Organizational Culture, Interpersonal Networks, and Organizational Performance
Sameer Srivastava, Professor
Business, Haas School
Closed. This professor is continuing with Fall 2025 apprentices on this project; no new apprentices needed for Spring 2026.
Professor Sameer Srivastava uses computational methods to: (1) unpack the complex interrelationships between group culture, individual cognition, and interpersonal networks; and (2) examine how they jointly relate to individual attainment and organizational performance. Professor Srivastava directs the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation and the Berkeley-Stanford Computational Culture Lab.
Some current topics under investigation include:
- Can LLM agents be used to coach employees in large organizations as effectively as human coaches?
- How does the structure of social networks affect discourse between polarized social groups?
- What are the causes and consequences of surprising “curveball” questions in evaluative settings?
- What are the potential promises and pitfalls of generative AI in organizational selection and socialization?
- How does exposure to unfamiliar colleagues within and across network communities affect social belonging and network change?
- How does organizational culture affect the evolution of reporting relationships in organizations?
This project will be overseen by Professor Sameer Srivastava. Professor Srivastava is an expert on the complex interrelationships between group culture, individual cognition, and interpersonal networks. URAPs will be supervised on a day-to-day basis by Daniel Lobo and Professor Srivastava, contributing to each of their respective research projects. Some URAPs may have the opportunity to work more closely with Professor Srivastava on research support activities and other projects, depending on their performance.
Role: The URAP’s role could include conducting literature reviews in the topic areas, help with research design, collecting survey data, coding and analyzing survey and experimental data, preparing archival data for analyses, and even helping to develop publishable research papers. This will also support the work of the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation.
Qualifications: Required qualifications:
- Students must be excellent communicators, able to collaborate well with others, hard-working, organized, detail-oriented, and responsible.
- We are interested in recruiting diverse students of all academic backgrounds who demonstrate an interest in the subject matter.
Desired qualifications (not required):
- Proficiency with Microsoft Excel
- Experience with statistical analysis and tools such as R or SPSS
- Experience with programming related to large data sets (especially using Python)
- Experience with survey design (especially using Qualtrics).
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Daniel Lobo, PhD Candidate , Ph.D. candidate
Hours: 6-8 hrs
Related website: https://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/srivastava/?_gl=1*pu5et3*_gcl_au*MTE0MDIwNzkwLjE3NTEwMDc3OTQuMTU5MTIyNDc5My4xNzUyOTg1NzEwLjE3NTI5ODY3NjI.*_ga*MTMxOTM2Mjc4MS4xNzUxMDA3Nzk0*_ga_EW2RSBHHX6*czE3NTM3ODE5MTYkbzEkZzEkdDE3NTM3ODE5NzIkajQkbDAkaDA
Related website: https://haas.berkeley.edu/faculty/srivastava-sameer/