Laura Sonday

Laura Sonday studies the meaning of work, leadership, and identity in organizations. Her research examines how people make sense of who they are, who they aspire to become, and what work should mean in their lives.

She teaches the undergraduate core course “Leading and Managing,” which prepares students to become more effective leaders and teammates in their careers. As part of the course, students complete 50 Lives Forward, an experiential learning project she designed in which teams apply course concepts to advance a sustainable development goal.

Dr. Sonday primarily uses ethnographic and interview-based methods to uncover the sensemaking processes through which people interpret their work lives and identities. In recent research, she conducted a two-year ethnographic study of the Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) community to theorize how people adopt and enact a new “work optional” ideal. She examines how people come to question dominant assumptions about work, imagine alternative futures, and enact changes in their working lives.

In related research, Dr. Sonday has examined the cultural pressure to “do what you love” and its implications for economic mobility and career decision-making. She also studies leader identity development, including the fears that keep people from seeing themselves as leaders as well as how people reconcile their ideals as leaders with the pragmatic demands of the role.

Her research appears in the Academy of Management Journal, the Academy of Management Review and Administrative Science Quarterly.

Dr. Sonday’s interest in organizational behavior is shaped by her professional experiences in nonprofit, corporate and community advocacy 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 fast-growing, high-potential clients. She also co-led an advocacy organization in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that supported immigrants in crisis. These experiences inform her commitment to understanding how people behave within organizations and how organizations interface with broader society.

In 2026, students nominated and selected Dr. Sonday to receive a Student Undergraduate Teaching Award. The University award recognizes “demonstrated and consistent teaching excellence, success in positively affecting a broad spectrum of students both in and outside the classroom, and creation of a dynamic learning environment.”

Dr. Sonday earned her PhD in Management and Organizations and her BBA with high distinction from the University of Michigan.