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.

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.

Leadership: Exclusively human?

What would the world look like if socially-skilled robots stepped into the roles normally reserved for humans?

Together with Lauren Howe, David De Cremer, and Sam Yam, we explore these questions–and more–in this thought piece on how “soft skills” such as humor–often touted as exclusively human skills for future workers–may power robots’ rise into leadership roles. (See here in The European Business Review).

Leadership: Uniquely human?

Tune-in here for our recent session on AI & Leadership at Applied Machine Learning Days.

Thanks again for the invitation, Marisa Tschopp and Simon Schafheitle. So much fun and food for thought!

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.

Science + comedy = super (soft skills) edutainment!

We were delighted to welcome comedian and medical doctor, Fabian Unteregger, as a guest lecturer for our business administration master seminar, “No funny business? Leadership soft skills for a digital, dispersed, and diverse age” at the University of Zurich.

After I presented an overview of the current science on behavioral humor, Fabian presented tips and tricks of successful humor use in professional settings. By the way, he also scored a 4/4 (100%) on our pop quiz that day, showing that my students aren’t the only ones who are soft skills experts!

What a fun (and funny) way to learn about leadership soft skills with this scholar-comedian combo.

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). 💪

Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to our 2nd annual humor workshop!

On behalf of Dr. Jenny Hofmann, Fiorina Giuliani, Prof. Willibald Ruch, and myself, we are pleased to announce that our exciting, interdisciplinary humor workshop for early career scholars has just received funding from the Graduate Campus to take place a second time. This year, we will also offer the option of virtual attendance if we receive enough interest from applicants, in the interest of sustainability and inclusion.

Reserve the dates now and plan to be in Zurich on January 30-31, 2020. We’ll have keynotes from top international humor scholars such as Sam Yam, a top 40 b-school prof under 40 (National University of Singapore), the well-published Nale Lehmann-Willenbrock (University of Hamburg), Valentina Bambini (Institute for Advanced Study of Pavia) and Rene Proyer (Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg), as well as paper development roundtables, critical topic discussions, and networking galore.

To apply, please send the following in a single, combined PDF to Dr. Jenny Hofmann by September 30, 2019 (extended to October 31, 2019):

• a 2-page (max.) CV; include your contact information, current affiliation, grants/awards, presentations, and publications,

• a short (1/4 page) motivation letter including your aims for the workshop (e.g., related to your research and career), and

• an abstract of a humor-related paper, including title, all authors and affiliations (250 words max).

All materials will be treated confidentially and only shared with the conference participants and experts. Of note, if you want to attend virtually, you still need to officially apply in the same way as the physical attendees.

More information will be posted here as we have it (e.g., a full, final list of confirmed speakers and a more detailed schedule), so stay tuned!

Leadership, Power, and Politics @IPLS

What a delight it was to catch-up with so many colleagues (e.g., my former TU Munich team members, pictured below) at the Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Leadership Symposium in Corfu, Greece. As usual, Olga Epitropaki (Durham University) and Sophia Tzagaraki did a great job organizing. I also enjoyed the keynote by one of my Swiss colleagues, Christian Zehnder (University of Lausanne).

It was invigorating to present some new ideas we’re really excited about and to experience the impressive collective brain in the room for our papers on leadership, power, and humor (with Petra Schmid, ETH Zurich, and Sam Yam, NUS) and coauthor networks (with Brooke Gazdag).

I am grateful to the SAGW, who funded part of my conference travel.