J. RICHARD HACKMAN is Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology at Harvard University. He received his undergraduate degree in mathematics from MacMurray College in 1962 and his doctorate in social psychology from the University of Illinois in 1966. He taught at Yale until 1986, when he moved to Harvard.

Hackman conducts research on a variety of topics in social and organizational psychology, including team dynamics and performance, social influences on individual behavior, and the design and leadership of self-managing groups and organizations. He is on the editorial board of several professional journals, and has consulted to a variety of organizations on issues having to do work design, leadership, and team effectiveness. He has published numerous articles and seven books, the most recent being "Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances."

Hackman was awarded the Sixth Annual AIR Creative Talent Award in the field of “Measurement and Evaluation: Individual and Group Behavior,” the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association’s division on industrial and organizational psychology, and both the Distinguished Educator Award and the Distinguished Scholar Award of the Academy of Management. In 2004, "Leading Teams" won the Academy of Management’s Terry Award for the most outstanding management book of the year. Hackman is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and of the American Psychological Society, and in 1998 was Hewlett Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.