Claus Langfred

Claus Langfred is an associate professor of management. He received his PhD in Organization Behavior from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University in 1998 and spent almost a decade working at the Olin School of Business at Washington University before joining the Costello College of Business at George Mason University in 2007.

His research revolves around autonomy and self-management I teams, as well as trust and conflict. His work has been published in journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, the Journal of Management, the Journal of Organizational Behavior, the Journal of Applied Psychology and many others, and has also appeared in Harvard Business Review, the Financial Times and the Economist. 

He has written a textbook on negotiations with fellow George Mason professors Kevin Rockmann and Matt Cronin.

Recent Honors and Distinctions

• 2025 Professor of the Year, MBA Program
• 2023 Professor of the Year, MBA Program
• 2019 Professor of the Year, Executive MBA Program
• 2018 Professor of the Year, Executive MBA Program

Selected Publications

• Langfred, C. and Ryan, K. E. (2025). The morality of violence: the legitimate use of violence as a conflict resolution strategy. International Journal of Conflict Management. (forthcoming)
• Langfred, C. W. (2007). The downside of self-management: A longitudinal study of the effects of conflict on trust, autonomy, and task interdependence in self-managing teams. Academy of Management Journal, 50(4), 885-900.
• Langfred, C. W. and Moye, N. A. (2004). Effects of task autonomy on performance: an extended model considering motivational, informational, and structural mechanisms. Journal of Applied Psychology 89 (6), 934-945.
• Langfred, C. W. (2004). Too much of a good thing? Negative effects of high trust and individual autonomy in self-managing teams. Academy of Management Journal, 47(3), 385-399.

Teaching Interests

• Leadership
• Negotiations
• Teamwork

Education

• PhD - Organizational Behavior , Northwestern University
• MS - Organizational Behavior, Northwestern University
• BS - Business Administration, Washington University