Stephanie Creary

Assistant Professor of Management

Contact Information

Primary Email:
sjcreary@wharton.upenn.edu
Office Phone:
(215) 898-6391

office Address:
2031 SH-DH
3620 Locust Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Research Interests: identity; diversity and inclusion; relationships across difference

Overview

Professor Stephanie J. Creary is an identity and diversity scholar and a field researcher. She is also a founding faculty member of the Wharton IDEAS lab (Identity, Diversity, Engagement, Affect, and Social Relationships), an affiliated faculty member of Wharton People Analytics, a Senior Fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (LDI), and affiliated faculty member of the Penn Center for Africana Studies. She leads the Leading Diversity@Wharton Speaker Series as part of her Leading Diversity in Organizations course at Wharton.

Professor Creary’s research centers on identifying and understanding the work that individuals and leaders do to manage identity in asymmetric relationships – where power differentials between relationship partners are high – and how their efforts shape self-views, relationship quality, and the performance of work. She is particularly interested in examining these dynamics in relationships between managers and their subordinates, minority and majority group members, and workers and their employing institutions. Her research also examines diversity/people analytics and the effectiveness of diversity and inclusion practices.

Prior to joining the Wharton faculty, Professor Creary was on the faculty of Cornell University. Prior to completing her PhD degree, she was a research associate at Harvard Business School and The Conference Board in NYC researching corporate diversity and inclusion practices. She also has extensive work experience in the health care industry. Professor Creary has earned B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Boston University Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences; an MBA degree from Simmons School of Management; and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Boston College Carroll School of Management.

Research

US Congress House Committee on Financial Services Testimony on “Diversity in the Boardroom: Examining Proposals to Increase the Diversity of America’s Boards”

Claudine Gartenberg, Stephanie Creary, George Serafeim (Working), Inequality in Workplace Beliefs.
Stephanie Creary, Mary-Hunter McDonnell, Sakshi Ghai, Jared Scruggs, When and why diversity improves your board’s performance.
Brianna B. Caza, Lakshmi Ramarajan, Erin Reid, Stephanie Creary, How to make room in your work life for the rest of your self.
Stephanie Creary and Laura M. Roberts, “G.I.V.E.-based mentoring in diverse organizations: Cultivating positive identities in diverse leaders”. In Mentoring diverse leaders: Creating change for people, processes, and paradigms, Taylor & Francis. edited by S. Blake-Beard and A. Murrell, (2017)
Stephanie Creary, Gianpiero Petriglieri, Eliana Crosina, Judith R. Gordon (Work In Progress), Unrequited love and resilient hope: A psychodynamic perspective on the process of professional identity maturation.
Stephanie Creary and Karen Locke (Under Review), From the old to a new ideal: Altering somatic engagement in embodied reinventive communities.
Stephanie Creary, Lumumba Seegars, Lakshmi Ramarajan (Under Review), Diversity work across demographic differences in global organizations.
Stephanie Creary, Michael G. Pratt, Timothy Vogus (Under Review), Conscious coupling: Retaining a minority identity in asymmetric power relationships.
Brianna B. Caza and Stephanie Creary, “The construction of professional identity”. In Perspectives on contemporary professional work, Elgar, edited by A. Wilkinson, D. Hislop and C. Coupland, (2016)
Stephanie Creary, “Resourcefulness in action: The case for global diversity management”. In Positive organizing in a global society: Understanding and engaging differences for capacity-building and inclusion, Routledge, edited by L.M. Roberts, L. Wooten, & M. Davidson, (2015)

Teaching

Leading Diversity@Wharton Speaker Series

Past Courses

MGMT224 - LEADING DIVERSITY IN ORG
People in the workplace are constantly interacting with peers, managers, and customers with very different backgrounds and experiences. When harnessed effectively, these differences can be the catalyst for creative breakthroughs and the pathway to team and organizational learning and effectiveness; but when misunderstood, these differences can challenge employees' values, performance, workplace relationships, and team effectiveness. This course is designed to help students navigate diverse organizational settings more effectively and improve their ability to work within and lead diverse teams and organizations. It also offers students the opportunity to develop their critical thinking on topics such as identity, relationships across difference, discrimination and bias, equality, and equity in organizations and society and how they relate to organizational issues of power, privilege, opportunity, inclusion,creativity and innovation and organizational effectiveness. Class sessions will be experiential and discussion-based. Readings, self-reflection, guest speakers from organizations, case studies and a final project will also be emphasized. By the end of this course, you should be able to: 1)Evaluate the aspects of yo ur identity and personal experiences that shape how you interact and engage with others and how they interact and engage with you in organizations 2)Explain how issues of power, privilege, discrimination, bias, equality, and equity influence opportunity and effectiveness in organizations 3)Propose ways to make relationships across difference in organizations more effective 4)Describe current perspectives on the relationships among diversity, inclusion, creativity, and innovation in organizations 5)Analyze a company's current approach to leading diversity and use content from this course to propose ways to enhance learning and effectiveness in that company.
MGMT624 - LEADING DIVERSITY IN ORG
People in the workplace are constantly interacting with peers, managers, and customers with very different backgrounds and experiences. When harnessed effectively, these differences can be the catalyst for creative breakthroughs and the pathway to team and organizational learning and effectiveness; but when misunderstood, these differences can challenge employees' values, performance, workplace relationships, and team effectiveness. This course is designed to help students navigate diverse organizational settings more effectively and improve their ability to work within and lead diverse teams and organizations. It also offers students the opportunity to develop their critical thinking on topics such as identity, relationships across difference, discrimination and bias, equality, and equity in organizations and society and how they relate to organizational issues of power, privilege, opportunity, inclusion,creativity and innovation and organizational effectiveness. Class sessions will be experiential and discussion-based. Readings, self-reflection, guest speakers from organizations, case studies and a final project will also be emphasized. By the end of this course, you should be able to: 1)Evaluate the aspects of yo ur identity and personal experiences that shape how you interact and engage with others and how they interact and engage with you in organizations 2)Explain how issues of power, privilege, discrimination, bias, equality, and equity influence opportunity and effectiveness in organizations 3)Propose ways to make relationships across difference in organizations more effective 4)Describe current perspectives on the relationships among diversity, inclusion, creativity, and innovation in organizations 5)Analyze a company's current approach to leading diversity and use content from this course to propose ways to enhance learning and effectiveness in that company. Class attendance is required. No more than 2 absences will be allowed to receive a passing grade in the course. Absences due to late enrollment will be counted towards the two max. No student will be allowed to enroll after the first day of class without instructor permission.

Awards and Honors

Wharton Center for Leadership and Change Management Research Grant, 2019
Elected Representative-at-Large, Managerial and Organizational Cognition (MOC) Division, Academy of Management, 2017
Academic Scholar, Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures, 2017
Faculty Fellow Research Grant, Engaged Cornell, 2016-2017
Faculty Fellow Research Grant, Engaged Cornell, 2016
Academy of Management Organizational Behavior (OB) Division Showcase Symposium, Symposium Chair, 2016
Cornell University Family Fellows Program Honored Guest, 2016
Cornell University Center for Engaged Learning and Teaching Research Grant, 2016
Cornell University Center for Teaching Excellence Research Grants, 2016
Cornell University Center for Teaching Excellence Research Grants, 2015
Cornell University Small Group Mentoring Program Grant, 2015
Academy of Management Managerial and Organizational Cognition (MOC) Division Showcase Symposium, Symposium Organizer, 2015
Academy of Management Managerial and Organizational Cognition (MOC) Division Outstanding Reviewer Award, 2015., 2015
Academy of Management Gender and Diversity in Organizations (GDO) Division Best Reviewer Award, 2014
Academy of Management Gender and Diversity in Organizations (GDO) Division Best Reviewer Award, 2013
Academy of Management Gender and Diversity in Organizations (GDO) Division Best Student Paper Award, 2013
Boston College Donald J. White Award for Teaching Excellence, 2012
AHANA Leadership Council and GLBTQ Leadership Council Faculty Recognition Award, Boston College, 2012
Academy of Management Emerald Award for Best International Symposium, Nominee, 2010
Simmons College Susan Bulkeley Butler Academic Prize, 2007
Simmons College Presidential Inauguration Ceremony Graduate Student Speaker, 2007
Simmons College Graduate Student Award for Civic Engagement, 2007
Boston University Outstanding Graduating Dance Student, 1998
Boston University Student Advisor of the Year, 1998
Boston University Scarlet Key Student Leadership Award, 1998
Boston University Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Community Service Award, 1997