Brittany Bond

Brittany Bond is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at Cornell University's Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) School. As an organizational theorist and economic sociologist, she investigates how status recognition influences labor market outcomes, with specific focus on how personnel management systems shape careers and impact firm performance. Her research has been published in top journals including Organization Science and Sociological Science, and has been featured by the US Census Bureau's Research Matters Blog and Wharton Business Radio.

Bond earned her PhD from MIT Sloan's Economic Sociology Program in May 2020. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked as an economist in the Office of the Chief Economist of the US Commerce Department, with a detail at the U.S. Census Bureau's Center for Economic Studies. She holds an MS in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College and a BA in International Economic Relations from American University in Washington DC.

Her research examines the consequences of 'status recognition mismatch,' focusing on discrepancies between professionals' status and performance. Bond studies how talent recruitment systems, performance management practices, and recognition mechanisms shape career trajectories and organizational effectiveness. Her work has significant implications for strategic talent management in competitive environments, particularly regarding how organizations can retain high-performing employees through appropriate recognition systems.

Bond's publication record reveals a consistent theme examining recognition systems within organizations and their behavioral consequences. Her work spans forced ranking systems, specialist performance dynamics, referral networks, and the psychological impacts of recognition mismatch. She employs innovative methodologies combining archival data with experimental approaches, as evidenced by her research using Major League Baseball data to study specialist performance and internal Census Bureau data for labor market analysis.

Bond has received significant recognition for her scholarly contributions:

• William H. Newman All-Academy Award for Best Paper Based on a Dissertation (2020)
• Louis R. Pondy Best Dissertation Paper, Organization and Management Theory Division of the Academy of Management (2020)
• Finalist, INFORMS/Organization Science Best Dissertation Proposal Competition (2019)

Bond teaches courses on power and influence at multiple levels. Her graduate course ILROB 5260, 'Being Effective: Power and Influence,' provides students with tools for understanding organizational power dynamics. She also teaches ILROB 3260, 'Power and Influence: Building Power from Nothing,' for undergraduates, and the Macro OB PhD Seminar (ILROB 7220). Previously at MIT Sloan, she taught 'People, Teams, and Organizations' as a course section instructor.

Her current research portfolio includes investigations into overrecognition effects, platform changes and evaluative behavior, gender differences in internal job applications, burnout interventions for veterinarians, and the trickle effects of HR implementation. Bond collaborates across disciplines to examine complex organizational phenomena, often bridging sociology, management, and economics perspectives.