On this episode of the Leeds Business Insights podcast, host Claire Stewart talks with Mallory Decker, a Leeds School of Business doctoral candidate in organizational behavior and former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot who served 11 years on active duty, including tours in the U.S. House of Representatives and at NATO.

Mallory explains how being one of the few women in naval aviation and often the only woman in high-level NATO meetings motivated her to study gender and teams at work. She shares research on gender pay gaps showing that not only do individual women face pay-gap challenges in male-dominated workspaces and industries, but women also face a “collaboration penalty,” driven by perceptions that women’s groups threaten the male-dominated status quo.

Claire and Mallory discuss implications for organizational transparency and accountability. Mallory outlines her three-paper dissertation and offers valuable advice on why prospective PhD students should pursue programs aligned with their research interests.

Leeds Business Insights Podcast is a production of Leeds School of Business and is produced by University FM.

EPISODE QUOTES:

What inspired Mallory to study organizational behavior?

03:05: I was very often the only woman in the room where these large international decisions were being made. And it really struck me as being, "Man, I thought we had come so far as women." And I just realized there were still so many structural issues in place that I did not realize when I graduated college and was going off to enter the workforce. So, over the course of these 11 years serving in the military, I realized, "Hey, these are issues that I am always interested in reading about. These are issues that I kind of have an opinion on based off my experience, and these are things that I really think could be improved and that I would be excited to try to help change." And yes, I could see myself studying these things for the rest of my life.

Advice for those who want to pursue a PhD

16:44: Make sure you really want to do research, because that is what you do in the PhD program. It does require a lot of self-motivation, initiative, drive, and persistence to keep wanting to come back when you are getting negative feedback and being told your paper is not good enough for this journal, and you need to go rerun the experiment another 10 times before maybe it will work or you will find anything interesting. So it does take a lot of dusting yourself off and getting back up from it, and you have to really enjoy the process and not just the outcome if you are going to get into it.

 What did her research find about how all-women groups are perceived and penalized?

11:17: So we found that when women work in exclusively all-women work groups, so teams of all women versus teams of all men, the gender pay gap gets worse. So when men work with all men, their pay increases. When women work with all women, that pay gap gets bigger than if they just worked alone, and their pay was taken into account just as a solo employee. And we found, we tested through some online experiments, that this was because groups of women presented a threat to an existing status quo in male-dominated workplaces that solo women workers did not present, and that male workers, either alone or in the same groups, did not present. So we found that when women work together, they present a threat of competition that they do not present when they work by themselves, and that led to lower pay.

SHOW LINKS:

• Episode Transcript
• Mallory Decker | Leeds School of Business Profile
• Mallory Decker | University of Colorado Boulder Article
• Mallory Decker | LinkedIn
• Mallory Decker | ResearchGate Page
• Mallory Decker | Google Scholar Page

Today on the Leeds Business Insights podcast, our host, Claire Stewart, sits down with Shay Har-Noy, the managing director of Techstars Boulder. Shay’s enthusiasm for entrepreneurship is undeniable, and he is responsible for raising the fund, recruiting companies, and working with the world's best founders.

Shay and Claire discuss Shay’s path from his education through founding his first company, having it be acquired, leading Uber’s Colorado tech facility, working at Spire through its NYSE listing, and, most recently, joining Techstars to relaunch in Boulder. He explains Techstars’ return after COVID-era consolidation, the renewed, dedicated Boulder fund, and the accelerator model: hundreds of applicants vying for 8–10 slots, a $220,000 investment, a 12-week program, software perks, and access to a global investor network and a 10,000+ founder network.

Shay emphasizes how it’s never been easier to start companies with AI, but many businesses shouldn’t be venture-backed, and he describes the types of businesses he sees being successful and how they can best be ready for the challenges. Shay outlines investability and makes a compelling pitch for Techstar’s upcoming in-person cohort, with applications due June 10 for a September start.

Leeds Business Insights Podcast is a production of Leeds School of Business and is produced by University FM.

Why this is the best time to start a company

07:09: It's never been easier and more accessible for people who are exceptional founders, who are passionate about their problem space, who understand and empathize with their customers' pain points. There's never been a better time for them to start a company. And so what's interesting now is a lot of the conversations that I have with founders isn't, “Is your company a nice one or not a nice one?” It's, “It can still be something that VCs wouldn't invest in that would still be a great company for you.”

Making Colorado the best place in the country to build a company

11:57: I think Colorado is a really special place. My goal is to make Colorado, to put it back on the map, and to help contribute to it being on the map, to be the best place in the country to build a company. Okay. There's places with more investors. There's places on the coast with more entrepreneurs. I've lived in both of these places, okay? I think what we have is an amazing ecosystem of business leaders, of mentors, of entrepreneurs, where the culture is such that we are working closely to make these companies successful. And I haven't seen that in many or any other place, where there's just the right density of talent, just the right density of funding, and absolutely the right density of mentorship and support for these companies. And that's unique to where we are now.

Techstars Boulder is not just software as a service

15:48: Techstars Boulder is not just software as a service, right? It's not just software companies. It's also companies that have solved deep technical problems that are bringing them to market. And so now you're like, "Hey, if you squint really hard, Shay's got three jobs, right? Attract, select, and accelerate," right? One, two, three. And this is how CU can help me with, with the talent pool and with the applicant pool, with the selection, and with the acceleration.

• Techstars Boulder
• Techstars Boulder | LinkedIn
• Shay Har-Noy | Techstars Profile
• Shay Har-Noy | LinkedIn

Welcome back to Season 5 of the Leeds Business Insights podcast! This season, we welcome Claire Stewart to the hosting chair as she continues to bring you conversations with some of Leeds and Colorado’s brightest voices.

Today, Claire sits down with Tony Kong, professor of organizational leadership and information analytics at the Leeds School of Business. His research examines how we can enable people to take actions intended to benefit others.

How can humor factor into today’s workplace productively? How can the effects of appreciation and gratitude multiply in a workplace? How do you identify opportunities in business for creativity and innovation?

Tony and Claire discuss Tony’s background and academic journey, as well as his personal journey moving from China to the United States, and navigating the differences between the two cultures. Tony explains how his research has led to his understanding of humor, and how it can function both in and of itself, and within the workplace. Tony also shares his findings on how appreciation can be shown to employees in meaningful ways and lets us in on his musical side, and history with singing, revealing his go-to karaoke songs. Take a listen and join us back here for a new episode every month.

Leeds Business Insights Podcast is a production of Leeds School of Business and is produced by University FM.

EPISODE QUOTES:

The role of humor in trust

03:34: Humor can build trust between two individuals or build high-quality relationships among people. Humor can also trigger positive emotions. So people actually feel happy. All of that can lead to a range of benefits in the workplace, such as job performance, organizational citizenship behaviors, creativity, commitment, et cetera.

On establishing trust in the workplace

10:12: One thing managers always assume is, more trust is better. So, my research actually shows that before building trust, people actually need to think about their self-esteem at work. If a manager gives a lot of trust toward an employee, and the employee does not have really high self-esteem at work, then that trust becomes heavy. It can become a psychological burden.  It actually disengage the  person who received the trust.

Humility as a habit for professional growth

15:37: One habit I would recommend every professional to have is being humble and expressing humility. Like, express your humility. Listen to other people, appreciate other people's strengths and contributions. Of course, everybody has weaknesses, but let us take a look at other people's bright side, like, what they can do for the organization and then for other folks.

SHOW LINKS:

• Tony Kong | Leeds School of Business Profile
• Funny business | CU Boulder Today Article
• Saying ‘thank you’ | CU Boulder Today Article
• When trust goes bust | Leeds Article
• Tony Kong | Google Scholar Page