Academy of Management 2024: A breathtaking whirlwind in the windy city!

*GASP!* Learning we won the "Phillips & Nadkarni Best Paper on Diversity & Cognition" Award 🏆 today at the Academy of Management was truly breathtaking! (No, really--I nearly passed out! 😅)

People tend to prefer people who are like them (i.e., homophily), which can perpetuate inequalities in organizations. For example, in many contexts, leaders have historically been men; so, if they tend to interact and network more with other men, this locks men into (and women out of) critical professional networks. Instead of revealing more bias, we develop and test a new way to network: playfulness. 💡 Across 5 mixed methods studies comprising 4,461 data points from interviews, vignettes, archival data, and recalled scenarios, we found that men and women--as well as lower and higher status persons--are more likely to interact in more playful situations. So, the next time you're planning a networking event or just want people to mix at a mixer, make it more playful (i.e., spontaneous, pleasurable, and interactive) to facilitate interactions across differences as a step toward more social inclusion and professional equity in organizations. 🌟

Above, Dr. Huong Pham, Mihwa Seong, and I accepted/hold our plaques from these 2 terrific MOC leaders, BURAK OC and Beth A. Livingston, in Chicago. The award is named in honor of the late scholarly greats, Katherine W. Phillips (Columbia Business School) and Sucheta Nadkarni (Cambridge Judge Business School)--both of whom I briefly met at past AOM meetings--who have deeply shaped the field and inspired thousands with their research in #DEI and behavioral strategy.

We are absolutely honored and utterly thrilled; this work would not be possible without our amazing coauthors (Mihwa, Eugenia, and Huong below) and unpictured coauthors: Isabelle Engeler, and Raina Brands, and the generous funding from Swiss National Science Foundation SNSF. 🙏

Of course, we (re)connected will colleagues new and known, attended scholarly sessions and presented our own research, supported the DEI division where Mihwa and I are both members of the Executive Committee, and continued our education in professional development workshops, too. But, winning this award (and presenting this paper among an all-star session of network scholars) was truly a highlight!

Trust in Scientists: Many Labs Study

I’ve studied trust in leaders (and if it differs by team gender diversity and leader gender; here) and if humor affects trust in job interviews (here). But trust in scientists?

As part of the Swiss contingent of scholars working in a massive, Many Labs study led by Viktoria Cologna (Harvard) and Niels Mede (UZH), we surveyed more than 70,000 people across 67 countries to explore public trust in scientists.

Results show that average trust was high; people also agreed that scientific methods are the best way to test if something is true. However, these effects differed by country (e.g., trust in scientists was highest in Egypt, India, and Nigeria but lowest in Albania, Kazakhstan, and Bolivia) and political orientation (e.g., “left-leaning” orientation was positively associated with trust in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, and China).

These findings have important and timely implications for scientists’ successful involvement in public policy as well as their engagement with areas of public concern (e.g., global pandemics and other grand challenges such as climate change).

For the pre-print, see here; the data will also be made publicly available after our paper is published (it’s current status is “revise and resubmit”).

We were delighted to see the paper awarded “Best Data Collection: Quantitative” at the Market Research Society conference, as well as featured by Nature News (and several German news outlets).

Exchanging & Inspiring with International & Interedisciplinary Scholars

We were delighted to share some of our research in the prestigous and selective “Organization Science Winter Conference” in Zurich (below). We discussed the work-in-progress with a range of scholars from Switzerland, the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, and the U.S.

Thanks again to the organizers from ETH Zurich and to all of the participants for the warm welcome of our more micro-research in this historically more macro research community. We’re integrating the feedback and hoping to submit our paper soon.

Our core PLAID lab team were also delighted to share a new paper (funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation) on how playfulness can facilitate interactions and networking across diversity (e.g., men and women, lower and higher-status persons) in organizations. In total, 31 research groups from across HSG shared their sustainability-related insights. See here for more information.

Do you want to measure your DEI impact (and more)?

We’re looking for organizational partners for our research on men’s role in workplace gender equity.

In this collaboration, we will assess your employees’ perceptions of diversity and inclusion. Over one year, we will send short surveys to your employees to learn about inclusion practices, well-being, and leadership (3 times, <10 min).

What’s in it for you?

1.       You will receive an executive summary with customized, practical recommendations from Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) experts.

2.       You can add additional, customized items to the surveys (e.g., to assess aspect of engagement, flex-work/-time, relevant to your needs).

3.       This is a unique opportunity to advance—and evaluate—your commitment to DEI while also contributing to the newest scientific insights on the topic.

This research collaboration is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and is free of charge for you.

Interested? Please contact Eugenia Bajet Mestre, Project Manager and Research Assistant.

Male Allyship Description

For more information on male allyship or our new and highly-rated hybrid training, see our video (above) or our website here.

(Un)Conscious Bias: Name, Frame, and Tame the Dragon!

As a scholar with decades of experience specializing in DEI, leadership, and workplace culture, Jamie Gloor is often invited for keynotes and workshops in for- and non-profit groups to explore the idea of bias:

1. When is bias conscious vs. unconscious?

2. What effects does bias have at work?

3. How has bias changed over time?

4. What can we do to create more transparency and fairness (e.g., by design)?

For more details about the content and approach, see the short teaser video below.

(Un)Conscious Bias Course Teaser Video

"Time is Money?" Innovative, New Interdisciplinary Lecture

We’re delighted to announce our innovative, new BA lecture, “Time is Money?”

The course is co-taught by Profs. Anna Elsner (left) and Jamie Gloor (right) from the University of St.Gallen’s Conextual Studies and School of Management (respectively).

Students started the course with a guided tour with curator Cathérine Hug through the Kunsthaus Zurich’s exhibit, “Time,” followed by an interdisciplinary panel with artist Sinzo Aanza, ETH physicists and mathmaticians Caroline Dorn and Josef Teichmann, alongside Profs. Elsner and Gloor.

Course Teaser Video

We’re delighted to welcome a diverse group of students including backgrounds in law/politics, management, contextual studies, and economics—as well as nationalities such as Swiss, French, Indian, and exchange students from Babson College in the United States. These students will present and moderate key ideas in the course, visit St.Gallen hospice (to explore the time before we die and ideas of care time), experiment to see how different kinds of music affect our subjective ideas of time and time to complete tasks, and more!

Reconnect, refocus, and re-search to close the year

This week, we all met in the scenic and serene Kloster Kappel for a writing retreat.

We set goals and shared our values, enjoyed several productive pomodoro sessions, hosted a research presentation by YeJin Park (NYU), cruised the Christmas market in Zug, meditated, stretched, and enjoyed several healthy meals and conversations.

Feeling very grateful for this group and this opportunity.

New Team Members & New Exec Ed Program

We’re delighted to welcome Dr. Huong Pham (middle) as a new post-doc in our team from summer 2023; she joins us fresh from LMU in Germany. We also welcomed a new external PhD student, Tamara Kern (left), in fall semester 2023; she joins us while working as a Director of Talent & Total Rewards in the Fortune Global 500 company, Magna. Welcome, Tamara and Huong!

Eugenia Bajet Mestre and I have also developed and tested our new male allyship training program. We’re offering several on-site programs for individuals in Zurich and St.Gallen (in English), as well as in-house, custom programs with Pirmin Meyer and Konrad Weber (in English, German, and/or Swiss German). For more information, see here.

Swiss Summit on Leadership, Inclusion, Diversity, & Equity (2023) in Zurich

Thanks again to the 52 folks from universities (e.g., University of St.Gallen, University of Zurich, University of Geneva, London Business School, DCU Business School, Purdue University, Copenhagen Business School, ETH Zürich, University of Lausanne - UNIL, University of Konstanz, etc.) and practice (e.g., PwC, Femmes Juristes Suisse - Juristinnen Schweiz, & Adecco) who joined our inaugural, interdisciplinary summit on leadership, diversity, and inclusion last week in Zurich! 🙌

We explored questions related to emotional diversity, work-family, women's charisma, going beyond the gender binary, virtual inclusive leadership, mature workers, humor/well-being in flat hierarchies, sexual harassment, maternity & "maybe baby" bias, interventions for more equity at work, (male) allyship, authenticity (when, why, & for whom?), sustainable leadership, new methods (e.g., avatars and prospective meta-analyses), and more! 🤓

Our aim was to share knowledge and foster connections--especially for our early career scholars--within and beyond 🇨🇭, within and beyond academia 💡. Check out this amazing video summary of the event from the talented Sophie Moser’s perspective (PhD student at the University of Konstanz).

Thanks again to all who joined--especially our super bright PhD students and post-docs 🌟 (all here with their talk titles and affiliations: https://lnkd.in/e7ghkEV3), experienced moderator and expert panelists (e.g., Gudrun Sander, Prof. Dr., Franciska Krings, Liana Melchenko, Joséphine Marmy, Christiane Löwe, & Jacques Berent, PhD), stellar keynotes by Janine Bosak, Thekla Morgenroth (+ special shout-out to Florence Villesèche)--and last, but not least, my ever-engaged and talented co-organizers: Lauren Howe & Clara Kulich. 🙏 (2 of us shown here, since Lauren was unfortunately sick.)

Gratitude for all involved, especially our funding from SNSF Swiss National Science Foundation, University of Zurich, Geneva School of Economics and Management - UNIGE, Competence Centre for Diversity & Inclusion (CCDI-FIM) - University of St.Gallen (HSG), assistance from UZH Digital Society Initiative, & Brice Olivier Mbigna Mbakop. 🙏 While every one did a stellar job, I was particularly proud of my team’s stellar representation from the PLAID lab at CCDI (FIM-HSG; see below).

On the far left, you also see our new post-doc: Huong Pham. She finished her dissertation at LMU and brings methods expertise and interests in leader-follower granting processes. Dr. Pham will lead a paper on leader signalling via sports in our Swiss National Science Foundation Project. Welcome to the team, Huong!

#leadership #diversity #inclusion #dei #futureofwork #futureofleadership #sustainability #management #psychology #business #ethics #philosophy

Why the future is…funny? (TEDx Zurich talk)

Wow! I’m incredibly grateful for the organizers, coaches, hosts, translators, 100(ish) volunteers and folks behind the scenes, 800(ish) attendees (including some of my family, team, and friends!), and 9 other speakers who bravely shared their big ideas at a very inclusive TEDx Zurich yesterday! What a powerful and unforgettable experience with loads of creative and inspiring ideas and individuals.

In my 12-min. talk, I wove a narrative through my years of research on diversity, (social) sustainability, and humor—condensed into 3 key points—pointing to why the future is (or rather should be) funny.

***Want to know more? Check out the video here.***

As our team grows and we remain active in countless ways across HSG (and beyond), please follow us on LinkedIn or our CCDI page for a more complete and current overview of our team, engagements, research, and impact.