Our research in this domain is focused on practical means of building and engaging community.

Many workplaces strive to develop community at work, but recent polls indicate that few experience such a sense of community. We seem to have moved from a communitarian to an individualistic society in the U.S., and we are hopelessly short on civic engagement. Our disconnections are impoverishing our lives. Coupled with that has been an uptick in contentiousness and divisiveness within and across communities, particularly due to different political, religious and cultural identities. The rise of remote work has also weakened the sense of community within organizations, as well as their ties to communities outside.

Our research targets these social ills.

Through the use of case studies, interviews, and surveys, we conduct rich explorations of the mechanisms that connect community inside organizations to those outside of them, from corporate community co-development programs to employee resource groups, and from cross-sector partnerships to inclusive governance.  Taken together, our research paints a picture of the psychological, organizational, and societal benefits of enhancing community within and outside of organizations.