Jana Gallus

I am an Associate Professor of Strategy and Behavioral Decision Making at UCLA Anderson. I study non-monetary incentives and organizational design. I have so far focused on analyzing the effects of awards on motivation and performance, with an emphasis on applications to large-scale collaborative production models such as Wikipedia. This work has demonstrated the power and the limitations of symbolic awards and other forms of social recognition. My methodological focus on field experiments has allowed me to collaborate with organizations such as Wikipedia, NASA, private sector firms, the American Red Cross, hospitals, schools, and universities.

The goal of my research is to advance our understanding of what motivates fruitful human coordination, and what makes it meaningful.

At UCLA Anderson, I teach Business Strategy in the full-time and fully-employed MBA programs, as well as courses in different Executive Education programs. I joined UCLA from Harvard, where I was a postdoctoral fellow. I received my Ph.D. in economics from the University of Zurich, with the distinction summa cum laude, and I hold two master’s degrees, from Sciences Po Paris in France and the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.

At home, my three children keep me on my toes and smiling.