I’m currently a faculty member in the department of Organization Studies at the Tilburg University, and the co-coordinator of the STAB group at the same university. Prior to my current appointment, I was a postdoctoral research scholar at the Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis, USA. I received my Ph.D. in business administration and MBA from the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA.
I’m currently interested in the development and consequences of social hierarchies (power and status), and I’m pursuing this line of work in the intra-organizational context (e.g. small teams) and inter-organizational context (e.g. think tanks). My intra-organizational work examines the structure and function of social hierarchies in organizational groups and teams. Overall, through this research I hope to solve one of the most vexing questions in Organizational Studies—how and if hierarchy within groups and teams benefits or limits organizations.
My inter-organizational work examines the structure and function of social hierarchies in contemporary US public policy by focusing on the role of think tanks and policy experts. Think tanks have been behind some of the most significant political events in recent history—from the enormously successful Marshall Plan, to the disastrous Iraq War, to ongoing political efforts to discredit climate change. While think tanks continue to wield tremendous policy influence, researchers often argue about the value of these organizations without considering—or measuring—how think tanks actually relate—with each other and with the various fields of organizations around them. Overall, I aim to organize and uncover crucial knowledge about these organizations and how their experts’ claims shape some of the most critical policy decisions around the world.
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