Academic Events

Topic:

Time&Date:

10:00 am - 12:00 pm, March 28, 2025 (Friday)

Venue

Room D403, Teaching Complex D Building

Speaker:

Cindy Wang

Northwestern University

My talk will consist of two parts. First, I will present recent research examining the contagion of unethical behavior in organizations. While prior literature has largely assumed a uniform contagion pattern across unethical behaviors, our work distinguishes between self-interested unethical behavior (SUB) and unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB). Drawing from social learning and social exchange theories, we propose that employees are more likely to emulate UPB—given its prosocial framing—than SUB, due to heightened conformity pressure. Furthermore, we theorize that this dynamic is moderated by relational mobility climate, defined as employees’ perceptions of their ability to exit existing workplace relationships and form new ones. Specifically, when perceived relational mobility is low, the influence of coworkers’ UPB on individual UPB—via conformity pressure—is amplified. In contrast, relational mobility climate does not significantly moderate the spread of SUB. Our findings, supported by both field and experimental studies, underscore the role of conformity pressure and relational mobility as key mechanisms and contextual factors in unethical behavior contagion. In the second part of the talk, I will introduce the Dispute Resolution Research Center (DRRC) at Northwestern University. As Executive Director, I will highlight the center’s mission, educational resources, and opportunities for collaboration in negotiation pedagogy and research development.

Biography:

Cindy Wang is the Executive Director of the Dispute Resolution and Research Center (DRRC) and Clinical Professor of Management and Organizations at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. She holds a B.A. from Yale University and a Ph.D. from Kellogg. Her teaching spans negotiations, organizational behavior, and cross-cultural communication at all levels. Professor Wang’s research explores intergroup conflict, diversity, and negotiation, with work published in top journals like Science and Organization Science. Her insights have been featured by Time, Scientific American, the New York Times, and BBC. She has received numerous honors, including a Fulbright Fellowship and best paper awards from the Academy of Management. Actively engaged in the academic community, she served as president of the International Association for Conflict Management. Prior to academia, she worked in consulting at Imagitas, advising public and private sector organizations.