Political Risk and Identity Lab

Inside a Brooklyn kitchen that trains migrants for restaurant jobs, lifting an industry

Four chefs stand in a kitchen wearing aprons and red shirts, one holding a tray of cupcakes.

(Outlet: Gothamist) The five-week course called Culinary Career Pathways for New New Yorkers was launched in April by the nonprofit group Hot Bread Kitchen, which trains New Yorkers for jobs in the food industry. Although the course is patterned after the organization’s signature Culinary Fundamentals course, it has an important twist: It was designed specifically for newly arrived Latin American migrants who have secured work permits and set their sights on careers in the food industry. But the benefits and possibilities extend far beyond the individuals in this classroom.…Read More

How to Resolve Conflict in Business

Two business men holding briefcases with antlers on their heads stand off angrily on an outdoor wasteland.

(Outlet: Wharton Magazine) Alas, disputes, disagreements, and discord are parts of human nature (and that seems to go double for the nature of business). But research into a variety of scenarios, from interpersonal tension to geopolitical friction, offers hope for a more successful path forward. Here, five Wharton faculty share insights about conflict in its many forms and how to navigate it, resolve it, reframe it, or even avoid it entirely, for better results.…Read More

The Value of Corporate Purpose

A wiper clears soap off a sudsy windshield, revealing a blue cloudy sky.

(Outlet: Harvard Business Review) Instead of conceiving of the firm as a collection of managers writing contracts specifying roles and tasks and then struggling to get workers to comply, we need to develop theories that better match the organizations we lead, study, advise, and report on, argues Witold J. Henisz, Vice Dean of the ESG Initiative at the Wharton School.…Read More

The ESG Initiative presents an update to the POLCON dataset

Stock photo of an assortment of countries' flags blowing in the wind on a sunny day

The Wharton Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) Initiative is proud to present an update to the POLCON (POLitical CONstraint) dataset, including new data through the end of the year 2020. The POLCON measure, developed by Vice Dean and Faculty Director of the ESG Initiative Witold Henisz, is a quantitative measure of institutional constraints that uses a spatial model of political interaction and measures the feasibility of a change in policy given the structure of a nation’s political institutions.…Read More