Aruna Ranganathan
Biographic Data
| ID | 263197 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Aruna Ranganathan |
| GIVEN NAMES | Aruna |
| FAMILY NAME | Ranganathan |
| SIGNATURE | RANGANATHAN A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Berkeley |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2110-6798 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 41 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 9 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The (State–Private) Ties that Bind
Governments often collaborate with the private sector to design and implement major economic initiatives. In studying such state–society collaborations, sociologists tend to focus on how institutional contexts drive outcomes. Although this institutional approach has proven generative, it can overlook important micro-level interaction patterns between state and private-sector actors that could also affect economic outcomes. In this study, we exami…
Addressing Marginalized Populations in Management Research
Organizational theory has predominantly studied elites, yielding significant insights but creating a narrow perspective on management practices and organizational dynamics. This essay argues that we can advance organizational theory by incorporating a comprehensive focus on populations marginalized across multiple dimensions—economic, educational, geographic, demographic, cultural, and social. Addressing these marginalized groups is crucial as th…
Love in the Time of Self-Publishing
Marching to Her Own Beat
Women have traditionally been held back from performing to their full potential in creative project teams, where they typically constitute a minority. However, due to recent technological developments, the structure of teamwork is rapidly evolving. Specifically, teamwork is now often performed asynchronously: members of teams work at different times, by themselves, rather than simultaneously and together. How will this shift to asynchronous teamw…
When the Tasks Line Up
Jobs consist of bundles of tasks, with most jobs involving one or a few core tasks as well as supplementary tasks. In this article, the author argues that, keeping constant the number of supplementary tasks performed, the nature of these tasks can affect workers' productivity in their core task. The study uses quantitative and qualitative data to study tea pickers at a plantation in India. Using fine-grained personnel data on workers' task assign…
Identification and Worker Responses to Workplace Change
This article uses ethnographic and interview data about four cases in two work settings in India to examine identification as a factor in workers’ reactions to workplace change. Novel technology and management practices are frequently introduced into work settings as the world of work changes. Workers tend to cooperate more with some workplace changes than with others. The previous employment relations literature has invoked interests, cultural v…
A Numbers Game
Technological advances and the big-data revolution have facilitated fine-grained, high-frequency, low-cost measurement of individuals' work. Yet we understand little about the influences of such quantification of work on workers' behavior and performance. This article investigates how and when quantification of work affects worker productivity. We argue that quantification affects worker productivity via auto-gamification, or workers' inadvertent…
Professionalization and Market Closure
Professionalization has long been understood as a process of establishing market closure and monopoly control over work; however, in this article the author presents a case in which professionalization erodes rather than establishes occupational closure. She demonstrates how the Indian Plumbing Association (IPA), a newly formed organization of internationally trained plumbing contractors and consultants, has used the rhetoric and structures of pr…
Economic Development Strategies and Macro-and Micro-Level Human Resource Policies
This detailed case study of India's "outsourcing" industry illustrates the challenges in linking macro and micro human resource policies with an economic development strategy based on export-oriented services. The rapid expansion in the outsourcing of services to India has raised the possibility that this sector will be a key engine of India's economic growth. Based on extensive field research carried out over a four-year period, the authors of t…
A Numbers Game
Technological advances and the big-data revolution have facilitated fine-grained, high-frequency, low-cost measurement of individuals' work. Yet we understand little about the influences of such quantification of work on workers' behavior and performance. This article investigates how and when quantification of work affects worker productivity. We argue that quantification affects worker productivity via auto-gamification, or workers' inadvertent…
Economic Development Strategies and Macro-and Micro-Level Human Resource Policies
This detailed case study of India's "outsourcing" industry illustrates the challenges in linking macro and micro human resource policies with an economic development strategy based on export-oriented services. The rapid expansion in the outsourcing of services to India has raised the possibility that this sector will be a key engine of India's economic growth. Based on extensive field research carried out over a four-year period, the authors of t…
Professionalization and Market Closure
Professionalization has long been understood as a process of establishing market closure and monopoly control over work; however, in this article the author presents a case in which professionalization erodes rather than establishes occupational closure. She demonstrates how the Indian Plumbing Association (IPA), a newly formed organization of internationally trained plumbing contractors and consultants, has used the rhetoric and structures of pr…
Identification and Worker Responses to Workplace Change
This article uses ethnographic and interview data about four cases in two work settings in India to examine identification as a factor in workers’ reactions to workplace change. Novel technology and management practices are frequently introduced into work settings as the world of work changes. Workers tend to cooperate more with some workplace changes than with others. The previous employment relations literature has invoked interests, cultural v…
Marching to Her Own Beat
Women have traditionally been held back from performing to their full potential in creative project teams, where they typically constitute a minority. However, due to recent technological developments, the structure of teamwork is rapidly evolving. Specifically, teamwork is now often performed asynchronously: members of teams work at different times, by themselves, rather than simultaneously and together. How will this shift to asynchronous teamw…
When the Tasks Line Up
Jobs consist of bundles of tasks, with most jobs involving one or a few core tasks as well as supplementary tasks. In this article, the author argues that, keeping constant the number of supplementary tasks performed, the nature of these tasks can affect workers' productivity in their core task. The study uses quantitative and qualitative data to study tea pickers at a plantation in India. Using fine-grained personnel data on workers' task assign…
Economic Development Strategies and Macro-and Micro-Level Human Resource Policies
This detailed case study of India's "outsourcing" industry illustrates the challenges in linking macro and micro human resource policies with an economic development strategy based on export-oriented services. The rapid expansion in the outsourcing of services to India has raised the possibility that this sector will be a key engine of India's economic growth. Based on extensive field research carried out over a four-year period, the authors of t…
Professionalization and Market Closure
Professionalization has long been understood as a process of establishing market closure and monopoly control over work; however, in this article the author presents a case in which professionalization erodes rather than establishes occupational closure. She demonstrates how the Indian Plumbing Association (IPA), a newly formed organization of internationally trained plumbing contractors and consultants, has used the rhetoric and structures of pr…
A Numbers Game
Technological advances and the big-data revolution have facilitated fine-grained, high-frequency, low-cost measurement of individuals' work. Yet we understand little about the influences of such quantification of work on workers' behavior and performance. This article investigates how and when quantification of work affects worker productivity. We argue that quantification affects worker productivity via auto-gamification, or workers' inadvertent…
Identification and Worker Responses to Workplace Change
This article uses ethnographic and interview data about four cases in two work settings in India to examine identification as a factor in workers’ reactions to workplace change. Novel technology and management practices are frequently introduced into work settings as the world of work changes. Workers tend to cooperate more with some workplace changes than with others. The previous employment relations literature has invoked interests, cultural v…
Marching to Her Own Beat
Women have traditionally been held back from performing to their full potential in creative project teams, where they typically constitute a minority. However, due to recent technological developments, the structure of teamwork is rapidly evolving. Specifically, teamwork is now often performed asynchronously: members of teams work at different times, by themselves, rather than simultaneously and together. How will this shift to asynchronous teamw…
When the Tasks Line Up
Jobs consist of bundles of tasks, with most jobs involving one or a few core tasks as well as supplementary tasks. In this article, the author argues that, keeping constant the number of supplementary tasks performed, the nature of these tasks can affect workers' productivity in their core task. The study uses quantitative and qualitative data to study tea pickers at a plantation in India. Using fine-grained personnel data on workers' task assign…
Addressing Marginalized Populations in Management Research
Organizational theory has predominantly studied elites, yielding significant insights but creating a narrow perspective on management practices and organizational dynamics. This essay argues that we can advance organizational theory by incorporating a comprehensive focus on populations marginalized across multiple dimensions—economic, educational, geographic, demographic, cultural, and social. Addressing these marginalized groups is crucial as th…
Love in the Time of Self-Publishing
The (State–Private) Ties that Bind
Governments often collaborate with the private sector to design and implement major economic initiatives. In studying such state–society collaborations, sociologists tend to focus on how institutional contexts drive outcomes. Although this institutional approach has proven generative, it can overlook important micro-level interaction patterns between state and private-sector actors that could also affect economic outcomes. In this study, we exami…
Psychology (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Economics (4 works) · Political science (4 works) · Computer Science (3 works) · Ethnography (3 works) · Indian Economic and Social Development (3 works) · Public relations (3 works) · Social Psychology (3 works) · Context (archaeology (2 works)