Portrait image for Miguel M. Unzueta

Miguel M. Unzueta

Professor of Management and Organizations
“My research focuses on the psychological motivations that underlie people’s subjective understanding of diversity. Specifically, I explore how people define the concept of diversity and the impact such definitions have on their support for racial equity in the workplace."
(310) 893-0097
Areas of Expertise:
  • Diversity
  • Inequality
  • Organizational Behavior
  • Psychology
About
 

Biography

Miguel Unzueta is a Professor of Management and Organizations at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. He joined the faculty at UCLA in 2006 after earning his PhD in Organizational Behavior from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.  He holds a BA from the University of Texas at Austin.

Professor Unzueta studies diversity, bias, and discrimination. His latest research explores how people’s subjective definitions of diversity affect their support racial equity in organizations. His research has been published in top management and psychology journals including Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and Psychological Science.

Unzueta is an award-winning instructor who teaches courses on negotiations, managerial psychology, and leadership in all of UCLA Anderson’s MBA programs. From 2019-2022, he served as Senior Associate Dean of MBA Programs at UCLA Anderson – a role in which he helped steward the Anderson School through the COVID pandemic.

Outside of UCLA, Miguel Unzueta has conducted trainings on a wide range of management topics including negotiations, decision-making, and bias prevention. He has spoken at various organizations including Honda, Fox Studios, NBC Universal, Kaiser-Permanente, and the Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team.

Education

Ph.D. Organizational Behavior, 2006, Stanford University

B.A. Psychology, 2001, University of Texas at Austin

Recognition

La Force Award for Leadership, UCLA, 2020

Citibank Teaching Award, UCLA, 2020

Faculty Community Engagement Award, UCLA, 2017

Eric and “E” Juline Faculty Excellence in Research Award, UCLA, 2012

Faculty Career Development Award, UCLA, 2012–2013

Selected as one of the best 40 professor under age 40 by Poets and Quants, 2011

Dean George W. Robbins Assistant Professor Teaching Award, UCLA, 2010

 

Selected Publications

Everly, B. A., Unzueta, M. M., & Shih, M. J. (2016). Can being gay provide a boost in the hiring process? Maybe if the boss is female. Journal of Business and Psychology, 31, 293-306.

Unzueta, M. M., Everly, B. A., & Gutierrez, A. G. (2014). Social dominance orientation moderates reactions to Black and White discrimination claimants. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 54, 81-88.

Unzueta, M. M., Knowles, E. D., & Ho, G. C. (2012). Diversity is what you want it to be: How social dominance motives affect diversity construals. Psychological Science, 23, 303-309.

Unzueta, M. M. & Binning, K. R. (2012). Diversity is in the eye of the beholder: How concern for the in-group affects perceptions of racial diversity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38, 26-38.

Unzueta, M. M., Gutiérrez, A. S., & Ghavami, N. (2010). How believing in affirmative action quotas affects White women's self-image. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 120-126.

Binning, K. R., Unzueta, M. M., Huo, Y. J., & Molina, L. E. (2009). The interpretation of  multiracial status and its relation to social engagement and psychological well-being.Journal of Social Issues, 65, 35-4.

Tiedens, L. Z., Unzueta, M. M., & Young, M. J. (2007). An unconscious desire for hierarchy? The motivated perception of dominance complementarity in task partners. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 402-414.

Lowery, B. S., Unzueta, M. M., Knowles, E. D., & Goff, P. A. (2006). Concern for the in-group and opposition to affirmative action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 961-974.

Organizations Have Committed to Better Representation, But Really?

Warren Olney speaks with Miguel Unzueta, expert on equity, racial discrimination, biases and microaggressions in the workplace. At a time of higher consciousness about these issues, how can we make our organizations better?

Featuring:  Miguel Unzueta, Senior Associate Dean of MBA Programs; Professor of Management and Organizations
 

Videos