Siyu Yu

Research Overview

Within my broad interest in informal organizational structures and inequality, I focus on several more specific research streams. First, I examine how advantageous social networks, such as connections with high-status others, result in an unexpected status loss for women – thus presenting an obstacle to overcoming the gender status gap – and can elicit unethical behaviors. Second, I study how individuals’ perceptions of where others stand in their groups’ status structures—and the accuracy of those perceptions—shape their social networks, performance, and group effectiveness. Third, I explore novel determinants of performance-detracting power struggles and status conflict in teams, such as the combination of diversity and resource scarcity and mental representations. Fourth, I explore how the two core bases of hierarchy—status and power—are perceived and internalized differently, thereby shaping individuals’ fundamental needs, self-concepts, well-being, and group engagement. Altogether, my work bridges literatures on inequality and hierarchy, social networks, gender, diversity, and group dynamics.