The Lit Review - An AMJ Podcast

Hosted by Sekou Bermiss

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Oct 2026

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About the show

The Lit Review is a bi-monthly podcast that goes beyond the published page to explore research from Academy of Management Journal . Host Sekou Bermiss sits down with authors to discuss what inspired their studies, how the research took shape, and what the findings mean for leaders, organizations, and markets today.

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23 recent

October 21, 2026Episode 531 min

The Lit Review: An AMJ Podcast | Spencer Harrison (S6E5)

In this episode, I’m joined by Spencer Harrison, Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD, to discuss his recent AMJ paper on a familiar Hollywood euphemism. When a director leaves a film over “creative differences,” that phrase is doing a lot of reputational work. But does it actually work? Drawing on interviews with more than two dozen Hollywood insiders and a decade of movie data, Spencer and his co-authors challenge conventional thinking about how status, silence, and reputation shape creative careers. Spencer Huber Harrison, Patrick Reilly, Yanbo Song, and Khwan Kim, 2026: Point Break? The Efficacy of Creative Differences as a Protective Label for Future Work. AMJ, 69, 504–534, https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2023.0759

June 3, 2026Episode 439 min

The Lit Review: An AMJ Podcast | Ethan Burris (S6E4)

In this episode, I'm joined by Ethan Burris (UT-Austin) to discuss his new AMJ paper, which explores a straightforward question with important implications: when employees raise concerns on behalf of others rather than themselves, do managers actually discount that "hearsay" the way conventional wisdom suggests they should? Burris, E. R., Howell, T. M., Stubben, S. R., & Welch, K. T. In-Press. Not Just Hearsay and Rumor: How Managers (Actually) Perceive the Credibility of Secondhand Accounts of Employee Voice. Academy of Management Journal, amj.2022.0352.

February 4, 2026Episode 329 min

The Lit Review: An AMJ Podcast | Abhinav Gupta (S6E3)

In this episode, I’m joined by Abhinav Gupta, a Professor of Management in the Foster School of Management at the University of Washington, to discuss his recently published AMJ paper that shows how community trauma fundamentally alters risk-taking. When leaders are emotionally shaken, even competitive pressure doesn’t work the way we expect. And that has big implications for how we understand strategy today. Christian Schumacher, Steffen Keck, and Abhinav Gupta (in-press) Violence and Competition: The Effect of Mass Shootings and Domestic Terrorism on Organizational Risk-Taking in Response to Performance Shortfalls. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2023.0306

December 3, 2025Episode 235 min

The Lit Review: An AMJ Podcast | Rachel Dailey Goodwin (S6E2)

This episode, I speak with Rachel Goodwin, Assistant Professor of Management at Syracuse University in the Whitman School of Management. In this episode, we dig into her recent AMJ article on perfectionism, based on a compelling study of professional ballet - a context where the stakes are high, the standards are exacting, and pressure to be flawless is constant. We discuss what perfectionism looks like in everyday organizational life, why high performers move between healthy and harmful forms of perfectionism, and what leaders, mentors, and peers can do to create environments where people pursue excellence without compromising their well-being. Rachael D. Goodwin, Lyndon E. Garrett, and Ali P. Block Under Pressure to Be Perfect: How Dehumanizing and Rehumanizing Social Cues Lead to Maladaptive and Adaptive Perfectionism in Professional Ballet . https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2023.0187

November 5, 2025Episode 139 min

The Lit Review: An AMJ Podcast | Nan Jia (S6E1)

This episode, I speak with Nan Jia, Professor of Strategic Management at University of Southern California. In our conversation, I talk with Nan about her recent award winning paper recently published in AMJ about how artificial intelligence (AI) can enhance employee creativity. This paper explores how artificial intelligence can enhance employee creativity by automating routine aspects of work and enabling human employees to focus on higher-level problem-solving. We discuss how AI can change the nature of work and how organizations can best respond to these changes. Nan Jia, Xueming Luo, Zheng Fang, and Chengcheng Liao, 2024: When and How Artificial Intelligence Augments Employee Creativity. AMJ, 67, 5–32, https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2022.0426

March 12, 2025Episode 235 min

The Lit Review: An AMJ Podcast | Winnie Jiang (S5E2)

The guest this episode is Winnie Jiang, Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD. I talk with Winnie about her recent paper in AMJ that explores how entrepreneurs manage identity conflicts as they attempt to be a “boss” despite coming from humble beginnings. We discuss the emotional work necessary to become a successful entrepreneur and how policy makers and mentors can best support aspiring entrepreneurs. Jiang, W. Y., Zhao-Ding, A., & Qi, S. 2025. Breaking Free or Locking In: How Socially Disadvantaged Individuals Achieve or Reject an Aspired Identity in an Entrepreneurial Context. Academy of Management Journal, 68(1): 162-190. https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amj.2022.1104

February 12, 2025Episode 136 min

The Lit Review: An AMJ Podcast | Martin Kilduff (S5E1)

In this episode, I chat with Martin Kilduff, Professor of Organizational Behavior at UCL, about his latest AMJ paper on workplace rivalries. We break down how rivalries form in social networks, why they push people to compete harder (for better or worse), and what that means for careers. Who’s your biggest rival? And is that a good thing? Let’s find out! Kilduff, M., Wang, K., Lee, S. Y., Tsai, W., Chuang, Y.-T., & Tsai, F.-S. 2024. Hiding and Seeking Knowledge-Providing Ties from Rivals: A Strategic Perspective on Network Perceptions. Academy of Management Journal, 67(5): 1207-1233. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2022.0091

November 6, 2024Episode 336 min

The Lit Review: An AMJ Podcast | Christy Shropshire (S4E3)

This episode I speak with Christy Shropshire, an associate professor of management and entrepreneurship in the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. Recently, Christy published a paper about the role of displayed anger and happiness in corporate board meetings. In our conversation, we discuss the findings in the paper, and how we can better understand the role that emotions play within organizational settings. Paper: van den Oever, K. & Shropshire, C. (2024) More than a Feeling: How Board Member Displays of Anger and Happiness Influence Strategic Decisions. Academy of Management Journal https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amj.2022.1075

October 9, 2024Episode 230 min

The Lit Review: An AMJ Podcast | Devin Rapp (S4E2)

This episode, I speak with Devin Rapp who is an Assistant Professor of Management at Fowler College of Business at San Diego State University. In our conversation, I talk with Devin about his recent paper in AMJ about Dirty Heroes - people who work in stigmatized jobs but are also publicly celebrated. The paper explores how workers manage perceptions of stigma, a very negative social evaluation, alongside celebration, a very positive social evaluation. We discuss the complex nature of doing stigmatized work and how making heroes of people who do these jobs can sometimes lead to unintended consequences. I also ask Devin how we can properly celebrate people who do the difficult, but necessary work in our society. Paper: Rapp, D. J., Hughey, J. M., & Kreiner, G. E. 2024. Dirty Heroes? Healthcare Workers’ Experience of Mixed Social Evaluations during the Pandemic. Academy of Management Journal, 67(4): 1124-1157. https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amj.2022.0502

September 11, 2024Episode 140 min

The Lit Review: An AMJ Podcast | Tim Kundro & Nancy Rothbard (S4E1)

To kick off the 4th season, I have two esteemed guests this episode, Tim Kundro and Nancy Rothbard, co-authors of the 'Best Paper' published in AMJ in 2023. In our conversation, we talk we talk about Tim and Nancy’s recent award winning paper recently published in AMJ which explores how power can protect moral objectors in organizations, but shows that this protection operates differently for men versus women. We discuss how the importance o morality in organizational leaders and whether modern corporations are structured to be “amoral”. Check out the post-credit scene to hear Nancy tell the story about her lived experience at the Best Paper Award announcement event this summer in Chicago. Guests: Tim Kundro, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at Kenan-Flagler Business School at U of North Carolina. Nancy Rothbard, David Pottruck Professor at The Wharton School at the U of Pennsylvania. Paper: Kundro, T. G. & Rothbard, N. P. 2023. Does Power Protect Female Moral Objectors? How and When Moral Objectors’ Gender, Power, and Use of Organizational Frames Influence Perceived Self-Control and Experienced Retaliation. Academy of Management Journal, 66(1): 306-334. https://journals.aom.org/doi/full/10.5465/amj.2019.1383