Anita spoke with Sekou Bermiss, Associate Professor at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School, whose research focuses on strategic human capital, political ideology, diversity, and organizational behavior.

On Strategic Human Capital Bermiss traces his research interests to his time at Kellogg, where classical macro theories of organizations felt incomplete to him because they didn't adequately account for the heterogeneity and behavior of actual people. His early instinct that "people matter" eventually crystallized into what is now called the strategic human capital field. Over time, his focus has shifted from purely functional knowledge (skills, expertise) toward the more sociological and behavioral dimensions of human capital — how ideology, status, and demographic differences shape organizational dynamics and decision-making.

On Political Ideology in Organizations He began studying political ideology in the workplace about a decade ago, recognizing that how people see justice and fairness bleeds into professional settings. He draws a parallel to where diversity research was years ago.  The field has documented the effects of ideological differences and is now trying to understand how to manage or transcend them. He notes that "contact theory" (bringing people of differing views together) can go either way: it sometimes humanizes the other, and sometimes intensifies friction. He is currently working on a theory paper modeling when ideological differences in organizations lead to good versus bad outcomes.

On Diversity Research Bermiss came to diversity research relatively recently, motivated by a sense that public debates rely on outdated assumptions and that policymakers and practitioners are drawing conclusions from headlines rather than rigorous evidence. His goal is to introduce nuance — not to prove diversity is "always good" or "always bad," but to identify the conditions, contexts, and mechanisms that matter.

On Founders vs. Executives He discusses how new ventures are far more deeply imprinted by their founders than large corporations are by their current CEOs, because established organizations have institutionalized values and structures that buffer against individual influence. Through work with a former PhD student (Christopher Law now at Texas A&M), he explored how early micro-decisions by founding teams set the stage for organizational culture, a question that surprisingly hadn't been studied in depth. The Walmart example comes up as a case of founder values that cast a long cultural shadow, some of which the company later had to reckon with as societal values shifted.

On Measurement and Analytics With his background in chemical engineering, Bermiss has circled back to quantitative measurement. He notes that AI and new data tools are enabling organizations to measure things previously unquantifiable such as organizational anxiety, tracked through communication and meeting data. He's more interested in the downstream question: should we measure these things, and what happens to decision-making once managers have access to information they never had before?

On Future Research His current agenda includes continuing senior-level diversity research, studying CEO succession and turnover (pulled in by a student's interests), and a new stream on temporary organizations — how project-based entities assemble and manage human capital without the luxury of long hiring timelines or deep institutional knowledge. He sees this as increasingly relevant as megaprojects replace large permanent agencies.

On Motivation He closes by reflecting that academia offers something rare: the ability to step back from the "shiny new thing" and ask whether changes are real and lasting. He sees a growing appetite among students and executives for deep, slow, reliable knowledge — and that's what keeps him going.