Alexandra Kalev received her Ph.D. from Princeton University, and her M.A. and B.A. from Tel Aviv University. She studies organizations, work and inequality. Her work on the labor process looks at how the re-organization of work and economic crises affect gender and racial inequality. With Frank Dobbin, she is developing an evidence-based approach to managing diversity in corporations and universities as well as the effects of workforce diversity on firms’ financial performance. Their book “Getting to Diversity: What Works and What Doesn’t”, was recently published by Harvard University Press. In other projects Kalev studies meaning making in reaction to experiences of discrimination, focusing on the integration of Israeli Arabs in emerging markets, and the effective innovations for reducing managers’ ambivalent bis against older workers.

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Kalev is a member of the Advisory Committee to the Israeli Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and since 2016 has been publishing annually the Israeli Diversity Index in collaboration with the Israeli EEOC and the Central Bureau of Statistics. Kalev was the editor of the journal Israeli Sociology between 2017 and 2022.

Her research article on restructuring and diversity, “Cracking the Glass Cages,” won the W. Richard Scott award of the American Sociological Association section on Organizations Occupations and Work.

Kalev’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Edmond J. Safra Foundation, the Sloan Foundation, the Israeli Science Foundation, the Bi-National Science Foundation, and the Israeli Ministry of Science. Her work has been published in the American Sociological Review, the American Journal of Sociology, Administrative Science Quarterly, Law and Social Inquiry, Sociological Science and the Harvard Business Review, as well in the Economist, New York Times, and Washington Post, among others.

 

Recent publications:

Alexandra Kalev and Frank Dobbin. (2022).“The Surprising Benefits of Work-Life Supports: It’s a Secret Weapon for Achieving Organizational Diversity”.  Harvard Business Review. 100(5):98-107.

Knight Carly, Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev. (2022). Under the Radar: Visibility and the Effects of Discrimination Lawsuits in Small and Large Firms.  American Sociological Review. (87)2:175-201

Kim Kwan Woo, Alexandra Kalev, Frank Dobbin and Deutsch Gal. (2021). Effects of the Great  Recession on the Diversity of New Faculty Sociological Science. (8): 308-324 

Dobbin Frank and Alexandra Kalev. (2021). The Civil Rights Revolution at Work: What Went Wrong Annual Review of Sociology. (47):281-303 

Alexandra Kalev and Frank Dobbin. (2020).  Does Diversity Training Increase Corporate Diversity? Regulation Backlash and Regulatory Accountability Working Paper

Kalev Alexandra and Frank Dobbin . (October 20, 2020). Companies Need to Think Bigger Than Diversity Training. Harvard Business Review

Kalev Alexandra. (April 20, 2020).Research: U.S. Unemployment Rising Faster for Women and People of Color. Harvard Business Review

Dobbin Frank and Kalev Alexandra. (May-June 2020). Why Sexual Harassment Programs Backfire. Harvard Business Review