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Bushra is a doctoral student in Organizational Behavior at Harvard Business School. Her research interests include trust, morality, social identity and mentorship/advising. She received an A.B. in Psychology from Harvard College in 2017. Previously, she worked as a... View Details

2014
Working Paper

Eclipsed and Confounded Identities: When High-Status Affiliations Impede Organizational Growth

By: Daniel Malter

I propose that an organization's growth potential may suffer if its identity is eclipsed by or confounded with the organizations with which it collaborates and competes. Using status as a salient feature of identity, I devise two network measures to capture the degree... View Details

Keywords: Distinctiveness; Status; Networks; Resource Acquisition; Growth; Venture Capital; Status and Position; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Identity; Growth and Development Strategy

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14 May 2019
HBS Seminar

Patti Williams, Wharton, University of Pennsylvania

2010
Chapter

Identity-Based Leader Development

By: Scott Snook, Herminia Ibarra and Laura Ramo

Despite the wealth of managerial and scholarly attention paid to leadership development, only recently has a new perspective emerged that explicitly links leadership and identity. Research and theorizing on leadership development have yet to specify the processes that... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Development; Identity; Transition; Transformation; Perspective; Managerial Roles; Business Processes; Personal Development and Career

2022
Other Teaching and Training Material

Organizational Behavior Reading: Managing Differences

By: Robin Ely and Colleen Ammerman

This reading provides principles and practices managers can draw upon to leverage differences in social identities - such as gender and race - to create more effective work relationships, teams, and organizations. The Essential Reading's first section draws upon... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Groups and Teams; Prejudice and Bias; Identity; Management Practices and Processes

30 Sep 2019
News

Retirement planning must go beyond finances

2011
Chapter

Changing Identity, Changing Language

By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Jeffrey T. Polzer

Environmental jolts and shifting membership challenge a group's efficacy and survival. Group identity is critical for a shared interpretation of and response to these challenges, but external and internal changes may require corresponding changes in a group's... View Details

Keywords: Change; Spoken Communication; Performance Efficiency; Problems and Challenges; Safety; Identity; California

2009
Chapter

Collaboration Across Knowledge Boundaries within Diverse Teams: Reciprocal Expertise Affirmation as an Enabling Condition

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Kate Roloff and Lucy H. MacPhail

We review research on expertise diversity, psychological safety, team collaboration, and role identity to propose a model in which reciprocal affirmations of expertise identity among team members—a feature of the team environment that we conceptualize as a dimension of... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Experience and Expertise; Learning; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Groups and Teams; Familiarity; Identity; Cooperation

27 May 2025
Blog Post

Alumni Career Video | Elenor Mak (MBA 2007)

try { var kalturaPlayer = KalturaPlayer.setup({ targetId: "kaltura_player_903895386", provider: { partnerId: 1423662, uiConfId: 56210002 } }); kalturaPlayer.loadMedia({entryId: '1_qrk6ix29'}); } catch (e) { console.error(e.message) } Elenor Mak (MBA 2007) shares how an... View Details

2012
Chapter

When Identities, Interests, and Information Collide: How Subgroups Create Hidden Profiles in Teams

By: Jeffrey T. Polzer, Lisa Kwan and Lisa B. Kwan

Purpose—We review how team members' identities and interests affect team functioning, paying special attention to subgroup dynamics triggered by fault lines and coalitions. This review sets the stage for describing novel pathways through which identities and... View Details

Keywords: Information; Conflict of Interests; Interests; Groups and Teams; Identity; Performance

Research Summary

Dissertation topic: The invisible hand and the good of communities: How institutional logics matter in local banks

How do individuals’ backgrounds and identities influence the strategies and success of newly founded ventures? In my dissertation, I explore the impact on local bank startups of their founders’ community and financial identities. Those identities have... View Details

Laura V. Jakli

Laura Jakli is an Assistant Professor in the Business, Government, and the International Economy Unit at Harvard Business School.

Her primary expertise is in comparative politics and examines how information communication technologies shape political... View Details

Summer 2011
Article

Context, Agency, and Identity: The Indian Fashion Industry and Traditional Indian Crafts

By: Mukti Khaire

Identity is an important resource for firms, since it is a critical precursor of an important strategic resource-legitimacy. However, identities of new firms in new industries are typically inchoate, since they cannot be classified within pre-existing cognitive... View Details

Keywords: History; Decision Making; Identity; Entrepreneurship; Outcome or Result; Fashion Industry; France; Italy; United Kingdom; India

Liz is a doctoral student in the Organizational Behavior program at Harvard Business School. She is broadly interested in studying identity, inequality, and well-being, particularly how intersectional identities shape workplace experiences.

Prior to... View Details

Research Summary

Overview

His research interests lie in phenomena pertaining to the status and identity of organizations and individuals in markets. View Details

September 2011
Article

Taking Gender into Account: Theory and Design for Women's Leadership Development Programs

By: Robin J. Ely, Herminia Ibarra and Deborah Kolb

We conceptualize leadership development as identity work and show how subtle forms of gender bias in the culture and in organizations interfere with the identity work of women leaders. Based on this insight, we revisit traditional approaches to standard leadership... View Details

Keywords: Programs; Prejudice and Bias; Leadership Development; Identity; Organizational Culture; Gender

March 2008 (Revised April 2009)
Supplement

Citigroup: Re-Branding in 2007 (B)

By: Rohit Deshpandé and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Follow-up to "Citigroup: Re-Branding in 2007" (A), describing the development of a new brand identity for Citigroup. View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Financial Services Industry