"Don't appeal to people's morality, but search together for new rules of play for appropriate behaviour."

Research focus: Social safety, Diversity and Inclusion, Integrity and ethical climate, Leadership and culture change.

Naomi Ellemers has been a social and organisational psychologist and university professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Utrecht University since 2015. Ellemers was elected a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), corresponding member of the British Academy. She received, among others, and international member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She received the NWO Spinoza award, and is chair of the board of the NWO Gravitation program on sustainable cooperation (SCOOP).
From 2015-2023 she was member external supervisory board, PwC, the Netherlands (expert for
culture and behaviour).
From 2020 -2022 she was chair of the KNAW Committee on Roots and Prevention of Inappropriate Behaviour in Academia
She is one of the initiators of The Netherlands Inclusivity Monitor (NIM) and one of Athena's Angels.

Focus on how people live and work together
Naomi Ellemers researches the way people live together and work together in groups. She especially looks at how people's behaviour is influenced by others around them - whether they are present or not. She does experiments on brain activity and physical stress, but also looks at how people behave at work. Organisational behaviour

Specialization: diversity & inclusion and integrity & ethical behaviour
The two topics she specializes in are diversity and inclusion, and integrity and ethical behaviour.
From this perspective, she studies topics such as diversity and innovation in teams and organisations, career development of women and ethnic minorities, motivation and commitment in work teams, and ethical standards and moral behaviour in (professional) groups.
She also applies her scientific knowledge to applied issues, organisational advice, and professional development, including supervision of organisational culture and ethical climate, implicit prejudices in recruitment and selection, and corporate social responsibility. She is active as a core researcher in the NWO Gravity Programme Sustainable Cooperation (SCOOP).

Queen Bees Still Exist, But It’s Not The Women We Need To Fix

Queen bees are women in positions of authority who are more critical of female subordinates. Sixteen years ago a classic study found that female university professors succumbed to queen bee syndrome in their evaluations of female graduate students. New research indicates that queen bees are still going strong, but the researchers suggest that we shouldn’t be trying to fix the women. Instead, it’s our organizations that need help.