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. MIT Sloan Management Review, September 9, 2025.
Castilla, Emilio J. CEOWORLD, September 3, 2025.
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.
McKersie’s 1965 framework for labor bargaining became one of negotiation theory’s most enduring ideas — and helped guide a life of activism, mentorship, and academic leadership.
Here are six titles connected to the MIT Sloan School of Management covering topics such as economic strategy, entrepreneurship, talent management, and cultural evolution in the age of AI.
Professor Emilio J. Castilla wrote: "Leaders with an opportunity mindset hire candidates who are good enough to succeed and then build the structural conditions — through excellent onboarding, mentorship, development, and evaluation processes — that help good people become great. These leaders evaluate potential by what a person actually does on the job, not by schools attended, past employers, or previous job titles."
Research by professor Emilio Castilla and co-author found that managers who are told their company pays on merit alone give men bigger bonuses than women who do the same work. Common fixes such as diversity workshops, blind résumé screening, and rewritten job ads have limited effect because companies apply them before identifying their specific problem. Castilla proposes instead that a company audit the decisions it already makes, tracking who applies for each job, who advances, who's promoted, and what each person is paid. The company should then check whether gender or race still predicts those outcomes after accounting for the skills and experience the job requires.
Professor Emilio J. Castilla wrote: "Instead of relentlessly pursuing perfection, organizations with a 'give-the-opportunity' mindset focus on identifying talented individuals who can succeed and then providing them with the support, training, and environment they need to grow. In doing so, they recognize that success depends not only on innate brilliance or impeccable credentials, but also on a combination of ability, motivation, commitment, and real opportunities to prove one's worth."
Professor Emilio Castilla is on the Thinkers50 2025 Talent Award Shortlist, recognizing "thought leaders who have illuminated the complexities and opportunities of the dynamic talent marketplace."
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