Gillian Ku

Biography

Gillian Ku is Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School. She received her PhD in Management and Organizations from the Kellogg School of Management. Prior to her doctoral studies, Gillian earned her bachelor’s degree at Harvard University and worked at the Disney Corporation where she was a financial analyst for Disney’s international video distribution division. Gillian’s internationally-recognised research is in the broad area of negotiations, decision-making, and interpersonal relationships. Specifically, her research has focused on the dynamics of emotionally-charged decision-making and she investigates the decision-making processes involved in negotiations, auction bidding, and auction fever. She also has active research projects on perspective-taking and gender differences in a variety of domains. Gillian’s research has been widely published in the premier outlets of her field, including Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Research in Organizational Behavior, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, and Harvard Business Review. Her research has also garnered international press coverage, including reports on auction behaviour at CNN, Chicago Tribune, New York Times Magazine, BusinessWeek.com, and The Telegraph. Gillian’s award-winning teaching focuses on negotiations, decision-making, and leading teams. She teaches on London Business School’s full-time MBA and executive education programmes. She has also consulted worldwide for schools (e.g., Indian School of Business and Cyprus International Institute of Management) and organisations (e.g., Diageo, Roche, Oman Oil, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation).

Research Interest

The role of emotions and arousal in decision-making ,Auction fever, Predicting future behaviour and emotions Perspective-taking and intergroup relations, and norm formation.