Dejun “Tony” Kong (Ph.D. from the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, USA) is an Associate Professor of Organizational Leadership at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business.

Tony’s research interests include trust in social interactions (negotiations, leadership, teams, cross-cultural settings, entrepreneurship, etc.), positive psychology in organizations (humor, gratitude, passion, authenticity, courage, etc.), and behavioral ethics (moral emotions, prosocial/antisocial behaviors, and diversity/equity/inclusion). He has published about 60 journal articles. According to Elsevier BV and Stanford University, Tony was ranked among the top 2 percentile scientists (based on single years) worldwide. His research has appeared in numerous prestigious journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Human Resource Management, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Personality, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Psychological Science. In 2016, his co-edited book “Leading through Conflict: Into the Fray” was published by Palgrave Macmillan.

Tony has received numerous research, teaching, and service awards. For example, he received the Best Conflict-in-Context Paper Award in 2022 and the Most Influential Article (runner-up) Award (for publications in 2013-2016) in 2021 from the Academy of Management’s (AOM) Conflict Management Division. In 2020, he received the University of South Florida’s Women and Leadership Initiative (WALI) research award. In 2019, he was selected by Poets & Quants as a “40 under 40” best business professor in the world. He was also named an Ascendant Scholar in 2019 by the Western Academy of Management, a Rutgers Research Fellow, and a University of Louisville’s Rechter Fellow for Leadership (2021 & 2023).

Tony has actively engaged in various kinds of service work for his professional and local communities. For example, he served as a trustee of St. Anthony’s Hospital in Florida. He has been serving as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Organizational Behavior, and on the editorial review boards of 12 other journals, such as the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management, Organization Science and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. He is an incoming Associate Editor of the Journal of Management. He was a Rep-at-Large of the International Association for Conflict Management, chairing multiple awards committees, and is serving on the executive committee of the AOM Managerial and Organizational Cognition Division. He has strong commitment to promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and belongingness, such as serving as an Ambassador-at-Large for the AOM Diversity & Inclusion Theme Committee, organizing an AOM workshop on “Inclusive Collaborations and Classrooms,” and creating a university-wide DEI pedagogy training module (besides teaching diversity, equity, inclusion, and belongingness).