Ron Fry is Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University and Chairman of the Department of Organizational Behavior, consistently ranked one of the best in the world by the Financial Times. He has been honored with the University Award for Outstanding Teacher in the Professional Schools and the Weatherhead School's Lifetime Service Award. He received his MS and PhD from the Sloan School at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after completing a BS in Engineering at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Ron is widely published in the areas of Organizational Development, Appreciative Inquiry, Team Building, Change Management, Executive Development and the role and functioning of the CEO. He is a co-creator of the Appreciative Inquiry approach and Continues to both apply and study the applications of AI in the field. His most recent books are Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Approach to Building Cooperative Capacity (Taos Publishing), with Frank Barrett, and Appreciative Team Building with Diana Whitney, Jay Cherney and Amanda Trsten-Bloom (iUniverse). He also recently co-edited Appreciative Inquiry and Organizational Transformation: Reports from the field (Quorum) and the Handbook of Transformative Cooperation (Stanford University Press).
With Professor David Cooperrider, Ron is co-editor of the Journal of Corporate Citizenship the CASE and conducts the Weatherhead International Certificate Program in Appreciative Inquiry for the Betterment of Business and Society in Brazil, Belgium, India, Australia, Indonesia and the USA. He is Editor and Chief of the Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit's World Inquiry Project. He leads and studies large scale, multi-stakeholder change processes in a variety of systems including World Vision, ArcelorMittal, Roadway Express, Akzonobel, Sustainable Cleveland 2019, Belgian Learning Network for Talent Development, and the US Navy.
As a co-creator of the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) theory and method, Ronald Fry, PhD, works with groups, organizations and institutions around the world to increase their cooperative capacity in order to engage the whole system in strategic thinking, planning and change. His research interests focus on the factors and dynamics that foster system-wide, positive change, and he continues to develop insights on large group dynamics, appreciative leadership, multi-stakeholder strategic planning, and business as an agent for world benefit.
His books include APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY: A POSITIVE APPROACH TO BUILDING COOPERATIVE CAPACITY, with Frank Barrett, and APPRECIATIVE TEAM BUILDING, with Diana Whitney, Amanda Trosten-Bloom and Jay Cherney. He also co-edited APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY AND ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION: REPORTS FROM THE FIELD (Quorum, 2001). Fry’s work also appears in such journals as JOURNAL OF CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP, AI PRACTITIONER, JOURNAL OF APPLIED BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE, NZ MANAGEMENT, and QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN HEALTHCARE.
Fry has developed and conducted a Certificate Program in Appreciative Leadership and Organizational Capacity Building for over 150 leaders of voluntary social change organizations from more than 30 countries. With David Cooperrider, he co-directs the Weatherhead School of Management Certificate Program in Appreciative Inquiry in Positive Business and Society Change. He is an advisory board member and chief editor of the Fowler Center for Business as Agent of Work Benefit’s AIM2Flourish global inquiry into business innovations for business and society benefit. He has facilitated AI applications in a variety of systems including World Vision, Lubrizol, Roadway Express, US Navy, Genesis Health System, and Mid-Ohio Foodbank.
Fry has served as a visiting faculty to Canterbury University in Christchurch, New Zealand, Katholieke University in Leuven, Belgium and to the Administrative Staff College of India. He has been honored with the Case Western Reserve University Award for Outstanding Teacher in the Professional Schools. In 2004, he was awarded the Weatherhead School’s Lifetime Service Award.
Fry received a BS in Engineering from University of California at Los Angeles and both his PhD and MS from the A.P. Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since joining the faculty at Case Western Reserve in 1978, he has taught courses on organizational behavior, organization change and development; group dynamics; sustainable enterprise; leading change; appreciative inquiry; and team building.
PhD, A.P. Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1978
MS, A.P. Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1971
BS, University of California at Los Angeles, 1969
Initially Appointed: 1978
