Studies how two highly successful Wall Street investment banks managed the uncertainty of their high-velocity environment through different work practices.

Alexandra Michel is assistant professor in the Department of Management and Organization at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California. Before receiving a Ph.D. from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania and beginning her academic career, she worked as an investment banker in Goldman Sachs' mergers and acquisitions department, and she worked under Goldman's Chief of Staff, helping the firm implement a new approach to executive education, with topics that included leadership, banker development, and building client relationships. Her interdisciplinary publication record includes such journals as Administrative Science Quarterly, Theory and Psychology, and Learning Inquiry.

Foreword Kenneth J. Gergen; 1. Bullish on uncertainty; Part I. Work Practices: 2. Practices that reduced cognitive uncertainty at Individual Bank; 3. Practices that amplified cognitive uncertainty at Organization Bank; Part II. Psychological Transformation: 4. Recruiting; 5. Individual-centered transformation; 6. Organization-centered transformation; 7. An alternative approach to organizational and psychological transformation.