Abstract

Abstract: In their recent book, Babcock, Peyser, Vesterlund, and Weingart share evidence that across industries, jobs, and levels of seniority, women carry a heavier load of tasks that support the organization but do not advance their careers. These non-promotable tasks range from taking notes at meetings and organizing team-building events to serving on organizational governance committees. When women are overloaded with NPTS they have less time to do the work that matters and end up having to work more hours to avoid falling behind their male colleagues. This is bad for women's careers and bad for their organizations.

In this session, we'll explore why this happens and what you can do to manage your NPT workload. The common thinking is that women just need to learn how to say no, and this will solve the problem. But it's not that simple. We will discuss tried and true strategies that you can use to identify NPTs in your work portfolio and begin the process of bringing your workload into balance, as well as what managers can do to change the distribution of NPTs in the first place.

Bio: Laurie R. Weingart is the Richard M. and Margaret S. Cyert Professor of Organizational Behavior and Theory at the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University. She served as CMU's Interim Provost and Chief Academic Officer, and as Senior Associate Dean – Education and Director of the Accelerate Leadership Center within the Tepper School.

Coauthor of The No Club: Putting a Stop to Women's Dead-End Work(©Simon & Schuster, 2022), her research examines collaboration, conflict, and negotiation, with a focus on how differences across people both help and hinder effective problem solving and innovation. Prof. Weingart has published over 70 articles and book chapters in the fields of management, social psychology, industrial psychology, cognitive psychology, and economics. An elected Fellow of the Academy of Management and recipient of the Joseph E. McGrath Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Study of Groups, Dr. Weingart served as President of the International Association for Conflict Management, founding President of the Interdisciplinary Network for Group Research, and as co-editor of the Academy of Management Annals. Dr. Weingart earned her Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Video Recording