An Open Letter about UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Organizational Behavior Department

As recent graduates of the University of North Carolina (UNC) Kenan-Flagler Business School’s Organizational Behavior (OB) department Ph.D. program, we are writing this letter because we are concerned with the characterization of the department that has been reported in the media. As women (Angelica, Ayana, Chaitali, Erin) who are faculty and instructors at business schools in the U.S., we understand the importance of faculty and Ph.D. program reputation, and thus, felt compelled to share information about the OB Ph.D. program at UNC and our experiences with several of the OB department faculty.

We cannot speak to everyone’s views about UNC or Kenan-Flagler, nor do we seek to diminish the experiences of others, but we can share our perspective and experience of the culture of the OB department’s Ph.D. program. We begin by describing the representation of Ph.D. students from diverse backgrounds in the department over the last several years, and our perspective on the actions that the department has taken to demonstrate their commitment to increasing this representation. Furthermore, this letter concludes with lengthy statements capturing recent graduate students’ individualized experiences during their time in the Ph.D. program. To be clear, our letter is focused specifically on the OB department and our decision to write this letter was of our own volition–we share our stories openly, freely and independently of UNC and its faculty.

Department’s Commitment to Diversity Through Representation

Through the enacted values of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), the OB department has effortfully worked toward diversifying the collective voices that make up the Ph.D. program and simultaneously creating a psychologically safe and inclusive space for students. For example, the OB department at UNC has a history of admitting and graduating Ph.D. students that are from diverse backgrounds. Since 2017, 9 students have graduated from this program, 7 of them are women, and 3 of those women are women of color. In May 2020, 33% of the current students in the department were underrepresented racial minority students who identify as Black or Latinx. This is well above average for business school Ph.D. programs. Since this time, the department has continued to recruit and admit prospective students who identify as underrepresented minorities in business.

The department also demonstrates their commitment to recruiting diverse students, not only by attending the PhD Project annual conference–a conference dedicated to encouraging Black, Latinx, and Native American professionals to pursue a Ph.D. in a business school discipline–but also by paying for current students to travel to this conference to share their own experiences in the program with prospective underrepresented students. The department has also supported and encouraged Ph.D. students to take on leadership roles within the PhD Project organization; Angelica Leigh and Ayana Younge were both the president of the PhD Project’s Management Doctoral Student Association while they were Ph.D. students at UNC. Additionally, other students in the department are involved in the PhD Project; this public involvement was both encouraged and supported by members of the OB department.

Even broader, the Kenan-Flagler Business School’s Ph.D. program website showcases the OB department’s commitment to diversity, through sharing Angelica Leigh’s first-hand experiences as a student in the OB department. The OB department is also paving the way for a website make-over– an initiative that began in 2021 by members of the OB department’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee, to which Ayana Younge belonged and Michael Christian chaired. This website is currently being built to bring awareness to the espoused values of the OB department, underscore excellence in research and other achievements by faculty and students, and make Ph.D. student information (e.g., prospective student details, application details, course examples, student resources) easily accessible and attainable. The hope is that this department webpage will become a template that other departments within Kenan-Flagler can use to improve their own webpages.

Department’s Commitment to Diversity Through Research

While we were students in this department, we were encouraged to pursue research topics that we were passionate about, which included topics related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). In fact, this department has begun to develop a reputation for encouraging students to pursue research on DEI, and faculty have partnered with students on publications centered upon the experiences of women and racial minority employees. For example, recent publications that resulted from research collaborations include multiple papers that are centered upon the experiences of Black employees in the workplace.

However, multiple students and faculty are involved in this important work. During our time in the Ph.D. program, we had first-hand experiences through student brown bag sessions, the department’s informal weekly lunches for faculty and students, and class presentations with students who discussed their DEI related research ideas and collaborations with department faculty. These papers relate to research questions regarding gender equity and voice, marital status implications, racial discrimination, political identity, allyship, and immigrant experiences, to name a few. If there was ever any pushback from faculty on research ideas, it was never to silence our voice– it was to amplify it. “Think bigger”, “Why else does this matter?”, “How can we push this research further so that it is published in a top-tier academic journal?” were common phrases heard from the halls of research meetings.

Commitment to Ph.D. Students: First-hand experiences with Dr.’s Shimul Melwani, Sreedhari Desai and Michael (Mike) Christian 

Any person who has a Ph.D. will tell you that the path to obtaining a Ph.D. is often winding and filled with ups and downs. This path is made easier through working with faculty who support you both professionally and personally. Dr.’s Shimul Melwani, Sreedhari Desai and Mike Christian were integral to each of our journeys to earning a Ph.D. These faculty members were our primary advisors, dissertation committee chairs and members, and research collaborators. They were also there for us at various stages of our Ph.D. journey, helping us to ultimately obtain doctoral degrees and subsequent jobs. In fact, during our time in the Ph.D. program, Mike was awarded the prestigious UNC Weatherspoon award for excellence in Ph.D. teaching and Shimul received the Weatherspoon award for her excellence in teaching in both the Ph.D. and undergraduate programs. Below, the four of us (Angelica, Ayana, Chaitali, and Erin), share details of our first-hand experiences with Shimul, Sreedhari, and Mike.

Angelica Leigh

My time in the UNC OB department’s Ph.D. program was one of the most formative periods of my budding career. As a Black woman, entering a Ph.D. program at a top business school, I was worried that I would need to work overtime to prove my worth and value during my program. However, it became very clear to me in the beginning of my program that I was free to be myself and the faculty in the department remained supportive of me and my research ideas, which allowed me to become the scholar that I am today.

I have personal, first-hand experience conducting research with Dr.’s Shimul Melwani, Sreedhari Desai and Michael Christian, and I do not believe that I would be able to proudly exclaim that I am a researcher who studies race and racism in the workplace without the support of each of these faculty members. First, Shimul Melwani was my primary advisor and dissertation chair. We began working on research together during my first year of graduate school, and I immediately began to think of her as a mentor. As I struggled to form a research identity in my second year of graduate school, Shimul encouraged me to “think bigger”, and it was this conversation that sparked the ideas that would later be published in our Academy of Management Review article. In fact, as we submitted the first draft of the paper, it was Shimul’s idea that we add “#BlackEmployeesMatter” to the title, because she wanted to ensure that the message of our paper was instantly communicated to our audience. I could write a whole paper about the support that Shimul has provided me over the years, but I will simply say that I would not be the scholar, mentor, or friend that I am today without her! Shimul continues to be my biggest support system in academia, helping feel confident in navigating the academy as my true authentic self. I also really admire the administrative role she has taken in the business school to support undergraduate students. She is now the associate dean of undergraduate programs in the business school, a role that demonstrates her commitment to the development of all students. She also created the Kenan-Flagler Business School Belonging Fund, which is a scholarship fund for undergraduate students to help in case of emergencies and to defray the cost of typical recruiting expenses (e.g. buying a suit, purchasing a plane ticket for in-person interviews, etc.).

Sreedhari Desai was also a mentor and a research collaborator during my time at UNC. In my 2nd year as a student, Sreedhari led four weeks of a Ph.D. student seminar class, where she introduced us to a variety of research on the benefits of DEI to organizations and the challenges that are faced by women and racial minorities in the workplace. She made sure that all students in the department were exposed to this research, and each student submitted a research idea on the topic, which she later provided feedback on so that we could improve as students. I submitted a research idea about Black women’s experiences in negotiations, noting that the current research on gender in negotiations did not seem to apply to Black women. Sreedhari not only encouraged me to continue pursuing this research, but she also offered to collaborate with me on the research idea and mentored me through the process of putting together our research paper. I presented an early version of this research paper at the Harvard Business School Gender and Work conference, and Sreedhari helped me prepare and was my biggest cheerleader during my talk. This paper was recently accepted for publication at a top management journal, Organization Science. I’ve also won numerous awards for this research, including being awarded the Society of Personality and Social Psychology’s outstanding student researcher award. This would not have been possible without the research collaboration, mentorship, and support I received from Sreedhari. There were times when I wasn’t confident that we would be able to publish this paper, but Sreedhari continued to assure me that our research on Black women in negotiations was important and that we had to keep persevering despite  the obstacles we faced.

Michael Christian was the Ph.D. program coordinator for the OB department when I started in 2015. He was the faculty member that first heard my research ideas related to the intersections of race and gender in the workplace. I presented my research idea in his graduate student seminar and he went out of his way to help me turn my research ideas into published academic research. First, Michael, Shimul and I met to talk about my research idea and they both gave me advice on how to continue to develop my research. This meeting was the beginning of my mentorship and collaboration with Shimul. Second, Michael sent me numerous papers by other Black women faculty in OB departments that were studying race and gender in the workplace. He went on to assure me that my research was important and he encouraged me to connect with these scholars. Currently, Michael and I are working with another Black graduate student (who is a current student in good standing in UNC’s OB Ph.D. program) on a research paper about confronting racial discrimination in the workplace. My interactions with Michael have shown me time and again that he is committed to fostering diversity in academia, and he is supportive of Ph.D. students and their individual research interests, even when those interests extend beyond his own expertise.

In sum, I will end by saying that as a Black woman who spent five years in UNC’s Organizational Behavior department Ph.D. program and remains connected to the faculty and students in the department, I am deeply troubled by the characterization that has been published in the media about the department. I hope that sharing my own experience, and my ultimate success in publishing research centered on Black employees, race and racism in the workplace with the faculty in this department sheds light on the immense training, support, and guidance I received while at UNC.

Ayana Younge

When I moved to begin my Ph.D. journey, I had no expectations of finding family 3,000 miles away from home. But that’s precisely what happened when I joined the OB department at Kenan-Flagler Business School. From my first visit to campus in 2015 as an eager first year graduate student, to my final goodbyes as an accomplished post-doc in 2022, I received constant care from the individuals in this community. Simply put, I found a new home at UNC—one filled with commitment to excellence, intellectual challenges, and freedom to be myself, express differences and pursue novel pathways without judgment. I found a home filled with unconditional support. Specifically, my interactions with some of the professors in this department have made a vast impact on my identity as a biracial Black and White woman navigating the academic field, but also, navigating life.

Shimul Melwani was my advisor and dissertation committee chair, and she will forever be my mentor and role model. Through Shimul’s actions over these past 7 years, I can confidently say that she cares about me as a person and scholar. In my first few months of the program, she agreed to a co-advisor position because my other advisor had moved. Shimul was actually the one to suggest stepping into this position to provide me with additional facetime for check-ins and guidance during the program. Little did I know, this was the first of many situations in which she would graciously offer her time and feedback in order to enhance my learning and fuel my success. In the final leg of my Ph.D. journey, she also stepped into the role of my dissertation committee chair and worked tirelessly to help me finish my dissertation in less than 6 weeks. Two years later, yet again, she spent hours on a flight from London working on my dissertation paper we were resubmitting to a journal—even though she had already stolen time from her family on vacation to work on this, and many evenings the months leading up to this deadline. In addition to our current paper on gratitude that is under review, I have 2 additional research projects with her that we’ve been working on for the past five years. Her dedicated time to mentoring me, and others, seems to be endless. While I was on the job market, she went above and beyond to review my materials, check job postings every single day for months and update my spreadsheet. She even went out of her way to come into the office on a Sunday morning to help me find maternity clothes for my job talks and workshop my 90-minute job talk. She was a huge advocate in helping me obtain a post-doc position, and now, a tenure-track job. Without her, I would not be where I am today. But she has made this difference for many individuals, I’m sure. Through her actions, I can see how much she cares about others at KFBS. I was in her office when she received official news about becoming the Associate Dean for the Undergraduate Business Program (UBP). I cannot express in words how elated she was. Her passion for working with, helping, and mentoring undergraduate students is truly remarkable. Prior to stepping into this position, she established a scholarship for undergraduates from low-income backgrounds and completely revamped the undergraduate orientation to welcome new students. Under her leadership, SPARK was the most successful orientation UBP had organized to date and students raved about it. I mention these moments to highlight her genuine desire to make a difference in people’s lives, to support them in any way she can, to bend over backwards to lend a helping hand, and to encourage others to succeed and follow their values. I could write a novel on the many ways in which Shimul has impacted my life for the better—but in lieu of thousands of words, I will leave you with this one— she is simply inspirational. 

Sreedhari Desai was also someone I looked to for advice during my time at UNC. She was always open to sharing her own experiences and stories with me in order to offer me different perspectives and insight. For example, she offered me guidance on my initial job search and decision-making process when I was considering a post-doctoral research position.

She has been nothing short of supportive along every step of my journey. I cannot think of a conversation I’ve had with Sreedhari where she didn’t offer encouragement or motivation. She was such a positive light in my life and I was always energized by her enthusiasm, of which she proudly displayed when I asked who wanted to join me for a 30-day push-up and squat challenge during my second year in the program. She was the only faculty member to volunteer for this random suggestion I offered, and we had many laughs over the next month talking about how we didn’t want to take the stairs because our legs were tired from the squats that day. Aside from her personal mentorship, I also learned a lot from her as a scholar. She taught a short section on gender in our special topics course during the program. During this section, her and I began a research project about the perceptions of employee marital status and organizational outcomes. I was personally not able to dedicate as much time as I would have liked to the project, but she always made herself available to meet with me, offered to pay for the multiple research studies we collected data for, and edited drafts of the paper. I am looking forward to one-day finishing this work with Sreedhari and am excited to continue learning from her invaluable experiences and guidance as a successful researcher in our academic field.

Mike Christian was the first professor I had when I began the program and our PhD program coordinator. His Introduction to Organizational Behavior class was truly a game-changer. But it wasn’t necessarily because of the content that I became excited and eager to learn more about this field—it was because of Mike. He is an excellent teacher and facilitated rich and thoughtful discussions. He was open, challenging, insightful, and willing to listen. Within my first semester of the program, he also invited all the current students to lunch to talk about the vision of the Ph.D. program—instead of implementing his ideas for how he wanted to run the program as the new coordinator, he first sought our feedback and questions and was adamant about providing resources and opportunities that mattered to us. For example, he initiated the special topics course, helped build a positive culture around our weekly area lunches, asked us for input on seminar speakers to invite, put steps in place to better formalize and structure our second-year paper and comprehensive exam requirements, and more. Because of Mike’s many positive qualities, he became someone I often looked up to in the department in terms of his creativity, energy, willingness and desire to be involved, open-door nature, and concern for the students. Though I do not have any current research collaborations with Mike, I, along with my cohort-mates, began some data collection on a research idea we had in our first year of the program. Even at such an early stage, he gave us leeway to explore and test our ideas. This demonstrated to me that he trusted us and regarded us as more than just naïve first-year students, but as colleagues and collaborators with important ideas. Years later, Mike has remained a huge part of my support system at UNC. He has set aside time to chat with me about research and job search pathways numerous times, listening intently and offering advice when asked. He was a strong advocate and supporter of me obtaining the lab manager and post-doc position at Kenan-Flagler and always checked in with me to see how I was handling all the requirements of teaching, managing the lab, and of course, conducting research. I’m so happy that he was a member of my dissertation committee because his challenging questions, ideas, and feedback pushed me to create a stronger dissertation package. But this is to no surprise, because he encourages improvement across many domains. For example, he helped improve the OB culture by creating the DEI committee and led it as co-chair the first year. During this time, we pursued many goals—one of which being the establishment of the OB department webpage and another being the first-ever “PhD in Business” seminar where we invited underrepresented students at UNC to attend an event where we gave an overview of what a PhD in Business is like and presented some research on DEI related topics. The goal of this event was to increase the number of underrepresented individuals who know about, and may apply, to Ph.D. programs in Management, a goal that Mike was in great support of. This recent example is just one highlighting Mike’s commitment to fostering inclusivity and belonging in the Ph.D. program—he is truly dedicated to student success and I have witnessed first-hand how he will drop anything he’s doing to provide his time and support.

Chaitali Kapadia

Shimul Melwani was my primary advisor and dissertation chair while I was in the Ph.D. program at UNC from 2011-2017. I can honestly say that I would not have made it through the program without her unwavering support and guidance. Shimul began her career at UNC the same year I began my journey as a doctoral student and she has served as a mentor throughout. We began working together from the first year and she took on an advisory role when I shared my dissertation idea with her. She not only guided my research development, but also looked out for my personal interests during my professional career. She helped me with the interview process, improving how I presented my research, providing teaching resources, and even sharing her own interview clothing so I wouldn’t have to spend money on expensive clothes as a doctoral student. All this went above and beyond the formal requirements of a dissertation chair and advisor. And her mentorship and support didn’t cease when I successfully defended my dissertation and graduated from the program with a tenure-track assistant professor position at a prominent university in Asia. I visited her regularly on my trips back to North Carolina (where my husband was based), and she was one of the first people outside of my family that I told when I became pregnant. Though I was anxious about having to go back on the job market while pregnant in order to get a U.S.-based academic position, Shimul reassured me and took it upon herself to help me update my job application materials, develop a new presentation for the interview process, and cheer me on when I received an offer from an R1 university, even though I had graduated from UNC two years earlier. To this day, I go to her regularly for guidance about research, personal struggles, and everything in between. She is always there for me.

Though I did not work directly with Sreedhari Desai during my PhD program, my experience with her has been one of warmth and generosity. She has always greeted me kindly and asked how I am doing with genuine interest and affection. She also volunteered her time to provide important and critical feedback and advice when I was practicing my job market research presentation in front of faculty.

Mike Christian was my co-author and a mentor and advisor to me throughout the program as well. As the professor for the first year OB Ph.D. student seminar, he helped set the foundation for my research ideas and interests. My seminar paper from his course developed into a publication at a top management journal through Mike’s thoughtful guidance. Throughout the publication process, Mike took the time to explain theory development, how to respond to reviewers’ criticism, and even provided point-by-point analysis on how I could improve my writing on the manuscript. As a busy junior professor, he didn’t need to take the time to explain these things to me, but this critical information and experience gave me the ability and confidence to publish my own work in the field. In doing so, Mike has been critical in my success as a female academic.

Erin C. Long

I began my journey as a Ph.D. student when Mike Christian and other faculty recruited myself and Chaitali Kapadia to join UNC’s OB Ph.D. program in 2011. We were a small cohort of two and had just hit the jackpot in terms of Ph.D. program experience and faculty who would invest more than we could imagine in our professional and personal outcomes. I quickly learned that the Ph.D. program was the heart of the OB department, and beyond the excellent training and high expectations for our learning, the faculty cared deeply about our interests and success. These faculty worked hard to create a climate of inclusion, support and safety, and encouragement, which allowed me to show up authentically, take risks and learn from failure, and pursue and develop confidence in my own research identity, abilities, and place in academia. It was my experience that Mike Christian, Shimul Melwani, and Sreedhari Desai were drivers of this culture, and with deep appreciation, I share some of my experiences and personal knowledge of them below.

Shimul Melwani was an integral member of my dissertation committee, a source of support, and an important role model during my time at UNC. As a dissertation committee member, she spent time pushing me to think beyond my initial idea and theory, helping me to develop a topic of greater impact for both theory and practice. She went out of her way to mentor me and help me to prepare as I entered the job market, even taking personal time to advise and give feedback on the interview process. On several occasions, I approached Shimul with questions about the value of my work and the challenges of being a woman in academia. I remember the openness with which she discussed these issues and the reassurance I felt about my place in the field after talking with her. The advice and concern that I received from Shimul, and the general humanity that I experienced in conversation and through her actions were unforgettable—these experiences have helped to shape my own aspirations as an educator and continue to impact how I show up for my students. Finally, Shimul’s research and contributions to the DEI literature, along with her co-author and former doctoral student, Angelica Leigh, have become central in establishing a culture of inclusion, broadening student awareness, and creating space for students to discuss critical DEI topics in my classes.

Although I did not collaborate directly with Sreedhari Desai, Sreedhari positioned herself as a source of support and encouragement at critical points in my time as a doctoral student at UNC. She took time out of her personal and professional schedule to be present and cheer me on when I presented research at conferences that we both attended. She was generous with both her time and critical feedback as I approached the job market in my final year as a doctoral student, a pivotal point in my career. I was not Sreedhari’s student or research collaborator, yet she valued and invested in me. She offered her time and wisdom freely—she showed up to multiple job talk practices and provided detailed and impactful feedback on adjusting my presentation and delivery to be more effective. Understanding the immensity of the job market experience for students, Sreedhari sought out opportunities to ask about and help build my confidence going into my first job talk. Her words of encouragement have remained with me, as has my gratitude to her. Through personal conversations and accounts from other female doctoral students, I have many examples of Sreedhari’s support and contributions to the success of women in our field. Finally, Sreedhari’s impactful research addressing the unique challenges faced by women in the workplace speaks for itself.

I’m not sure how to articulate in a single page the positive impact that Mike Christian has had on my career and life over the last decade, but I’ll share a few of the ways that he was instrumental in my success. Mike was my primary advisor and dissertation chair at UNC. The amount of time and energy that Mike dedicated to mentoring me and to my career development as a Ph.D. student is astonishing to think back on, especially given all of the demands he faced as a junior faculty member at the time. But that’s Mike—he pours his heart and energy into his students’ careers and he is open about the joy it brings him. Anyone will tell you that Mike’s enthusiasm about his research is contagious, but he is equally enthusiastic and eager to help others develop and explore topics that are most meaningful to them. He encouraged me to spend time honing my research and scholarly identity on topics that felt personally significant, even when these topics fell outside of his general expertise. He always found funding for my research—he was determined that Ph.D. student success should not hinge on the availability of money to support their work. As the chair of my dissertation committee, Mike spent countless hours giving critical feedback and providing developmental support. Mike’s developmental efforts were also invaluable as I approached the academic job market in my final year as a doctoral student. He challenged me to create a job talk presentation and develop presentation skills that were instrumental in securing my first academic position, and that continue to serve as critical skills in my career today. Mike’s support through that process, the sheer volume of time he dedicated to listening to iteration upon iteration, and the confidence he inspired in me was remarkable. Again, these are just a few examples of Mike’s norm to go above and beyond in supporting students. In the 11 years that I have known Mike, he has demonstrated an enduring commitment to my success as a woman in academia, encouraging me to aim higher and inspiring professional growth and success in ways that I had not imagined for myself. While wonderful, this is not surprising to me—it is his nature and he is intentional about finding ways to lift others up. My experience is that Mike is kind. He is humble. He is ethical. He is an advocate. He is an ally. Those who know me well will tell you that I do not ascribe the latter characterization lightly. Mike not only demonstrates this quality through his work with students, but also through his efforts to create important and lasting change for underrepresented students and individuals in business at UNC. For example, he has chaired the OB Department’s DEI task force and serves as a DEI liaison at Kenan-Flagler. He also served on two Kenan-Flagler wide DEI committees to formalize DEI strategy and develop accountability measures. His efforts are not performative; in the time that I have known Mike, he has given me every reason to believe that his efforts reflect deeply held values around social justice and equity, and a desire to take action. 

It is difficult to summarize so briefly the life and career changing support that I received as a female doctoral student in UNC’s OB Ph.D. program and the inspiring work of these faculty. There’s so much more to add. I am certain though, that my experience as a Ph.D. student and career opportunities would have been categorically different were it not for the dedication, support, and encouragement of these faculty on both a personal and professional level. I have experienced and observed time and again that these faculty champion diversity and are dedicated to the success of women and underrepresented minorities in this field. Unequivocally, we need more faculty like them in the field and academia, and more individuals like them in this world.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we reiterate that this letter was written with the sole purpose of sharing information and our own personal experiences within UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School Organizational Behavior department, a department that consistently cared for us and continues to support us. We write our truths openly and freely, and we invite readers of this letter to digest this information in a similar fashion–with an open mind and an open heart.

Sincerely (signed in alphabetical order by first name),

Angelica Leigh, Ph.D.

Ayana Younge, Ph.D.

Chaitali Kapadia, Ph.D.

Erin C. Long, Ph.D.