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  1. Directory
  2. Faculty
  3. Adina D. Sterling

Adina D. Sterling

Katherine W. Phillips Associate Professor of Business
Management Division
Adina D. Sterling
Contact
Office: 995 Kravis
E-mail: [email protected]
Links
Personal Website
Curriculum Vitae

Adina D. Sterling joined Columbia Business School in 2023 as the Katherine W. Phillips Associate Professor of Business in the Management Division. Adina’s research advances an understanding of how inequality persists in labor markets and workplaces, despite the efforts of many leaders to create fair and equitable organizations.  In particular, her work demonstrates the various ways labor markets and hiring processes lead societal inequalities to be maintained and reinforced. For example, her work indicates how organizational behaviors such as employee turnover are not only affected by internal factors within organizations (such as employee satisfaction), but factors outside of organizations such as proximity to reliable transportation. These societal factors often cut across racial, class, and gender lines. Her research has been published in numerous top management journals (e.g., Administrative Science Quarterly, Management Science, Organization Science) and science journals (e.g., PNAS), as well as covered by many media outlets (e.g., the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Business Insider, and Fast Company).

In 2018, Adina founded the Equity by Design Lab (EBDL) while she was at Stanford University. As director of the lab she works with doctoral students, postdocs, and pre-doctoral students to work on solving problems related to workplace and labor market inequality. Researchers in the EBDL use a mix of methods, including archival data analyses, longitudinal surveys, interviews, field and laboratory experiments and computational techniques, to uncover mechanisms generating inequality that are often hidden from view. To learn how to address these inequalities, she creates academic and industry partnerships that focus on the ways workplace inequality can be reduced.

Adina has taught MBA, PhD, executive, and  undergraduate courses, as well as consulted and trained employees at companies including at firms in high tech, venture capital, and law. While at Stanford she developed a very popular MBA elective titled, Equity by Design: How to Build Diverse and Inclusive Organizations. In her teaching she uses a ‘bench-to-classroom’ approach that actively integrates her own academic research and that of other scholars on hiring, promotions, evaluation, and networks to help students design organizations more equitably. Pedagogically, she develops new frameworks (e.g., “Go to the MAT: Merit, Accountability, Transparency”), publishes scholarly translation articles (e.g., Harvard Business Review), and create experiential exercises, to enhance students’ learning across diverse learning modes.

Prior to getting a PhD, Adina worked for five years at Procter and Gamble as a senior engineer, working on the development of consumer products. She received her PhD from Goizueta Business School at Emory University in Organization and Management in 2011. She was on the faculty at Washington University’s Olin Business School from 2011-2015, and Stanford University from 2015-2023.

Joined CBS
2023

All Activities

  • Research
  • Teaching
  • Awards and Honors
  • Press
  • CaseWorks
  • Journal articles
  • Working papers
  • Articles
  • Books
  • Chapters
Journal Article
Sterling, Adina
. “This is Why I Leave: Race and Voluntary Departure.”
Administrative Science Quarterly
vol.
69
, no.
4
(September 05, 2024):
926
-
961
.
Explore Further about This is Why I Leave: Race and Voluntary Departure
Download PDF on This is Why I Leave: Race and Voluntary Departure
Journal Article
Sterling, Adina, Marissa E. Thompson, Shiya Wang, and Sheri Sheppard
. “The confidence gap predicts the gender pay gap among STEM graduates.”
PNAS
vol.
117
, no.
48
(May 21, 2020):
30303
-
30308
. doi:
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2010269117
Explore Further about The confidence gap predicts the gender pay gap among STEM graduates
Journal Article
, Roman V. Galperin, Oliver Hahl, Adina Sterling , and Jerry Guo
. “Too Good to Hire? Capability and Inferences about Commitment in Labor Markets.”
Administrative Science Quarterly
vol.
65
, no.
2
(March 28, 2019):
275
-
313
. doi:
https://doi.org/10.1177/0001839219840022
Explore Further about Too Good to Hire? Capability and Inferences about Commitment in Labor Markets
Journal Article
Sterling, Adina
. “Once in the Door: Gender, Tryouts, and the Initial Salaries of Managers.”
Management Science
vol.
64
, no.
11
(January 16, 2018):
4967
-
5460
. doi:
https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2017.2880
Explore Further about Once in the Door: Gender, Tryouts, and the Initial Salaries of Managers
Journal Article
Merluzzi, Jennifer and Adina Sterling
. “Lasting Effects? Referrals and Career Mobility of Demographic Groups in Organizations.”
ILR Review
vol.
70
, no.
1
(September 28, 2016):
105
-
131
. doi:
https://doi.org/10.1177/0019793916669507
Explore Further about Lasting Effects? Referrals and Career Mobility of Demographic Groups in Organizations
Journal Article
Sterling, Adina
. “Preentry Contacts and the Generation of Nascent Networks in Organizations.”
Organization Science
vol.
26
, no.
3
(June 17, 2014):
633
-
940
. doi:
https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2014.0921
Explore Further about Preentry Contacts and the Generation of Nascent Networks in Organizations
Journal Article
Sterling, Adina
. “Friendships and Search Behavior in Labor Markets.”
Management Science
vol.
60
, no.
9
(February 05, 2014):
iv-vi, 2111
-
2380
. doi:
https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2013.1857
Explore Further about Friendships and Search Behavior in Labor Markets
Journal Article
Bidwell, Matthew, Isabel Fernandez-Mateo, and Adina Sterling
. “The Employment Relationship and Inequality: How and Why Changes in Employment Practices are Reshaping Rewards in Organizations.”
The Academy of Management Annals
vol.
7
, no.
1
(January 28, 2013):
61
-
121
. doi:
https://doi.org/10.1080/19416520.2013.761403
Explore Further about The Employment Relationship and Inequality: How and Why Changes in Employment Practices are Reshaping Rewards in Organizations
Working Paper
Wang, Shiya and Adina Sterling
. Setting Up the Gap? Gender Differences in Initial Salary Offers. May 19, 2025.
Explore Further about Setting Up the Gap? Gender Differences in Initial Salary Offers
Download PDF on Setting Up the Gap? Gender Differences in Initial Salary Offers
Newspaper/Magazine Article
Merluzzi, Jennifer and Adina Sterling
. “Research: Black Employees Are More Likely to Be Promoted When They Were Referred by Another Employee.”
Harvard Business Review
. February 28, 2017.
Explore Further about Research: Black Employees Are More Likely to Be Promoted When They Were Referred by Another Employee
Newspaper/Magazine Article
Sterling, Adina
. “How Having an MBA vs. a Law Degree Shapes Your Network.”
Harvard Business Review
. February 19, 2016.
Explore Further about How Having an MBA vs. a Law Degree Shapes Your Network
  • Courses
  • Case Studies
Course
B8505: Equity by Design: Building Diverse and Inclusive Organizations
View Course on Equity by Design: Building Diverse and Inclusive Organizations
Course
B8507: Organizational Change
View Course on Organizational Change
Course
B7505: Equity by Design: Building Diverse and Inclusive Organizations
View Course on Equity by Design: Building Diverse and Inclusive Organizations
  • Awards & Honors
  • In the Media
  • Articles
In the Media

The War on Woke: How a Gay Rights Index Once Touted by Walmart and Others Became a Conservative Target

CNBC
In the Media

The Price of Conformity & Hyper-Compettitive Environments, w/ Columbia Professor Adina Sterling

Then, Now & Tomorrow
Article

Why Employee Retention is More Complicated Than You Think

Read More about Why Employee Retention is More Complicated Than You Think
Article

Developing Management Skills in 2025: Key Traits to Adopt in Business

Read More about Developing Management Skills in 2025: Key Traits to Adopt in Business
Article

Why Employees Leave and What Leaders Can Do to Keep Them

Read More about Why Employees Leave and What Leaders Can Do to Keep Them
Article

Why Employees Leave — and What Leaders Can Do to Keep Them

Read More about Why Employees Leave — and What Leaders Can Do to Keep Them
Article

Lack of Resources vs. Better Opportunities: Why Workers Leave Their Jobs

Read More about Lack of Resources vs. Better Opportunities: Why Workers Leave Their Jobs
Article

Etsy's C-Suite Shares the Secret to Building Organizational Culture

Read More about Etsy's C-Suite Shares the Secret to Building Organizational Culture
Article

Can Zoom Be a Tool for Teaching Anti-Racism?

Read More about Can Zoom Be a Tool for Teaching Anti-Racism?
  • CaseWorks
This faculty member has no associated CaseWorks cases currently.

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