Emilio Castilla

Emilio J. Castilla is the NTU Professor of Management and a Professor of Work and Organization Studies at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Castilla is currently the head of the Work and Organization Studies Group. He joined the MIT Sloan faculty in 2005, after being a faculty member in the Management Department of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the Institute for Work and Employment Research at MIT, as well as a Research Fellow at the Wharton Financial Institutions Center, and at the Center for Human Resources at the Wharton School.

His research primarily focuses on the sociological aspects of work and employment. Castilla is particularly interested in studying how social and organizational processes influence key organizational and employment processes and outcomes over time. He tackles his research questions by examining different empirical settings with longitudinal datasets, both at the individual and company levels. His focus is on the recruitment, hiring, development, and job mobility of employees within and across organizations and locations, as well as on the impact of teamwork and social relations on performance and innovation. His work has been published in top academic journals and edited volumes, including Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, American Journal of Sociology, and American Sociological Review. He has also written a book on the use of longitudinal methods in social science research (Elsevier/Academic Press).

Castilla has taught in various degree programs at MIT Sloan, the Wharton School, and a number of other international universities. His teaching interests include Strategic Human Resource Management, Strategies for People Analytics, Leading Effective Organizations, Talent Management, Career Management, and Organizational Behavior. In addition to teaching full-time MBA and executive courses, he has taught several PhD-level courses.

Selected Publications

Emilio J. Castilla. “Accounting for the Gap: A Firm Study Manipulating Organizational Accountability in Pay Decisions.” Organization Science 26 (2): 311-333.

Ben A. Rissing and Emilio J. Castilla. 2014. “House of Green Cards: Statistical or Preference-Based Inequality in the Employment of Foreign Nationals.” American Sociological Review 79 (6): 1226-1255.

Emilio J. Castilla, George J. Lan, and Ben A. Rissing. 2013. "Social Networks and Employment: Outcomes (Part 2)." Sociology Compass 7/12: 1013-1026.

Emilio J. Castilla. 2012. "Gender, Race, and the New (Merit-based) Employment Relationship." Industrial Relations. 51 (2): 1-35.

Emilio J. Castilla. 2011. "Bringing Managers Back In: Managerial Influences on Workplace Inequality." American Sociological Review 76 (5): 667-694.

Emilio J. Castilla and Steve Benard. 2010. "The Paradox of Meritocracy in Organizations." Administrative Science Quarterly 55 (4): 543-576. [Winner of the 2010 Outstanding Publication in Organizational Behavior Award, presented by the OB Division of the Academy of Management].

Emilio J. Castilla. 2008. "Gender, Race, and Meritocracy in Organizational Careers." American Journal of Sociology 113 (6): 1479-1526.

Emilio J. Castilla. 2005. "Social Networks and Employee Performance in a Call Center." American Journal of Sociology 110 (5): 1243-1283.

Roberto M. Fernandez and Emilio J. Castilla. 2001. "How Much is That Network Worth? Social Capital in Employee Referral Networks." In Social Capital: Theory and Research, edited by Karen Cook, Nan Lin, and Ronald S. Burt. Chicago: Aldine-deGruyter.

Roberto M. Fernandez, Emilio J. Castilla and Paul Moore. 2000. "Social Capital at Work: Networks and Employment at a Phone Center." American Journal of Sociology 105 (5): 1288-1356. [Winner of the 2001 W. Richard Scott Award for Distinguished Scholarship presented by the Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section of the American Sociological Association].

Emilio J. Castilla, Hokyu Hwang. Mark Granovetter and Ellen Granovetter. 2000. "Social Networks in Silicon Valley." Chapter 11 in The Silicon Valley Edge: A Habitat for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, edited by Chong-Moon Lee, William F. Miller, Henry Rowen, and Marguerite Hancock. Stanford: Stanford University Press. There is also a Chinese translation.