




Hyunsun Park
PhD Candidate in Management & Organization (OB/HR),
Robert H. Smith School of Business, U. of Maryland
Welcome! I am a PhD Candidate in Management and Organization (OB/HR) at
the University of Maryland. I will be joining the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business as an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior in Fall 2023.
My primary research program focuses on employee voice and proactivity.
My research appears in outlets such as the Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Harvard Business Review, and has won the Academy of Management Best Paper Award. In my research, I utilize field surveys, experiments, qualitative interviews, as well as archival data.
In my dissertation, I propose that employees with lower social class backgrounds who have made it into elite organizations face ambivalent reactions, depending on the nature of their work behaviors. I test this idea in the contexts of social caste in India and socioeconomic status in the U.S. Through a field survey and four experiments, I find that employees of lower social class origins in elite workplaces are allowed "a narrow window of proactivity", wherein they are admired as "model citizens" when they use their agency to
support the status quo (e.g., by helping coworkers) but are punished for being "squeaky wheels" once they challenge the status quo (e.g., by speaking up).
I have successfully taught a core Management course for two semesters, earning high teaching ratings (Fall 21 overall rating: 3.7 / 4.0, instructor rating: 4.0 / 4.0; Summer 22 overall rating: 3.9 / 4.0, instructor rating: 3.9 / 4.0) and positive student comments. I am prepared to teach OB/HR courses, including leadership, teams, motivation, decision-making, negotiation, organizational change, and HRM.
Prior to pursuing an academic career, I worked across different industries, including financial analysis and management consulting in Korea and Singapore.
Let’s connect! Email: hpark910@umd.edu