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We’re proud to share that we have more than 50 Leeds faculty members from across all seven academic divisions who are CESR Faculty Affiliates, joining us as we re-launch this program. We invited these faculty members to join because their research and/or teaching relates to sustainability and ESG. We will be highlighting some members of this group and sharing insights from their work through our marketing channels as we strive to represent the great work being done at Leeds.

Dejun “Tony” Kong is an associate professor in the organizational leadership and information analytics division at Leeds. He is a 40-under-40 best business professor named by Poets & Quants. His research has won multiple best paper awards from the Academy of Management’s Conflict Management Division (e.g., the Most Influential Article Award in 2023 and the Best Conflict-in-Context Paper Award in 2022) and other academic associations. Through his research, he seeks to address how to enable ourselves to be more cooperative and prosocial, such that we can reach the greater good and be more productive collectively. 

We recently sat down with Tony to talk about his research interests in social sustainability, how he integrates ethics and DEI into his teaching, and advice for effective leadership. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

CESR: How would you broadly describe your research? What big questions are you trying to answer?

Dejun “Tony” Kong: The word I use to sum up my research is “transcendence.” Transcendence is a virtue related to gratitude, humor, hope, trust, appreciation for excellence, and authenticity. What I do is about building trust and a positive and healthy culture and trying to connect people. It also involves trying to elevate workplace gratitude and appreciation. These are positive psychology topics, which fascinate me. I also look at humor, which many people use as a stress coping mechanism, but it also serves to connect and bond people. Besides gratitude and appreciation, I also study other moral emotions, including compassion and moral outrage. My findings can help me better understand how to promote equity and inclusion of a diverse workplace. As a minority scholar with an international background, this endeavor is personally meaningful. Ultimately, I’d like to use my research to address the big question: how can we be more pro-social and cooperative, such that we can be more productive collectively? 

"Change agents should focus on leading people to find meaning and joy in making or supporting social and environmental change, through influence tactics such as consultation and collaboration,"

- says Tony Kong

CESR: Tell me more about how you see the intersection between ethics and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) and some of the topics you’re thinking about in this space.

TK: Every culture may promote different ethicals principles. For example, our Leeds school promotes care in our culture building. However, not everyone has the same understanding of the promoted ethical principles. I want to encourage more intercultural conversations. This is what I have been doing as a Daniels Fund faculty fellow. The issues we face related to global conflict and migration are all related to ethics. They raise important questions for us as a society. Our attitudes and beliefs drive our behaviors and solutions. How do we approach our social responsibility to create a sense of comfort safety and belonging for people from diverse cultural backgrounds? How do we build a multicultural environment where we celebrate cultural diversity?

Socioeconomic diversity is important as well. This relates to the imposter syndrome that we often talk about, sociocultural adjustment, and integration. Workplaces tend to have a middle-class or upper-middle-class culture, so people from lower or lower-middle classes may not feel like they belong. All of this relates to social responsibility. 

All these ideas tie to the broader theme of social sustainability which includes human sustainability and systemic sustainability.

"Ultimately, I’d like to use my research to address the big question: how can we be more pro-social and cooperative, such that we can be more productive collectively?"

- says Tony Kong

CESR: Leaders today need to operate in a highly uncertain environment where issues like inequality and the climate crisis are impacting their organizations. How do you think about training leaders to operate in this environment when you approach your teaching? 

TK: In my teaching, I talk about self-awareness. We focus too much on ourselves and forget about the other people around us. I talk about private self-awareness (accurately understanding yourself), and public self-awareness (accurately understanding others’ perceptions of you). Although the vast majority of people think they are self-aware, only 10% of people are actually self-aware. This is a big issue for leadership. 

To be an effective leader, people need to understand their own strengths. Being self-aware can shift their focus to their strengths rather than fix their attention to their weaknesses. Such a focus shift can also allow leaders to use their vulnerabilities to connect with other people and build trust. 

I always ask students what characteristics are missing in leaders now. Many of them say transcendence and courage. I’m glad to hear their answers. Courage is missing in a lot of leaders now; they know what is right, but they don’t act because of fear, or comfort with the status quo. It’s important for students who aspire to be leaders to understand what is worth pursuing or fighting for and how to pursue the worthy cause wisely. We need more courageous leaders who also are self-transcendent and understand how to provide meaning to people and help people with diverse backgrounds leverage their strengths.

I also want to emphasize that a lot of problems related to DEI require creativity and conflict resolution because people want and need different things. So, besides leader character, negotiation skills, problem-solving ability, and creative skills are very important to leaders.
 

"Future leaders need to know how to analyze big data for problem solving and creativity, besides having a nuanced understanding of various social and human issues,"

- says Tony Kong

CESR: What is one piece of advice you would like to share with current and future business leaders?

TK: Learn data analytics, and appreciate big data. Our human brain is not evolving fast enough to deal with our complex world. We have lots of biases because our brain is not able to process so much information. Future leaders need to know how to analyze big data for problem solving and creativity, besides having a nuanced understanding of various social and human issues. They don’t need to be data scientists, but their leadership should be evidence-based. That’s what I tell my MBA students. A leader who knows how to do this and makes good decisions based on data will have a competitive advantage. 

"It’s important for students who aspire to be leaders to understand what is worth pursuing or fighting for and how to pursue the worthy cause wisely,"

- says Tony Kong

CESR: We keep hearing from ESG and sustainability practitioners that influence is key to driving positive social & environmental change. The topic of influence seems closely tied to your work on trust and motivation. What advice do you have for professionals who are seeking to use influence to create change?

TK: My research on trust tells me demonstrating trustworthiness is critical to negotiation and leadership. Influencing others in the area of social and environmental change definitely requires trust-building and influence. One influence tactic that shows trustworthiness and helps trust building is consultation. It’s important for change agents to seek others’ thoughts and respect those others’  perspectives. Another influence tactic that demonstrates trustworthiness and helps trust building is collaboration. It’s important for change agents to provide information, integrate different perspectives together, find agreement on certain issues, and solve problems together. Including people as much as possible in discussions and decision-making helps build trust. Other influence tactics may backfire. For example, pressuring others to accept social and environmental change may undermine those others’ sense of autonomy.  

A related point I want to make here. Change agents should focus on leading people to find meaning and joy in making or supporting social and environmental change, through influence tactics such as consultation and collaboration. What change agents should cultivate in others is called autonomous motivation, which is a key concept of self-determination theory, my favorite motivation theory. In order to foster people’s autonomous motivation, organizations should create a work environment that supports people’s psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness). When people’s needs are satisfied, people will thrive and contribute. These needs are “nutrients” and are culturally universal.  So, this advice works in various cultures.

Tony's research has many practical applications for leaders. His work about how companies can maximize the effectiveness of raises and performance-based pay was recently featured in CU Boulder Today, and he shared insights on trust, empathy, and leadership in the latest issue of Business at Leeds magazine.

Learn more about the CESR Faculty Affiliates program here, and other insights in the Thought Leadership section of our blog.