Lakshmi Ramarajan

Lakshmi Ramarajan

Diane Doerge Wilson Professor of Business Administration

Diane Doerge Wilson Professor of Business Administration

Organizational Behavior
+1 (617) 496-2844
 
Lakshmi Ramarajan
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(617) 496-2844
Featured Work Publications Research Summary Awards & Honors
Overview
How do people manage their professional identity alongside other identities traditionally considered outside the domain of work, such as identities stemming from their family roles, personal values, race, class, gender, and nationality? Professor Ramarajan’s research examines this critical question, and the consequences for individuals and organizations.
Managing Multiple Identities at Work
Peoples’ work identities, which are often a deep source of meaning for them, may conflict with or complement cultural, familial, or personal identities they value. A central focus of Professor Ramarajan’s work is understanding, on the individual level, how these conflicts and complementarities influence the way people engage with their work roles, relate to co-workers and clients, and ultimately perform in their jobs. Additionally, her research investigates how organizational, occupational, and societal norms about identity expression and disparities such as gender, racial, or economic inequality shape employees’ identities at work, with the goal of helping organizations harness their employees’ multiple identities to improve employees’ effectiveness in their work roles. She has found that conflict among identities harms, while enhancement among identities helps, intrinsic motivation, perspective taking, work performance and prosocial behavior. In her recent work she has examined the challenges of integrating -- personal and professional identities when connecting as friends with colleagues online; race and class identities as authority figures in demographically diverse educational organizations; prosocial and professional identities in contexts that face commercial pressures such as architecture and journalism; and gender and national identities among leaders in global organizations. Overall, Professor Ramarajan’s research finds that when people can leverage and embrace their multiple identities, and when their organizations support them in doing so, they can improve their individual well-being, find more meaningful work and relationships, and engage in their work in more innovative ways that can spark organizational and social change.

Professor Ramarajan is the Diane Doerge Wilson Professor of Business Administration in the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School. Her research examines the management and consequences of identities in organizations.

She teaches the second-year MBA course, Power and Influence, as well as the PhD seminar on Micro-topics in Organizational Behavior. She also teaches in various executive education programs. She previously taught the second-year MBA course, Authentic Leader Development and the first-year MBA course in Leadership and Organizational Behavior (LEAD).

Profesor Ramarjan's research examines how people can work fruitfully across social divides, with a particular emphasis on identities and group boundaries. Her research addresses two broad questions: 1) How does the work environment shape people’s experiences as members of particular groups and of their multiple identities? 2)  What are the consequences of multiple identities and group differences in organizations? She investigates professional and work identities alongside other identities that are important to people, such as ethnicity, community and family. She examines consequences such as employee engagement and commitment to work, career success and satisfaction, quality of interpersonal and intergroup relations, and performance. In recent work, using experiments, surveys and interviews, she has examined how individuals’ manage their organizational, cultural and personal identities, and how these identities interact to influence engagement and performance.  Professor Ramarajan's research has been published in journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, the Academy of Management Annals, and the Academy of Management Review, among others.

Professor Ramarajan earned her B.A. (Honors) in International Relations from Wellesley College, her M.Sc. in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and her PhD in Management from The Wharton School of Business. She was awarded the State Farm Foundation Dissertation Proposal Award in 2008. She was a Post Doctoral Fellow at Harvard Business School from 2008 to 2010. 

Prior to her academic career, Professor Ramarajan worked in international development, managing conflict resolution programs in West Africa with a focus on gender and workforce development. She was also a professional dancer for several years.

Featured Work
Journal Articles
Book Chapters
Working Papers
  • Seegars, Lumumba, Erin M. Reid, Lakshmi Ramarajan, and S. Lee. "What Am I Worth? Wage Security and the (In)secure Self." Working Paper, 2021. (Manuscript in preparation.) View Details
  • Ramarajan, Lakshmi, Kathleen McGinn, and Deborah Kolb. "An Outside-Inside Evolution in Gender and Professional Work." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 13-051, November 2012. (Work in progress for requested submission, Research in Organizational Behavior.) View Details
Cases and Teaching Materials
Other Publications and Materials
Research Summary
Overview
How do people manage their professional identity alongside other identities traditionally considered outside the domain of work, such as identities stemming from their family roles, personal values, race, class, gender, and nationality? Professor Ramarajan’s research examines this critical question, and the consequences for individuals and organizations.
Managing Multiple Identities at Work
Peoples’ work identities, which are often a deep source of meaning for them, may conflict with or complement cultural, familial, or personal identities they value. A central focus of Professor Ramarajan’s work is understanding, on the individual level, how these conflicts and complementarities influence the way people engage with their work roles, relate to co-workers and clients, and ultimately perform in their jobs. Additionally, her research investigates how organizational, occupational, and societal norms about identity expression and disparities such as gender, racial, or economic inequality shape employees’ identities at work, with the goal of helping organizations harness their employees’ multiple identities to improve employees’ effectiveness in their work roles. She has found that conflict among identities harms, while enhancement among identities helps, intrinsic motivation, perspective taking, work performance and prosocial behavior. In her recent work she has examined the challenges of integrating -- personal and professional identities when connecting as friends with colleagues online; race and class identities as authority figures in demographically diverse educational organizations; prosocial and professional identities in contexts that face commercial pressures such as architecture and journalism; and gender and national identities among leaders in global organizations. Overall, Professor Ramarajan’s research finds that when people can leverage and embrace their multiple identities, and when their organizations support them in doing so, they can improve their individual well-being, find more meaningful work and relationships, and engage in their work in more innovative ways that can spark organizational and social change.
Awards & Honors
Winner of the 2021 Wyss Award for Excellence in Doctoral Mentoring.
Finalist for 2021 Best Article in Academy of Management Journal for “Relational Reconciliation: Socializing Others Across Demographic Differences” (April 2020) with Erin Reid.
Junior Faculty Runner-up for the 2020 Wyss Award for Excellence in Doctoral Mentoring.
Recipient of a 2019 Hellman Faculty Fellowship.
Junior Faculty Runner-up for the 2017 Wyss Award for Excellence in Doctoral Mentoring.
Winner of the First Annual African American Student Union (AASU) Case Award in 2016 for "Carla Ann Harris at Morgan Stanley" (HBS Case No. 415-029) with Alex Radu, taught in the HBS Second-year Elective Curriculum.
Recipient of a 2008 State Farm Doctoral Dissertation Award for “Who Am I? The Influence of Multiple Intrapersonal Identities on Interpersonal Problem Solving.”
Recipient of a 1998 American Friends of the London School of Economics (LSE) Graduate Scholarship Award.
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