Deborah H. Gruenfeld

Deborah H. Gruenfeld is an American social psychologist whose work examines the way people are transformed by the organizations and social structures in which they work. She is the author of numerous papers on the psychology of power and group behavior. She is the Moghadam Family Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a Codirector of the Executive Program for Women Leaders at the same institution.

Work

Gruenfeld was a graduate student of Robert S. Wyer and the late Joseph E. McGrath at the University of Illinois. Her doctoral research on status and integrative complexity in decision-making groups, in part examining U.S. Supreme Court decisions, were awarded prizes by the American Psychological Association and the Society of Experimental Social Psychology. Her analysis of U.S. Supreme Court decisions took into consideration both the justices' status in their group as well as their ideological preferences, demonstrating that as justices gained power on the court or entered into majority coalitions their written opinions tended to become less complex and nuanced.

Theory of Power

Together with Dacher Keltner of the University of California, Berkeley, and Cameron Anderson also at Berkeley, Gruenfeld has developed a theory of power that aims to present an integrative account of the effects of power on human behaviour, suggesting that the acquisition of power has a disinhibiting effect regarding the social consequences of exercising it.