Skip to content Skip to Programs Navigation

Organizational Behavior

Our organizational behavior faculty are innovative educators and researchers who are dedicated to our students and developing thought leadership about individual and group behavior in organizations. We teach courses in leading and managing, negotiations, ethics, managing teams, creativity, power and politics, resilience, cross-cultural management, and decision making.

Our research interest include:

  • Leadership
  • Diversity
  • Ethical behavior
  • Emotions
  • Fairness and voice
  • Gender equity
  • Team dynamics
  • Meaning of work
  • Cross-cultural management
  • Creativity
  • Employee well being
  • Power and influence

Our faculty members: View our OB faculty members’ bios here.

Our PhD Program: Our PhD Program in Organizational Behavior prepares doctoral students to conduct high-impact research on a broad range of topics critical to businesses and managers. Our students are passionate, creative and ambitious learners who work to become top-notch educators and researchers. Together, we value collegiality, mentorship and quality research.

Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI): We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment through our research, teaching and service to our community.

  1. DEI task force: Our DEI area task force aims to support and drive change within our department and our University at large (for examples, see links to our statement supporting Nikole Hannah-Jones here and here). Since the founding of this committee in 2020, the focus of our work has been to enhance recruitment, selection and fairness; increase our area’s diversity and feelings of inclusion; provide a safe space to discuss and voice OB area DEI issues; more formalize recognition/rewards for DEI efforts: and track our efforts and progress in this space.
  2. Research: Our faculty and PhD students explore many research questions related to DEI. They include team diversity, stereotyping, social inequality, immigration, intersectionality, cross-cultural research, gender equity, social advocacy and allyship, social roles and identity management, and gender and emotions. Our Center for Decision Research serves as a premier hub for the study of judgement, decision-making and organizational behavior.
  3. Teaching: We believe that DEI issues are central to all the topics that we teach (e.g., leadership, teams, creativity, negotiation, etc.). Hence, faculty members continuously update exercises, redesign our materials and search for new readings to better reflect the diverse workforce and the challenges organizations and individuals face in relation to DEI. Recent updates include course design (e.g., taking into account neurodiversity), topic choice (e.g., core and elective classes tie discussions of multiple subjects to DEI questions), and case and class example selection (e.g., ensuring diverse protagonists and experiences are represented and discussed).
  4. Service to community: We are committed to serving our communities of historically underrepresented individuals in business and proudly support the PhD Project. About 25% of our faculty/students report involvement in some way with the PhD Project. Additionally, some of our PhD students have been/are members of the Management Doctoral Student Association: Angelica Leigh (PhD ’20), 2018-2019 president; Ayana Younge (PhD ’20), 2019-2020 president; and members Ricky Burgess and Herrison Chicas. A third of our faculty and students actively present about DEI issues and are directly involved with organizations that develop the extent to which women, minorities and people with disabilities excel in higher education and/or the management field, including:
    • Organizing and participating in women’s events/advancement in the MBA Program (through CWIB and other organizations, events)
    • Executive coaching
    • Working with underrepresented students prior to their college experience
    • Presenting on DEI issues to the UNC Kenan-Flagler community and externally
    • Welcoming and supporting underrepresented minorities at the Academy of Management
    • Mentoring veterans and current service members
    • Seeking out opportunities to mentor underrepresented minority students, such as McNair Scholars, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity, Kenan Scholars, commitment to honors theses and supporting women and minority students in these endeavors.