About

Professor Ravi Bapna is the Curtis L. Carlson Chair in Business Analytics and Information Systems and serves as the Academic Director of the Carlson Analytics Lab at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. He is closely affiliated with the Carlson School's MS in Business Analytics program and the Carlson Analytics Lab, where graduate students study a broad range of data analysis techniques and apply them to real business problems. These students are skilled in exploratory data visualization, predictive analytics techniques, programming, data engineering, machine learning methods, and more, emerging as data science professionals. Partner organizations have the opportunity to work with these talented students while supporting the educational mission of the programs.

Research topics

• Social psychology
• Psychology
• Applied psychology
• Management
• Psychotherapist

Selected publications

• When the Moon is Jealous of the Stars: Implications of Informal Leadership for Supervisor Downward Jealousy and Their Treatment of Other Subordinates

  Academy of Management Journal · 2026-01-22

  article

  Informal leadership has received considerable attention over the last decade, yet the literature remains unclear about the interpersonal dynamics in teams where both informal and formal leadership coexist. Integrating the social functional view of emotions with recent theoretical advancements on workplace jealousy, we propose a theoretical model that explains how supervisors react emotionally and behaviorally to informal leadership. Specifically, we theorize that, when an informal leader is highly competent, their informal leadership will elicit supervisor downward jealousy stemming from the supervisor’s fear of losing valued relationships with the other subordinates; and this jealousy, in turn, will prompt more supervisor support and less abusive supervision toward the other subordinates who are also highly competent. We adopted a multiwave, multisource field study and an experiment using the critical incident technique to test our model and hypotheses. Results across these studies consistently supported our predictions. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications as well as future research directions of our work.

  PublisherDOI

• Understanding Why and When Coworkers Undermine Employees Who Have Friends in High Places

  Academy of Management Journal · 2026-02-04

  article

  This research examines why and when coworkers undermine employees who have social capital through high-level friends (i.e., friendship contact status). Drawing on appraisal theory, we theorize that coworkers envy—and subsequently undermine—such employees when they hold unfavorable core evaluations of the employees and perceive these employees’ friendship networks as sparse. For coworkers, unfavorable core evaluations of an employee signal that the person is undeserving of high-level friends, and sparse employee friendship networks signal a lack of guardian protection that increases coworkers’ own dominance-based control potential. These three components—high employee friendship contact status, low core evaluations (low employee deservingness) and low friendship network density (high coworker dominance-based control potential)—jointly drive the envy that fuels coworker undermining. We tested our theory and hypotheses across three studies. Study 1 supports our premise that coworkers negatively appraise employees’ high friendship contact status. Study 2 shows that coworkers’ core evaluations of employees and perceived friendship network density jointly moderate the effects of employee friendship contact status on coworker envy and undermining. Study 3 confirms that envy and undermining arise in response to high friendship contact status only when appraised employee deservingness is low and coworker dominance-based control potential is high. Our work highlights the liabilities of social capital, the role of perpetrator predation in workplace mistreatment, and how appraisal processes drive envy in organizations.

  PublisherDOI

• Shaping Change: Exploring the What and How of Workplace Intervention Research

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

  article

  Intervention research has long been valued for its potential to bridge theory and practice, offering targeted strategies to address critical workplace challenges. Yet, defining what interventions should target and how they achieve their outcomes remains an evolving area of study. This symposium explores these dimensions by examining specific workplace contexts and mechanisms through which interventions drive change. The featured studies address key career stages and workplace challenges, offering diverse perspectives and methodologies. The first two presentations focus on early career interventions: MacGowan examines strategies to transform job seekers’ anxiety into motivation, enhancing self-efficacy and success rates. Kim et al. introduce a perspective-taking intervention for leaders, fostering better newcomer socialization and reducing undermining behaviors. The latter presentations tackle emotionally taxing interactions: HE investigates generative AI as a resource-efficient tool for supporting emotional labor, highlighting its role in enabling deep acting and resilience. Jensen and Graham explore interventions to mitigate workplace polarization, showing how recognizing contemptuous speech within one’s own political group reduces animosity and fosters constructive dialogue. Together, these studies provide insights into the mechanisms underlying intervention efficacy and practical strategies for enhancing employee experiences across varied contexts. By addressing both the

  PublisherDOI

• Reimagining Events and Festivals as Social Infrastructure

  Event Management · 2025-01-22 · 4 citations

  articleSenior author

  Events and festivals are pivotal in human culture, marking significant life moments and fostering communal spirit. Despite their evident social benefits, assessing their intangible impacts remains challenging. This research note advocates conceptualizing events and festivals as forms of social infrastructure, akin to parks and community centers, based on insights from geographical studies. Social infrastructure, defined as spaces supporting social interactions and cohesion, offers a framework to better understand the societal contributions of these gatherings. Drawing on literature that explores the benefits of robust social infrastructure–such as enhanced community resilience and civic engagement–this article posits that events and festivals similarly cultivate social bonds and collective identity. They serve as platforms for kinaesthetic practices and civic participation, enriching community life. Embracing this perspective encourages innovative approaches to evaluate and optimize the societal value of events and festivals, aiming to enhance their role as vital components of community well-being.

  PublisherDOI

• Theoretical and Empirical Advances on Destructive Leadership

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

  article

  Destructive leadership is an insidious and growing problem for organizations. While many strides have been made to understand how it emerges within organizations and its impact, scholars have pushed researchers to extend the literature by further unpacking processes and utilizing novel explanations to understand how to prevent destructive leadership and to understand its consequences to others and to these leaders themselves. This symposium addresses this research agenda with five theoretically-driven empirical papers. The contributions in this symposium do this by: (1) examining novel antecedents that reduce incidents of destructive leader behavior (i.e., awe, small self); (2) exploring different forms of destructive leader behavior (e.g., abusive supervision, unethical leadership), (3) unpacking psychological motives triggered by destructive leadership that shape reactions (self-blame and moral threat for targeted employees, and image threat and moral versus trajectory motives for destructive leaders), (4) shedding light on cognitive mechanisms that are triggered by destructive leadership (learning for targeted employees and problem-solving and affective rumination for destructive leaders), (5) examining various outcomes of destructive leadership—some that are employee focused (e.g., exhaustion, cheating, ethical behavior) and some that leaders themselves engage in from their destructive behaviors (e.g., impression management behaviors, continued abusive supervision or ethical leadership behaviors), and (6) highlighting critical moderators that influence destructive leadership processes that minimize dysfunctional outcomes (moral efficacy of targeted employees and perceived leader passion). Small self, big change: How awe reduces abusive supervision in leaders Author: Yang Bai; Peking University Author: Run Ren; Peking University Author: Huiwen Lian; Texas A&M University Author: Li Ma; Peking University Unethical leadership: Moral threat, learning, and outcomes Author: Gabriela Rivera; The Pennsylvania State University Author: Linda Klebe Trevino; The Pennsylvania State University Author: Anjier Chen; National University of Singapore My leader is abusing me, and it’s all my fault! Leader passion, abusive supervision and self-blame Author: Seungjae Yang; Yonsei University Author: Mijeong Kwon; Rice University Author: Boram Do; Yonsei University How supervisors manage their image following abuse: An image management view of abusive supervision Author: Abigail Fleri; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The battle between good and evil: Dynamic relations between abusive and ethical leadership Author: Wei Wang; University of Manitoba, Asper School of Business Author: Michelle K. Duffy; University of Minnesota

  PublisherDOI

• Eco‐anxiety among regional Australian youth with mental health problems: A qualitative study

  Early Intervention in Psychiatry · 2024-05-22 · 20 citations

  articleOpen access

  AIM: In Australia, climate-related disasters disproportionately affect rural, regional and remote young people with effects ranging from severe flooding and catastrophic fires to unbearable heat and yet most studies on eco-anxiety are based on reports by urban youth who do not have direct experiences of such impacts. Furthermore, there is a dearth of research on how eco-anxiety impacts those who already experience mental health problems. The present study aims to address this gap by focussing on the lived experiences of regional Australian youth with recent experience of climate-related disasters alongside clinical insights from those involved in their care. METHODS: Two groups, a clinician and client group, were recruited through headspace Port Macquarie-a primary youth mental health service in a regional city of New South Wales, Australia. In all, 25 participants took part in focus group discussions, including 13 clinicians and 12 clients of the service. Clients and clinicians responded to a version of the same questions: (1) whether the effects of climate change impact on regional youth with mental health problems, (2) how young people cope with eco-anxiety and (3) how regional communities can help young people cope with eco-anxiety better. Group discussions were audio-recorded and transcribed. Transcripts were analysed according to the principles of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis using a team approach. RESULTS: Three dimensions of eco-anxiety were identified by clinicians and clients-helplessness in the present, hopelessness about the future and acute stress and anxiety related to experiences of severe flooding and fires. Clinicians and clients also thought that a misalignment between young people and older generations, including government, was a source of eco-anxiety and having a collective voice was seen as important for regional youth as was community support through social media sites. Clinicians thought that eco-anxiety was 'in the background' for their clients, whereas the clients who participated were clearly experiencing eco-anxiety. Whereas clinicians could identify potential coping strategies, clients could not. CONCLUSIONS: Eco-anxiety can be experienced by regional youth with mental health problems as both an acute response to natural hazards and a more sustained sense of hopelessness about the future. Impacts of acute anxiety and chronic hopelessness, with its associated depression risk, among young people with pre-existing mental health problems warrants further investigation as this study suggests that it may exacerbate their existing conditions. Clinicians and clients in this region would benefit from specific training and resources related to the identification and treatment of eco-anxiety. Future research on climate-related mental health should be inclusive of the perspectives of those who have direct experience of climate-related adverse events.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Music

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2023-02-21

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  With 78 specially commissioned entries written by a diverse range of contributors, this essential reference book covers the breadth and depth of human geography to provide a lively and accessible state of the art of the discipline for students, instructors and researchers.

  PublisherDOI

• Supervisor Downward Jealousy and Its Social Function in Supervisor-Subordinate Relationships

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2023-07-24

  articleSenior author

  We introduce the concept of supervisor downward jealousy, defined as supervisor’s fear of losing valued relationships with subordinates because of an actual or imagined rival (e.g., an informal leader). We integrate recent theoretical framework on workplace jealousy with the social functional view of emotions to propose and test a novel theoretical model to delineate both the antecedents and consequences of supervisor downward jealousy. We theorize that the presence of an informal leader contributes to the emergence of supervisor downward jealousy, particularly when the informal leader is competent, and that jealous supervisors are more likely to refrain from abusive supervision and provide supervisory support to their valued targets (i.e., other subordinates), particularly when the other subordinates are competent, with the hope to repair and rebuild the valued relationships. We first developed a scale on supervisor downward jealousy (Study 1a) and then adopted a multi-method, multi-sample research design including an electronic confederate-based experiment (Study 1b) and a multi-wave, multi-source field study (Study 2) to test our model and hypotheses. Results across both studies provide consistent support for our predictions. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications as well as future research directions of our work.

  PublisherDOI

• When narcissists exemplify ethics: Contingent consequences of ethical leadership.

  Journal of Applied Psychology · 2023-04-10 · 17 citations

  article

  Organizations increasingly encourage, recognize, and reward ethical leadership to preempt the economic and reputational risks associated with ethical failures. At the same time, organizational leadership positions are disproportionately occupied by individuals higher in narcissism. We highlight how the combination of these two phenomena carries important organizational implications by examining how ethical leadership behaviors differentially impact leaders based on their level of narcissism. Building upon self-concordance theory, we introduce a model of contingent consequences of ethical leadership. Our model identifies motivational (i.e., self-efficacy of the leader) and social (i.e., admiration of the leader) mechanisms that explain why ethical leadership positively predicts leadership effectiveness for some leaders, but not for others. We test our model using a field study and two experiments. Findings from these three studies point to a problematic leadership paradox: When leaders higher in narcissism behave more ethically, they incur higher motivational costs and reap fewer social benefits compared to their peers who are lower in narcissism. Results reveal risks to leadership effectiveness for narcissistic leaders who attempt to lead more ethically. We discuss implications for ethical leadership research and practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

  PublisherDOI

• Grief, Stress, and Well-being

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2023-07-24

  article

  The COVID-19 pandemic saw employees deal with loss of closed ones, social isolation, increased family obligations, health issues, all at once. This has brought a renewed spotlight on how employees deal with their mental health, well-being as well as grief of losing loved ones. While employees continue to adjust and explore what work means to them, organizations acknowledge the need to address the concerns of their employees. Against this phenomenological backdrop, our symposium aims to explore to the conference’s theme of putting the worker front and center from a mental health perspective. We present qualitative, quantitative, and theoretical work aimed at advancing our understanding of grief, well-being, and mental health at work. The symposium includes five papers showcasing the perception of mental health, the impact of grief and mortality salience on employees and organizations, and the impact of workplace relationships with colleagues on well-being. Together with discussion, led by Prof. Michelle Duffy, the papers aim to provide insight into the context of grief, stress, and well-being and build, support, and sustain a community of scholars interested in grief, wellbeing and employee mental health. Coping with Personal Grief at Work: The Role of Job Crafting and Work-Related Relationships Author: Lidiia Pletneva; ESSEC Business School Mortality Salience in the Workplace: The New Challenge for Managers Author: Nicolina Leeann Taylor; U. of Kentucky Author: Ozias Moore; Lehigh U. Author: Kelly Pledger Weeks; Rhodes College The Impact of Workplace Relationships on Wellbeing via Mindfulness Author: Nilotpal Jha; Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management U. Author: Jochen Matthias Reb; Singapore Management U. Mental-Health Models of HR Managers: A Qualitative Study Author: Sukanya Sangar; Research Associate Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad Author: Neha Tripathi; Assistant Professor Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad Grief, workplace support, and work outcomes: A literature review and future directions Author: Cheryl K. McIntosh; Missouri Western State U.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Jason D. Shaw

  30 shared

• Bennett J. Tepper

  24 shared

• Kristin L. Scott

  Ochin

  10 shared

• Sherry E. Moss

  Wake Forest University

  9 shared

• Lingtao Yu

  9 shared

• Eric M. Stark

  James Madison University

  6 shared

• Daniel C. Ganster

  Colorado State University

  6 shared

• Ruolian Fang

  University of Western Australia

  5 shared

Awards & honors

• Herbie Award For Excellence in Teaching (2007)
• Carlson School of Management Award for Excellence in Service…
• Carlson School of Management Award for Excellence in Researc…
• Chinese Executive MBA faculty of the year
• Beta Gamma Sigma Outstanding Teacher (2003-2004)