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.