Faculty
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 co-director of the Institute for Work and Employment Research. 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.
Castilla, Emilio J. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2025.
Castilla, Emilio J. The European Business Review, May 17, 2025.
Castilla, Emilio J., and Hye Jin Rho. Management Science Vol. 69, No. 11 (2023): 6912-6939. Download Replication Files.
Ben A. Rissing and Emilio J. Castilla. In Sage Research Methods: Business, 2023.
Castilla, Emilio J. and Ethan J. Poskanzer. American Sociological Review Vol. 87, No. 5 (2022): 782–826.
Castilla, Emilio J. Organization Science Vol. 33, No. 6 (2022): 2364-2403.
When stakeholders become more involved in generative AI design and implementation, it’s more likely that such tools will augment work rather than displace workers.
Emerging insights suggest road maps, policy recommendations, and calls for action regarding generative artificial intelligence.
Professor Emilio J. Castilla wrote: "The paradox of meritocracy suggests that the more managers and others in decision-making positions are reassured of their companies' meritocratic ethos, the less likely they are to reflect on their own biases, often leading to decisions that may disproportionately affect marginalized employees."
Pursuing meritocracy "may have unintended negative consequences for organisations and their employees if not carefully designed and implemented."
Researchers suggest that a "meritocracy paradox" occurs because embracing meritocracy convinces people of their own moral good faith and worth.
More feminine wording had a 'negligible effect on whether women or men inquired about a position."
People analytics is a data-driven approach to improving people-related decisions for the purpose of advancing both individual and organizational success. This new program explores a number of strategies used to attract and retain top talent and illustrates how these strategies are being designed and used at cutting-edge companies.
