40 Best Business School Professors under 40

Best Published Paper of 2013 in Organization & Management Theory

Alumni Award for Excellence in Research

BBA Distinguished Educator Award

Crystal Apple Teaching Award

Outstanding Reviewer Award

Academy of Management : Member

American Psychological Association : Member

Society for Personality and Social Psychology : Member

Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues : Member

Does the Black/White wage gap widen  during recessions?

The  psychology of entrenched privilege: High socioeconomic status individuals from affluent backgrounds are uniquely high in entitlement

How the Economy Shapes the Way We Think about Ourselves and Others

Reexamining the Link Between Economic Downturns and Racial Antipathy: Evidence that Prejudice Against Blacks Rises in Recessions

American Individualism Rises and Falls with the Economy: Cross-temporal Evidence that Individualism Declines when the Economy Falters

Do Good Times Breed Cheats? Prosperous Times Have Immediate and Lasting Implications for CEO Misconduct

Social Class and Social Worlds: Income Predicts the Frequency and Nature of Social Contact

Entering Adulthood in a Recession Tempers Later Narcissism

The Bright Side of Bad Times: The Affective Advantages of Entering the Workforce in a Recession

In more individualistic societies, such as the United States, there is an emphasis on standing out from others, being different, and expressing one's uniqueness. In more interdependent or collectivistic societies, there's an emphasis on not standing out, on being part of a group, on attuning to the needs and interests and goals of the group, and on ensuring that the group is successful. Individualism is a core part of identity in the United States and that has increased over time. Over time, Americans have become increasingly individualistic and currently, the United States typically scores higher on individualism than any other country. Associate Professor of Organization & Management Dr. Emily Bianchi's research into whether people become less individualistic in times economic hardship, reveals that when the economy is worse, people are more likely to embrace interdependence and collectivism. Examples include parents giving children more common names and articulating that they wanted their children to exhibit such behaviors as helping and getting along with other people, over being independent and standing out from others. Her research also revealed that during bad economic times, American music is less individualistic and more collective, as exemplified by more songs that had more first-person plural pronouns (we, us, ours) than singular first-person pronouns (I, me, mine).In short, in better economic times, Americans, seem to be more self-focused and during worse economic times, they are more interdependent.  Interdependent behaviors and attitudes have limits and can result in derogation of others Even when people are more interdependent or collectivistic, they are not more interdependent towards everyone in society. People are typically more interdependent towards people who are similar to them or are in their in-group. That often is associated with greater derogation of dissimilar others. In societies that are very collectivistic or very interdependent, there is often a great deal of wariness of outsiders.Interdependence – leaning on and taking from other people – is one way people manage uncertainty, including economic and financial uncertainty. Another way is to look for perceptual order, which can involve seeing things in rigid terms, such as being more likely to see people who are not very different from them as being “other.”Racism can be greater during difficult economic timesIn examining state economies, Dr. Bianchi and her colleagues found that in states hit hardest by the Great Recession, there was a greater spike in Whites' negative attitudes towards Blacks. In states that were less hard hit, there wasn't as much of a change.    Racial wage gaps increase during recessions, making diversity efforts crucialDr. Bianchi has also conducted research that revealed that the racial wage gap increases during recessions, regardless of industry, education level, age, and other factors. Moreover, African American employees are more likely than White employees to be fired during a recession and take a greater hit in salary when they are hired or rehired. She concludes that its crucial for businesses to maintain their diversity efforts in recessions and other difficult economic times.

How a Recession Changes Our Behavior

Impact of Economic Downturns on Young AdultsCollege students who graduate into a recession certainly experience obstacles according to Dr. Bianchi, Associate Professor of Organization & Management at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. Young adults are often the last to be hired during a recession and this can be quite challenging because they have very few work experience and skills and the entry-level jobs they go after are usually the first to go. As a result, unemployment for young adults usually jumps significantly during recessions, much higher than the unemployment rate for others.  Professor Bianchi became interested in how this shapes young adults for a long period to come. During the Great Recession, there were many stories about the 2009 graduation season and how students were doomed. There have been studies to show that young people graduating during a recession earn less for decades. Other studies have shown that people who graduate in recessions tend to have lower levels of occupational prestige. Even if they do become chief executive officers, they tend to become CEOs of smaller, less prestigious firms. There's no question that, economically, the effects are real, that people who graduate in a recession do earn less, and you see that for a long time to come. But the effects are also pretty small. Given all the worry and all the difficulty of finding their first job could graduates be happier once they are hired by an employer? Dr. Bianchi found that people who graduated in worse economic times reported greater job satisfaction than people who graduated in better economic times. There are hardships and challenges. The difficulties are serious, but there are some long-lasting positive implications down the road. Recessions Long-term Impact on Young Adults There has been a fair amount of work on people's attitudes towards money, right? Economists have found that people who come of age in recessions tend to be more risk-averse with money and tend to choose less financially-risky strategies. Even as CEOs, they tend to be more risk-averse in how they invest their company's money. Using the metric of narcissism, Dr. Bianchi studied how people who come of age during a recession view themselves compared to other people. Narcissism is a sense of entitlement, a sense of grandiosity, a sense that one deserves better outcomes than other people. She looked at the characteristics heightened optimism, and individualism and wondered if people who came of age in that time are more narcissistic than people who came into age in a time where there was more uncertainty. Dr. Bianchi found that people who come of age in recessions score lower in narcissism, clinical narcissism, and sub-clinical narcissism.  According to Dr. Bianchi, young adulthood is a very transformational time in people's lives. Most are leaving their childhood homes, communities, and families and begin to develop an adult identity. They are figuring out who they are, who they want to be, what they believe in, and what they don't believe in. People overwhelmingly mention things that happened when they were young adults. All of these seem to suggest that what's going on in the greater environment, in the greater kind of cultural landscape or economic landscape, helps formulate those identities, helps shape those identities in ways that last throughout adulthood. Dr. Bianchi says this will be an interesting generation to watch over the next couple decades.

Bonus Episode: Silver Linings for Students Graduating Into a Recession

Welcome to Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. Our goal is to make a positive impact on society by developing future leaders through our suite of undergraduate, MBA, and PhD degree programs, and our tailored non-degree courses; and by creating and disseminating impactful knowledge and insights.

Emory University, Goizueta Business School

Emily Bianchi joined the Goizueta Business School in 2011. She holds a PhD in Management from Columbia University and a BA in Psychology from Harvard University. Bianchi's research examines how the state of the economy shapes attitudes and behaviors ranging from individualism to ethics. Her work also looks at how economic conditions in early adulthood influence later job attitudes, self-concepts, and moral behavior. Her work has been covered by The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR's Marketplace, USA Today, The Financial Times, Businessweek and others. Prior to graduate school, Bianchi was a Senior Consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton.

Economic Conditions and Early Adulthood

Job Attitudes

Moral Behavior

Economic Conditions and Psychology

Organizational Behavior

Social Psychology

CEOs Who Began Their Careers During Booms Tend to Be Less Ethical

How Money Affects Social Ties

Higher-Earning Households Tend To Spend More Time Alone

Narcissists are everywhere — but they may not be the people you think they are

Why Richer People Spend More Time With Their Friends

The Fall of Narcissism

How the recession shaped a more humble generation

Millennials might not be as narcissistic as everyone thought

Study: Opportunities in Young Adulthood Linked to Later Narcissism

Faculty from various disciplines apply aspects of behavioral research to their work. Learn more about key research happening in this area. 

A Focus on BDI Research

When Alan Greenspan addressed the Harvard University class of 1999, he shared a message of wealth and prosperity that was reflected in many aspects of American life. “You are being bequeathed the tools for achieving a material existence that neither my generation nor any that preceded it could have even remotely imagined as we began our life’s work,” he told the new graduates.

Prior research suggests that economic booms are associated with overconfidence and risk-taking. In a new paper, Emily Bianchi, assistant professor of organization & management, and coauthor Aharon Mohliver (London Business School) build on that research by showing that prosperous times are also associated with more ethical lapses. The authors examined whether CEOs were more likely to backdate their stock options during prosperous economic times. Backdating stock options was relatively common during the late 1990s to early 2000s. It was also unethical. A backdating CEO would receive a stock option grant on one day but report that the options were assigned on an earlier date when the stock price was lower. This would allow the CEO to realize greater gains when he or she sold the stock. Also, it required lying to the SEC and came at the expense of company profits. To test their theory, Bianchi and Mohliver looked at the backdating patterns of 2,139 CEOs of US publically traded companies between 1996 and 2005. They found that CEOs were more likely to backdate in good economic times. They also found that “CEOs who began their careers in prosperous times were more likely to backdate stock option grants later in their careers.” The findings indicate that economic prosperity influences the likelihood of corporate misconduct. 

The impact of economic prosperity on CEO ethics

Past work has shown that economic growth often engenders greater individualism. Yet much of this work charts changes in wealth and individualism over long periods of time, making it unclear whether rising individualism is primarily driven by wealth or by the social and generational changes that often accompany large-scale economic transformations. This article explores whether individualism is sensitive to more transient macroeconomic fluctuations, even in the absence of transformative social changes or generational turnover.

American individualism rises and falls with the economy: Cross-temporal evidence that individualism declines when the economy falters.

Past work has shown that as countries become wealthier, people often become more individualistic. In new research, Emily Bianchi, assistant professor of organization & management, takes the investigation a step further and finds that even subtle fluctuations in the economy are associated with changes in individualism. She finds that during good economic times, Americans are more likely to seek out ways to signal their uniqueness and individuality. For instance, during boom times, Americans tend to give their children more uncommon names and are more likely to prize autonomy and independence in child-rearing. They are also more likely to favor music featuring self-oriented lyrics. Conversely, during recessions, Americans tend to focus more on fitting in and tend to give their children more common names, listen to more relationally oriented music, and encourage their children to get along with others. Additionally, Bianchi discovered that recessions engender uncertainty, which, in turn, decreases individualism and encourages interdependence. The study results indicated that the “link between wealth and individualism is driven not only by differences in how people live, work, and learn but also by their sense of the predictability, orderliness, and certainty of the surrounding environment.”

The role of the economy on individualism

Minding the gender pay gap: Female CEOs and executive compensation

Do good times breed cheats? Entering the workforce in a boom predicts later unethical behavior

Bolstered by booms and tempered by busts: American individualism rises and falls with the economy

Entering adulthood in a recession tempers later narcissism

The bright side of bad times: The affective advantages of entering the workforce in a recession

When you change your perspective you can change business for the better. Join us on Goizueta Effect to hear from leading faculty at the Goizueta Business School on the latest trends, research, and innovations in business, and find out how you can achieve more, do more, and create more in today’s ever-changing marketplace.

Goizueta Effect

ask-an-expert-can-a-recession-boost-employee-job-satisfaction

Associate Professor of Organization & Management

Will the United States tip into recession in 2023?

The jury for many remains out, though there are enough clouds forming on the horizon to cause consternation for firms eyeing the next financial quarter. But while recessions invariably spell belt-tightening, are they always plain bad for business? Could there be some kind of silver lining to hard times?

 New research led by Goizueta Business School’s Emily Bianchi suggests there is in fact an upside to economic downturns: higher employee job satisfaction. Bianchi and colleagues from Oglethorpe and Hong Kong Polytechnic Universities have found that in times of increased financial uncertainty, people tend to think less about other opportunities or openings, and focus more on the jobs they actually have. This in turn makes us see our jobs and workplace more favorably, says Bianchi.

“It might feel counter-intuitive because there’s reason to think that tumultuous times make the workplace and workplace relations more tense or challenging. But we wanted to explore whether the security of having a job in an economic slump might positively impact the way people think about their roles and employers,” Bianchi says.  Our hunch was that fewer available jobs outside the organization may translate into greater satisfaction with the jobs we have in hand when there’s a recession. To test this possibility, Bianchi and co-authors ran three studies. The first looked at almost 50 years of data from the U.S. General Social Survey, a cross-sectional barometer of people’s attitudes and opinions, including their assessment of the economy and satisfaction with the work they do. Through analyses of respondents’ answers between 1974 and 2016, Bianchi et al. found compelling evidence to support their hypothesis: at both the national and state level, job satisfaction rose during recessions and fell off again when the economy did better.

 A second study analyzed data from the U.K. where recessions tend to hit at the same time as the United States, but can be more or less severe. Two surveys conducted by the University of Essex followed the same respondents between 1991 and 2013, allowing Bianchi et al. to measure how individual job satisfaction fluctuated with macro-economic changes. Limiting their analysis to those people who remained employed over the time period and controlling for things like age, gender and income, the researchers were able to isolate the impact of recession based on the way that a group of just over 8,500,000 employees felt about their jobs. They found the same pattern.

“By looking at the same individuals over time, we’re able to eliminate any impact coming from changes in the composition of the workforce across economic cycles,” says Bianchi.  The same pattern emerged: during bad economic times, people reported greater job satisfaction even within the same group. Unlocking the Upside of Downturns To dig deeper into the psychological mechanisms undergirding these patterns, Bianchi et al. ran an experiment. One group was shown “bad news” about the economy, while the other read a report on economic growth and “plentiful jobs.” Both groups were then asked to self-report on job satisfaction.

Those who had read the news article on recession and unemployment reported greater contentment with their current jobs. Moreover, when reminded of recessions, they reported that alternative jobs became less salient, which in turn led to greater job satisfaction. In other words, their own jobs were “more satisfying.”

One implication of these findings is that they challenge the notion that job satisfaction is exclusively dictated by what happens inside the organization.

We tend to think of businesses as bubbles that are somehow impervious to the outside world. But these studies show broader societal events can affect us in surprising ways.   A Silver Lining for Employers Recessions are rarely welcome news. And for employers, they can engender feelings of hopelessness, says Bianchi. The insights shared in her paper should provide some reassurance, nonetheless, that even when the chips are down, they might have one less thing to worry about. But there’s a caveat.

Our findings suggest that there might actually be a bright side to recessions for employers; that greater job satisfaction during these difficult times might help people psychologically weather an otherwise challenging situation. “Of course, this does not mean that employers should take advantage of this surprising goodwill by asking more of their employees. Rather, while employers likely believe that there is little they can do to bolster job satisfaction during tough times, our research suggests that satisfaction-boosting efforts may be even more effective. Moreover, our findings suggest that employers should be more attuned to bolstering satisfaction when times are good and employees are particularly apt to be looking at other opportunities.”  Interested in learning more about how a recession may impact the workplace? Then let us help with your coverage and questions.


Goizueta Business School’s Emily Bianchi is available to speak regarding this important topic - simply click on her icon now to arrange an interview today.


Ask an Expert: Can a Recession Boost Employee Job Satisfaction?

research-reveals-uptick-in-hostility-toward-black-americans-during-tough-economic-times

Associate Professor of Organization & Management; Faculty Advisor, Business & Society Institute

Stereotyping

Implicit Bias

Race and Gender

Goizueta Experts Encourage Business Leaders to Double Down on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Efforts. Do recessions stoke racial tension? When there’s an economic downturn, are White Americans more likely to feel distrust or even animosity towards their Black peers?
Researchers have long wondered about the broader societal impact of financial recessions, but until recently their effects on race relations have been unclear.

In a recent paper, Emily Bianchi, associate professor of organization and management, Erika Hall, assistant professor of organization and management, and Sarah Lee 19PhD, assistant professor of management, Dominican University of California and visiting professor of organizational behavior, Pepperdine University, find that there is indeed a subtle uptick in hostility towards Black Americans during bad economic times. Their paper, Reexamining the Link Between Economic Downturns and Racial Antipathy, examines publicly available data on attitudes, political trends, and behavioral patterns in the U.S.

Sarah Lee 19PhD  While businesses tend to cut diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts during economic downturns, Bianchi and Hall underscore that these efforts may be even more critical during these times.

To study this phenomenon, the researchers analyzed more than 20 years of data from the American National Election Survey (ANES), a biannual survey capturing political affiliations and perceptions of political candidates from 1964 until 2012. They analyzed how White Americans’ attitudes towards Blacks changed depending on the state of the economy and found that in worse economic times, Whites felt more negatively about Blacks.

As Bianchi notes: “we were able to analyze the responses of more than 30,000 individuals who identified as White. And we do find that for decades – between the 1960s and the first part of the 21 century – White Americans feel less warmly about Black Americans during times of financial hardship.”


 Emily Bianchi, associate professor of organization and management  In a second study, Bianchi, Hall, and Lee examined data from Project Implicit, a popular website that allows people to test their own implicit bias and also gauges racial attitudes. Again, the authors found that in worse economic times, White Americans held more negative implicit and explicit attitudes about race. In particular, during the Great Recession, they found that White’s attitudes towards Blacks became substantially more negative in states that were hard hit by the economic crisis compared to states in which the economic downturn was less severe.

Having established that economic conditions affected fluctuations in attitudes towards race, the authors then examined whether these emotional shifts translated into actual behavioral outcomes. In other words, if Whites felt more negatively towards Blacks during recessions would this mean that Black professionals were less likely to be successful when the economy floundered? They tested this possibility by looking at two domains of public activity: record sales and voting patterns.

First, they examined data from the Billboard Top 10 American songs between 1980 and 2014 and recorded the race of each musician who secured a Billboard hit. They found that in bad economic years, Black musicians were 90% less likely to have a top 10 hit, presumably because White consumers (by far the biggest consumer group during this period) were less likely to support them. Next, they examined the results of more than 8000 elections to the U.S. House of Representatives over the same period. They found that in bad economic times, Black politicians were 21% less likely to win elections.

Interestingly, the converse also appears to be true. In good times, Black musicians and politicians fared much better in the polls and the charts – pointing to a certain fluidity in attitudes, says Bianchi.

“Across these very different domains, studies, and sample sizes, we find the same consistent pattern: when times are tough, White Americans feel more animosity towards Black Americans and are less likely to support Black musicians or politicians. When things pick up, White Americans have more positive attitudes towards Black Americans and are more likely to endorse Black musicians and Black candidates.”

The authors attribute these effects to innate human feelings of fear in the face of threat. Economic threats or shocks tend to evoke uncertainty and fear about what is to come. This translates into greater distrust of others, particularly those perceived as different in some way. And it’s an effect, they argue, that should be very much on the radar of businesses and decision-makers.

 Erika Hall, assistant professor of organization and management  The research cites, “Anecdotally, we know that when times are good, organizations will tend to prioritize their efforts in the area of diversity and inclusion. But while this is critically important at all times, our research suggest that these efforts are probably even more important when times are tough.”

All of this points to a need to attend to these issues more acutely when there’s a downturn, says Bianchi. And she cautions that this is likely to be counterintuitive to most leaders, who are likely more inclined to sideline diversity efforts when the economy slides.

In terms of the current debate around race relations in the US, however, Bianchi stresses that the economic dimension is just one piece of a “very complicated puzzle.”

“What we have seen and are seeing in 2020 and 2021 is a confluence of many major factors: a pandemic that has put a lot of people out of work, and that has put everyone on edge, punctuated by some horrific and well documented instances of violence against Black citizens,” Bianchi says. “So many of these things are in the mixing pot, that it’s hard to pinpoint one specific cause behind the current race crisis in the U.S. So many things coming together at once that have put us in this moment.”

Only time will tell how this might play out compared to what we saw in the 80s and 90s, which were economic fluctuations rather than a complete drop off a cliff, she says. It will be more difficult to tease apart the effect of the economy versus the effect of the pandemic versus the effect of police violence on America’s race relations – a situation that Bianchi describes as a “cauldron of mess.”

That said, she stresses that for business leaders, now is a good time to double down on efforts to drive diversity and inclusion.

“I’d suggest leaders be especially mindful that at times of economic stress such as we are currently experiencing, there is a very real danger of heightened racial animosity.”

 We’ve attached a full article with even more advice and helpful information from our experts – but if you are looking to learn more or cover this topic, we can help.

All of our faculty are available to speak with media, simply click on either expert’s icon now – to book an interview today.




Research Reveals Uptick in Hostility toward Black Americans during Tough Economic Times

the-role-of-the-economy-on-individualism

Past work has shown that as countries become wealthier, people often become more individualistic. In new research, Emily Bianchi, assistant professor of organization & management, takes the investigation a step further and finds that even subtle fluctuations in the economy are associated with changes in individualism. She finds that during good economic times, Americans are more likely to seek out ways to signal their uniqueness and individuality. For instance, during boom times, Americans tend to give their children more uncommon names and are more likely to prize autonomy and independence in child-rearing. They are also more likely to favor music featuring self-oriented lyrics. Conversely, during recessions, Americans tend to focus more on fitting in and tend to give their children more common names, listen to more relationally oriented music, and encourage their children to get along with others. Additionally, Bianchi discovered that recessions engender uncertainty, which, in turn, decreases individualism and encourages interdependence. The study results indicated that the “link between wealth and individualism is driven not only by differences in how people live, work, and learn but also by their sense of the predictability, orderliness, and certainty of the surrounding environment.”

Source:  

Emily Bianchi’s talk discusses economic conditions and its role in shaping attitudes and behaviors in our personal and professional lives.

Emily Bianchi’s research explores how economic conditions shape attitudes and behaviors in our personal and professional lives.An award-winning scholar and professor at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University, her work has been featured in the The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR's “Marketplace,” USA Today, The Financial Times, Bloomberg Businessweek and others.

In 2015, Bianchi was named one of the 40 Best Business School Professors under 40 by Poets and Quants. Sheianchi holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Harvard University, and a master’s degree and doctorate in management from Columbia University.  


This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

How Money Affects Social Ties | Emily Bianchi | TEDxPeachtree

"Psychological Strategies Used to Manage Uncertainty: Lessons from Past Recessions" with Emily Bianchi during Emory Executive Education's Business over Breakfast.

Recessions and national crises are characterized by widespread uncertainty about what the future will look like. In this seminar, O&M professor Emily Bianchi will explore common psychological strategies people use to mitigate uncertainty. She will discuss ways in which people utilize these strategies during the current pandemic.

Emory University’s Goizueta Business School offers a unique, community-oriented environment paired with an academic prestige and rigor shared with the international acclaim of Emory University. Goizueta trains business leaders of today and tomorrow with an Undergraduate degree program, a Master's of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA), a Two-Year Full-Time MBA, a One-Year MBA, an Evening MBA, an Executive MBA, a Doctoral degree and a portfolio of non-degree Emory Executive Education courses. The school is named for the late Roberto C. Goizueta, former Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. For more information, visit http://goizueta.emory.edu and follow us on Twitter at @emorygoizueta.
 
Emory University is recognized internationally as an inquiry-driven, ethically engaged, and diverse community whose members work collaboratively for positive transformation in the world through courageous leadership in teaching, research, scholarship, health care, and social action. The University consists of an outstanding liberal arts college, highly ranked professional schools, and one of the larger and more comprehensive healthcare systems in the Southeast.

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