戈沙尔1948年出生于印度加尔各达，曾在印度石油公司工作，后来就读于麻省理工学院和哈佛大学。1988年戈沙尔来到欧洲，先是在法国欧洲工商管理学院工作，1994年又到了伦敦商学院。同时他还在许多企业的董事会中任职，并被提名为管理学会、国际商学会和世界经济论坛成员。戈沙尔被认为是对欧洲管理思想体系最有影响的人物之一。

He graduated from Delhi University with Physics major and at the Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management^[1] and worked for Indian Oil Corporation, rising through the management ranks before moving to the United States on a Fulbright Fellowship and Humphrey Fellowship^[2] in 1981. Ghoshal was awarded an S.M. and a Ph.D. from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1983 and 1985 respectively, and was also awarded a D.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School in 1986.

In 1985, he joined INSEAD Business School in France and wrote a stream of influential articles and books. In 1994, he joined the London Business School. Ghoshal was a Fellow of the Advanced Institute of Management Research (AIM) in the U.K and a Professor of Strategic and International Management at the London Business School. He served as a member of The Committee of Overseers of the Harvard Business School.^[3]

1989 年，戈沙尔与巴特莱特首次合作，出版了《跨越边界的管理》一书，该书发展了“跨国公司”的概念，并指出，一种新的国际商业战略和机构模式正在崛起。他们提出，老式的多国公司和全球公司在全球效率和本地响应性的呼声推动下已经不得不改革了。面对全球化和本地化的选择，公司只能同时接受这两种策略。

戈沙尔与巴特莱特称，这样的结果就是跨国公司的产生，它兼具大公司和小公司的特性，可以同时进行全球和地区化的运营。与集权化和等级森严的结构不同，跨国公司实行网络化运作，其遍布全球的越来越专业化的基地完美地结合在一起，相互协调运作。他们理论体系的核心是要求经理人具备一种心态，使他们能够跨越国界工作，整合各地的队伍和资源，以实现战略目标。

到上世纪90年代中期，戈沙尔与巴特莱特又合作出版《个人化公司》一书，对商业的变革做了更深入的探究。他们说，眼下正在发生一场革命，牵头的是ABB和通用电气这样的先驱公司，他们不再强迫员工遵循严格的规章制度，而是对机构本身进行调整，使其适应员工的才干和能力，这完全可以称得上“个人化公司”。通过这样做，这些公司“释放了被企业束缚的人质”，让个人能有创新和为公司增添价值的空间。

戈沙尔说，目标比战略或体制更为重要，让机构的每个成员都拥有一个共同的目标是机构变革的关键。当今最成功的大公司都认识到了目标的重要性，并把目标而不是那些先入为主的公司概念和策略作为关注焦点。

戈沙尔已于2004年11月去世，但就在去世前不久，他提出了一个至今仍在管理学界争论的话题。戈沙尔认为，过去30年中各商学院学术圈中所发展的一系列理论，是最近诸多公司丑闻产生的根源。他的观点是：“为了避免安然事件的重演，商学院并不需要做太多事情，相反，他们只要停止做一些正在做的事情就行了。”这篇论文发表在《管理教育和学习》上，题目是《恶劣的管理理论正在破坏优良的商业实践》。戈沙尔认为，如今的管理实践中很多饱受抨击的弊病，都可以在管理学术理论中找到根源，“我们的理论和观点可能助长了我们如今正在厉声谴责的管理实践”。

比如说，商学院的理论家们把作为研究对象的人当作“经济人”——理性、自私、追求效用最大化，并且认为公司的目标是追求股东价值的最大化。这些被奉为圭臬的假设与理论虽然能够使商学院的教授、学者们在其基础上“科学地”发展管理理论，推理出严谨的数学模型，但其本身却有着各种各样的缺陷，而且大多过于简化，最重要的是，它们没有考虑到“人的意图与选择的因素”。

于是，建筑在这样的基础上的种种管理理论的有效性也就令人怀疑了，它们不但称不上科学，反而会把学生们引上岐路。例如，教授们在课堂上告诉学生，不要信任公司的管理人员。因而这些学生在日后成为经理后，也不认为自己有义务保持严格的操守，对自己的行为负责。这正是那一系列的公司丑闻中的主角都是名牌商学院毕业生的原因之一。

虽然戈沙尔的这种观点未免有些极端，但确实又在很大程度上引起了人们对商学院深深的反思。

• 《跨越边界的管理》（1989）
• 《个性化公司》
• 《恶劣的管理理论正在破坏优良的商业实践》
• "Beyond Self-Interest Revisited" by Hector Rocha and Sumantra Ghoshal, Journal of Management Studies, 2006 Vol. 43, No. 3, pp. 585-619
• "Bad Management Theories are Destroying Good Management Practices" by Sumantra Ghoshal, Academy of Management Learning and Education, 2005 Vol. 4 Issue 1, pp. 75-91
• "Unleashing Organisational Energy" by Heike Bruch and Sumantra Ghoshal, MIT Sloan Management Review, Fall 2003 Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 45–51
• "What is a Global Manager" by Christopher A. Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal, Harvard Business Review, 2003 Aug;81(8):101-108, 141
• "Managing Personal Human Capital" by Lynda Gratton and Sumantra Ghoshal, European Management Journal, 2003 vo. 21, No. 1, pp. 1-10
• "Beware the Busy Manager" by Heike Bruch and Sumantra Ghoshal, Harvard Business Review, 2002, vol. 80, No. 2, pp. 62-69
• "Strategy as a Guided Evolution" by Bjorn Lovas and Sumantra Ghoshal, Strategic Management Journal, 2000, vol. 21, No. 9, pp. 875-896
• "Management Competence, Firm Growth and Economic Progress" by Sumantra Ghoshal, M Hahn and Peter Moran, Contributions to Political Economy, Vol. 18, pp. 121-150, 1999
• "Markets, Firms, and the Process of Economic Development" by Peter Moran and Sumantra Ghoshal, The Academy of Management Review, 1999, Vol. 24, No. 3, 390-412
• "Social Capital and Value Creation: The Role of Intrafirm Networks" by Wenpin Tsai and Sumantra Ghoshal, The Academy of Management Journal, 1998 Vol. 41, No. 4, pp. 464-476
• "Social capital, intellectual capital and the organizational advantage" by Janine Nahapiet and Sumantra Ghoshal, Academy of Management Review, 1998 23(2): 242-266
• "Theories of Economic Organisation: The Case for Realism and Balance" by Peter Moran and Sumantra Ghoshal, The Academy of Management Review, 1996, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 58-72
• "Bad For Practice: A Critique of the Transaction Cost Theory" by Sumantra Ghoshal and Peter Moran, The Academy of Management Review, 1996 Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 13-47
• "Building the Entrepreneurial Corporation: New Organisational Processes, New Managerial Tasks" by Sumantra Ghoshal and Christopher A. Bartlett, European Management Journal, 1995 Vol. 13 No.2, pp. 139-55
• "Differentiated Fit and Shared Values: Alternatives for Managing Headquarters-Subsidiary Relations" by Nitin Nohria and Sumantra Ghoshal, Strategic Management Journal, 1994, Vol. 15, No. 6, pp. 491-502
• "Interunit Communication in Multinational Corporations" by Sumantra Ghoshal, Harry Korine and Gabriel Szulanski, Management Science, Vol. 40, No. 1, January 1994, pp. 96-110
• "Beyond the M-form: Toward a Managerial Theory of the Firm" by Christopher A. Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal, Strategic Management Journal, 1993 No. 14, Winter, pp. 23-46
• "Matrix Management: Not a Structure, a Frame of Mind" by Christopher A. Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal, Harvard Business Review, 1990 Jul-Aug; 68(4): 138-145
• "Environmental Scanning in Korean Firms: Organisational Isomorphism in Action" by Sumantra Ghoshal, Journal of International Business Studies, 1988 Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 69-86
• "Creation, Adoption, and Diffusion of Innovations by Subsidiaries of Multinational Corporations" by Sumantra Ghoshal and Christopher A. Bartlett, Journal of International Business Studies, 1988 Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 365-388