Professor Kathleen Sutcliffe Profile

Kathleen Sutcliffe studies high-hazard organizations and group decision making in order to understand how organizations and their members can perform more safely, reliably, and resiliently in the midst of uncertainty and dynamism. For example, Sutcliffe examines the systemic and organizational origins of medical mistakes and factors that affect the capabilities to rescue patients and untoward situations as bad things are unfolding in these high-risk, dynamic systems. Her aim is to help organizations and their members to apply knowledge from organization theory to improve vital operations and outcomes.

Another area of Sutcliffe’s research focuses on top management teams and group dynamics, including information search processes, sensemaking, communicating, and learning processes, and how these elements affect firm performance. Her work on organizational reliability and collective mindfulness, published in three editions of Managing the Unexpected (co-authored with Karl E. Weick), is internationally renowned. In addition to healthcare, Sutcliffe has studied organizing in wildland firefighting teams, aircraft carriers, oil and gas exploration, and other dynamic high-risk industries.

Before joining Johns Hopkins University in 2014 as a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Business and Medicine, Sutcliffe held faculty appointments at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. She currently is a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine Transportation Research Board Committee on Emerging Trends in Aviation Safety, that recently released
its second report titled: Emerging Hazards in Commercial Aviation-Report 2: Ensuring Safety During Transformative Changes.