Nancy Rothbard

Nancy Rothbard
  • David Pottruck Professor
  • Professor of Management
  • Deputy Dean, The Wharton School

Contact Information

Research Interests: emotion and identity, organizational behavior, work motivation and engagement, work-life and career development

Links: CV

Overview

Nancy Rothbard is the David Pottruck Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She served as the Chair of the Management Department from 2016 – 2021.  She is currently the deputy Dean of the Wharton School. Nancy earned her A.B. with honors in History from Brown University and her Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from the University of Michigan. She began her career in organizational behavior as a Research Associate and case writer at the Harvard Business School.  Prior to joining Wharton, she was on the faculty at the Kellogg School of Management as a post-doctoral fellow. Since joining the Wharton faculty in 2000, Nancy has taught in the undergraduate, MBA, WEMBA, PhD, and executive education programs, receiving the Wharton Teaching Commitment and Innovation Award and numerous Wharton Teaching Excellence Awards. She is faculty director for several Executive Education programs including the Women’s Executive Leadership.

She studies what motivates people to bring their full selves to work and how this affects their work engagement, performance, and relationships.  In particular, she examines how people navigate the boundary between work and personal lives in the context of diverse organizations and technological change.  She has worked with companies in a number of industries focusing on issues such as work motivation and engagement, teamwork, leadership, emotions, identity, the changing nature of work, and work-life balance issues.

She is an award winning scholar and teacher who brings the latest thought leadership to her consulting and teaching.  She has published her research in top academic research journals in her field and her work has been discussed in the general media in outlets such as ABC News, NBC News, Business Week, CNN, Forbes, National Public Radio, The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Toronto Globe and Mail, The New York Times, US News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

Continue Reading

Research

  • Timothy Kundro and Nancy Rothbard (2023), Does Power Protect Female Moral Objectors? How and When Moral Objectors’ Gender, Power, and Use of Organizational Frames Influence Perceived Self-Control and Experienced Retaliation, Academy of Management Journal, 66 (1), pp. 306-334. Abstract

    Organizational scholars have called upon higher-power individuals to serve as moral objectors to combat unethical behavior at work because it is assumed they will face less retaliation. However, research has painted an unclear picture of whether power protects women in the same way as it does men. In this paper, we draw on two distinct role theories (i.e., power role theories and gender role theories) as well as expectancy violation theory, theorizing and finding that female moral objectors benefit less from power than male moral objectors because they are viewed as lower in self-control. We further investigate an alternative remedy, or organizational frame, that may mitigate retaliation against higher-powered female moral objectors, finding that using this frame increases perceptions of self-control and reduces retaliation. We test and find support for our theory across four studies, including an archival study (n = 33,715), a critical incident technique experiment, and two preregistered experiments testing our intervention.

  • Nancy Rothbard, Lakshmi Ramarajan, Ariane Ollier-Malaterre, Serenity Lee (2022), OMG! My Boss Just Friended Me: How Evaluations of Colleagues’ Disclosure, Gender, and Rank Shape Personal/Professional Boundary Blurring Online, Academy of Management Journal, 65 (1), pp. 35-65. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2018.0755 Abstract

    We propose and test a relational boundary blurring framework, examining how employees’ evaluations of colleagues’ characteristics drive their decisions to connect with colleagues as friends online. We use a multi-method approach across four studies to investigate how self-disclosure of personal information, gender, and (a)symmetric rank shape warmth evaluations of colleagues and subsequent boundary blurring decisions on online social networks such as Facebook. Study 1, a large archival study using a nationally representative sample, shows that connecting as friends with colleagues online is prevalent. Study 2, examining employees across several industries, shows that people experience connecting as friends with colleagues online as boundary blurring. Two experimental studies show that employees are more likely to connect as friends online with colleagues who engage in more (rather than less) self-disclosure and are less likely to connect with bosses (rather than peers). Further, self-disclosure, gender, and rank interact such that employees are more likely to connect with female bosses who disclose more compared to those who disclose less and compared to male bosses, regardless of self-disclosure. Our work contributes to boundary management research by demonstrating that employees’ decisions to blur the personal/professional boundary online crucially depends on whom they are blurring the boundary with.

  • Stephanie Creary, Nancy Rothbard, J. Scruggs, Michael Parke (Under Review), Creating the Will Without the Way? How and When Employee Belonging Leads to Voice on DEI Issues. Description
    Revise and Resubmit, Organization Science.
  • Jihae Shin, Yuna Cho, Nancy Rothbard (Under Review), Something New Out of Nothing New: When and Why Boredom Boosts Creativity in Multiple-task Environments. Description
    2nd Revise and Resubmit, Organization Science.
  • D. Tussing, K. Badura, Adam Grant, E. Grijalva, Nancy Rothbard (Under Review), Hesitant at the helm: The effectiveness-emergence paradox of reluctance to lead. Description
    Under Review at Organization Science.
  • J. Levitt and Nancy Rothbard (Under Review), Becoming Bona Fide: A Framework for Continuous, Dynamic, and Co-Produced Group Membership Boundaries Through Granting, Claiming, and Informal Relationships. Description
    Under Review at Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
  • R. Kessinger, K. Kellogg, Nancy Rothbard (Under Review), Over-stressed or Over-coddled: How managers attempt to mitigate the negative effects of technology-afforded performance management. Description
    Under Review at Journal of Applied Psychology.
  • Nancy Rothbard, Arianna Beetz (Ulloa), Dana Harari (2021), Balancing the scales: A configurational approach to work-life balance, Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior.
  • Stephanie Creary, Nancy Rothbard, 27 co-authors (2021), COVID-19 and the workplace: Implications, Issues, and Insights for Future Research and Action, .
  • Julianna Pillemer and Nancy Rothbard (2018), Friends without benefits: Understanding the dark sides of workplace friendship, Academy of Management Review, 43 (4), pp. 635-660. Abstract

    Although many scholars and practitioners have assumed that workplace friendships lead to desirable organizational outcomes, a growing body of research suggests important complexities and downsides associated with them. This indicates a need to better understand how and when workplace friendships may lead to harmful outcomes, especially in light of organizational and technological shifts that are changing the way employees connect. Drawing on theories of close relationships, social exchange, and boundary management, we present a theoretical framework highlighting how four defining features of friendship (informality, voluntariness, communal norms, and socioemotional goals) are in tension with four fundamental elements of organizational life (formal roles, involuntary constraints, exchange norms, and instrumental goals). We also highlight how mutual self-disclosure and perceived similarity develop and deepen friendships but also lead to downsides for individuals, groups, and organizations. We articulate how specific features of a focal friendship clique (e.g., closeness, maturity, and status of members) may amplify or buffer negative aspects and how social media affect friendship formation and tensions. Our theoretical framework should inform new theory and research on positive relationships at work and boundary management of professional and personal identities, as well as how changes to work and technology affect workplace relationships.

  • All Research from Nancy Rothbard »

Teaching

Past Courses

  • MGMT3910 - Advanced Study-Smgt

  • MGMT6100 - Found of Teamwrk & Ldrsh

    MGMT 610 is the first core course in the MBA Program and it cannot be waived. The first week of the fall term (in August) is dedicated to this formative and foundational experience. This course focuses on developing students' knowledge and skill set for teamwork and leadership. It is meant to be an intense immersion experience that draws strongly on the pedagogy of the Wharton Teamwork and Leadership Simulation, a team-based, highly interactive simulation that was custom-designed specifically to allow students to experience the core concepts they learn in this class. The three goals of this course are for students to learn: 1. Leadership behaviors: how to enact the skills that contribute to a team's effective performance. 2. Team dynamics: how to be an effective team member, as well as how to best design work teams; 3. Organizational awareness: understanding organizational culture. Format: A custom-designed Wharton-only simulation is paired with course sessions to deliver a unique learning experience. Classes will include experiental learning combined with debriefings, lectures, readings, class discussion and personal and group performance feedback. This course reflects the realities that informal leadership occurs in teams on an ongoing basis, that being a good team player is a part of leadership, and that many of one's early experiences with leadership will occur while working on teams. Because of the team-based nature of this course, and time intensive nature of this experience, attendance is mandatory for ALL five sessions of this class.

  • MGMT7990 - Special Topics MGMT

    Courses offered of various topics and points of focus, ranging across multiple concentrations of Management, (i.e., Entrepreneurial, Strategy, Organizational Business, etc.).

  • MGMT8910 - Advanced Study-Smgt

    This 1.0-credit experiential learning course matches small teams of MBA students with innovative technologies developed by Penn researchers. Students will engage directly with inventors to understand the science behind early-stage innovations and explore their potential for commercialization. Through a combination of instructor-led discussions on commercialization frameworks and independent team research, students will gain hands-on experience at the intersection of strategy, innovation, corporate venturing, and entrepreneurship. Projects for this class have been sourced from the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, School of Arts and Sciences, Center for Innovation & Precision Dentistry, and the Stuart Weitzman School of Design. In some cases, established corporations may also be involved, providing additional industry context and pathways to impact. Students must apply to be considered for the course. The course is open to second-semester and second-year MBA students; Wharton Executive MBA (WEMBA) students may also be considered. Ideal candidates have experience or a strong interest in commercialization, innovation, or entrepreneurship.

  • MGMT8970 - Global Modular Course A

    Special course arranged for Wharton MBA students, focused on global business, management and innovation.

  • MGMT9330 - Psych Found MGMT

    This seminar-based course, with active discussion and analysis, is required of all first-year doctoral students in Management and open to other Penn students with instructor permission. The purpose of this course is to examine and understand basics in the theory and empirical research in the field of micro organizational behavior and to build an understanding of people's behavior in organizations and across organizations. The course covers a blend of classic and contemporary literature so that we can appreciate the prevailing theories and findings in various areas of organizational behavior. This course covers micro-organizational behavior, focused on topics such as influence/status, virtual teams, job design, organizational culture and socialization, identity in organizations and overall look on where the field of micro-organizational behavior is going.

Awards And Honors

  • Wharton Teaching Excellence Award, 2020
  • Society of Organizational Behavior, 2016
  • Wharton Faculty Fellow, 2016
  • Penn Fellow, 2015
  • Rackham Centennial Lecture, University of Michigan, 2012
  • Teaching Commitment and Curricular Innovation Award, Wharton School, 2010
  • Best Career Division Symposium Award, Academy of Management, 2006 Description

    "Learning from Career Histories" Symposium: "Is prior experience always beneficial? Learning from career histories"

  • Nominated for the Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research, 2005 Description

    For “Managing multiple roles: Work-family policies and individuals’ desires for segmentation.”

  • Finalist, Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research, 2004 Description

    For “Investment in work and family roles: A test of identity and utilitarian motives.”

  • Finalist, William A. Owens Scholarly Achievement Award for best publication in the field of industrial and organizational psychology, 2001 Description

    For “Enriching or depleting? The dynamics of engagement in work and family roles.”

  • Nominated for Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research,, 2001 Description

    For "Mechanisms Linking Work and Family: Clarifying the Relationship Between Work and Family Constructs."

  • Finalist, Dorothy Harlow Best Paper Award, Gender and Diversity in Organizations, Academy of Management, 2001
  • Likert Dissertation Award, University of Michigan, 2000
  • Hicks Dissertation Research Fellowship, University of Michigan, 1998
  • Gerald and Lillian Dykstra Award for Outstanding Teaching, University of Michigan, 1996
  • Invited Participant OB/ODC/OMT Doctoral Consortium, 1996
  • Hicks Industrial Relations Fellowship, University of Michigan, 1994
  • Business Administration Fellowship, University of Michigan,, 1993

In the News

Knowledge @ Wharton

Activity

Latest Research

Timothy Kundro and Nancy Rothbard (2023), Does Power Protect Female Moral Objectors? How and When Moral Objectors’ Gender, Power, and Use of Organizational Frames Influence Perceived Self-Control and Experienced Retaliation, Academy of Management Journal, 66 (1), pp. 306-334.
All Research

In the News

Stablecoins Explained: Bridging Digital Assets and Traditional Finance

Wharton legal and business ethics expert explains how stablecoins work, why they are often misunderstood, and how a new academic toolkit clarifies their role in global finance.…Read More

Knowledge @ Wharton - 2026/02/13
All News

Awards and Honors

Wharton Teaching Excellence Award 2020
All Awards