Influential Leader
Jennifer Griffith
Summary
Jennifer Griffith is an associate professor of organizational behavior and management and the Morrison Fellow of Diversity at the University of New Hampshire’s Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics. Her research focuses on increasing equity in the workplace. Most recently, her studies have centered on workplace policy and institutional interventions both pre- and post-hire to prevent and remedy the social and individual costs of identity-based bias and sexual misconduct. This work includes research and applied projects related to the prevention of sexual harassment and assault as well as research on diversity, equity, and inclusion, particularly focused on interventions to address and reduce bias in organizational decisions.
Description of Research Impact
Griffith’s research has impacted and created positive change in business and society on several fronts. Her research on sexual harassment and assault prevention has been particularly impactful. For example, one of her papers, titled “#Ustoo: How I-O Psychologists Can Extend the Conversation on Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault through Workplace Training,” details the pervasive issues in sexual harassment prevention training and explicitly calls for these issues to be addressed by researchers in the field. The manuscript led to the creation of a special issue dedicated solely to this topic, featuring commentaries from other exceptional scholars.
Also as a result of her work, Griffith was invited to contribute a chapter to a forthcoming book about the #MeToo movement and bystander intervention via social media. Griffith’s research has also led to various consulting engagements, through which she has influenced business practice.
Griffith’s research on diversity, equity, and inclusion has resulted in multiple publications focused on closing important equity-based gaps in the field, including disparities in severance package payouts and a more inclusive model of women’s leadership development. Additionally, Griffith has worked extensively in partnership with managing associates at Modern Hire, an organizational selection firm that focuses on “effective, efficient, ethical, and engaging” hiring practices and assessments. This collaboration has led to several findings with substantial impact, ranging from the self- and other-imposed penalties women face during performance evaluations (e.g., undercounting leadership skills) to identifying the seemingly invisible socioenvironmental barriers to employment faced by low-income earners, including eldercare, childcare, and public transportation use.
One such project focused on veterans being penalized during the hiring process based on public stigma and found that, although veterans scored higher than civilians on relevant job tasks, they were chronically under-hired relative to their civilian peers. A follow-up study that focused on preventing such penalties was recently named a recipient of the Research Excellence in Business Analytics Award.
Griffith also contributed to a National Science Foundation ADVANCE grant that led to the creation of a groundbreaking training program called IncludeU. IncludeU is designed to enhance the academic workplace climate by providing bystander intervention training that enables individuals to effectively intervene when bias occurs. The program has been implemented at the University of New Hampshire and at other universities, including two additional R1 institutions, recognized for performing highest in areas of research and development.
Select Publications
- Jennifer Griffith, “Politics and the Workplace: How to Hire and Get Hired in an Increasingly Polarized World,” Recruiter.com, https://www.recruiter.com/recruiting/politics-and-the-workplace-how-to-hire-and-get-hired-in-an-increasingly-polarized-world/.
- Jennifer Griffith, “Severance Pay Gaps between Genders,” podcast interview by Jeff Feingold and Amanda Andrews, Down to Business, no. 108, NH Business Review, March 31, 2022, https://www.nhbr.com/severance-pay-gaps-between-genders/.
- Jennifer Griffith, “For the Sake of Gender Equity, Ditch Performative Visibility,” Forbes, June 19, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/jennifergriffith/2020/06/19/for-the-sake-of-gender-equity-ditch-performative-visibility.
- Kelsey Medeiros and Jennifer Griffith, “#Ustoo: How I-O Psychologists Can Extend the Conversation on Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault through Workplace Training,” Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice 12, no. 1 (March 2019): 1–19, https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1017/iop.2018.155.