I'm in general interested in how groups can effectively perform and work together. Within this broad theme, I've worked on a number of different topics, such as the role of group diversity, and potential moderators, such as leadership, emotions, reflexivity, regulatory focus, and personality. Next to this work on groups, I am interested in coordination between people in terms of power dynamics and leadership.
My main research focus deals with diversity in (work)groups and more specifically with how one can obtain the benefits in group diversity (see van Knippenberg, De Dreu, & Homan, 2004 for a theoretical framework regarding the effects of diversity in groups; and Homan, 2019, for a recent overview). In this respect, I and my colleagues have examined the role of diversity beliefs, cross-categorization, super-ordinate identity, and leadership as potential moderators of the "group diversity - group performance and processes" link in order to examine how detrimental categorization processes can be limited and positive information elaboration processes can be enhanced (e.g., Greer et al., 2012; Homan et al., 2007a; 2007b; 2008; 2010; 2011; 2013; Homan & Van Kleef, 2022; van Knippenberg et al., 2011; 2013). My recent research builds on this previous work by examining the effects of different leadership styles in diverse teams (together with, among others, colleagues at Jacobs University in Bremen), arguing for the crucial role of diversity perceptions (Homan et al., 2010; 2019; Rosenauer et al., 2016), contingent leadership (Homan et al., 2020), diversity training (Homan et al., 2015), testing the moderating influence of error culture in diverse teams (Rupert et al., 2019), looking at antecedents and outcomes of the minority glass ceiling (together with Seval Gündemir and Mark van Vugt, Mosaic grant; Gündemir et al., 2014; Gündemir, Dovidio et al., 2017; Gündemir, Homan et al., 2017), effects of a variety of diversity ideologies on both majority and traditionally underrepresented group members (Andriessen et al., 2023; Gündemir, Martin, & Homan, 2019; Gündemir, Homan, & Greer, 2023; Gündemir, Phillips, & Homan, working paper), the glass cliff effect for Asian Americans (Gündemir, Carton, & Homan, 2019) examining gender differences in leadership styles (together with Marleen Redeker, Reinout de Vries, Mark van Vugt [all at the VU], Filip de Fruyt [Ghent University], Danny Rouckhout [University of Antwerp] and Patrick Vermeren [Performance Coaching]), and testing the role of leadership prototypicality in terms of age (Buengeler et al., 2016; Daldrop et al., working paper; Homan et al., working paper). The policy implications of this work have been summarized in a paper in Perspective on Psychological Science (Galinsky, Todd, Homan et al., 2015). For an overview of how the different insights with regards to leadership as management tool for diverse teams, you can check this theoretical paper on the importance of matching leadership to the needs of diverse teams (Homan et al., 2020).
Within this topic, I focus on how people attain power in the eyes of others by focusing on norm violating behaviors (e.g., Jackon et al., 2019). More specifically, we examine whether observing someone exhibiting norm violating behaviors results in increased perceptions of power and status conferral (together with Gerben van Kleef, Eftychia Stamkou, Florian Wanders, and Annelies van Vianen, UvA, & Catrin Finkenauer, VU; Homan et al., in press; Stamkou et al., 2016; 2018, 2019; 2020; Van Kleef et al., 2011; 2012; 2015; 2023; Wanders et al., 2021) and the role of narcissism in responses to anti-social and prosocial behavior and information (with Jiafang Chen, Barbara Nevicka, and Gerben van Kleef; Chen et al., 2020; working paper). Additionally, I have been working with Erik de Kwaadsteniet and Eric van Dijk (Leiden University) on the role of social category information in tacit coordination (de Kwaadsteniet et al., 2012) and Brian Spisak and Mark van Vugt on evolutionary perspectives on leadership and followership (VU University; Spisak et al., 2012). Finally, we have been working on the role of personality and LMX in the relationship between transformational leadership and outcomes (Boer et al., 2016; Deinert et al., 2015), and the role of leadership in the development of identification at work (Horstmeier et al.,2017; Horstmeier et al., 2016).
The second line of research deals with how emotions matter in interpersonal interactions at work (Van Kleef et al., 2012; 2017), for example, how leader emotional displays affect group performance. We have shown that the epistemic motivation of group members (i.e., the degree to which they are willing to think about the informational aspect of the displayed emotion of the leader) determines the effects of angry vs. happy emotional displays of the leader on actual group functioning (Van Kleef et al., 2009). Additionally, we have found that the followers' level of agreeableness also acts as a crucial moderator in this relationship by showing that groups scoring higher on agreeableness experience more workload and perform less well when confronted with an angry leader than groups scoring lower on agreeableness (Van Kleef et al., 2010). Connected to this work is a line of research examining the role of emotions in groups and conformity of individual group members. Some questions that we are examining there are how emotions displayed by group members influence the behavior of other members within the group (e.g., Heerdink et al., 2013; 2015a; 2015b; in press). This line of research was integrated with my research on diversity in teams in a recent paper on how emotional displays of team members influence the perceptions of diverse teams (Homan et al., 2016).
Within this line of research, we examined the contingencies of reflexivity in groups, showing that reflexivity is especially beneficial for groups that have initially performed below par (Schippers et al., 2013) and the contingencies of regulatory focus in groups (Beersma et al., 2013). This research shows that depending on task structure (regulatory focus), teams require a different focus to perform optimally. Another line of research deals with how one's position in the group influences the behavior of this person in an intergroup negotiation. This research shows that a person's prototypicality will affect his or her behavior in negotiating with another party in such a way that more peripheral group members are more likely to adhere to group norms and to pay better attention to information than more prototypical group members (e.g., Steinel et al., 2010; Van Kleef et al., 2012). Finally, I study conflict experiences in groups, focusing on variety in conflict experiences and coping strategies (e.g., Wang et al., 2019).
International Journal Articles
Homan, A. C., Wanders, F., Van Vianen, A. E. M., & Van Kleef, G. A. (in press). Better to bend than to break? Effects of rule behavior on dominance, prestige, and leadership granting. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.
Van Kleef, G. A., Wanders, F., Van Vianen, A. E. M., Dunham, R. L., Du, X., & Homan, A. C. (2023). Rebels with a cause? How norm violations shape dominance, prestige, and influence granting. PLOS ONE, 18(11), e0294019.
Gündemir, S., Andriessen, I. I., Kappelhof, J., & Homan, A. C. (2023). Examining the divergent effects of perceived inclusion of ethnic minorities on majority and minority groups’ inter-ethnic responses. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1242595.
Daldrop. C., Buengeler, C., & Homan, A. C. (2023). An intersectional lens on young leaders: Bias towards young women and young men in leadership positions. Frontiers in Psychology (Research Topic on Sex and Gender Effects on Power, Status, Dominance, and Leadership), 14, 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1204547.
Gündemir, S., Homan, A. C., & Greer, L. L. (2023). Overcoming the inclusion facade. MIT Sloan Management Review, 64(3), 1-4.
Stamkou, E., Homan, A. C., Van Kleef, G. A., & Gelfand, M. J. (in press). The spatial representation of leadership depends on ecological threat: A replication and extension of Menon et al. (2010). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Van der Meer, S., Lehmann-Willenbrock, N., Delahaij, R., & Homan, A. C. (2022). The influence of intrusions on team interaction: An explorative field study. Small Group Research, 53(3), 644-669.
Homan, A. C., & Van Kleef, G. A. (2022). Managing team conscientiousness diversity: The role of leader emotion-regulation knowledge. Small Group Research, 53(3), 532-562.
Dutch Publications and Book Chapters
Homan, A. C., Van Hooft, E. J., Uitdewilligen, S. (2018). Trends rondom diversiteit: introductie deel 2. Gedrag & Organisatie, 31, 311-313.
Homan, A. C. (2018). Vier verschillen! De vele gezichten van diversiteit. Gedrag & Organisatie, 31, 281-304.
Homan, A. C., Van Hooft, E. J., Uitdewilligen, S. (2018). Trends rondom diversiteit: introductie deel 1. Gedrag & Organisatie, 31, 181-188.
Buengeler, C., & Homan, A. C. (2015). Diversity in Teams: Was macht diverse Teams erfolgreich? In P. Genkova, & T. Ringeisen (Eds.), Handbuch Diversity Kompetenz: Perspectiven und Anwendungsfelder. Wiesbaden, Germany: Springer Link.
Gündemir, S., Homan, A. C., Van Vugt, M., & De Dreu, C. K. W. (forthcoming). Hé, dat is mijn plek! Etniciteit, Leiderschap en Fysieke Afstand. Jaarboek Sociale Psychologie 2013.
Homan, A. C., & van Knippenberg, D. (2014). Faultlines in diverse teams. In S. Otten, K. van der Zee, & M. Brewer (Eds.), Towards inclusive organizations: Determinants of successful diversity management at work (pp. 132-150) . Hove, UK: Psychology Press.
Biographical Sketch
Astrid Homan is an full professor and currently chair of work and organizational psychology at the University of Amsterdam. She worked on her dissertation research at the same department (PhD in 2006). During her PhD, she received a competitive Fulbright Scholarship to visit Michigan State University, East Lansing. In 2006 she won the IACM best paper award for her work on diversity beliefs in diverse groups. She then moved to the department of Social and Organizational Psychology at Leiden University. In 2008, she was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley. In the same year, she moved to the VU University in Amsterdam, where she worked until February 2012. In March 2012, she moved back to the University of Amsterdam as a tenured staff member. In the same year, she won the IACM best theoretical paper award. In the autumn of 2014, she was a visiting professor at Columbia Business School in New York, at the management department. In 2015, she received an Aspasia grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO; €200.000). She chairs the Diversity & Inclusion committee of the UvA psychology department.
She is and was involved in various PhD projects at the University of Amsterdam, VU University, and Kiel University on diversity, teams, power, emotions, wellbeing, and leadership. In 2010, she obtained a Mosaic Grant together with Seval Gündemir and Mark van Vugt, to examine the minority glass ceiling effect.
She used to be the Editor-in-Chief for Organizational Psychology Review (starting 2020, ending in 2022; and Associate Editor between 2017-2019), Associate Editor for Journal of Applied Psychology (starting 2020), and an editorial board member for a wide variety of journals, such as Academy of Management Journal (best reviewer award 2021), British Journal of Management, Social Psychological and Personality Science, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. She is a SIOP fellow since 2023 and an APS fellow since 2024.
Please find my complete CV and some interesting links below.