Laura's research interests include identity development and expression, particularly for emerging leaders and non-prototypical populations.
Laura Weimer
Doctoral Student
Doctoral Student
Laura is a 4th-year doctoral student in the Management unit at Harvard Business School. She is an 19-year active duty Army Officer, with her BS in Chemistry from the United States Military Academy at West Point and MA in Sociology from Duke University. Laura previously taught Leadership and Sociology at West Point for 3 years and will return to continue her research as an Assistant Professor. Her research interests include identity development and expression, particularly for emerging leaders and non-prototypical populations.
Laura is a 4th-year doctoral student in the Management unit at Harvard Business School. She is an 19-year active duty Army Officer, with her BS in Chemistry from the United States Military Academy at West Point and MA in Sociology from Duke University. Laura previously taught Leadership and Sociology at West Point for 3 years and will return to continue her research as an Assistant Professor. Her research interests include identity development and expression, particularly for emerging leaders and non-prototypical populations.
Laura's military and leadership experience inspires many of her research interests. She has deployed twice to Iraq, where she learned to better appreciate cultural norms and societal structures as well as effects of leadership and communication in combat environments. She has served in various leadership and staff roles, overseeing training, logistics, personnel management, and staff coordination for various size units both on deployments overseas, and at home. Most meaningful have been the informal opportunities to mentor people through personal and professional development and empower their career aspirations. Her passion for research on identity and leader development stems from hundreds of relationships and conversations and an inspiration to better understand and improve leaders' performance and investment in people.
Laura's military and leadership experience inspires many of her research interests. She has deployed twice to Iraq, where she learned to better appreciate cultural norms and societal structures as well as effects of leadership and communication in combat environments. She has served in various leadership and staff roles, overseeing training, logistics, personnel management, and staff coordination for various size units both on deployments overseas, and at home. Most meaningful have been the informal opportunities to mentor people through personal and professional development and empower their career aspirations. Her passion for research on identity and leader development stems from hundreds of relationships and conversations and an inspiration to better understand and improve leaders' performance and investment in people.
- Cases and Teaching Materials
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- Raffaelli, Ryan, Akshaya Varghese, and Laura Weimer. "Leader Action Orientations." Harvard Business School Technical Note 423-050, November 2022. View Details
- Research Summary
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- Teaching
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Laura taught undergraduate Military Leadership and Intro to Sociology for 6 and 4 semesters, respectively, at the United States Military Academy (West Point) from 2013-2016 (see course descriptions and links below). She was promoted from instructor to Assistant Professor in 2016, and will return to West Point upon completion of her doctorate at HBS. While a graduate student at Duke University, Laura also taught one semester of Military Science in the ROTC program, and served as a teaching assistant for Sociological Inquiry (2013). She most recenty served as a teaching fellow at HBS for Professor Ethan Bernstein in his Elective MBA course, "Managing Human Capital" (Fall 2020).
----------------------- West Point Courses: PL300 (Military Leadership) is a multidisciplinary study of leadership in organizations. Cadets gain a pragmatic understanding of the behavioral, organizational, and sociological sciences, and apply that knowledge to become better leaders, develop better leaders, and make their organizations more effective. The course surveys a carefully selected set of the most relevant and useful ideas, concepts, theories and knowledge from these sciences. A representative list of topics explored includes: leader and leadership development, character and its development, perceptions and biases, decision making, motivation, power and influence, multiple leadership theories, counseling, negotiations, team dynamics, cohesion and group development, conflict management, organizational justice, organizational culture, organizational change, socialization, and leadership in extremis. In addition to applying knowledge of these topics, cadets develop a leadership portfolio which helps refine and inform their personal approach to leading. The portfolio includes a 'Journey Line' reflection paper, an individual developmental plan, and a theoretically sound leadership philosophy. PL300 is designed to maximize direct application for cadets in their roles as leaders in the Corps of Cadets and as future Army officers.
Sociology is the scientific study of society and the interactions among humans. The goal of Introductory Sociology is to provide a survey of the field of sociology and educate and inspire cadets to examine contemporary situations that involve social interaction and use sociological concepts, theories, and research to explain what is taking place, identify social threads and patterns across the situations, and determine the personal as well as the social significance of their analysis. Sociology demands that the student transcend the taken-for-granted, subjective world view and develop a sociological imagination by revealing the linkages and relationships among social facts and connect public issues to self awareness. PL371 is a survey course with the identification of common threads across social situations, and determining the self and social significance of facts. The teaching and learning strategy involves reading, writing, discussions, presentations, and other active-learning, hands and heads-on projects.
Military Leadership description: https://usma.libguides.com/bsl/militaryleadership/pl300
Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership course catalog: https://courses.westpoint.edu/crse_dept_catalog.cfm?str_sub_div_ofc_sym_cd=MADN-BSL
Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership main page: https://www.westpoint.edu/academics/academic-departments/behavioral-sciences-and-leadership - Additional Information
- Area of Study
- Areas of Interest
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- identity
- gender
- leadership
- leadership development
- mentoring
Additional Topics