Biography

Catarina R. Fernandes is an Assistant Professor of Organization & Management at Emory University's Goizueta Business School. She holds a PhD in Organizational Behavior from Harvard University, an MBA from the Harvard Business School, and a BA in Economics from Nova School of Business & Economics in Lisbon, Portugal. Prior to graduate school, she worked in General Management Consulting and Human Capital Consulting, in both Europe and the United States. Fernandes was honored as one of the "2024 Best Undergraduate Professors" by Poets & Quants.

In her research, Fernandes studies how status, power, and leadership emerge in teams, and how they influence behavior and performance. Some of her current work explores how different experiences of status across the various groups people belong to affect their self-perceptions, behavior, and interactions with others.

Education

  • PhD in Organizational Behavior
    Harvard Business School
  • MBA
    Harvard Business School
  • Bachelor of Arts in Economics
    NOVA School of Business and Economics

What is Your Status Portfolio? Higher Status Variance Across Groups Increases Interpersonal Helping but Decreases Intrapersonal Well-Being

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
Fernandes, C. R., Yu, S., Howell, T. M., Brooks, A. W., Kilduff, G. J., Pettit, N. C.
June 30, 2021
Abstract: Individuals belong to multiple groups across various domains of life, which in aggregate constitute a portfolio of potentially distinct levels of experienced status. We propose a two-factor model for assessing the effects of an individual’s status portfolio, based on status average (mean status level across groups) and status variance (degree to which status varies across those groups). Five studies using samples in general-life and work-specific contexts reveal the importance of both status average and status variance, the latter of which has been largely unexplored by status researchers to date. Individuals experiencing higher status variance show greater perspective taking, which in turn increases interpersonal helping. However, higher status variance also increases anxiety, decreasing intrapersonal well-being. Our results provide evidence of the additional explanatory power of accounting for status variance alongside status average, and highlight the importance of considering individuals’ aggregate experience of status across the multiple groups to which they belong.

Diversity in groups

Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An Interdisciplinary, Searchable, and Linkable Resource. Robert A. Scott & Stephen M. Kosslyn (Eds.)
Fernandes, C. R., & Polzer, J. T.
May 14, 2015
Abstract: Diversity has the potential to either disrupt group functioning or, conversely, be the source of collective creativity and insight. These two divergent perspectives pose a paradox that has held the attention of scholars for many years. In response, researchers have marshaled evidence to specify the conditions under which diversity leads to more positive outcomes and explain why it does so under these conditions. After describing these foundational perspectives and more recent work that addresses this paradox, we outline several promising directions for research in this domain. We encourage researchers to develop integrative theoretical explanations, use new technologies to gain insight into group processes, study diversity in the context of virtual interaction, and take advantage of opportunities for cross‐disciplinary research.