Prof. Dr. Brooke A. Gazdag is an Associate Professor of Management and Academic Director of Executive Education at the KLU. Originally from Western New York, after completing her PhD in Organizational Behavior and Management at the State University of New York at Buffalo, Dr. Gazdag took a position as Post Doc at the Technical University of Munich as part of a project on the “Selection and Evaluation of Leaders in Academia and Industry.” Afterwards, she worked at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in the Munich School of Business until 2020. Until 2023, Dr. Gazdag worked as an Assistant Professor at the Amsterdam Business School of the University of Amsterdam. Dr. Gazdag has also been a visiting professor and lecturer at various universities from Israel to Australia.
Dr. Gazdag's research and teaching interests center around topics that reflect the various challenges and opportunities in the world of work: leadership, negotiations, and diversity and inclusion. In her research, Dr. Gazdag considers how these three topics work together to explore various topics such as the link between networking and leadership, how to build negotiation resilience, women's representation in leadership positions, and how inclusion can help to build resilience into relationships between diverse communities. Dr. Gazdag currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies and as an adhoc reviewer for various other journals.
As a curator of knowledge and advocate for better ways of working, Dr. Gazdag seeks to integrate various insights and perspectives in her teaching, training, and speaking engagements to co-create dynamic, engaging learning experiences. She embraces innovative approaches to teaching and training with online learning seminars (“Diversity & Inclusion: Die Kraft der Vielfalt” and "Konflikte lösen" with Zeit Akademie) and blended learning, using a mix of own videos/podcasts, interactive exercises, and small group training on topics such as values-based leadership, resilience, diversity and inclusion, networking, and intercultural communication. Dr. Gazdag has fully embraced the rapid digitization of the working world and adapted not only her own leadership and training to the context, but also seeks to help others do the same.
Selected Publications
(In Press): How Identity Impacts Bystander Responses to Workplace Mistreatment, Journal of Management: .
Abstract: Integrating a social identity approach with Cortina's (2008) theorizing about selective incivility as modern discrimination, we examine how identification—with an organization, with one's gender, and as a feminist—shapes bystanders’ interpretations and responses to witnessed incivility (i.e., interpersonal acts of disrespect) and selective incivility (i.e., incivility motivated by targets’ social group membership) toward women at work. We propose that bystanders with stronger organizational identification are less likely to perceive incivility toward female colleagues as discrimination and intervene, but female bystanders with stronger gender identification are more likely to do so. Results from two-wave field data in a cross-lagged panel design (Study 1, N = 336) showed that organizational identification negatively predicted observed selective incivility 1 year later but revealed no evidence of an effect of female bystanders’ gender identification. We replicated and extended these results with a vignette experiment (Study 2, N = 410) and an experimental recall study (Study 3, N = 504). Findings revealed a “dark side” of organizational identification: strongly identified bystanders were less likely to perceive incivility as discrimination, but there were again no effects of women's gender identification. Study 3 also showed that bystander feminist identification increased intervention via perceived discrimination. These results raise doubts that female bystanders are more sensitive to recognizing other women's mistreatment as discrimination, but more strongly identified feminists (male or female) were more likely to intervene. Although strongly organizationally identified bystanders were more likely to overlook women's mistreatment, they were also more likely to intervene once discrimination was apparent.
(2023): Leadership in the digital age: Competencies and mindsets to navigate the future of work, Independently published, 9798388757883..
Abstract: In a post-2020 world, we may have been forced to go digital, but we have the opportunity now to embrace it. We can adapt. We can learn. We can evolve. We can adapt to the new challenges and opportunities that digitalization brings. We can learn new skills and competencies to help us thrive in the digital era. We can evolve as individuals and as members of society who contribute to the common good. Our definitions of leaders have shifted and expanded. What we consider a team has become more fluid and globally distributed, requiring us to work with diverse people from different cultures, backgrounds, and time zones. At its very foundation, relationship building at work is more often than not mediated by technology via video calls and emails. Even how we define work and our relationship with our employer has been called into question as we seek more flexibility, autonomy, and purpose in our careers. We are in the midst of a global shift in mindset. So how can we best manage ourselves, let alone others, in such an age? What are some key competencies that I need to develop to be ready for the digital age? This book will guide you through these topics and provide concrete examples, exercises, and personal and professional development tips in the digital age. Whether you are a student just starting on your career journey or an established leader looking for new ideas, this book will provide some food for thought, ideas of where to get started, and, more than likely, even more questions than you started with. This means that this book is not meant to be a definitive answer to all your questions about digitalization but rather a catalyst for your curiosity and creativity regarding how the world of work is changing in the digital age. This book is an invitation for you to join the digital movement and become an agent of change and forward-thinking in your own life and the world around you. Finally, why did I write this book? In March 2020, when I joined as a professor and lecturer at the University of Amsterdam, I was given an exciting and challenging opportunity to teach a course on leadership and management in the digital age – designing the course from scratch right at the beginning of the pandemic. It was a poetic start: the topic and the global context have never been more fitting. After surviving the first semester of online teaching at a new university with a new course (not to mention recording videos on my laptop stacked on top of my moving boxes while I sat on the floor), I was very enthusiastic about the topic. I couldn’t wait to see what new research and thoughts would come out on this subject. However, in the following years, I worked with textbook publishers and scoured online resources to find the most relevant and up-to-date reports and articles for my students. While significant resources exist on digital transformation, digital disruption, and the like, the individual worker’s experience is somehow missing. Therefore, I never found a text that quite fit my vision of leadership and management in the digital age. So I decided to put it together myself. How to use this book? This book is written so you can pick it up and read a chapter any time - while taking a short break between online meetings or a quick dose of knowledge in the morning. Each chapter is concise and to the point. If you want to learn more, the end of each lesson has three additional sections: ‘Reflection questions,’ ‘Your turn,’ and ‘Get inspired.’ ‘Reflection questions’ can be used as prompts for deeper thought on the topics or as a review of the themes discussed in the lesson. ‘Your turn’ outlines some practical ways to apply the themes or further explore the topics in a hands-on way. Finally, ‘Get inspired’ summarizes the resources and references for the lesson and provides some additional sources of inspiration to support you on your learning journey. So take a look and enjoy!
(2018): Are all impostors created equal? Exploring gender differences in the impostor phenomenon-performance link, Personality and Individual Differences, 131: 156-163.
Abstract: Some individuals report feeling inauthentic at work, and fear being found out as a fake or as someone who does not deserve their status or reputation. Termed the imposter phenomenon (IP), this pervasive feeling has recently gained traction and recognition in organizational research. However, the relationship between IP and performance is still not well understood. We present two studies that explore the relationship between IP, performance, and gender under two different conditions: feedback (Study 1, N = 268) and accountability (Study 2, N = 250). Results indicate that male IPs react significantly more negatively under conditions of negative feedback and high accountability. These findings reveal a complex relationship between IP and gender which demonstrate that imposters' gender could potentially exacerbate the negative effects of IP on work outcomes.
(2013): What makes leadership, leadership? Using self-expansion theory to integrate traditional and contemporary approaches, The Leadership Quarterly, 24 (6): 798-821.
Abstract: Numerous traditional theories and paradigms of leadership purport to describe what leadership is. It is difficult to reconcile these traditional approaches, however, if each one alone, independent of the others, is viewed as capturing the actual identity of leadership. In this article, we take an integrative view of traditional approaches to leadership. To do so, we first identify some underlying ideas common to them. Next, we explain how these underlying ideas lead us to a fundamental theory about close relationships—that is, self-expansion theory, which refers to a psychological process in which an individual incorporates another into the self (Aron & Aron, 1986). We then review the traditional leadership theories to explore whether these theories may be linked through self-expansion theory and whether self-expansion may help to explain why boundary conditions have been discovered for all of them. In this process, we explore whether traditional approaches to leadership might also be linked with more contemporary approaches through self-expansion theory. Finally, we discuss the implications for future research and professional practice of the integration of traditional approaches to leadership.
Academic Positions
Since 2023 | Associate Professor of Management and Academic Director of Executive Education, Kühne Logistics University, Hamburg, Germany |
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| 2020 - 2023 | Assistant Professor (Tenure Track), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands |
| 2018 - 2019 | Visiting Scholar, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia |
2018 - 2018 | Visiting Scholar, University of Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel |
2014 - 2020 | Assistant Professor (W1), Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany |
| 2012 - 2014 | Postdoctoral Fellow, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany |
| 2009 - 2012 | Lecturer, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, USA |
Education
| 2012 | PhD in Management, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, USA |
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| 2008 | Double Major, B.A. in Psychology, B.A. in Spanish, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, USA |
| 2006 | University of Seville, Seville, Spain |