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!

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.

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

Women in Leadership Micro-Conference in St.Gallen

Just before Easter, we welcomed an all-star group of keynotes and early-career scholars from the the US, the UK, Canada, Germany, Switzerland—and beyond—in the beautiful Weiterbildungzentrum (WBZ) in sunny St.Gallen. These scholars and practitioners are working across psychology, organizational behavior, entrepreneurship, and operations management on topics related to gender/diversity and leadership.

It’s already a few weeks later now, but I’m still feeling inspired by conversations with and presentations by Raina Brands (UCL), Aneeta Rattan (LBS), Corinne Post (Villanova), Alyson Meister (IMD), Amanda Shantz and Charlotta Siren (HSG), our incoming post-doc (Mihwa Seong, Ivey Business School), CCDI scholars and practitioners (Eugenia Bajet Mestre, Theresa Goop, Nicole Niedermann, and Giannina Faktor), the fantastic social innovation duo from practice (Cynthia Hansen and Liana Melchenko at Adecco), Lauren Howe (UZH), Regina Dutz (TUM), Caren Goldberg (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow), and Eva Lin (LBS)!

Thanks again to SNF for funding this event, to our amazing attendees who shared their research and stories behind it, and to Eugenia Bajet Mestre for her extraordinary effort facilitating hybrid participation and organization.

Award-Winning Research

Our research on work-family conflict and shocks/set-backs seems to have resonated with reviewers at the Academy of Management 2020.

“Help when dads need somebody? Follower reactions to leader work-family conflict” has won “Best Paper” from the Organizational Behavior (OB) division. This work was authored by Jamie Gloor (University of Exeter & University of Zurich), Susanne Braun (Durham University), Jenny Hoobler (University of Pretoria), and Claudia Peus (Technical University of Munich).*

“Critical events at a critical time: Setbacks and shocks in early academic career stages” has won “Best Symposium” from the Management Education and Development (MED) division. This work was organized by Stephanie Rehbock (Technical University of Munich) and Jamie Gloor (University of Exeter & University of Zurich); it also included a paper, “Men and Women’s Identity Work in response to Private- and Work-Shocks Over Time” (also coauthored by Stephanie Rehbock, Jamie Gloor, & Ronit Kark - Bar Ilan University).*

*Unfortunately, the latter two could not be listed in the formal program due to AOM’s rule-of-three.

JOIN US! ***...in fall 2020. Conference postponed due to coronavirus!***

For the most up-to-date information on speakers, time tables, and conference submissions, see *HERE*.

AI & Leadership @EPFL's Applied Machine Learning Days

Join us in Lausanne for our “AI & Leadership” track on Monday, January 27 (1:30-5PM).

I’ll present at 2:40 about why soft skills such as humor are still–if not even more–important than ever, with applications to robot leadership and AI in hiring/recruitment processes.

Get your tickets here TODAY for our track and others, including keynotes from Edward Snowden.

Defeating the 7-headed dragon in Utrecht, The Netherlands

What a terrific conference last week on improving #gender #equality with #behavioral #insights from Leonie Nicks, #fieldinterventions in the Global South, cross-cultural assessments in up to 60 countries and everything in-between!

Delighted to have had the chance to present our new #maybebaby research with Tyler Okimoto and Eden King.

Thanks again, Belle Derks, Floor Rink, Ruth van Veelen, Francesca Manzi, and Elena Bacchini for your organization, insights, and inspiration, and to everyone who attended/presented at lovely Utrecht University (e.g., Michelle Ryan, Jaime Napier, Janine Bosak, Tanja Hentschel, Clara Kulich, Christopher Begeny, Renata Bongiorno, Jenny Veldman, Loes Meeussen, Melissa Vink, Regina Dutz, and more!). Starting the week very energized!

Academy of Management in Boston

What an amazing, whirlwind experience in Boston as 11,000+ scholars, practitioners, and policy makers convened in Boston to share and discuss, connect and reconnect.

Rashpal Dhensa-Khalon (Surrey) and I organized a symposium on workplace humor within and across hierarchies, which we shared with a full house (despite the 8AM Tuesday time slot). Within the symposium, I also presented my paper on humor and diversity (coauthored with Lynn Bowes-Sperry and Cecily Cooper, based on a project with Agnes Baeker with research assistance from Felix Wuethrich and Ramon Gmuer). Finally, Cecily Cooper (Miami - see below) tied the 4 papers within the symposium together with thoughtfulness and finesse; no joke–she is surely one of the best discussants in the land!

Kate Frear (SMU) and Sam Paustian-Underdahl (FSU) included my research with Tyler Okimoto (UQ), Xinxin Li (Shanghai Jiao Tong), and Brooke Gazdag (LMU) on how higher organizational identification predicts less gender discrimination at work in their symposium on gender bias. We were delighted to be included among stellar scholars such as Natalya Alonso (UBC), Ivona Hideg (Wilfrid Laurier), Shannon Cheng (Rice), and Jasmien Khattab (UVA).

Gender discrimination, of course, isn’t funny…but the photo (below) from the symposium sure is!

And finally, have you ever wondered who's conducting award-winning international management practices and research? Who's on the AOM International Theme Committee (ITC) Executive Board, responsible for selecting and honoring these practices and papers? Today's your lucky day! 👇

We were delighted to welcome a room full of scholars and practitioners at our reception last week in Boston, where we honored the following persons: 👏
1. PTC-ITC International Impactful Collaboration Award: Jeroen Veldman (Mines ParisTech), Hugh Willmott (Cass), & Filip Gregor (Responsible Companies Section)
2. Emerald Best International Dissertation Award: Maximilian (Max) Stallkamp (Virginia Tech)
3. Emerald Best International Symposium Award: Maike Andresen (Bamberg), Eleni Apospori (Athens U), & Jon Briscoe (N. Illinois)
4. Carolyn Dexter Award: Jane Lê (WHU) & Fannie Couture (University of Sydney)

Thanks again to the divisions for their nominations, to the reviewers who supported our selections, to all of the amazing practitioners and scholars who were nominated, as well as to our ITC committee members for their hard work and enthusiasm (pictured below). 💪

Women in Big Data

A great group of (mostly) computer scientists welcomed me with open arms last week for a conference on women in big data in Zurich. I met an interdisciplinary group of fellow UZH scholars Carolin Strobl (Psychology), Anne Scherer (Marketing), and Sarah Petchey (Natural Science) as well as many new faces from ETH, Europe, and beyond! I learned a lot about Artifical Intelligence (AI), algorithms, and machine learning from some of the programmers themselves; we also discussed some of the ethical and policy implications for fairness, gender equality, and more!

I left with new knowledge, ideas, contacts, and even some bling! Below is an absolutely appropriate button for the event given to me by Caitlin Kraft-Buchmann, founder and CEO of Women at the Table, who gave an inspiring, evidence-informed keynote on Affirmative Action for Algorithms.

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I also gave a 90-second madness talk (in true “science slam” form: it all rhymed!) highlighting my interests in AI in hiring from the employee perspective, including key examples from practice such as Amazon and Unilever, touching on some work by my University of Basel colleague, Gwendolin Sajons (Business).

Here’s more information if you’re interested in the full program and/or the Twitter moment (including images from the event).