MIT Professor of Management
Emilio J. Castilla
Helping organizations recognize talent, expand opportunity, and unlock human potential.
Helping organizations recognize talent, expand opportunity, and unlock human potential.
Emilio J. Castilla is Professor of Management and Professor of Work and Organization Studies at the MIT Sloan School of Management. A globally recognized scholar, author, and speaker, he studies how organizations shape careers, workplace outcomes, and organizational success. His work challenges conventional thinking about merit, fairness, opportunity, and performance, helping leaders build more effective and equitable organizations.
He is the author of The Meritocracy Paradox: Where Talent Management Strategies Go Wrong and How to Fix Them, an award-winning book that has sparked conversations among business leaders, policymakers, educators, and organizations around the world. Through his research, writing, and speaking, Castilla helps leaders turn those insights into action.
The promise of meritocracy is simple: reward talent and hard work, and the best will rise. The reality inside most organizations is far more complicated. Drawing on original research and real-world examples — from corporate hiring and merit-based bonuses to admissions at universities and colleges — the book reveals how bias, social processes, and other inefficiencies undermine even the most well-intentioned talent management systems, and offers practical, research-backed frameworks for fixing them. Essential reading for leaders, policymakers, and anyone seeking to understand how merit, fairness, and opportunity really work in the organizations that shape our lives.
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