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Caleb Phillips

PhD candidate in Organisational Behaviour
Department of Management

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About

About

Caleb studies the different ways people think, and what that means for leadership and wellbeing at work.

A PhD candidate in Organisational Behaviour at the London School of Economics, he focuses on cognitively diverse workers, including autistic employees and employees living with mental illness. Studying leadership and wellbeing through this lens not only illuminates perspectives traditionally overlooked in management research, but reveals how leaders can help every employee thrive. Caleb studies how people think across three streams: how leaders think, the wellbeing of employees who think differently, and what happens in the relationship between the two. This third stream forms the core of his dissertation, which develops a theory of cognitive alignment between leaders and those they lead – how their ways of thinking align, fail to align, or diverge, and the wellbeing and performance outcomes that follow.

His research is motivated in large part by his time in industry: for nearly a decade before his doctorate, he built the systems companies use to analyse and predict employee satisfaction, engagement, and performance – leading a people analytics function at a US unicorn start-up and running global talent acquisition analytics at Snap Inc. in London. Building those systems, he saw how differently people experience work, who is enabled to thrive and who is left behind, and how directly leadership shapes those divides. That is what drew him back to academia: to develop theories that explain these patterns and, in turn, to design better interventions. It also shapes how he works: Caleb draws on a range of quantitative methods (field studies, experience sampling, laboratory experiments) and qualitative approaches, and has built research partnerships with organisations – both to ground his work in real workplaces and so findings can return directly to practice.

Beyond his research, Caleb cares deeply about teaching and service. Prior to joining LSE, Caleb served as adjunct faculty for an MBA programme in the United States. During his time at the LSE, his teaching in the classroom was recognised with the Department of Management’s Highly Commended Class Teacher Award in both 2025 and 2026. He is also an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, reflecting a commitment to inclusive teaching that draws directly on his research – designing classrooms for the range of ways students think and learn. Beyond the classroom, he serves on the Executive Committee of the Academy of Management’s Managerial and Organizational Cognition division. In London, he has contributed to the intellectual life of the community by planning and leading the OB Research Day and convening LSE’s OB/HR Paper Club – venues where colleagues are able to test early ideas and receive critical constructive feedback to advance their work.

Caleb’s scholarship has been recognised with the Lim Kim San Fellowship at Singapore Management University and the Rechter Fellowship in Positive Leadership at the University of Louisville, and his research has been featured in Inc., the Financial Times, LSE Business Review, and more.

Publications

  • Dobrow, S., Phillips, C., & Rosado-Solomon, E. H. (2025) The nature of narcissism: a review and expansion of research on narcissism in the workplace. In: Rosado-Solomon, Emily H., (ed.) Mental Health Challenges and Work: Advanced Topics and Future Research Directions. Routledge Studies in Management, Organizations and Society. Routledge, New York, NY, 25 - 42. ISBN 9781032789200
  • Ji, Y., Huang, Q., Liu, H., & Phillips, C. (2021). Weight Bias 2.0: The Effect of Perceived Weight Change on Performance Evaluation and the Moderating Role of Anti-Fat Bias. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, Article 679802. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.679802.

Manuscripts under review

  • Steed, L., Dust, S., Phillips, C., & Liu, H. Helping behaviors, needs fulfillment, and recovery. 3rd R&R: Journal of Vocational Behavior
  • Phillips, C., Alaaldin, T., & Stillwell, E. Neurodiversity narratives. 1st R&R: Academy of Management Discoveries
  • Phillips, C., Ji, Y., Guo, H., Liu, H., Liu, S. Leader narcissism, emotions, and creativity. 1st R&R: Journal of Organizational Behavior

Manuscripts in preparation

  • Rosado-Solomon, E. H., Dobrow, S., Phillips, C., & Thatcher, S. M. B. Mental illness and job design.
  • Phillips, C. Leadership and cognitive differences. (Nominee: Academy of Management 2026 Phillips and Nadkarni Award for Outstanding Paper on Diversity and Cognition, MOC Division)
  • Janardhanan, N., Phillips, C., Nandkeolyar, A., & Thatcher, S. M. B. Leadership, secrecy, and creativity in teams.
  • Phillips, C., Alaaldin, T., & Stillwell, E. Leader curiosity and employee wellbeing.
  • Alaaldin, T., Phillips, C., Stillwell, E., & Thomassen, A. Supervisor social support.

Impact articles

Expertise

Leaders, well-being, emotions, data, analytics, narcissism