Leeds Faculty Research Investigates the Impact of Race on Business and Business on Racial Equity

Leeds School of Business faculty are involved in a wide range of research projects that are advancing our understanding of business and leading to insights that will help companies become more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable. Here are some of the incredible thought leaders:

Stefanie Johnson

Stefanie K. Johnson is an associate professor of management at the Leeds School of Business and was just named to the 2020 Thinkers50 Radar list. She is the author of the bestselling new book Inclusify which helps managers build diverse and inclusive teams. Her Inclusify Leadership Matrix is an interactive tool that lets users benchmark their own leadership approach to diversity. She writes “This book is for leaders who understand that diversity is a reality, but [who] just don’t know how to lead in a way that maximizes its benefits and gets the most out of their teams. My mission in life is to help leaders examine their own lives and behaviors through a stronger lens than the one most of us have used until now, so the path to Inclusifying becomes clear. Everyone has the desire to be themselves while being part of the team. In a competitive talent market where engagement drives retention and innovation is the key to continued success, leaders must find ways to transform diverse groups into Inclusifyed teams – or those leaders won’t survive.”

In this July 7, 2020 article in Marketwatch Stefanie turns her attention to the urgency of the current moment and looks at the gap between what companies are saying about their values to their customers, and what they are actually doing to support diversity within their organizations. She argues that a true commitment to inclusivity requires policies and procedures at every level of the company from recruiting, training and promotion practices, to transparency and accountability, to culture. Three years after the #Metoo movement, Stefanie asks what it was that successful companies did, and what lessons can be learned for companies ready to make a commitment to doing better on racial diversity and equity given today’s renewed focus on the #BLM protest movement.

Read The Entire Leeds Article Here

About the Author: DrStefanieKJohnson

Dr. Stefanie K. Johnson is an Associate Professor of Management at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder. She holds a Ph.D. from Rice University and is particularly interested in the effects of unconscious biases in the evaluation of women and minorities, with the goal of finding ways to mitigate those biases. Dr. Johnson brings bias to light with an engaging and humorous approach to advanced scientific research, which has earned her numerous accolades and invitations to present her work at meetings around the world, including the White House for a 2016 summit on diversity in corporate America on National Equal Pay Day, and the 2016 Harvard Negotiation and Leadership Conference. She has published over 70 journal articles and book chapters in outlets such as Harvard Business Review, Journal of Applied Psychology and The Academy of Management Journal. She has extensive consulting experience and has created and delivered leadership-development training with an emphasis on evidence-based practice. In recognition of her unique research, Dr. Johnson has been awarded nearly three million dollars in external funding to study leadership and create leadership development programs aimed at increasing safety. Media outlets featuring her work include: The Economist, Newsweek, Time, and CNN. Stefanie lives in the Boulder Bubble in Colorado with her Biology Professor husband, two young kiddos, and two old kitties.