Min Young Lee

Min Young Lee takes an interdisciplinary, multi-method approach to understanding how workplace experiences shape individuals’ self-perceptions and how these internal shifts influence their subsequent motivation, engagement and behavior at work.

Her research centers on two interconnected streams:

• Self-diminishment, in which individuals internalize marginalizing experiences and come to overestimate their limitations and undervalue their contributions.
• Self-empowerment, in which individuals internalize affirming experiences and develop a strengthened sense of agency and capability, sometimes accompanied by reduced sensitivity to context and feedback.

Her recent work explores how subtle social dynamics within organizations can leave employees feeling diminished, along with the psychological and behavioral consequences of such experiences. Adopting a nuanced view of workplace interactions, she investigates how individuals internalize social cues in ways that shape the self, with implications for both adaptive and maladaptive (or counternormative) outcomes.

These insights inform her teaching in organizational behavior, where she encourages students to critically examine the psychological undercurrents of work. Dr. Lee has previously taught organizational behavior at the Georgia Institute of Technology and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In addition to her research and teaching, Dr. Lee manages the Center for Decision Research at UNC Kenan-Flagler, which supports empirical and qualitative research on individual, team and organizational dynamics and provides students with opportunities to engage in the management research process.

She received her PhD in management from the Scheller College of Business at Georgia Institute of Technology, her MA in developmental psychology from Columbia University and her BA in psychology and sociology from Emory University.