Laura

Research Expertise and Interest

gender, negotiations, stereotypes, decision making, groups and teams, mindsets, motivated cognition

Research Description

Laura Kray is the Ned and Carol Spieker Chair in Leadership, Chair of the Management of Organizations Group, and Faculty Director of the Center for Equity, Gender, and Leadership.  She is a leading expert on the social psychological barriers influencing women’s career attainment. Kray is the recipient of multiple research awards from the Academy of Management, the International Association of Conflict Management, and the California Management Review. Kray is a fellow to both the Association for Psychological Science and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. From 2017 to 2018, she was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. Some of her current research seeks to debunk popular myths about the gender pay gap and to identify solutions to gender inequality in the workplace. 

In the News

Who Flirts to Get Ahead at Work? Study Finds It’s Most Often Men in Subordinate Roles.

The stereotype of the female secretary who hikes up her skirt to get a promotion is as pervasive as the powerful male boss who makes passes at his underlings. But a new study upends both tropes with evidence that it’s actually men in subordinate positions who are most likely to flirt, use sexual innuendo, and even harass female bosses as a way to demonstrate their masculinity and power for personal gain at work.

Very big changes are coming very fast to the American workplace

Going to work used to be so simple. Across a span of decades, in organizations large and small, American white-collar workers by the millions would wake up in the morning and get to the office by 8 or 9. They would leave at 5 or 6, perhaps later if they were on deadline with an important project. It was like clockwork. Suddenly, however, that model seems outdated, if not archaic. In a series of interviews, Berkeley scholars who study work and management say that as the COVID-19 pandemic eases, American executives and office workers are emerging into a new and unfamiliar world that may have broad benefits for both.

When women are more likely to lie

Would you tell a lie to help someone else? A new study says women won’t lie on their own behalf, but they are willing to do so for someone else if they feel criticized or pressured by others.

Study Finds Flirting Can Pay Off for Women in Negotiations

When Madeleine Albright became the first female U.S. Secretary of State, she led high-level negotiations between mostly male foreign government leaders. In 2009, comedian Bill Maher asked Albright if she ever flirted on the job and she replied, “I did, I did.” Flirtatiousness, female friendliness, or the more diplomatic description “feminine charm” is an effective way for women to gain negotiating mileage.

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