2025 Best 40-Under-40 MBA Professors: Samir Nurmohamed, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania by: Kristy Bleizeffer on May 21, 2025 | 3,706 Views May 21, 2025 Copy Link Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email Share on LinkedIn Share on WhatsApp Share on Reddit Samir Nurmohamed The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania “Taking Power and Politics with Professor Samir Nurmohamed was one of the most intellectually stimulating and transformative experiences of my time at Wharton. What set this course apart was Professor Samir’s approach to teaching. His lectures weren’t just theoretical discussions but deeply engaging explorations of how power is accumulated, wielded, and lost in organizations. One of the most valuable aspects of the course was the balance between empirical research and lived experience. Samir encouraged us to reflect on our own professional journeys—moments when we had influence, times when we felt powerless, and instances where we navigated (or failed to navigate) workplace politics effectively. This made the learning intensely personal.” – Anjika Nanda Samir Nurmohamed, 39, is an Associate Professor of Management at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, receiving tenure in 2022. His research examines how people endure, respond, and persist when experiencing adversity at work. He has two primary streams of research related to adversity: one on motivation, primarily focusing on underdogs and the impact of low expectations, and another on behavioral ethics, investigating how employees respond to the adversity of unethical behavior in their organizations. To understand these topics, he conducts his research using multiple methods (e.g., field and lab experiments, longitudinal surveys, semi-structured interviews, and archival data) across individuals in a variety of work contexts, including those in Fortune 500 corporations, job seekers at reemployment centers, and entrepreneurs who are seeking to bring new culturally contentious initiatives to the marketplace. His work has been published in some of his field’s top academic journals, such as the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Psychological Science, and featured in outlets such as the New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Scientific American, The Athletic, and NPR’s Hidden Brain. At Wharton, Professor Nurmohamed (or as he is known to his students, “Prof Nurmo”) teaches the MBA and Wharton Executive MBA (WEMBA) core course on the Foundations of Teamwork and Leadership, as well as an elective course he created on Power and Politics in Organizations. In addition, he has taught and worked with clients such as the World Economic Forum, Apple, Amazon, Deloitte, and Cleveland Clinic on power and politics in organizations, emotional intelligence, and resilience. At Wharton, he has received many teaching awards, including the Wharton Teaching Excellence Award in the MBA and/or WEMBA programs every year since the creation of the award, the Excellence in Teaching for the Undergraduate Division Award, and the MBA Teaching Commitment and Curricular Innovation Award. Before Wharton, he completed his Ph.D. in Management and Organizations at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and earned a BA in Economics and Philosophy from The University of Western Ontario. BACKGROUND At current institution since what year? 2013 Education: PhD – Management & Organizations at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business; BA – Honors Specialization in Economics and Major in Philosophy at Huron University at the University of Western Ontario List of MBA courses you currently teach: Foundations of Teamwork and Leadership; Power and Politics in Organizations TELL US ABOUT LIFE AS A BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFESSOR I knew I wanted to be a business school professor when… During my undergraduate studies, my introductory statistics professor cold-called me during a 100-person lecture, and I froze because I was daydreaming. When I approached him after class, he invited me to grab a Tim Hortons coffee. After meeting with him for twenty minutes, I said to myself, “That is one nice dude, and he seems passionate about what he does. I hope I can find a career like that in the future.” It was the first time I thought about being a professor, as I knew almost nothing about the profession before meeting him. A series of experiences after that solidified my interest in becoming a professor and, later, in studying organizational behavior. What are you currently researching and what is the most significant discovery you’ve made from it? I’m interested in how people respond and rebound from adversity at work and in their careers. A central idea in management is that others’ low expectations undermine employee motivation and performance at work. In contrast, my research demonstrates that underdog expectations—perceiving that others do not expect you to succeed—can motivate some people to work harder to prove others wrong. However, there are limits to the effectiveness of this motivation. For example, it depends on whether underdog expectations are seen as credible or not. If underdog expectations are perceived as credible, people experience a sense of threat because they do not believe they have what it takes to succeed. On the other hand, if underdog expectations are seen as lacking credibility, people are motivated and perform more effectively since they want to defy these expectations. I am currently building on this research to understand what happens when people are selected for a role or job but perceive or discover they are not the first choice (what I call “alternate choices”) and how colleagues and supervisors respond to working with alternate choices. More broadly, I am curious about how people derive motivation and aim to succeed when they face adversity or barriers to success. If I weren’t a business school professor… I would have loved trying to be an A&R rep in hip-hop music. Discovering, signing, and developing new artists would be fascinating, as hip-hop music is one of my passions. I probably would have been better suited to do this in the 2000s, however, as I am not sure my tastes align with what is most popular today. What do you think makes you stand out as a professor? I don’t know if this makes me stand out, but I take pride in my willingness to experiment and adapt while still being true to who I am. Since teaching my first course during my PhD program, I have always tried to make my course content engaging and relevant to students. When I was younger, I was great at incorporating pop culture examples or connecting concepts to experiences that resonated with students since I was close to them in age. Heck, I even rapped course concepts to my students to help them remember the takeaways from a course. As I get older, I know that some of the approaches that made me stand out in the past may become less effective (after all, does anyone want to see a professor rap when they are 40 years old?). However, getting older has given me a larger collection of experiences that I simply did not have when I started as a professor at Wharton in my twenties. For example, talking to our alumni and working with executives has made me realize that our students need to learn about topics that are not traditionally covered in business schools, such as navigating parental leave or experiencing layoffs. I have created new exercises and cases to enable our students to better grapple with these challenges. I hope that if I continue to approach my teaching with a commitment and love for my students, I will have a lasting impact on how they understand people and organizations. One word that describes my first time teaching: Home. Here’s what I wish someone would’ve told me about being a business school professor: I am actually glad that people did not tell me everything about what it takes to be a business school professor. When I applied to PhD programs, I did not know the full reality of what the profession entails. For example, I was oblivious to the low chances of admission to PhD programs, how much research (relative to teaching) was involved, and what the path to earning tenure involves. If I had known more about being a business school professor, I would have been reluctant to apply and embark on this career path. We live in a world with so much pre-professional training, which has numerous benefits because it builds the skill set for what is required early and helps expose people to what careers entail. At the same time, it accidentally closes the door on some people who may not see themselves in a career earlier in their lives or who do not have the resources (e.g., networks, time, money) to get access to such pre-professional opportunities. My career path has been a lesson on the benefits of having a healthy amount of obliviousness before embarking on a career path. As a bonus, the best moments have been unexpected, which have made the journey even sweeter. Professor I most admire and why: I can’t provide just one, largely because I have been blessed to have many professors who have positively impacted me. During my undergraduate studies, Professors Brendan Murphy, James Frazer, David Conter, Ozden Sungur, and Tom Wonnacott opened my eyes to this incredible career by giving me so much of their time (the benefits of attending a university with small class sizes and a focus on teaching). During graduate school and later in my career, David Mayer, Adam Grant, Nancy Rothbard, the late Sigal Barsade, and several others have mentored me, supporting and encouraging me to tackle research questions that have traditionally warranted less attention but deserve to be studied. Each of them has shaped who I aspire to be in the classroom and as a researcher. Moving forward, younger professors than me—who recently received their PhD or are completing their PhD—are the ones who are inspiring me with their research or teaching methodologies (Tim Kundro, a Wharton PhD alum who is now a professor at UNC, is one of those people). In this profession, we learn, build, or even challenge the work and assumptions that come before us—that’s also what science requires. What excites me about the future is learning from others, with fresh perspectives, entering our field. TEACHING MBA STUDENTS What do you enjoy most about teaching business students? The diversity in career, cultural, and life experiences. What is most challenging? The number of back-and-forth emails about trivial matters with students that could easily be answered by reading the syllabus or having a conversation. Seriously, just come talk to me. In one word, describe your favorite type of student: Curious In one word, describe your least favorite type of student: Entitled When it comes to grading, I think students would describe me as… Firm, but fair. LIFE OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM What are your hobbies? I love traveling to new places (I have now been to 40+ countries after only traveling to the USA and Mexico before attending college), going to concerts, karaoke, working out, cheering for Toronto and Michigan sports, and eating at both fancy and hole-in-the-wall restaurants with my wife and kids (who are little foodies…with strong opinions). How will you spend your summer? I am fortunate to be finishing my semester-long academic sabbatical doing research in Portugal. It has been a wonderful opportunity to reflect, recharge, and recommit to where I want to go with my research, teaching, and career. It has also widened my perspective on how I see the world, how to build community, and how to approach life and raising kids. After we return, I am looking forward to seeing family and friends and getting prepared for a busy fall, including teaching. Favorite place(s) to vacation: Anywhere in the world that has an optimal balance of cultural immersion and relaxation, especially on a beach. Can you see why we have enjoyed living in Portugal? Favorite book(s): Danny the Champion of the World. It is about the loving relationship between a father and son, mixed with mischief and humor. It always resonated with me because of how I look up to my dad. The sacrifices both of my parents have made for me and my brother are immeasurable. I hope my wife and I are blessed to have a similar relationship with our kids as they continue to grow up. What is currently your favorite movie and/or show and what is it about the film or program that you enjoy so much? WWE or AEW wrestling. If you want to understand America and the world at this particular moment, you have to watch—or even better, attend—a professional wrestling event. In the “pretend” world of wrestling, you learn a great deal about authenticity, popular opinion, performance, and catharsis. You also meet people from so many walks of life, including socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. There is no experience like it. What is your favorite type of music or artist(s) and why? Definitely hip-hip music. There are so many artists, albums, and mixtapes that have carried me through my struggles but also lifted me up during the best moments of my life. I can literally recall the music that was playing during each phase of my life, starting from elementary school. If we are going to focus only on the music, my favorite albums (in no particular order) include the College Dropout, Illmatic, House of Balloons, MBDTF, Get Lifted, Food & Liquor (the original/advance version), and Jay-Z’s Blueprint Trilogy. I also love going to concerts. Some of my recent favorites have included Michael Kiwanuka, Lauryn Hill, Anderson Paak, The National, and Denzel Curry. Lastly, since I was born in Toronto, work in Philly, and my wife is from Atlanta, I have to give a shout-out to my three favorite artists from each of those places: The Weeknd, Freeway, and JID. Sorry for such a long list and way too much detail—I love music. THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS If I had my way, the business school of the future would have much more of this… A greater focus on building skills related to pluralism. We are seeing too much either/or thinking in the world, and we need to all remember that two seemingly opposing viewpoints can be valid at the same time. Many years ago, the Aga Khan IV said that global tensions are not rooted in a “clash of civilizations,” but rather a “clash of ignorance.” I think that perspective is just as true of the world today. Building a skillset around pluralism—such as fostering curiosity, intellectual humility, active listening, cultural competence, and moral courage—is required more than ever for future leaders in a world trending towards greater polarization, echo chambers, and isolation. Building a skillset related to pluralism does not mean every view is equally valid. It’s about learning and understanding why people hold different viewpoints from our own to inform how we make decisions to live and work in a world in which disagreement is inevitable. This is hard, but just because something is hard does not mean we should abandon it as an aspiration. In my opinion, companies and organizations today need to do a better job at… Understanding that your employees remember when you fail to stand up for your espoused values. Your values are central to what Bunderson and Thompson coin as organizations’ ideological currency: the commitments organizations make to exemplify values or principles. Although employees may understand why the external environment makes it challenging to continue enacting espoused values, it has lasting ramifications for an organization’s culture and reputation. It fundamentally undermines an organization’s credibility and alters its relationship with employees. I’m grateful for… So much in this world. Although I study underdogs, I am grateful that I have never been alone on this journey. I’m grateful for so many people—family, friends, and even acquaintances—who have seen the best in me and believed in me even when I failed to believe in myself. Every career has its highs and lows, and I feel fortunate to have chosen this one while being surrounded by so much love. DON’T MISS: THE ENTIRE 2025 ROSTER OF THE WORLD’S BEST 40-UNDER-40 MBA PROFESSORS