top of page
Rebecca (Becky) Schaumberg
Assistant Professor
Organizational Behavior
ESMT Berlin
Berlin, German
Becky studies how people make sense of themselves in social systems, especially in moments when things don’t go as expected. Her work examines how emotions like shame and pride act as signals, shaping whether people persist, withdraw, or ask for help, and how small features of environments quietly influence those outcomes.
​
She teaches classes on conflict management, negotiations, resilience, and leadership.
Recent Research
Turns out, negotiating for someone else is not that different from negotiating for yourself
A compelling idea in the negotiation literature is that women ask for less when negotiating for themselves, but not when advocating for others. In a high-powered close replication of this influential finding, we find no support for this pattern. Gender differences in salary requests were not meaningfully shaped by whether people negotiated for themselves or someone else.
Read more by clicking the paper.
Donating bit-by-bit makes people seem more committed to social causes then giving all at once
Donating money is a powerful and efficient way to help, but skepticism about donors' motives can lead donors to give in less effective ways. How can donors earn trust and recognition and recognition for their generosity without shifting what or how much they give? This paper identifies one solution. Instead of making a single, large donation, break it into multiple smaller ones.
Read more by clicking the paper.
We learn a lot from attending to others' shame experiences at work
You witness a colleague at your new job express shame about something they did. What do you learn from your colleague's shame? How does it change how you act? We find that people attend closely to others' feelings of shame, more than other emotions, to infer what they should and should not do at work and then adjust their behavior to be more norm conforming.
Read more by clicking the paper.
Highlighted Research
Are they not listening to you, or just not agreeing with you?
Imagine you're listening to someone share their views. You're attentive, engaged, and understand their points. But you ultimately don't agree. Are you a bad listener? Objectively, no. But in the eyes of the speaker, yes. We find that speakers see agreement as a sign of good listening. So when someone says, "You're not listening to me!" They might really mean, "You're not agreeing with me!"
Read more by clicking the paper.
Why expressing pride can make you seem less competent
Feeling proud of achievements is great. But expressing pride can be risky. Showing pride in an accomplishment when others do not can make you seem less competent. Say you and a colleague both get promoted. You express pride. Your colleague shrugs it off. This research shows that people will think your colleague is more capable.
Read more by clicking the paper.
bottom of page