Emily Heaphy

Dr. Emily Heaphy is a Professor of Management and John F. Kennedy Faculty Fellow at the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She uses qualitative methods to understand interpersonal relationships at work, with a particular focus on how individuals and organizations can build positive work relationships; how and why work relationships influence human flourishing and resilience; and how relationships are used to manage the tensions between personal needs and organizational demands, such as work-life balance in professional service firms; the mediation of conflict between staff, patients and their families in hospitals; and romantic relationships at work. In support of this research, Emily and colleagues founded the Positive Relationships at Work Microcommunity. Emily has also long been interested in developing new ways of theorizing about and researching the human body at work. She advocates for a variety of “lenses” for considering the body and embodiment at work, from physiological to sensory to cultural.

Her research has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Academy of Management Annals, Academy of Management Discoveries, and Academy of Management Review, among others. She is currently serving as an Associate Editor at the Academy of Management Journal. She has served on the Editorial Review Boards of Organization Science, Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Review, and Journal of Management Inquiry, and won awards for the quality of her reviewing from three of these journals as well as the AOM’s Managerial and Organizational Cognition Division. She has also served as a Guest Editor for special issues in the Academy of Management Review (2018) on work relationships and in the Journal of Management Studies (2025) on social symbolic work at the Center for Positive Organizations.

Emily has won awards for her teaching at the undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral levels. She currently teaches Human Resource Management to undergraduates and master's students, and Qualitative Research at the doctoral level. As a Chancellor's Leadership Fellow (2023-2024), she developed the Healthy Relationships at Work Fellowship for Department Heads and Chairs. The goal of the now-annual workshop is to equip chairs to make positive change through improving work relationships.

Emily received her bachelor’s degree in Women’s Studies from Wellesley College and her doctoral degree in Management and Organizations from the University of Michigan. As a western Mass native, working at UMass has been a great opportunity to return and enjoy the region as a professional, parent, and community member.