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

Award-Winning Research

Our new research on a motherhood resume intervention, recently presented by lead author Ariella Kristal (Harvard Business School) at the Academy of Management (virtual) meeting, won a Best Paper award from the Gender Diversity in Organizations division.

The paper is coauthored by Leonie Nicks (Behavioral Insights Team), myself (University of St.Gallen), and Oliver Hauser (University of Exeter).

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.

A golden time at Goldman Sachs

Had the honor of presenting "Can funny people get ahead?" at Goldman Sachs in Zurich (with a virtual connection to the Geneva office) last week. Welcomed a big (standing room only in the back!), bright group with great questions about leveraging workplace humor for effective teamwork and leadership.

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).

Let's get digital! ...and inclusive.

Delighted to share that Prof. Brooke Gazdag (LMU) and my new big data research on digital inequality and collaboration in science has been accepted for presentation at the inaugural the ETH-organized conference on organizing in the digital era in Switzerland. *UPDATE* Due to a time conflict that arose after acceptance, however, we unfortunately had to withdraw our paper and miss out on this amazing conference.

Our symposium on humor (with Prof. Rashpal Densa-Khalon, University of Surrey, co-organizer, and Prof. Cecily Cooper, University of Miami, discussant) that includes my paper on humor in uncertainty, as well as the symposium on gender bias in organizations (led by Prof. Samantha Paustian-Underdahl, Florida State University, and Dr. Kate Frear, Center for Creative Leadership) that includes our paper on identity and motivated reasoning (with Profs. Tyler Okimoto, University of Queensland, and Xinxin Li, Shanghai Jiao Tong University) have been accepted for presentation at the 79th annual Academy of Management Conference in Boston.

Looking forward to meeting colleagues, coauthors, and new contacts, starting, joining, and continuing discussions, and sharing science on a local and global scale.

My 1st FINT in snowy St. Gallen

Earlier this month, I attended my first FINT (First International Network on Trust) conference, which was conveniently located in the nearby Swiss city of St. Gallen. The conference included a fantastic line-up of speakers from academia, banking, and non-profit organizations, including UZH’s own Prof. Roberto Weber and St. Gallen’s Prof. Antoinette Weibel (she and her team seamlessly organized/hosted this fantastic event this year). I presented a “first cut” paper on humor as a trust cue as part of our current Swiss National Science Foundation project. I also actively participated in the many social events and Swiss experiences, including an Apéro with alphorn, Swiss fondue in a cheese factory, and yodeling with Appenzellers.

Attendees were encouraging and inclusive, even for me–a diversity researcher “outsider” who is merely beginning to dabble in trust research. Indeed, my first FINT was a cool experience (both metaphorically and literally). I’m delighted to have started the year off right with such inspiring presentations, interactions, and discussions.

For more information about FINT, see here. All photos credited to the official FINT photographer, Altius Media.

Researchathon: Leadership in the Digital Age

24 scholars + 24hrs + 4 mentors, teams, & innovative ideas = 1 successful researchathon!

Our team developed and presented an exciting new idea, “From a distance: Digital leaders’ trust building and repair.”

Thanks to Ellen Schmid, Ulf Steinberg, Emanuel Schreiner, & Simon Pfältzer for the organization. Thanks to Deanne Den Hartog, Ilke Inceoglu, Claudia Peus, & Ronit Kark for the mentorship. And last but not least, thanks to all of our enthusiastic attendees: Fabiola H. Gerpott, Brooke Gazdag, Tanja Hentschel, Kristin Knipfer, Stephanie Rehbock, Armin Pircher Verdorfer, Petra Kipfelsberger, Aldijana Bunjak, Corinna Bertling, Oliver Niebuhr, Paul Westhoff...and many more!

What a fabulous way to kick-off the new Technical University of Munich campus in Heibronn!