Hemant Kakkar

Hemant Kakkar is an Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at the Indian School of Business (ISB). Prior to this, he served as an Assistant and Associate (untenured) Professor of Management and Organisations at the Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. He received his doctoral degree in Organisational Behaviour from London Business School.
His research draws on social psychology and evolutionary theories of status and influence to examine judgments and behaviours of individuals and groups within social hierarchies. He also examines individuals' tendencies to engage in both positive and negative deviant behaviours.
He was awarded the 2021 Alvah H. Chapman Jr. Outstanding Dissertation Award, as well as, the Outstanding Dissertation Award 2021 by the International Association of Conflict Management. His research has also won Best Conference Paper awards from the Conflict Management Division of the Academy of Management (2021) and the International Association of Conflict Management (2021).
His research is published in leading academic journals, including the Academy of Management Journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Applied Psychology, Nature Human Behaviour, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, and Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. His research has also been featured in several popular media outlets, such as The Washington Post, Forbes, The Atlantic, Scientific American, The Times UK, and the Harvard Business Review.
At ISB, Professor Kakkar teaches the core course in Organisational Behaviour. He has also taught Foundations of Organisational Behaviour to postgraduate students and graduate-level seminar courses at the Fuqua School of Business. In 2021, he received the Award for Excellence in Teaching for the MMS program. Before joining academia, he worked as a Technical Consultant at Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., India.
- PhD in Organisational Behaviour, London Business School, 2019
- MBA, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, 2011
- B.Tech in Biotechnology, VIT University, 2007
Academic positions
- 2023 - Present: Associate Professor, Indian School of Business.
- 2023 - 2023: Associate Professor (Untenured), Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
- 2019 - 2023: Assistant Professor, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Professional Positions
- 2007 - 2009: Assistant Services Engineer, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.
- Lawson, Asher., Kakkar, Hemant. (2024) "Resolving conflicting findings in misinformation research: A methodological perspective", Advances in Psychology, 2
- Kakkar, Hemant. (2024) "Achieving Social Influence Across Gender and Time: Are Dominance and Prestige Equally Viable of Men & Women?", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Garrett, Brady., Kakkar, Hemant., Niro, Sivanathan. (2024) "Perilous and Unaccountable: The Positive Relationship between Dominance and Moral Hazard Behaviors", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Kundro, Timothy., Nurmohamed, Samir., Kakkar, Hemant., Affinito, Salvatore. (2023) "Why Delays in Delivering Justice Lead to Harsher Sentencing", Scientific American
- Kundro, Timothy., Nurmohamed, Samir., Kakkar, Hemant., Affinito, Salvatore. (2023) "Time and Punishment: Time Delays Exacerbate the Severity of Third-Party Punishment", Psychological Science
- Lawson, Asher., Anand, Shikhar., Kakkar, Hemant. (2023) "Tribalism and Tribulations: The Social Costs of Not Sharing Fake News.", Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
- Lawson, M.A.., Kakkar, Hemant. (2022) "Of Pandemics, Politics, and Personality: The Role of Conscientiousness and Political Ideology in Sharing of Fake News", Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
- Effron, D. A.., Kakkar, Hemant., Cable, D.C.. (2022) "Consequences of Perceiving Organization Members as a Unified Entity: Stronger Attraction, but Greater Blame for Member Transgressions", Journal of Applied Psychology, 107 (11)
- Kakkar, Hemant., Sivanathan, Niro. (2022) "The Impact of Leader Dominance on Employees’ Zero-Sum Mindset and Helping Behavior", Journal of Applied Psychology, 107 (10)
- Kakkar, Hemant., Sivanathan, Niro. (2022) "How Dominant Leaders Go Wrong", Scientific American
- Kakkar, Hemant., LAWSON, ASHER. (2022) "We Found the One Group of Americans Who Are Most Likely to Spread Fake News", Politico
- Lawson, Asher., Kakkar, Hemant. (2021) "Personality Type, as well as Politics, Predicts Who Shares Fake News", Scientific American
- Kakkar, Hemant., Sivanathan, N.., Gobel, M.. (2020) "Fall from grace: The role of dominance and prestige in the punishment of high-status actors.", Academy of Management Journal
- Kakkar, Hemant. (2020) "Why Trump’s Popularity Surge Faded so Quickly", Scientific American.
- Kakkar, Hemant., Sivanathan, N.., Pettit, N.C.. (2019) "The Impact of Dynamic Status Changes within Competitive Rank-Ordered Hierarchies.", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
- Kakkar, Hemant. (2019) "Aggressive Leaders Are More Likely to Be Punished for Their Mistakes", Harvard Business Review
- Sivanathan, Niro., Kakkar, Hemant. (2019) "How Drug Company Ads Downplay Risks", Scientific American
- Effron, D., Kakkar, Hemant., Knowles, E. (2018) "Group cohesion benefits individuals who express prejudice, but harms their group.", Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
- Kakkar, Hemant., Tangirala, Subra. (2018) "If Your Employees Aren’t Speaking Up, Blame Company Culture", Harvard Business Review
- Sivanathan, N., Kakkar, Hemant. (2017) "The unintended consequences of argument dilution in direct-to-consumer drug advertisements", Nature Human Behaviour
- Kakkar, Hemant., Sivanathan, Niro. (2017) "When the appeal of a dominant leader is greater than a prestige leader", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Kakkar, Hemant., Sivanathan, Niro. (2017) "Why We Prefer Dominant Leaders in Uncertain Times", Harvard Business Review
- Kakkar, Hemant., Tangirala, Subrahmaniam., Srivastava, Nalin., Kamdar, Dishan. (2016) "The dispositional antecedents of promotive and prohibitive voice.", Journal of Applied Psychology, 101
- Lawson, Asher., Anand, S., Kakkar, Hemant. (2021) "Tribalism and Tribulations: The Social Costs of Not Sharing Fake News", The International Association of Conflict Management
- Kakkar, Hemant., Sivanathan, Niro. (2018) "Reply to Safra et al.: Lack of theoretical rationale and selective analysis does not imply no strong evidence", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, E1078–E1079
- Sivanathan, Niro., Pettit, Nate., Kakkar, Hemant. (2017) "Perils of Calling a Lemon a Lemon: Transference in Communicating Past Experience", Academy of Management Proceedings
- Kakkar, Hemant., Christopher, To., J Stuart, Bunderson. (2017) "Time to Update Status: Longitudinal Perspectives on Dynamic Status Changes in Social Hierarchies", Academy of Management Proceedings
- Misra, R., Sharma, R., Kakkar, Hemant. (2011) "A Case Based Study of the Relationship between Innovation, Organizational Structure and Architecture", International Academy of Business and Economics, 11, 4
- June 20, 2024: How a ‘dominance’ mindset encourages leaders to put others at risk, PSYCH.