Jung Won Lee is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at ESSEC Business School in Paris, France. Her research examines the psychological foundations of social network dynamics in organizations: how people form, maintain, and mobilize workplace relationships, and how these relational patterns shape individual and organizational outcomes.
She pursues this question through three interconnected streams. First, she investigates the psychological consequences of network positions — showing that structurally advantageous positions such as brokerage can carry unexpected costs, including burnout and abusive behavior. Second, she examines the psychological predictors of tie formation and social capital mobilization — identifying how psychological orientations such as future time perspective, lay theories about relationships, and rejection sensitivity shape whether individuals initiate new ties, reactivate dormant ones, or seek help from higher-status connections. Third, she studies network perception and social capital — introducing the concept of "pseudo ties," one-sided psychological connections formed through indirect exposure rather than mutual interaction.
Across these streams, she combines longitudinal field studies, experiments, and social network analyses to identify underlying mechanisms and organizational outcomes. Her research has received several recognitions, including Best Symposium and Best Paper Awards from the Academy of Management and the Andreas Al-Laham Best Paper Award from the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS).
Jung holds a Ph.D. in Management from UCL School of Management at University College London and was a Chazen Visiting Scholar at Columbia Business School. She is currently a Visiting Scholar at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Prior to her Ph.D., she studied Cognitive Studies at Columbia University (M.A.). and Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (B.A.). Jung is from Seoul, South Korea.