Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries is a Dutch management scholar and psychoanalyst, consultant, and professor of leadership development and organizational change at INSEAD. His research focuses on leadership and the dynamics of individual and organizational change, exploring the interface between management theory, psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, evolutionary psychology, and executive coaching. He created a group coaching intervention method which is used in business schools and consulting firms. He has written more than 50 books, 400 articles and book chapters on leadership, and organizational and personal change.
Kets de Vries has also won awards for his work in the leadership field, including the Harry and Miriam Levinson Award from the American Psychological Association in 2001. In 2010, he was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Management.
Early life and education
Kets de Vries was born in Huizen, Netherlands. He received a master's degree in Economics from the University of Amsterdam in 1966 and went on to attend Harvard Business School, receiving an International Teachers Program certificate in 1967, a M.B.A. in Business Administration in 1969, and a D.B.A. in 1970 in the same subject. He also received clinical training from the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society, where he has been a member since 1982.
Career
In addition to writing, he has held professorships at McGill University, the École des Hautes Études Commerciales, Montreal, and Harvard Business School, and has lectured at management institutions around the world. His writings explore the interface between management theory, psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, evolutionary psychology, and executive coaching.
He is the professor of leadership development and organizational change at INSEAD and also works as a business consultant and executive coach. He founded INSEAD's Global Leadership Centre. He is also the founder of INSEAD's "Executive Master’s Program in Change." Kets de Vries is also a founding member of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations, of which he became a Lifetime Distinguished Member in 2009. He was made a Fellow of the American Management Association, is a member of the International Psychoanalytic Association, and a corresponding member of the Paris Psychoanalytical Society.
Kets de Vries is also the founder of the Kets de Vries Institute, a human resource consulting firm. He is a distinguished visiting professor at European School of Management and Technology in Berlin.
Research
Kets de Vries' research focuses on integrating management science and psychodynamic-systemic analysis. His purpose has been to educate management scholars on applied research-stems for improving performance of organizations and the quality of life for their employees. His research has led to changes in how business schools teach topics related to human behavior in organizations. He incorporates universal factors that motivate human beings ideas from family system theory, attachment behavior, development theory, strategic psychotherapy, neuroscience, dynamic psychiatry, cognitive theory, evolutionary psychology, social psychology, anthropology, and ethology.
Kets de Vries is known for introducing the idea of the clinical paradigm based on four premises: 1) There is a logical explanation for the way people act—even for actions that seem irrational. 2) A great deal of mental life—feelings, fears, and motives—lies outside conscious awareness. 3) Nothing is more central to whom a person is than the way he or she regulates and expresses emotions. 4) Human development is a complex inter- and intrapersonal process. 5) The past is the lens through which people can understand the present and shape the future.
In his research has also described the dangers of narcissistic behavior of people in leadership positions, including the psychological dynamics that contribute to such behavior. He also advocates for team coaching, of which he created a intervention method used in business schools and consulting firms.
Bibliography
Kets de Vries has written more than 50 books, 400 articles and book chapters on leadership, and organizational and personal change.