Sebastien
Brion

Professor of Managing People in Organizations

• Ph.D. and M.S. in Organizational Behavior, Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley
• B.S. in Psychology from Tufts University

Sebastien Brion is a Professor in the Department of Managing People in Organizations at IESE. He holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley and a BA in Psychology from Tufts University. Prior to pursuing an academic career, he was a human resources consultant in the Bay Area.

Professor Brion’s research examines how individuals attain and maintain positions of leadership in organizations. His research tackles this broad question by examining how hierarchy drives systematic biases in perceptions of leaders’ interpersonal and strategic environments. Together, his research points to the mechanisms underlying how hierarchy contributes to effective or ineffective interpersonal and strategic decisions in organizations. Drawing on research in social psychology and organization theory, he employs a multimethod approach to his research, incorporating experimental lab studies, field studies, and archival studies.

His academic work is published in leading academic journals including Organization Science, Management Science, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology among others. Professor Brion’s research has been highlighted in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Forbes, Le Monde, among others. He is the Associate Editor of the Social Influence section of Social and Personality Psychology Compass and serves as the Representative-At-Large for the Conflict Management division of the Academy of Management.

At IESE, Professor Brion teaches core classes on Leadership and Human Resources Management, and electives on Power and Influence, at the MBA and Executive level. Professor Brion has taught in executive programs for firms such as L’Oreal, Pepsi, Danone, Michelin, Abbvie, NLNG (Lagos, Nigeria), and Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (National Railways of Kazakhstan). In addition, he has held a Visiting Professor position at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and has taught in executive programs for the Haas School of Business, the Boston Consulting Group, and MDE (Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire).

As part of his professional activities Professor Brion has conducted research and consulting projects in the human resources and social media industries.

Areas of interest.

• Power and Influence
• Alliance and Coalition Formation
• Groups and Teams
• Accuracy and Bias in Interpersonal Perception

Publications

Journal Articles (refereed)

AUDIA, P. G., ROUSSEAU, H. E., BRION, S. (2022). CEO power and nonconforming reference group selection. Organization Science, 33 (2), 831-853. doi:10.1287/orsc.2020.1397. CHENG, J. T., ANDERSON, C., TENNEY, E. R., BRION, S., MOORE, D. A., LOGG, J. M. (2021). The Social transmission of overconfidence. Journal of Experimental Psychology-General, 150 (1), 157-186. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000787. LOUNT, R., DOYLE, S., BRION, S., PETTIT, N. C. (2019). Only When Others Are Watching: The Contingent Efforts of High Status Group Members. Management Science, 65 (7), 3382 - 3397. doi:10.1287/mnsc.2018.3103. BRION, S., MO, R., LOUNT JR., R. B. (2019). Dynamic Influences of Power on Trust: Changes in Power Affect Trust in Others. Journal of Trust Research, 9 (1), 6 - 27. doi:10.1080/21515581.2018.1552591. BRION, S., LOUNT, R., DOYLE, S. (2015). Knowing If You Are Trusted: Does Meta-Accuracy Promote Trust Development? Social Psychological and Personality Science, 6 (7), 823 - 830. doi:10.1177/1948550615590200. ANDERSON, C. P., BRION, S. (2014). Perspectives on Power in Organizations. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 1, 67 - 97. doi:10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091259. KÁGANER, E., GIORDANO, G., BRION, S., TORTORIELLO, M. (2013). Media Tablets for Mobile Learning. Communications of the ACM, 56 (11), 68 - 75. doi:10.1145/2500494. BRION, S., ANDERSON, C. P. (2013). The Loss of Power. How Illusions of Alliance Contribute to Powerholders' Downfall. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 121 (1), 129 - 139. doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2013.01.005. ANDERSON, C. P., BRION, S., MOORE, D. A., KENNEDY, J. A. (2012). A Status-Enhancement Account of Overconfidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103 (4), 718 - 735. doi:10.1037/a0029395. MADDOX, K. B., RAPP, D. N., BRION, S., TAYLOR, H. A. (2008). Social Influences on Spatial Memory. Memory & Cognition, 36 (3), 479 - 494. doi:10.3758/MC.36.3.479.

Articles in other publications

BRION, S. (2014). How Helping Others Can Get You To The Top. Forbes. BRION, S. (2013). Think You Have Power? Check Your Perceptions. Deciding Your Fate. IESE Insight (19), pp. 31 - 38. BRION, S. (2013). Cómo lograr autoridad y no perderla. La psicología del poder. IESE Insight (19), pp. 31 - 38.

Book Chapters

BRION, S., AUDIA, P. G., GREVE, H. (2015). Self-Assessment, Self-Enhancement, and the Choice of Comparison Organizations for Evaluating Organizational Performance. In Giovanni Gavetti, William Ocasio (Eds.), Cognition and Strategy (pp. 89 - 118). Bingley [etc.]: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Cases

BRION, S. (2022). Dr. Patricia Pozo-Rosich: Breaking Ground in Neurology. IESE, DPO-765-E. PORTER, C., BRION, S. (2020). Alice Edwards: Losing Control (A). IESE, DPO-727-E. PORTER, C., BRION, S. (2020). Alice Edwards: Losing Control (B). IESE, DPO-728-E. DELONCA, E., BRION, S. (2017). A Sacred Spirits Dilemma (A). IESE, DPO-399-E. DELONCA, E., BRION, S. (2017). A Sacred Spirits Dilemma (B). IESE, DPO-400-E.

Technical Notes

BRION, S., SALCEDO, K. (2022). Positional Power. Diagnosing and Developing Positional Power. IESE, DPON-357-E. ALTARAS, J., BRION, S. (2021). Power and Influence in the Virtual Business World. IESE, DPON-350-E. MILLER, M., BRION, S. (2019). Erroneous Cues of Leadership: Implications for Leadership Emergence and Leadership Selection. IESE, DPON-153-E.