Kendall Yamamoto is an organizational behavior researcher and Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia.

Her research examines how identity, status, and social position shape collaboration and conflict within and between groups. Across her work, she studies how people interpret social difference, and how those interpretations shape whether difference becomes a source of threat, avoidance, and conflict or a source of belonging, learning, and effective collaboration. She also studies the organizational norms, tools, and interventions that help people work across lines of difference more productively. Methodologically, she uses lab experiments, field experiments and interventions, and inductive qualitative research conducted in collaboration with organizations.

Her dissertation, “What’s in It for Me?”: Toward the Personal Case for Diversity, received the Ralph Alexander Best Dissertation Award and the Best Dissertation Proposal Award from the Academy of Management Human Resources Division. Her work has been published in the Academy of Management Journal. Kendall holds a Ph.D. in Management from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Entrepreneurship from the University of Washington. Before graduate school, she worked in leadership development consulting.

She welcomes collaborations with organizations seeking to better understand and address challenges related to collaboration, inclusion, and organizational effectiveness.