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Adina Sterling

Adina Sterling
Assistant Professor, Organizational Behavior
Contact Info
AdinaSterling
Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior
Academic Area: 
Organizational Behavior

Research Statement

Adina D. Sterling investigates the ways organizations attract, manage, and retain high-value human capital in technology and business, the effect this has on the performance of employees and organizations, and the broader impact of these practices on inequality. For example, her work illuminates the ways firms strategically use the networks of employees to address timing issues when recruiting and hiring individuals, and that those hired with a social contact in the firm prior to starting are better integrated into a firm’s network after they join organizations. She currently has a number of projects investigating the tradeoffs between hiring through networks and hiring through trials such as internships, and is finding that the tradeoffs pertain to the performance of individuals, as well as equity-related issues, such as who is hired and what they paid.

Research Interests

  • Economic Sociology
  • Labor Markets
  • Strategic HR
  • Networks and Careers
  • Inequality

Bio

Professor Adina D. Sterling graduated with honors from Ohio State University with a BS in chemical engineering in 2002 and graduated with her PhD from Emory in Organization and Management in 2011. She is an economic sociologist who specializes in studying the way firms and labor and product markets interact and the implications of these interactions on the prices firms get for their products, who gets hired and what they get paid, as well as the affects this has on social stratification. For instance, her work has investigated a) how initial networks evolve in organizations b) how hiring practices affect selection and wage decisions and c) how networks and prior employment affect the success of entrepreneurs.

Professor Sterling currently has projects investigating how traditional methods of hiring compare to trial employment, or when firms get the opportunity to observe individuals first-hand in organizations, such as internships prior to making hiring decisions. Her work has appeared in journals such as Management Science, Organization Science, and the Annals of the Academy of Management. Prior to academia, Professor Sterling worked at Procter and Gamble as a senior engineer on brands such as Pampers and Oil of Olay.


 

Academic Degrees

  • PhD, Organization and Management, Emory University, 2011
  • BS, Chemical Engineering, The Ohio State University, 2002

Academic Appointments

  • Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business, 2015 - present
  • Assistant Professor of Strategy, Washington University, Olin Business School, 2011-2015

Publications

Journal Articles

Adina Sterling. Organization Science. June 2015, Vol. 26, Issue 3, Pages 650–667.
Adina Sterling. Management Science. 2014, Vol. 60, Issue 9, Pages 2341-2354.
Adina Sterling, Matthew Bidwell, Forrest Briscoe, Isabel Fernandez-Mateo. Annals of the Academy of Management. 2013, Vol. 7, Pages 61-121.
Adina Sterling, Peter Roberts. Management Science. 2012, Vol. 58, Issue 7, Pages 1292-1304.

Book Chapters

Adina Sterling. American Bar Foundation’s Research Group on Legal Diversity. 2016.

Courses Taught

Degree Courses

2015-16

This course examines fundamental issues of general management and leadership within an organization. You will learn about setting an organization's strategic direction, aligning structure to implement strategy, and leading individuals within the...

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