Peter Cappelli (born September 7, 1956) is a human resources and management academic and author. He is currently the George W. Taylor Distinguished Professor of Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he is also the director of the Center for Human Resources.

His research tackles issues related to hiring and training practices, electronic recruiting, employee retention, and performance and talent management.

Peter Cappelli was born in Upstate New York to a local attorney and always assumed he too would become a lawyer like his father, but eventually decided to be a professor.^{[1] [2]}

He received a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Relations from Cornell University, and soon after undergrad joined University of Oxford as a Fulbright Scholar, where he earned Doctorate in Labor Economics.^[1] He has been a German Marshall Fund Fellow, a Research Associate of National Bureau of Economic Research (Cambridge, Massachusetts) and a Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution.^[3]

Cappelli joined the Wharton School in 1985, serving as the chair of its Management Department from 1995-1999, and is currently the school’s George W. Taylor Distinguished Professor of Management.^[4] He has also held academic appointments at University of California (Berkeley), University of Illinois, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, London School of Economics and Bocconi University.^[4]

Cappelli has numerous works to his credit^[2], comprising over 150 research titles.^[5] In 2012, he wrote a book on Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs as a follow-up to his opinion piece^[6] in The Wall Street Journal that made an impact outside academia. In this editorial, he blamed employers for higher unemployment rates instead of a lack of people with the necessary skills.^[7] “After writing the initial Wall Street Journal story, Cappelli heard from a few corporate leaders who told him there was really nothing they could do. He suggested he’d come out and take a close look at what they’re doing,” mentions Jena McGregor of The Washington Post.^[7] In recognition for his work, Cappelli led an open forum titled “Unemployed or Unemployable” at the 2013 Davos Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum^[8] and was ranked fifth in HR Magazine’s list of world’s most influential management thinkers.^[9]

Three years later he published another book, Will College Pay Off—A Guide to the Most Important Financial Decision You’ll Ever Make. The study reviewed the pitfalls in higher education and challenged the popular notion that it always makes sense to go to college.^[10] This book inspired discussions on CNBC Squawk Box^[11], PBS Newshour^[12], and was reviewed by the Financial Times^[10], The Guardian^[13], and Quartz (publication).^[14]

Cappelli presented the status report on HR’s progress toward agility in the “HR Goes Agile Lite” article co-authored with Anna Tavis.^[15] It was listed among Harvard Business Review “10 Must Reads on Reinventing HR”.^[16] He was also invited on a TED Talk at HR Exchange to talk about the concept at Think 2018 event organized by IBM Watson Talent.^[17] Steve Denning, senior Forbes contributor and former consultant at World Bank, however, suggested caution around findings and contended that there are companies such as ING Bank, where people management has evolved beyond “agile lite” towards genuine Agile management.^[15]

To build better managers out of people in their 20s, Cappelli created an undergraduate course on “How to be the boss” launched in January 2019 at Wharton.^[18] He has also directed Wharton’s Advanced Management program for 15 years and currently leads the TMI-Wharton Programs on Talent Management as its Academic Director.^[19]

Cappelli has served on three committees of the National Academy of Sciences in 1997, 2000 and 2007.^[20] During senior Bush and Clinton administrations, he was the co-director of the National Centre on the Educational Quality of Workforce with Robert Zemsky for the US Department of Education.^[4] He was also a member of WEF’s Global Agenda Council on Employment^[21], and a Senior Advisor for employment policy to the Kingdom of Bahrain between 2003 and 2005.^[3] He is the host of “In the Workplace” weekly radio show with Dan O’Meara, which examines the workplace challenges faced by business owners, policy makers, and job seekers.^[22]

Cappelli was elected as a fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources (2003)^[23], was named among the 25 most important people working in the area of human capital by Vault Rankings (2001), and received the PRO award from the International Association of Corporate and Professional Recruiters for contributions to the field of human resources (2009).[20]

• The India Way: How India’s top business leaders are revolutionizing management (2010).
• Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs: The Skills Gap and What Companies Can do About It (2012).
• Will College Pay Off?: A Guide to the Most Important Financial Decision You'll Ever Make (2015).
• Why we love to hate HR, Harvard Business Review (2015).
• Fortune Makers: The Leaders Creating China’s Great Global Companies (2017).
• Why Bosses Should Stop Thinking of ‘A Players,’ ‘B Players’ and ‘C Players’, The Wall Street Journal, 19 February 2017.
• The Biggest Mistakes Companies Make with Hiring, The Wall Street Journal, 21 February 2019.

https://mgmt.wharton.upenn.edu/profile/cappelli/