Research: Why Forming Diverse Teams Is Harder in Uncertain Times

by Anyi Ma, Jessica J.W. Paek, Fangzhou Liu and Jae Yun Kim

December 20, 2024

Juan Moyano/Stocksy

Summary.

Recent large-scale events like the Covid-19 pandemic, ongoing wars, social uprisings, and rising inflation have deeply unsettled our sense of personal agency at the workplace. In times like these, how do employees respond to that feeling of loss of control?

Anyi Ma is an Assistant Professor of Management at Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research concerns how employees experience agency, such as having choice and control, and the wide-ranging — and often counter-intuitive — consequences of these experiences.

Jessica J.W. Paek is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. Her research focuses on motivation, goal pursuit, and prosocial behavior.

Fangzhou Liu is an Assistant Professor at the School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. Her research focuses on employee voice, personal control, and creativity.

Jae Yun Kim is an Assistant Professor (Richard Morantz and Sheree Walder Morantz Professorship in Business Ethics) at the I.H. Asper School of Business of the University of Manitoba. His research centers on the intersection of motivation, organizational justice, and social justice.

Read more on Teams or related topics Collaboration and teams, Behavioral science, Psychology, Psychology and neuroscience and Diversity and inclusion

Research: Why Forming Diverse Teams Is Harder in Uncertain Times

Summary.

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