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Dissertation titles from 2011-2024

Dissertations defended at Teachers College are available through the Gottesman Library. Below is a list of dissertations completed and defended by students of the Program in Social-Organizational Psychology.

2024

  • An Examination of the Effects of Prescriptive Stereotype Violations About Competence on East Asians Ratings of Leadership Potential By Hong Yu (2024)

2023

  • A History of Harms: Organizational Accountability and Repair for Past and Continuing Injustices. By Allegra Chen-Carrel (2023)
  • Multiracial Identity Invalidation in the Workplace. By Stephanie von Numers (2023)
  • Working Hard and Getting Nowhere: Jane Henryism and the Recognition of Black Women’s Efforts in Corporate America. By Shana Yearwood (2023)

2022

  • When the Leader Leaves: Building and Maintaining Interorganizational Social Capital in International Affairs. By Aimee Lace (2022)

2021

  • Examining the Influence of Gender Presentation, Sexual Orientation, and Job Type on Modern-Day Hiring Discrimination Against Gay Men Through Descriptive and Prescriptive Stereotype Moderated Mediation Models.  By Joe Dillard (2021). 
  • Inclusive Leadership Questionnaire: The Design and Validation of a Theory-based Instrument.  By Aitong Li (2021).  
  • The Dual Impact of Stereotype Threat and Power on Negotiation Behavior and Affect.  By Asha Gipson (2021). 
  • Inclusive Leadership: Exploration of Individual and Situational Antecedents
    By David Mendelsohn (2021).

2020

  • Well Begun is Half Done: The Impact of Initial Leader Framing of Diversity on Cross-Functional Team Member Perceptions. By Antony Hacking (2020). 
  • A [K]ink in the Armor: How the Intersection of Gender and Racial Prototypicality Affect Perceptions of Black Women Aspiring to be Managers. By Tarani Merriweather (2020). 
  • Still, She Rises: A Multidimensional Approach to the Development of the Response Inventory to Stereotype Threatening Environments Questionnaire (RISE-Q). By Mateo Cruz (2020)
  • The Development and Validation of the Workplace Racial Microaggression Scale for Asians and Asian Americans. By Duoc Nguyen (2020)
  • Impact of Gendered Topics in Letters of Recommendation on Perceived Importance for Making a Hiring Decision in Geosciences. By Joshua Elmore (2020)

2019

  • Emotion and Warmth Modulation in Women Leaders: A Qualitative Exploratory Study. By Danielle Pfaff (2019)
  • Race Matters in Coaching: An Examination of Coaches' Willingness to Have Difficult Conversations with Leaders of Color. By Ariel Bernstein (2019)
  • The Role of Self-Affirmation and Self-Construal Levels in Attenuating the Gender Performance Gap. By Jennifer Kim (2019)
  • Conceptualizing and Testing the Model of Ambidextrous Leadership: Evidence from a Multi-method Research Study. By DaHee Shon (2019)

2018

  • Professional and Petty: An Investigation Into the Social and Individual Conditions That Promote Instigated Acts of Workplace Incivility Between Black Professionals. By DeMarcus Pegues (2018)
  • Learning Agility in Context: Engineers' Perceptions of Psychologically Safe Climate on Performance. By Lauren Catenacci-Francois (2018)
  • Coaching for Learning Agility: The Importance of Leader Behavior, Learning Goal Orientation, and Psychological Safety. By Ginevra Olver Drinka (2018)

2017

  • Nonnative Accents and Conflict Management: The Mediating Roles of Stereotype Threat, Regulatory Focus, and Conflict Behaviors on Conflict Outcomes. By Regina Kim (2017)
  • Exploring the Relationship Between Personality and Performance: Does Personality Predict Performance for Female Leaders? By Naomi Stutzman (2017)
  • Does Gender Matter in the Evaluation of Successful Physicians? Examining How Evaluators Use Stereotype-Based Attributions in Determining Outcomes at Work. By Dyan Ferraris-Baron (2017)

2016

  • Predictably Flexible Leadership: Exploring the effect of Leader Behavioral Breadth, Variability and Authenticity on Follower Perceptions of Leader Trustworthiness and Effectiveness. By Adam Mitchinson (2016)
  • Change Leader Behavioral Inventory: Development and Validation of an Assessment Instrument. By Rebecca Stilwell (2016)
  • Leadership Complexity While Navigating a Complex Conflict: Linking Individual Attributes with Dynamic Decision-Making Processes. By Nicholas Redding (2016)

2015

  • Falling Out of Love with American Utopia: An Insight into Return Migration Intentions of Highly Skilled Asian Indian Immigrants in the United States. By Nishita Rai (2015)
  • The Perceived Authenticity of Fairness at Work. By Kathryn Roloff (2015)
  • Alienation@work: Creativity and Commerce in Late Capitalism. By Natahn Gerard (2015)
  • To Thine Own Self be True? The Influence of Gender Stereotypes on Perceptions of Authentic Leaders. By Rachel Fudman (2015)
  • How Does Learning Agile Business Leadership Differ? Exploring a Revised Model of the Construct of Learning Agility in Relation to Executive Performance. By Bradford Smith (2015)

2014

  • Leadership behavioral complexity as an antecedent to scaling social impact and financial performance. By Apivat Hanvongse (2014)
  • Employee Perceptions of Managers Who Express Anger: Could a High Quality Relationship Buffer Women from Backlash?. By Avina Gupta (2014)

2013

  • Variant Conflict Management: Conceptualizing and Investigating Team Conflict Management as a Configural Construct. By Yunzi Tan (2013)
  • From the Mouths of Men: A Model of Men's Perception of Social Identity Threat Toward Women in the Workplace and Endorsement of Identity Safety Behaviors. By Mekayla Castro (2013)
  • Whistling in the Wind: Examining the Effects of Sexual Orientation Relational Demography on Individual Perceptions of Workgroup Process and Withdrawal. By Frank Golom (2013)

2012

  • The mediating role of family-work conflict on the relationship between family and work domain variables and employment trade-offs. By Benjamin Liberman (2012)
  • Examining the Influence of Goal Attainment Scaling on Changes in Goal Attainment in a Coaching Versus Non-Coaching Context. By Yaron Prywes (2012)
  • An Examination of Social Persuasion's Influence on Generalized Leader Efficacy. By Bernard Banks (2012)

2011

  • Examining the Perceived Internal and External Effectiveness of NGOs in the Palestinian Territories: The Role of Complexity, Resilience, and Job Adaptability. By Naira Musallam (2011)
  • Use of teams to accomplish radical organization change: Examining the influence of team cognitive style and leader emotional intelligence. By Alive Cahill (2011)
  • Managing Uncertainty During Organization Design Decision-Making Processes: The Moderating Effects of Different Types of Uncertainty. By Alice Mann (2011)
  • Can Chameleons Lead Change? The Effect of Resistance to Change on High Self-Monitoring Leaders' Strength of Purpose. By Robert Morris (2011)

Faculty & Student Joint Research Groups

Doctoral students get involved in research by participating in workgroups led by social-organizational psychology faculty. Students are required to participate in at least one workgroup per semester for a minimum of eight semesters overall. Participation in at least two different workgroups is required over the course of the program.  

In workgroups, doctoral students participate in all phases of the research process, including the design and conduct of research. Many times, this participation leads to presentations at professional conferences or publications in journals and books with faculty.

The number of students per workgroup varies but typically ranges from 3 to 6.

Topics of Interest:

  • Microaggressions in the workplace
  • How leaders can create inclusive climates for their teams
  • The experiences of leaders in the demographic minority and the strategies they use to be successful in these environments
  • The long-term effects of stereotype threat in the workplace
  • The influence of race and gender stereotypes on perceptions of leaders

Current Workgroup Members:

  • Caryn Block, Ph.D.
  • Alexandria Frank, doctoral student
  • Yanni Gacopoulos, doctoral student
  • Katrina Monton, doctoral student
  • Yael Silverstein, doctoral student

Workgroup Members Continuing Work on Projects and Papers:

  • Angelica Leon, doctoral student
  • Julian McNeil, doctoral student
  • Jean Sohn, doctoral student
  • Lea Lynn Yen, doctoral student

Current Research:

  • Understanding reactions of Jewish-Americans to antisemitic microaggressions in the workplace
  • The influence of leader vulnerability in reducing the experience of stereotype threat for women in STEM fields
  • The influence of Masculinity Contest Cultures on individual well-being
  • Exploring the outcomes of participating in Employee Resource Groups
  • Making meaning of gendered cues in STEM fields in academic settings

Past Research:

  • Understanding reactions of Asian Americans to racial microaggressions in the workplace
  • Differences in letters of recommendations in STEM fields as a manifestation of gender bias
  • Working in stereotype threatening contexts: The case of women STEM faculty at a top tier research university
  • Does a pre-existing relationship buffer female managers from the negative consequences of anger expression in the workplace?
  • Assessing stereotypes of Black and White managers: A diagnostic ratio approach
  • Diversity trainer preconceptions: The Effects of trainer race and gender on perceptions of diversity trainer effectiveness

Representative Publications:

  • Kim, J., Kim, R. & Block, C.J. (2024).  Silence is not always golden: Exploring the impact of leader intervention against racial microaggressions against Asian Americans. American Behavioral Scientist. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241237753
  • Nguyen, D., Block, C.J., Kim, J. (2024). General and stereotype-based microaggressions experienced by Asians and Asian Americans in the workplace: A qualitative study. American Behavioral Scientist. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241232760
  • Block, C.J., Gupta, A. & Li, A. (2022).  Can a relationship buffer women leaders against the negative consequences of anger expression? Journal of Vocational Behavior, 133, 103665,  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2021.103665
  • Kim, J., Brockner J. & Block, C.J. (2022).  Congruence between self-affirmation and self-construal eliminates the MBA gender performance gap.  Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 169, 104118, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2022.104118
  • Kim, J., Block, C.J. & Yu, E. (2021).  Debunking the ‘model minority’ myth: How positive attitudes toward Asians influence perceptions of racial microaggressions.  Journal of Vocational Behavior, 13, 103648, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2021.103648 
  • Perry, E.L., Block, C.J. & Noumair, D.A. (2021).  Leading in: Inclusive leadership, inclusive climates and sexual harassment.  Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, 40, 430-447
  • Block, C.J., Cruz, M., Bairley, M, Harel-Marian, T. & Roberson, L (2019).  Inside the prism of an invisible threat: Shining a light on the hidden work of contending with systemic stereotype threat in STEM fields.  Journal of Vocational Behavior, 113, 33-50.

Representative Conference Presentations:

  • Yu, H., Block, C. J. (2024). An Examination of Prescriptive Stereotypes of East Asians and Whites. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, Chicago, IL.
  • Monton, K. & Block, C.J. (2024). The Costs of the Win-at-all-Cost Culture in High Performance Sport.  Academy of Management Conference, Chicago, IL.
  • Sohn, J., Block, C.J. & Mendelsohn, D. (2023). Diversity in words, diversity in deeds.  Academy of Management Conference, Boston, MA.
  • Yen, L.,  Block, C.J. & Brockner, J. (2023).  Masculine Identity Threat: Effects on Ideological Beliefs and Inclusive Policy Support. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, Boston, MA.
  • Monton, K., Yen, L. & Block, C.J. (2023).  No Pain, No Gain?: Masculinity Contest Cultures in Elite Sport Organizations.  Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, Boston, MA. 
  • Li, A. & Block, C.J. (2020).  The influence of leaders sharing struggles on reducing stereotype threat, conveying a growth mindset and creating psychological safety for women in STEM. Academy of Management Conference, Vancouver, B.C. (presented virtually).

Information for interested applicants:

Please contact Dr. Block at cjb17@tc.columbia.edu.

Topics of Interest:

What determines whether conflict will move in a destructive or constructive direction?

This is the overarching question that has driven decades of research at the MD-ICCCR. While the answers to such questions are complex, we seek to identify the most fundamental factors that lead to qualitative differences in dynamics of conflict and peace. This research has spawned new insights and new research questions, including:

  • How can we use the insights from Dynamical Systems Theory (DST)—a branch of applied mathematics—to enhance our understanding of conflict processes across time, and within complex individual, social, situational, and systemic contexts?
  • How do the meta-competencies of Conflict Intelligence (CIQ) and Systemic Wisdom(SW) enable us to effectively navigate different kinds of conflict dynamics—including conflicts with different levels of complexity, intensity, and resistance to change—within complex social systems?
  • How do fundamental differences in goals, power, and relationship importance between disputants affect conflict dynamics within formal and informal negotiations, and how can they be navigated adaptively and constructively?
  • What are the most basic challenges to effective mediation and how do mediators most effectively adapt and respond to them as they ebb and flow in conflict situations?
  • Which cross-cultural differences have the greatest impact on how people handle conflict situations, and how can we most effectively adapt our conflict strategies when navigating these differences?
  • How do disputants and third parties navigate contrasting motives and constraints in conflicts optimally and in a manner that leads to more constructive dynamics?
  • What determines whether conflicts over injustice and oppression move in a constructive or destructive direction, and what factors are most impactful in mitigating polarization of political discourse and action?
  • How do multicultural differences between disputants affect conflict dynamics and how can the energy from such conflicts be leveraged constructively to facilitate institutional justice and reform and multicultural harmony and unity?
  • Why do some types of conflicts come to seem intractable and impossible to resolve and what can we do to alter their dynamics qualitatively?
  • What are the core dynamics of sustainably peaceful communities and what are the primary factors that increase the probabilities of sustaining peace?

 Current Workgroup Members:

  • Peter Coleman, Ph.D.
  • Lan Phan, doctoral student
  • Nicole M. Borunda, doctoral student
  • Arisa Viddayakorn, doctoral student
  • Mike Friedman, doctoral student
  • Diego Ramos Ochoa, doctoral student
  • Pedro Franco, doctoral student
  • Vivian Ojo, doctoral student
  • Isadora Costa Caldas, Associate Director MD-ICCCR

Current Research Projects:

  • Conflict Intelligence and Systemic Wisdom
  • Adaptive Negotiation
  • Adaptive Mediation
  • Cross-Cultural Adaptivity and Conflict
  • Navigating Political Polarization
  • Constructive Multicultural Organizational Development
  • Intractable Conflict Dynamics
  • Sustainable Peace
  • Dynamical Systems Theory

Current Applied Projects:

Past Research & Applied Projects

  • Situated Model of Conflict in Social Relations
  • Implicit Power Theories and Empowerment
  • Conflict, Culture and Complexity Lab Studies
  • Dynamical Measure of Individualism-Collectivism
  • Adaptive Negotiation: Navigating Power and Conflict
  • Adaptive Mediation in Dynamic Systems
  • Situated Model of Mediation in Social Conflict
  • Multilevel Assessment – 5 Percent Framework
  • Cooperation, Competition and Mixed-Motive Dynamics in Conflict
  • Collaboration with the United Nations Mediation Support Unit (MSU)

Representative Publications:

Selected Books

Selected Articles

  • Coleman. P. T. (2024). Navigating firestorms: The imperative of Conflict-Intelligent Leadership in a turbulent world. Negotiation Journal.
  • Coleman. P. T. & Phan L. H. (2024). What motivates bridge building across pernicious group divides? The effects of regulatory motives, framing, and fit on increasing constructive engagement across political and racial divisions. Front. Soc. Psychol. 2:1352284. doi: 10.3389/frsps.2024.1352284
  • Liebovitch LS, Powers W, Shi L, Chen-Carrel A, Loustaunau P, Coleman PT (2023) Word differences in news media of lower and higher peace countries revealed by natural language processing and machine learning. PLoS ONE 18(11): e0292604. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0292604
  • Phan, L. H. & Coleman, P. T. (2023). Where is the expertise? Investigating the drivers of top-down versus bottom-up approaches to cross-cultural conflict resolution training. International Journal of Conflict Management. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJCMA-03-2023-0059/full/html?skipTracking=true
  • Coleman, P. T., & Chan, A. (2023). Conflict + Anxiety = Turmoil! Introducing a Measure of Conflict Response Derailers. Negotiation Journal. https://doi.org/10.1111/nejo.12427 
  • Aumeerally, N., Chen-Carrel, A. & Coleman, P. T. (2022). Learning with Peaceful, Heterogenous Communities: Lessons on Sustaining Peace in Mauritius. Peace and Conflict Studies. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1806&context=pcs
  • Fry, D. P., Souillac, G., Liebovitch, L. S., Coleman, P. T., Agan, K., Nicholson-Cox, E., Mason, D., Gomez, F. P., Strauss, S. (2021). Societies within peace systems avoid war and build positive intergroup relationships. Humanities and Behavioral Sciences Communications 8, 17. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-00692-8 .
  • Coleman, P.T., Fisher, J., Fry, D.P., Liebovitch, L. Chen-Carrel, A., Souillac, G. (2021). How to Live in Peace? Mapping the Science of Sustaining Peace: A Progress Report. American Psychologist.
  • Kim, R., Coleman, P. T., & Kugler, K. (2020). Is Conflict Adaptivity Better than Cooperation? The Effects of Adaptive Conflict Behaviors on Job-Related Well-Being in South Korea. Conflict Resolution Quarterly.
  • Kugler, K. and Coleman, P. T. (2020). Get Complicated: The Effects of Complexity on Conversations over Potentially Intractable Moral Conflicts. Negotiation and Conflict Management Research. 10.1111/ncmr.12192.

Information for interested applicants:

For further information, visit us at http://icccr.tc.columbia.edu/

If you have additional questions, please contact Isadora Costa Caldas at ic2534@tc.columbia.edu.

 

Topics of Interest

  • Authenticity and conformity in the workplace
  • Employee responses to diversity climates
  • Leadership
  • Gender and Race-based Identity management
  • Person-Organization Fit and Value Misalignment

Current Workgroup Members

  • Patricia Faison Hewlin, Ph.D.
  • Amanda Frazer, doctoral student
  • Natanya Trazenfel, doctoral student

Representative Publications

  • Cha, S. E., Hewlin, P. F., & Roberts, L. M. (Forthcoming 2024). Fostering True Self-Expression in Organizations: A Metaphor-based Framework of Leader Authenticity Tensions. In A. Tuncdogan, O. A. Acar, H. Volberda and K. Ruyter (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Individual Differences in Organizational Contexts. Oxford University Publications. 
  • He, G., Liu, P, Zheng, L., Zheng, X., Hewlin, P. F., & Yuan, L. (In Press, 2024). Being proactive in the age of AI: Exploring the effectiveness of leaders’ AI symbolization in stimulating job crafting. Management Decision.
  • Monton, K., Broomes, A. M., Brassard, S., & Hewlin, P. F. (2022). The role of sport-life balance and well-being on athletic performance. Canadian Journal of Career Development, 21: 101-108.
  • Cha, S. E., Kim, S. S., Hewlin, P. F., & DeRue, D. S. (2020). Turning a blind or critical eye to leader value breaches: The role of value congruence in employee perceptions of leader integrity. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 27: 286-306.
  • Huang, W., Wang, D., Pi, X., & Hewlin, P. F. (2020). Does coworkers’ upward mobility affect employees’ turnover intention?: The roles of perceived employability and prior job similarity. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 12: 2442-2472.
  • Hewlin, P. F., Karelaia, N., Kouchaki, M, & Sedikides, C. (2020). Authenticity at work: Its shapes, triggers, and consequences (Guest Editorial). Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 158: 80-82.
  • Cha, S., Hewlin, P. F., Roberts, L. M., Buckman, B., Leroy, H., & Steckler, E.,  Ostermeier, K. & Cooper, D. (2019). Being your true self at work: Integrating the fragmented research on authenticity in organizations. Academy of Management Annals, 13: 633-671.
  • He, G., An, R. & Hewlin, P. F. (2019). Paternalistic leadership and employee well-being: A moderated mediation model. Chinese Management Studies, 3: 645-663.
  • Kim, S. S., Shin, D, Vough, H., Hewlin, P. F., and Vandenberghe, C. (2018).  How do callings relate to job performance? The role of organizational commitment and ideological contract fulfillment. Human Relations, 71: 1319-1347
  • Hewlin, P. F., Dumas, T. L., & Burnett, M. (2017). To thine own self be true?:  Facades of conformity, values congruence, and the magnifying impact of leader integrity. Academy of Management Journal, 1: 178-199.

Representative Presentations

  • Hewlin, Burnett, Kim. “Racial Dissimilarity, Psychological Safety, and the Effect of Vision on Facades.” Presented at the 2024 Academy of Management meeting in Chicago, IL
  • Arnett, R., Lee, Serenity, Richards, K., & Hewlin, P. F. “Navigating the spotlight: A two- dimensional framework of racial and ethnic minority identity management.” Presented at the 2022 Academy of Management meeting in Boston, MA
  • “Inclusive Leadership.” The Mission Continues, Women’s Veterans Leadership Cohort, 2022.
  • “Is diversity climate a part of my deal?: The interactive effect of diversity climate perceptions and  social dominance orientation in predicting psychological contract fulfillment and interpersonal outcomes.” Carroll School of Management, Boston College, 2022. 
  • “Belonging in the Workplace (Part 1 and Part 2).” The Juilliard School, 2022. 
  • “Psychological Safety in Work Teams” lululemon, Leadership Conference, 2022.  
  • Seegars, L., Kim, S., & Hewlin, P. F. “Interpersonal Implications of Psychological Safety and Facades of Conformity Among Social-Dominance-Oriented Employees: A Self-Determination Perspective.” Presented at the 2018 Academy of Management meeting in Chicago, IL

Information for interested candidates:

Please contact Dr. Hewlin at pfh2118@tc.columbia.edu.

Topics of Interest:

  • Executive education and change leadership
  • Closing the research-practice gap via evidence-based change leadership
  • Application of systems psychodynamics to organization development and change
  • Social identity relations and individual, interpersonal, group, organizational, and societal dynamics

Current Workgroup Members:

  • Debra A. Noumair, Ed.D.
  • Leo Marin, doctoral student
  • Diego Tavares Neto, doctoral student

Workgroup Members Continuing Work on Projects and Papers:

  • Abby Johnson, doctoral student
  • Ramya Kumar, doctoral student

Current Research:

  • Culture of Inclusion Evaluation Lead, NSF Smart Streetscapes
  • Change leadership in the world: What difference does it make?
  • Iterating and expanding an organizational development tool (X-Ray Vision) for understanding system psychodynamics in organizations
  • Updating and expanding an iconic change leadership learning tool

Past Research:

  • Development of X-Ray Vision tool
  • Development of an online Group Relations Training course
  • Exploring the systems psychodynamics of virtual teams
  • Creating a learning environment in the virtual environment 
  • Social identity relations and individual, interpersonal, group, organizational, and societal dynamics

Representative Publications:

  • Noumair, D. A. & Jenkins, J. D. (2023). X-Ray vision: a research tool for uncovering system psychodynamics to advance organization change. In Szabla, D. B., Coghlan, D., Pasmore, W. & Kim, J. Y. (Eds), Handbook of Research Methods in Organizational Change, Edgar Elgar Publishing.
  • Kumar, R. & Brazaitis, S.J. (2023). Behind the screen of virtual teamwork: A systems psychodynamic approach to revealing what really makes a virtual teams work, In D. Szabala & M. Gorman (Eds.) Management Consulting in the Era of the Digital Organization. Information Age Publishing.
  • X-Ray Vision at Work: Seeing Inside Organizational Life. Noumair, D.A., Pfaff, D.L., St. John, C.M., Gipson, A.N., & Brazaitis, S.J. (2017). In A.B. (Rami) Shani & D.A. Noumair (Eds.), Research in Organizational Change & Development, Volume 25. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing.
  • von Numers, S., Yearwood, S., & Gipson, A., Brazaitis, S. J., Noumair, D.A., (2018, April). Exploring Privilege and Power, Racism and Sexism among Asian, Black, and White Women: Toward Loosening a Gordian Knot. Paper presented at the 2nd Annual Psychology@TC Conference, New York, NY.
  • Noumair, D.A., Chen-Carrel, A., Johnson, A., von Numers, S., Yearwood, Brazaitis, S.J. (2019, June 28). The development of X-ray vision in change leaders. International Society for the Psychoanalytic Society of Organizations (ISPSO) / Annual Meeting, New York.

Representative Student Qualifying Papers

  • Kumar, R. (2024). A survey-based Systems Psychodynamics approach to examining group processes influencing organizational readiness for change.
  • Mah, E. (2024). The hidden life of teams: Understanding network dynamics and the influence of individual reasoning patterns and group decision deliberations.
  • Sohn, J. (2024). Uncovering hidden barriers to the upward mobility of Asian attorneys: Development and application of a qualitative diagnostic instrument.
  • Johnson, A. S. (2023). Virtual accommodations: Why we need supportive organizational leaders now more than ever.
  • Leon, A. (2023). Applying an evidence-based & Systems Approach for diversity and inclusion in higher education organizations: An organizational psychology program case study.
  • Johnson, A. S. (2022). Expanding interventions for conflict resolution: A study of NASA’s HR Department.
  • St. John, C. M. (2022). X-Ray Vision—A Field Study: Using A Systems Psychodynamic Theoretical Framework to Deepen Understanding and Facilitate Transformational Change
  • Kumar, R. (2021). Behind the screen of virtual teamwork: A Systems Psychodynamic approach to revealing what really makes a virtual team work.
  • Von Numers, S. (2021). Coaching around hidden identities: The dilemma of concealment versus disclosure in the workplace.
  • Yearwood, S. (2020). Overworked and undervalued: The invisible contributions of Black women at work.
  • Chen-Carrel, A. (2020). Working towards an online learning community: Experiences from piloting an online group relations consulting course.
  • Gipson, A. (2019). The learning cycle applied: A university-sponsored group relations consultancy program.

Information for interested applicants:

Please contact Dr. Noumair at dn28@tc.columbia.edu.

Topics of Interest:

  • Organizational change
  • Responsibility taking behavior
  • Artificial intelligence and organizational effectiveness

Current Workgroup Members:

  • William Pasmore, Ph.D.
  • Nilima Ajaikumar, doctoral student
  • Elizabeth Hyde, doctoral student

Workgroup Members Continuing Work on Projects and Papers:

  • Gian Zlupko, doctoral student
  • Adam Parr, Ph.D. doctoral student

Current Research:

  • Validating an assessment tool for responsibility taking behavior
  • Developing a maturity model for AI adoption by organizations

Past Research:

  • Change Leader Behavior Inventory development

Representative Publications/Presentations:

  • Zlupko, G., Ajaikumar, N. and Pasmore, W. (2023) Responsibility taking behavior: Validation of a measure.  Academy of Management, Chicago.
  • Ajaikumar, N., Zlupko, G., Bates, A., Woodruff, T., and Pasmore, W. (2024). Responsibility seeking behavior and the future of work.  Under review.
  • Stilwell, R., Pasmore, W. and Shon, D. (2016).  Change Leader Behavior Inventory: Development and validation of an assessment instrument. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 52(4), 373-395.

Representative Student Qualifying Papers:

  • Ajaikumar, N. (2024). Navigating the Future of Work: The Influence of Responsibility-Seeking Behavior on Employee Job Performance
  • Ajaikumar, N. (2024). X The Double Standards for Women at Work: Exploring  Gender as a Moderator in the Relationship between Responsibility-Seeking Behavior and Job Performance
  • Zlupko, G. (2024) AI is Taking My Job; Or Is It? Understanding and mitigating job insecurity in the age of artificial intelligence

Information for Interested Applicants:

Please contact Dr. Pasmore at pasmore@tc.columbia.edu

 

Topics of Interest:

This workgroup primarily but not exclusively focuses on issues of demographic diversity, discrimination, and inclusion in organizations.  Emphasis is placed on using a variety of theoretical (e.g., social cognitive, legal, relational and organizational demography, person-environment fit) and methodological (lab experiments, surveys, archival data) approaches to conduct research that helps us understand the role that a variety of demographic characteristics (e.g., age, sex, generational membership, disability) play in the workplace.  The implications of demographic diversity for decision making (e.g., selection, promotion) and organizational behaviors (e.g., communication, turnover) are explored.  Attention is given to the role of individual, group, and organizational factors in understanding issues of demographic diversity, discrimination, and inclusion.

Current Workgroup Members:

  • Elissa Perry, Ph.D.
  • Yael Silverstein, doctoral student
  • Zoe Troxell-Whitman, doctoral student

Current Projects:

Inclusive Leadership and Disability Disclosure

This workgroup has conducted research to better understand the causes and consequences of inclusive leadership.  Projects have explored antecedents to and outcomes of inclusive leadership, whether an inclusive leadership style is gendered, and the role that inclusive leadership might play in sexual harassment in the workplace. Other projects have focused on developing an evidence-based measure of inclusive leadership. A more recent focus is on the role of inclusive leadership in employees’ decisions to disclose their disability at work.  

Stereotypes and Stereotype Violation

This workgroup has explored the content of generational stereotypes and the implications of decision makers’ use of age compared to generational stereotypes.  We are currently exploring promotion related decisions about women compared to men who exhibit varying levels of ambition. Women who display agentic traits such as ambition, in order to show that they have what it takes for leadership roles, may violate gender stereotypes and experience backlash. To date, little stereotype violation research has examined the role that ambition plays and the research that has been done has found inconsistent results

A.C.T: A Practical Guide for Making More Evidence-Based Decisions at Work

The faculty member is working on a book that provides an easy to understand and implement approach that can help employees make work-related decisions more easily and with outcomes that have a higher probability of success. The approach can be remembered using the mnemonic A.C.T.  (A = Ask questions; C = Collect information, T = Think critically).  A.C.T is an approach designed to help employees take a more evidence-based approach to making work-related decisions and implementing work practices. An evidence-based approach is a deliberate approach to decision-making that can be taught and used by any employee, manager or business owner.  This evidence-based approach provides decision makers with a way to help them manage decision fatigue and paralysis, increase their confidence in their decision making, the transparency of their decision-making process, and ultimately improve the probability of making better decisions. Workgroup members contribute to this project in various ways including conducting targeted literature reviews, and arranging and coding interviews.

Representative Publications/Conference Papers:

  • Leon, A. & Perry, E.L. (2024, April).  Is Inclusive Leadership a Gendered Leadership Style?, Society of Industrial Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, Chicago, IL.
  • Perry, E.L. (2024).  The choice and evaluation of sexual harassment interventions in institutions of higher education.  Educational Policy, 38(1), 104-133.  https://doi.org/10.1177/08959048221142051
  • Shon, D.A., Perry, E.L., Elmore, J., & Mendelsohn, D.B. (2023).  Representation matters: Review and examination of demographic matching effects on organizational outcomes.  Journal of Business and Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-023-09913-8
  • Perry, E.L., Kulik, C.T., Mendelsohn, D.B., & Shon, D.A. (2022).  Faculty gender diversity, institutional performance and the role of diversity climate.  Research in Higher Education, 62, 1204-1236. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-022-09688-6
  • Perry, E.L., Block, C.J., & Noumair, D.A.  (2021).  Leading in: Inclusive leadership, inclusive climates and sexual harassment.  Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, 40(4), 430-447. https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-04-2019-0120
  • Li, A., & Perry, E.L. (2020, April).  The Inclusive Leadership Questionnaire – Development of a Theory-Based Measure, Society of Industrial Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, Austin, TX.
  • Weiss, D., & Perry, E. L. (2020). Implications of generational and age metastereotypes for older adults at work: The role of agency, stereotype threat, and job search self-efficacy. Work, Aging and Retirement, 6(1), 15-27. https://doi.org/10.1093/workar/waz010

Information for Interested Applicants:

Please email Dr. Perry at ep248@tc.columbia.edu.

Topics of Interest:

Dynamic Network Theory, Decision Science, and Social Network Analysis

The goal of the work in our Dynamic Network Lab is to use social network, motivation, and decision science to predict, understand, and positively intervene in complex individual, social, and organizational systems.  The lab combines social network analysis, motivation, and decision-making approaches to more fully explain how social networks wield their power on important targets: goals, important decisions, specific behaviors, performance, climates, and system well-being.  Largely grounded in dynamic network theory (DNT), network goal analysis (NGA) aims to portray these system dynamics at individual, group, organizational, or international levels, including those with conflict. NGA can also be used with other theoretical approaches, not just DNT, whenever social networks and goals (or target behaviors) are the focus.  In contrast, we also use behavioral reasoning theory (BRT) to examine how people's reasoning and counter-argument processes within the network help trigger motivated goal striving and behavior at the individual levels. Utilizing both DNT and BRT together is presumed to provide a richer, yet highly operational understanding of system behavior with direct implications for strategic change to improve system functioning.  Individuals have used the Lab to model the in-person networks involved in their pursuits to get jobs, start businesses, lose weight, run marathons, quit tobacco, and improve social and organizational systems, among many others.  Our work also examines how to model important decision making in groups as well as how groups are working effectively (or not) in pursuit of their important goals.  

Please see our Dynamic Network Lab’s website for much more information: www.tc.columbia.edu/dnl or www.DynamicNetworkLab.Org 

Current Workgroup Members:

  • Jim Westaby, Ph.D. 
  • Prachi Pathak, doctoral student
  • Jonathan Williams, doctoral student

Workgroup Members Continuing Work on Projects and Papers:

  • Elisabeth Mah, doctoral student
  • Gian Zlupko, doctoral student
  • Adam Parr, doctoral student
  • Nick Rosemarino, doctoral student

Current Research Projects:

  • Network goal analysis and behavioral change:  Applying dynamic network theory
  • The complex modeling of social networks involved in human goal striving
  • Personality and the dynamic networks involved in organizational performance
  • Demographic diversity on attitudes and motivations in dynamic network systems
  • Network goal analysis of teams: An application of dynamic network theory
  • Dynamic network intelligence among individuals and groups
  • Is being central in social networks a good thing? It depends on the role in dynamic network theory
  • The network dynamics of unethical behavior: A case analysis
  • Case study analysis of international conflict: Using network goal analysis to examine international conflict

Representative Publications:

  • Wang, Stark, Westaby, Parr, & Newman (In press). Social Network Analysis in Psychology: Recent Breakthroughs in Methods and Theories. APA Handbook of Research Methods in Psychology. American Psychological Association.
  • Westaby, J. D., Pfaff, D. L., & Redding, N. (2014). Psychology and social networks: A dynamic network theory perspective. American Psychologist, 69, 269-284.
  • Westaby, J. D., & Parr, A. K. (2020). The network goal analysis of social and organizational systems: Testing dynamic network theory in complex social networks.  Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 56(1), 107-129.
  • Westaby, J. D. (2012).  Dynamic network theory: How social networks influence goal pursuit. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
  • Westaby, J. D., & Shon, D. (2017).  Simulating the Social Networks in Human Goal Striving.  In R. R. Vallacher, S. J., Read, & A. Nowak (Eds.), Computational models in social psychology (1st ed.). pp. 231-257.  New York, NY: Psychology Press (Frontiers of Psychology series).
  • Westaby, J. D., & Echtenkamp, A. (2017). Humor and Organizational Networks: Functions and Dysfunctions.  In C. Robert (Ed.), Humor in the workplace (1st ed.). pp. 45-59.  Routledge.
  • Westaby, J. D., & Redding, N. (2014). Social networks, social media, and conflict resolution. In P.T. Coleman, M. Deutsch, & E.C. Marcus (Eds.), The handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and practice (3rd ed.). pp. 998-1022. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
  • Westaby, J. D. (2005). Behavioral reasoning theory: Identifying new linkages underlying intentions and behavior.  Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 98, 97-120.
  • Westaby, J. D., Probst, T. M., & Lee, B. C. (2010).  Leadership decision-making: A behavioral reasoning theory analysis. Leadership Quarterly, 21, 481-495.
  • Wagner, M., & Westaby, J. D. (in press).  Changing pay systems in organizations:  Using behavioral reasoning theory to understand employee support for pay-for-performance (or Not). Journal of Applied Behavioral Science.
  • Westaby, J. D., Versenyi, A., & Hausmann, R. C. (2005).  Intentions to work during terminal illness: An exploratory study of antecedent conditions.  Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 1027-1035.
  • Westaby, J. D., & Lowe, J. K. (2005).  Risk taking orientation and injury among youth workers: Examining the social influence of supervisors, coworkers, and parents.  Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 1297-1305. 

Contact Us

Box: 6

Teachers College, Columbia University
Room 222 Zankel

Contact Person: Ometria Seebarran

Phone: (212) 678-8109

Email: oks2107@tc.columbia.edu

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