myers, C.G., & Doyle, M. (2020, February). Get adventurous with your leadership training. Harvard Business Review.
•  Zhang, C., Myers, C.G., & Mayer, D.M. (2018, September). To cope with stress, try learning something new. Harvard Business Review.
• Myers, C.G., & Sutcliffe, K.M. (2018, August). How discrimination against female doctors hurts patients. Harvard Business Review.
• Myers, C.G., Kudsi, O.Y., & Ghaferi, A.A. (2017, October). Surgeons are using social media to share and learn new skills. Harvard Business Review.
• Ghaferi, A.A., Myers, C.G., Sutcliffe, K.M., & Pronovost, P.J. (2016, August). The next wave of hospital innovation to make patients safer. Harvard Business Review.
• Myers, C.G. (2015, November). Is your company encouraging employees to share what they know? Harvard Business Review.

Policy

COVID-19 Guidance for Healthcare Organizations & Policymakers:

• Mittal, R., Jain, S., Myers, C.G., Dai, T., & Jain, A. 2021. A 100% COVID vaccination rate is possible -- We did it. Medpage Today.
• Jain, A., Dai, T., Myers, C.G., Jain, P., & Aggarwal, S. 2021. Prioritising surgical cases deferred by the COVID-19 pandemic: An ethics-inspired algorithmic framework for health leaders. BMJ Leader, 5(2): 124-126.
• Myers, C.G., Rosen, M.A., & Yuan, C.T. 2021. What a pandemic reveals about learning in health care organizations. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 14(1-2): 126-129.
• Myers, C.G., Mayo, A.T., Kachalia, A., Polsky, D., & Sutcliffe, K.M. 2021. Covid-19 has made clear why all physicians need to know about the business of healthcare. Journal of Patient Safety and Risk Management, 26(2): 51-55.
• Jain, A., Dai, T., Bibee, K., & Myers, C.G. 2020. Covid-19 created an elective surgery backlog. How can hospitals get back on track? Harvard Business Review.
• Myers, C.G. 2020. Vicarious learning in the time of coronavirus. Behavioral Science & Policy, 6(2): 153-161.
• Barton, M.A., Christianson, M.K, Myers, C.G., & Sutcliffe, K.M. 2020. Resilience-in-action: Leading for resilience in response to COVID-19. BMJ Leader, 4(3): 117–119.

Selected Perspectives and Commentaries on Healthcare:

• Myers, C.G. & Sutcliffe, K.M. Forthcoming. High reliability organizing in healthcare: Still a long way left to go. BMJ Quality and Safety.
• Myers, C.G., Polsky, D., & Desai, S. 2022. The growing role of Chief Medical Officers in major corporations. JAMA Health Forum, 3(7): e222194.
• Jain, A., Myers, C.G., & Patel, A. 2022. Let's Realign the Surgeon-Hospital Relationship. Medpage Today.
• Johnson, E., Kwakye, G., Myers, C.G., & Ghaferi, A.A. 2021. Working toward the triple bottom line in surgery. NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery.
• Russell, S.W., Desai, S.V., O’Rourke, P., Ahuja, N., Patel, A., Myers, C.G., Zulman, D., Sateia, H.F., Berkenblit, G.V., Johnson, E.N., & Garibaldi, B.T. 2020. The genealogy of teaching clinical reasoning and diagnostic skill: The GEL study. Diagnosis, 7(3): 197–203.
• Myers, C.G., Sutcliffe, K.M., & Ferrari, B.T. 2019. Treating the “Not-Invented-Here Syndrome” in medical leadership: Learning from the insights of outside disciplines. Academic Medicine, 94(10): 1416–1418.
• Myers, C.G., Lu-Myers, Y., & Ghaferi, A.A. 2018. Excising the “surgeon ego” to accelerate progress in the culture of surgery. BMJ, 363: k4537.
• Myers, C.G., Kudsi, O.Y., & Ghaferi, A.A. 2017. Surgeons are using social media to share and learn new skills. Harvard Business Review.
• Lu-Myers, Y., & Myers, C.G. 2018. Incorporating interpersonal skills into otolaryngology resident selection and training. Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, 158(1): 21–23.
• Myers, C.G., & Pronovost, P.J. 2017. Making management skills a core component of medical education. Academic Medicine, 92(5): 582–584.
• Ghaferi, A.A., Myers, C.G., Sutcliffe, K.M., & Pronovost, P.J. 2016. The next wave of hospital innovation to make patients safer. Harvard Business Review.

In the media

• Exceptional Success Stories Motivate Workers to Learn (8/25/2020). AOM Insights.
• Don’t Just Learn From Failure; Learn From Your Successes (5/10/2019). The Wall Street Journal.
• Take Your Ego Back to School, Surgeons Told (1/20/19). The Sunday Times.
• Feeling Stressed at Work? Try Learning Something New (12/11/18). CNBC.
• Why Business Training for Physicians Can Improve Patient Care (11/30/18). American Association for Physician Leadership.
• What's The Best Way To Transfer Knowledge? (You Can't Learn Surgery By Watching) (9/8/15). Forbes.