Laura Sonday
Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior
Contact
CB 3490 Chapel Hill, NC 27599
Laura Sonday studies the meaning of work and leadership within organizations, with a focus on how people make sense of their identities and aspirations.
She primarily uses ethnographic and interview methods to uncover sensemaking processes. Her recent research includes a two-year longitudinal ethnography of the “Financial Independence, Retire Early” (FIRE) community, which she used as the basis for theorizing how people construct and enact a new “work optional” ideal.
In related research, she has explored the cultural pressure to “do what you love” and its implications for economic mobility and career decision-making. She has also examined the psychodynamics of leader identity, investigating the factors that shape whether people come to see themselves as leaders.
Her research appears in The Academy of Management Journal and The Academy of Management Review.
Dr. Sonday’s interest in organizational behavior is shaped by her professional experiences in both nonprofit and corporate settings. She began her career at an economic development nonprofit focused on alleviating poverty through education, food and housing programs.
She later worked at Google in San Francisco and Santiago, Chile, where she served as an account strategist for several of the company’s fastest-growing, high-potential clients.
Beyond her industry experiences, Dr. Sonday co-led an advocacy team for several years in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that provided support to community members in crisis. These experiences inform Dr. Sonday’s commitment to understanding how people behave within organizations and how organizations interface with broader society.
She earned her PhD in management and organizations and her BBA with high distinction from the University of Michigan.
