Ira Levin, PhD

Professional Interests

• Organization culture alignment
• Implementation of strategic change
• Executive team development
• Leadership development
• Consulting practice development & professional practice ethics

Courses Taught

• Models of organization culture & change
• Foundations of consulting
• Internship seminar
• Capstone: Synthesizing multiple perspectives
• Periodic electives related to consulting practice & consultant skill development

Publications

• Levin, I. and Gottlieb, J.  (3rd Quarter, 2005). The jet stream: How six principles can help your business culture fly. California CEO Inc,. Vol. 5, No. 3,  10-11
• Levin, I. & Gottlieb, J. (Fall 2005). The role of organizational values in providing stability during large scale change.  Bay Area Organization Development Network Newsletter, Vol. 6, No.3. 
• Levin, I. (2002). Consulting with healthcare organizations.  In R. Lowman (Ed.) Handbook of Organizational Consulting Psychology.  Jossey-Bass: San Francisco
• Levin, I., Proctor, D, & Thibault, T. (May-June 2001).  The making of Ascension Health: Merging two cultures.  Health Progress, Vol. 82, No. 3,  48-52.
• Levin, I. (Spring, 2000). Five windows into organization culture:  An assessment framework and approach.  Organization Development Journal, Vol. 18, No. 1,  83-94.
• Levin, (March, 2000). Vision revisited:  Telling the story of the future.  The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. Vol. 36, No.1,  91-107.
• Levin, I. & Gottlieb, J. (1993). Quality management: News practice risks for organization development practitioners. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. Vol. 29, No.3, 296-310.
• Levin, I. (1992). Facilitating quality improvement team performance: A developmental perspective.  Total Quality Management Journal, Vol.3, No. 3. 307-322.
• Levin, I. & Stokes, J. (1990).  The development and validation of a measure of negative affectivity.  Journal of Social Behavior and Personality. Vol. 74, 752-758.
• Levin I. & Stokes, J. (1989).  A dispositional approach to job satisfaction:  The role of negative affectivity.  Journal of Applied Psychology. Vol. 74, 752-758.
• Levin, I. & Falkenburger, A. J. (January-February 1989).  Managing professional staff for peak productivity:  Large law firm concerns and issues..  Legal Management.  Vol. 8. No.1, 43-49.
• Levin, I. (June, 20, 1988).  More than money needed to attract, keep the best. The National Law Journal.  42-43.
• A guide for conducting prevention research in the community. First steps:  Haworth Press: New York. 
• Stokes, J. & Levin, I. (1986). Gender differences in predicting loneliness from social network characteristics. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Vol. 51, No. 5, 1069-1074.

Recent Dissertations Chaired

• Puryear, P. (2006). An investigation into perceived value of organization consulting services; A case study.
• Noble, B. (2006). An exploration of relationship-centered organizational culture in health care provider organizations
• White, L. (2006). An exploration of the relation between trust and cross-boundary sales collaboration. 
• Margolis, B. (2006). Exploring The Factors That Influence The Development And Maintenance Of Top Management Team Alignment On Strategic Priorities  
• Reed, T. (2006). An examination of the relation among attachment orientation, emotional-social intelligence, and organizational climate.     
• Dowley, A. (2005). Learning behaviors and psychological safety in non-profit organization boards of directors:  An exploratory study.
• Bebb, S.  (2004). Transitioning to director: The factors contributing to the successful transition of IT manager of managers to exceptionally performing functional managers.

Recent Conference Presentations

• Levin, I. (August, 2006). Culture due diligence: A key element of successful post-merger/acquisition integration.  Professional Development Workshop (PDW), Academy of Management Annual Conference, Atlanta, GA.
• Levin, I. & Grossman, B. (May, 2006). Developing HR business partners: Moving from HR generalists to strategic contributors. Workshop at the Bay Area Organization Development Network’s 24th Annual Best in the West Conference, San Francisco, CA.
• Goldman-Schuyler, K.G., Levin, I. & Renner, J. (March, 2006). Healthy organizations: Critical components for a better future. Panel presentation given at California Psychological Association Annual Conference, San Francisco, CA.
• Levin, I. & Gottlieb, J. (April, 2005). Organizational values: Building continuity and stability during complex organization change.  Presentation at 23rd Bay Area Organization Development Network Best in the West Conference, San Francisco, CA.
• Levin, I., Mack, C., Grossman, B., Wocher, D. Sibbet, D. & Rasmussen, T. (April, 2004).  Means to an end revisited.  Moving our professional practice in the direction of purpose.  Invited panel presentation at Bay Area Organization Development Network 22nd Best in the West Conference.
• Goldman-Schuyler, K., Levin, I., & Mattox, J. (March, 2004). Using 360-degree feedback for individual, team, and organization development.  Panel Presentation at Professional Coaches and Mentors Association (PCMA), San Francisco, CA.
• Levin, I., Felice, L., Thibault, T. (April, 2003). Post-merger integrationL Bringing together two different organization cultures.  Practitioners’ Forum presented at 18th Annual Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology Conference, Orlando, FL.
• Levin, I., Felice,L. Elliott, G., & Thibault, T. (August, 2002). Changing organization cultures:  Strategies and techniques for integrating and forming new cultures.  Symposium presented at the American Psychological Association Annual Conference, San Francisco, CA
• Levin, I. Proctor, D., Thibault, T, & Felice, L. (April, 2000). Merging organization cultures:  An assessment and integration approach.  Panel discussion at the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA.
• Levin, I. (Feburary, 2000). Assessing organization culture:  Getting at the deep structures and underlying beliefs.  Invited presentation given at the Bay Area Applied Psychologists Group Meeting, San Francisco, CA.
• Levin, I. (October, 1999). Critical moments in organization consulting: Navigating consulting dilemmas.  Workshop given at Organization Development Network Annual Conference (ODN).  San Diego, CA

Recent Consulting Engagements

• Designed and facilitated the post-merger integration of the organizational cultures of two large health care systems.
• Conducted culture due diligence process for a large multi-state healthcare organization related to their acquisition of another healthcare system.
• Facilitated the organization redesign of the financial services organization for the marketing and sales business unit of a global high technology company.
• Designed and facilitated implementation of a strategic organization culture realignment strategy/plan for a large national health care system to assist them in the implementation of their strategic repositioning plan.
• Provided consultation to global bio-technology company in their human resources transformation process.
• Assisted the internal OD consulting group of a global company to develop a strategy for repositioning its practice and service delivery operations.
• Provided ongoing consultation to executive teams and coaching to individual senior executives to improve their effectiveness and performance

Other Professional Activies

• Adjunct reviewer for Academy of Management Review
• Member, Annual Conference Program Selection Committee, Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology
• Member, Annual Conference Program Selection Committee, Division of Management Consulting, Academy of Management.

Degrees, Professional Licenses, Certifications and Honors

• Ph.D. Organizational Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1986
• M.S.  Organizational Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1984
• M.S. Clinical/counseling Psychology, Illinois Institute of Technology, 1973
• B.A. Psychology, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, 1972
• Listed in Whos Who of Business & Industry, 1995-96

Professional and Honorary Memberships

• Division for Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Division 14, American Psychological Association
• American Psychological Association
• California Psychological Association
• Academy of Management
• Bay Area Organization Development Network
• Bay Area Applied Psychologists Group

Professional Biography

In addition, to Dr. Levin’s role as the current Program Director and faculty member with the San Francisco Organizational Psychology Programs within the Marshall Goldsmith Management School at Alliant International University, he is currently the founder and President of his own organization consulting firm—the Levin Consulting Group, LLC.   The firm specializes in the areas of organization culture realignment, post-merger integration, implementation of large scale organization change, executive team development, organization design, human resources transformation, and practice development for internal organization consulting groups.  He has over 27 years of experience consulting with private and public sector organizations across a wide range of industries including health care, financial services, high technology, professional service firms, and retail. 

Prior to the startup of his own consultancy over 5 years ago, Dr. Levin was a Principal and National Practice Leader for Organization Transformation & Culture Realignment at the global consulting firm of Cap Gemini Ersnt & Young.  He also spent 7 years as the organization change practice leader with Kaiser Permanente, and 6 years as an executive with the Organization Effectiveness & Human Resources Consulting Practice with the former KPMG Peat Marwick.

Prior to becoming an organization development consultant, Dr.. Levin served as the executive director of a community based social services organization specializing in the delivery of group and family therapy.  
He is also a professional jazz musician who performs regularly around North America and locally in the SF Bay area.  He has a discography of over nine recordings.