My research examines how recognition at work—through nonmonetary rewards, reputation signals, and performance feedback—shapes motivation, learning, and cooperation. I also study how leaders’ communication influences the ways employees interpret these signals and coordinate their efforts. To answer these questions, I use a combination of large-scale data and experiments, which allows me to identify not only whether these practices matter, but also how and why they matter. For example, I investigate how reputation systems sustain cooperation in competitive environments, how different forms of feedback shape learning, and when recognition systems motivate effort versus produce unintended consequences.
A central goal of my scholarship is to generate evidence-based guidance on how organizations can use recognition in ways that support both performance and intrinsic motivation. This is especially important in healthcare, where the effective functioning of hospitals and medical practices often depends on coordination, discretionary effort, and other vital contributions that are essential yet frequently overlooked. By helping organizations better recognize and reinforce these less visible forms of work, I aim to complement existing structurally focused approaches to improving efficiency and work environments, while also contributing to efforts to reduce burnout among medical professionals by sustaining the sense of meaning and commitment that draws many to the profession in the first place.
Education
- PhD, Business Administration (Management & Organizations), University of Michigan
- MBA, University of Florida
- BA, Political Science, University of California Los Angeles
Research
Selected publications
- Meluso, J., Chambers, C., Littauer, R., Llamas, N., Long Lingo, E., Mhangami, M., Pitt, B., Splitter, V., and Wang, H. (2026). A Cross-Domain Guide to Open Practices. Forthcoming in Nature Human Behaviour
- Gordon, S., Baker, W.E., Uribe, J., Chambers, C.R., and Desmarais, B. (2025). Networks of Inclusion: Using Teams and Technology to Create Diverse Social Capital.Social Networks, 83: 120-133
- Chambers, C.R., Alves, M., and Aceves, P. (2025). Learning from Inconsistent Performance Feedback.Organization Science, 36(4), 1509-1530
- Aceves, P. and Chambers, C.R. (2025). Inconsistent Rating Scales Decrease Social Influence Bias and Enhance Crowd Wisdom.Computers in Human Behavior, 164, 108497
- Chambers, C.R. (2024). Nonmonetary reward systems, counterproductive behavior, and responses to sanctions in open collaboration environments. Organization Science, 35(3), 928-947
- Liu, H., Chambers, C.R., and Moore, C. (2023). Fifty Years of Research on Leader Communication: What We Know and Where We Are Going. The Leadership Quarterly, 101734
- Chambers, C.R., & Baker, W.E. (2020). Robust systems of cooperation in the presence of rankings: how displaying prosocial contributions can offset the disruptive effects of performance rankings. Organization Science, 31(2), 287-307
Working papers
- Chambers, C.R., Alves, M., Aceves, P., and Patil, S.V. Differential Learning from Inconsistent Performance Feedback: Comparing Specialists and Generalists
- Nguyen, M., Chambers, C.R., and Nguyen, E. Aligning Incentives in the Operating Room to Optimize First Case On-Time Starts (FCOTS)
- Brahm, F., Chambers, C.R., and He, L. Credible Enforcement: When Managers’ Punishment of Free Riding Effectively Builds Cooperation
Teaching
Current
- Motivating and Incentivizing Work
- Power and Politics
- Negotiation
Honors and distinctions
- Editorial Board Member Administrative Science Quarterly (since 2022)
- Editorial Board Member Organization Science (since 2020)
In the media
- Chambers, C.R. The Dark Side of Game Playing. Financial Times (December 6, 2020)