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John-Paul Ferguson

Title: 
Associate Professor, Organizational Behaviour
John-Paul Ferguson
Contact Information
Phone: 
514-398-3414
Email address: 
john-paul.ferguson [at] mcgill.ca
Alternate email address: 
linda.foster [at] mcgill.ca
Address: 

Bronfman Building, [Map]
1001 rue Sherbrooke Ouest
Montreal, Quebec
Canada
H3A 1G5

Degree(s): 

Ph.D. - Management - MIT Sloan School of Management

M.S. - International Relations - Johns Hopkins SAIS

B.A. - Political Science - University of Oklahoma

B.A. - History - University of Oklahoma

Area(s): 
Organizational Behaviour
Office: 
471
Biography: 

John-Paul Ferguson is an Associate Professor of Organizational Behaviour in the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University. His research focuses on careers, labor markets, and employment segregation. He is a consulting editor for Sociological Science, an assistant editor at Management Science and Industrial Relations, a senior editor at Organization Science, and on the editorial board of The American Sociological Review.

Before joining McGill University, Professor Ferguson was on the faculty of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was recognized for outstanding service to the school's Ph.D. program, as an advisor and faculty liaison. He has published extensively on industrial relations issues and received the John T. Dunlop Award from the Labor and Employment Relations Association for outstanding research contributions by a young scholar. 

Professor Ferguson has led extensive executive education on strategy, organizational design, and organizational change. In addition to his academic work, he has prior experience with the World Bank, the International Labor Organization, and the U.S. Department of State.

Specialization: 

Careers

Bureaucracy

Employment Segregation

Industrial Relations

Courses: 

MGCR 222. Introduction to Organizational Behaviour.

Credits: 3
Offered by: Management (Desautels Faculty Management)
Terms offered: Summer 2025, Fall 2025, Winter 2026
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Description

Individual motivation and communication style; group dynamics as related to problem solving and decision making, leadership style, work structuring and the larger environment. Interdependence of individual, group and organization task and structure.

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ORGB 706. Meso Organizational Behaviour.

Credits: 3
Offered by: Management (Graduate Studies)
Terms offered: Fall 2025
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Description

To familiarize students with the intra-organizational processes including theories, methods, and approaches that address social, political, and cultural action in organizations.

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MGCR 639. Managing Organizational Behaviour.

Credits: 1.5
Offered by: Management (Graduate Studies)
Terms offered: Fall 2025
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Description

Exploration of social processes that affect human behaviour and decision making, and tactics for building and managing organizations. Different organizational designs for optimizing different types of innovation. The intersection of organizational behaviour and sustainability, covering environmental but also social aspects of the latter. The ethics of management, including the governance of AI. The role of culture in organizations and the management of organizational culture.
  • Restriction: Open only to M.B.A. students.

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BUSA 695. Real-Time Decisions.

Credits: 1.5
Offered by: Management (Graduate Studies)
Terms offered: Winter 2026
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Description

An integrative perspective on the progressive stages of integrative understanding, from basic management skills looking inward to basic and specialized management skills looking both inward and outward. Emphasis on tools that focus on a holistic view of the organization, management of the enterprise from multiple perspectives and the resolution of conflicting viewpoints. Includes emphasis on sustainability, monetization strategy to enter the carbon offset market and a commercialization strategy for a biotech start-up with applications to the pharma industry.
  • Open only to M.B.A. students.

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Curriculum vitae: 
PDF icon ferguson_cv.pdf
Group: 
Faculty
Tenured & Tenure Track
Research areas: 
Labour Force & Labour Market
Managerial Careers
Mechanisms of Inequality in Markets, Occupations & Organizations
Organizational Structures & Strategy
Organizational Theory
Graduate supervision: 

Alyson Gounden Rock

Masoomeh Kalantari

Katie McIntosh

Janani Ramesh

Caroline Chaussegros de Léry

Taught previously at: 

Stanford University Graduate School of Business

Selected publications: 

Koning, Rembrand and Sampsa Samila and John-Paul Ferguson. 2021. Who do We Invent For? Patents by Women Focus More on Women's Health, but Few Women Get to Invent. Science 372(6548): 1345 - 1348.

Ferguson John-Paul and Rembrand Koning. 2018. Firm Turnover and the Return of Racial Establishment Segregation. American Sociological Review 83(3): 445 – 474.

Ferguson, John-Paul and Thomas Dudley and Sarah A. Soule. 2017. Osmotic Mobilization and Union Support during the Long Protest Wave, 1960 – 1995. Administrative Science Quarterly 63(2): 441 – 477.

Ferguson, John-Paul and Gianluca Carnabuci. 2017. Risky Recombinations: Institutional Gatekeeping in the Innovation Process. Organization Science 28(1): 133 – 151.

Ferguson, John-Paul. 2016. Racial Diversity and Union Organizing in the United States, 1999 – 2008. Industrial and Labor Relations Review 69(1): 53 – 83.

Hasan, Sharique and John-Paul Ferguson and Rembrand Koning. 2016. The Lives and Deaths of Jobs: Technical Interdependence and Survival in a Job Structure. Organization Science 26(6): 1665 – 1681.

Ferguson, John-Paul. 2015. The Control of Managerial Discretion: Evidence from Unionization’s Impact on Employment Composition. American Journal of Sociology 121(3): 675 – 721.

Ferguson, John-Paul and Sharique Hasan. 2013. Specialization and Career Dynamics: Evidence from the Indian Administrative Service. Administrative Science Quarterly 58(2): 233-256.

Ferguson, John-Paul. 2008. The Eyes of the Needles: A Sequential Model of Union Organizing Drives, 1999 – 2004. Industrial and Labor Relations Review 62(1): 1-18.

Awards, honours, and fellowships: 

2021: Distinguished MBA Core Teaching Award, McGill Desautels

2019: Extraordinary service to the Editorial Board, Organization Science

2016: Shanahan Family Faculty Scholar, Stanford GSB

2015: John T. Dunlop Outstanding Scholar, Labor and Employment Relations Association

2015: Distinguished Faculty Service Award, Stanford GSB

2010: Fletcher Jones Faculty Scholar, Stanford GSB

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