Peter Vaill

Peter B. Vaill, Ph.D., is regardet one of the nation's most influential organizational change theorists. He published widely in the fields of organizational behavior, organization development (O.D.), and leadership studies including the intersection of spirituality and leadership.

Peter Brown Vaill was born in St. Cloud Minnesota, on November 5, 1936, to Stanley and Elizabeth (Brown) Vaill. Peter’s father (who worked for the phone company) was transferred from St. Cloud to Duluth for 9 years, then later to Minneapolis. Peter went on to attend and graduate from high school in Minneapolis, and later attended the University of Minnesota, earning an undergraduate degree in Psychology. At age 23, (1958) Peter goes to Boston where he is admitted as a student in the Harvard MBA program.His academic career began in 1960 at the Harvard Business School where he graduates with degree in General Management. In 1964 he also earns Doctorate in Business Administration from Harvard Business School with field of study in Organizational Behavior. Peter Vail’s life changes significantly in 2001 when he becomes paralyzed from the waist down. This greatly reduces his mobility, although he is also battling a myriad of related health challenges finds ways to remains active scholar until his last days. Peter Vail dies on March 24, 2020 in a hospital in his hometown Minneapolis where he had been admitted due to pneumonia complications.

Professorships and works

Vaill is internationally known for his innovative approaches to organizational behavior, and has written extensively, including the well-known: Managing as a Performing Art: New Ideas for a World of Chaotic Change; Learning as a Way of Being: Strategies for Survival in a World of Permanent White Water; and Spirited Leading and Learning:Process Wisdom for a New Age.

The Harvard Business School writes of its alumnus (MBA '60, DBA '64): “Cited in some circlesas one of the country's top ten organizational development specialists, Vaill is known for his ideas on what he's termed "permanent white water" - the turbulent social and organizational conditionsthat managerial leaders face today.”Peterhas also consistently broken new ground in addressingissues of spirituality in the workplace as well as on the importance of lifelong learning.In fact, he argues that learning is a foundational element of effective leadership, and that learning is “away of being.”

Former positions

Vaill has worked with many well-known corporations and most major agencies of the USgovernment, as well as with many universities, health systems and professional associations.Hewas formerly director of the Ph.D Program at George Washington University’s School of Business andPublic Management, and most recently, Distinguished Chair in Management Education at the GraduateSchool of Business, University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis – St. Paul, Minnesota. Peter B. Vaill,was Professor Emeritus of Managerial Leadership of the new Ph.D. Program in Leadership and Change at Antioch University in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Influences

His fame has led a former colleague, Eric Dent, Ph.D, also an innovator inorganizational change and development, to create the Peter B. Vaill Business Faculty Award forthe School of Business at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke where he becomeDean of the School of Buisiness.