Deborah H. Gruenfeld is an American

social psychologist Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people or by social norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the re ...

whose work examines the way people are transformed by the organizations and social structures in which they work. She is the author of numerous papers on the psychology of power and

group behavior Group dynamics is a system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group (''intra''group dynamics), or between social groups ( ''inter''group dynamics). The study of group dynamics can be useful in understanding decision- ...

. She is the Joseph McDonald Professor of Organizational Behavior at the

Stanford Graduate School of Business The Stanford Graduate School of Business (also known as Stanford GSB) is the graduate business school of Stanford University, a private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it has been the most selective business schoo ...

, and is also a Codirector of the Executive Program for Women Leaders at the same institution.

Work

Gruenfeld was a graduate student of

Robert S. Wyer Robert S. Wyer Jr. is a visiting professor at the University of Cincinnati and professor ( emeritus) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He received his doctoral degree from the University of Colorado. Wyer Jr.'s research interests co ...

and the late

Joseph E. McGrath Joseph E. McGrath (July 17, 1927 – April 1, 2007) was an American social psychologist, known for his work on small groups, time, stress, and research methods. Biography McGrath was born in DuBois, Pennsylvania, the last child of six. He serv ...

at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

. Her doctoral research on

status Status (Latin plural: ''statūs''), is a state, condition, or situation, and may refer to: * Status (law) ** City status ** Legal status, in law ** Political status, in international law ** Small entity status, in patent law ** Status conference ...

and

integrative complexity Integrative complexity is a research psychometric that refers to the degree to which thinking and reasoning involve the recognition and integration of multiple perspectives and possibilities and their interrelated contingencies. Integrative comp ...

in decision-making groups, in part examining U.S. Supreme Court decisions, were awarded prizes by the

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...

and the

Society of Experimental Social Psychology The Society of Experimental Social Psychology (SESP) is a scientific organization of social scientists founded in 1965 with the goal of advancing and communicating theories in social psychology. Its first chairperson was Edwin P. Hollander.Hollande ...

. Her analysis of U.S. Supreme Court decisions took into consideration both the justices' status in their group as well as their ideological preferences, demonstrating that as justices gained power on the court or entered into majority coalitions their written opinions tended to become less complex and nuanced.

Theory of Power

Together with

Dacher Keltner Dacher Joseph Keltner is a Mexican-born American professor of psychology at University of California, Berkeley, who directs the Berkeley Social Interaction Lab. He is also the founder and faculty director of the Greater Good Science Center, host ...

of the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, and

Cameron Anderson Cameron Anderson (May 1857 – March 22, 1926) was a politician in Alberta, Canada and a municipal councillor in Edmonton. Biography Anderson came to Edmonton prior to 1901 from North Dakota. Anderson was a long-time Edmonton resident and a bu ...

also at Berkeley, Gruenfeld has developed a theory of power that aims to present an integrative account of the effects of power on human behaviour, suggesting that the acquisition of power has a disinhibiting effect regarding the social consequences of exercising it.

Lawsuit

In 2015, ''Poets & Quants'', a blog that covers MBA programs around the world, made public a wrongful termination suit filed by Gruenfeld's estranged husband, James A. Phills, who had been another professor at the business school. Phills alleged his firing was driven by the affair that Gruenfeld was having with the dean of the business school,

Garth Saloner Garth Saloner (born c. 1955) is a South African-born American economist. He is the John H. Scully Professor of Leadership, Management and International Business at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was the dean from 2009 to 2015. ...

, apparently with the knowledge of the Stanford's Provost, John Etchemendy. The matter led to resignation of Saloner in 2015 and was covered by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', and

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and ma ...

. On August 1, 2017, a Santa Clara Superior Court judge rejected this suit, deciding that Phills had failed to prove he'd been discriminated against, harassed, or wrongfully terminated.

Personal

In an interview by Dennis Relojo-Howell, Gruenfeld shares that she is an art person; always looking for artistic works to alleviate

stress Stress may refer to: Science and medicine * Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition * Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gruenfeld, Deborah H. Living people University of Illinois alumni Stanford University Graduate School of Business faculty American women psychologists 21st-century American psychologists American social psychologists Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women