Katharina Schmid

Dr. Katharina Schmid serves as Associate Professor of Organizational Behaviour in the Department of People Management and Organisation at ESADE Business School, Ramon Llull University, Spain. Previously, she held research fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Social Diversity and the University of Oxford.

Her academic credentials include:

• PhD in Social Psychology from Queen's University Belfast
• BSc in Applied Psychology from University of Ulster

Dr. Schmid's research centers on ethnic/religious diversity, intergroup contact, and social identity processes—particularly social identity complexity—with extensions into organizational behaviour, conflict management, and negotiation. She examines how neighborhood and workplace diversity shapes social cohesion, recently expanding into climate psychology and political phenomena like Brexit. Her work employs multi-method approaches across diverse international contexts.

Recent publications (2022-2025) reveal consistent high-impact contributions across social psychology and interdisciplinary journals including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature, and American Psychologist. Key trends include nuanced analyses of contact valence/intensity, personality moderators in diversity attitudes, and large-scale behavioral interventions for climate action.

As an active investigator at GLEAD - Leadership Development Research Centre, Dr. Schmid leads significant projects including 'DivCon' on diversity/contact dynamics and the International Climate Psychology Collaboration spanning 63 countries. Her research often involves cross-cultural teams and multi-method designs to address complex societal challenges.