Strength Through Diversity

Dr. Katherine Phillips

Reuben Mark Professor of Organizational Character and the Director of the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership and Ethics

Professor Katherine W. Phillips joined the faculty at Columbia Business School as the Paul Calello Professor of Leadership and Ethics in Fall of 2011. She is currently the Reuben Mark Professor of Organizational Character and the Director of the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership and Ethics.

Before joining Columbia, she was Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and Co-Director and Founder of Northwestern’s Center on the Science of Diversity. She has also been a Visiting Professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Visiting Scholar at the Center for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Sciences. Professor Phillips received her PhD in Organizational Behavior from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Her Bachelors degree is in Psychology from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Prof. Phillips research addresses the main questions of what is the value of diversity and what are the barriers that prevent society, organizations and especially work teams from capturing the knowledge, perspectives and unique backgrounds of every member? As organizations and society become increasingly diverse, developing a more sophisticated understanding of intergroup relations and the myriad of processes that interfere with capturing the value that diversity can bring to the table, is essential for the continued growth of organizations. Professor Phillips’ theoretical and empirical work has focused mainly on the small group processes and performance that are affected by diversity, but more recently her work has expanded to assessments of worth and status that intertwine with group composition to affect interpersonal and group outcomes.