ZHANG Xiaomeng

Associate Professor of Behavioral Psychology and Organizational Behavior, Associate Dean for EMBA Program, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB)

PhD, the R.H. Smith School of Business at University of Maryland, College Park

Areas of Expertise: Behavioral Psychology, Psychological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Leadership, Motivation, Team Collaboration, Talent Development

Biography

Professor Zhang Xiaomeng is Associate Dean of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, overseeing the EMBA program, and Associate Professor of Behavioral Psychology/Organizational Behavior with tenure in the Department of Management. She also serves as Deputy Director of the Integrative Psychology Specialized Committee of the Chinese Association of Social Psychology, Director of the Research Center for Leadership and Behavioral Psychology, and Academic Director of the CKGSB Juanyong – Women’s Leadership Program. Prior to joining CKGSB, she was a tenured Associate Professor of Management at the Kogod School of Business at American University, the first business school in the Washington, D.C. area.

Her research focuses on the intersection of behavioral science, psychology, and leadership, including individual psychological resilience and organizational resilience, leadership cognition, organizational motivation, team collaboration, talent pipeline building, and the application of behavioral psychology in these areas. Professor Zhang has published articles in multiple world-leading academic journals, including the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Organization Science, Personnel Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, and Human Resource Management Review.

Professor Zhang has taught Leadership, Principles of Management, Organizational Behavior, Organization and Human Resource Management, Business Policy, and International Business Practices in China. She holds a BA in Economics and Business Administration from Sun Yat-sen University (graduated with distinction) and a PhD in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management from the R.H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park.

For her outstanding academic achievements, Professor Zhang received the Frank T. Paine Award for outstanding research achievement. She has been named a Highly Cited Chinese Researcher for eight consecutive years from 2019 to 2026, and in 2026 was included in the 2025 World’s Top 2% Scientists list. In 2022, she published Resilience and The Resilience Handbook, both named among the “CITIC Press Good Books of 2022,” and received the “CITIC Press Author of the Year 2022” award. She received the “Science and Education Figure of the Year” award at the “Her Power · 2023 Women’s Influence Awards.” In 2025, the CKGSB Yongyong – Women’s Leadership Program, for which she serves as Academic Director, received the “Women’s Growth and Education Award” from the Global Women’s Expo; the same year, Professor Zhang published Resilience², which received the “2025 Super New Book of the Year” award from JD Books and CITIC Press. In 2026, she launched her new book Light Up Your Inner Universe – A Resilience Growth Handbook, created especially for teenagers and parents.

• Best Senior Editor Award, International Association for Chinese Management Research (IACMR), 2026
• Named to the World’s Top 2% Scientists list (2025 edition), 2026
• “Super New Book of the Year 2025”, JD Books and CITIC Press, for Resilience², 2025
• Highly Cited Chinese Researcher, Elsevier, 2019–2026
• “Science and Education Figure of the Year”, Her Power · 2023 Women’s Influence Awards, 2023
• Best Senior Editor Award, International Association for Chinese Management Research (IACMR), 2023
• “CITIC Press Good Books of 2022”, for Resilience, 2022
• “CITIC Press Author of the Year”, 2022

Selected Publications

Books

• Zhang, X. M. (2026). Light Up Your Inner Universe – The Resilience Growth Handbook (“点亮内心宇宙”). Beijing: Dedao Books.
• Zhang, X. M., & Cao, L. (2025). Resilience²: The Multiplier Rules of Mental Ascension and Resilience Forging (“韧性²”). Beijing: CITIC Press.
• Zhang, X. M., & Cao, L. (2022). Resilience: The Law of Refined Progress in an Uncertain Era (“韧性”). Beijing: CITIC Press.
• Zhang, X. M. (2022). The Resilience Handbook (“韧性手册”). Beijing: CITIC Press.

Translations (English into Chinese)

• Zhang, X. M., Cao, L., & Fu, J. (trans.). The Winner’s Curse (“赢家的诅咒”). Beijing: CITIC Press (forthcoming).
• Zhang, X. M., Cao, L., & Fu, J. (trans.) (2022). Think Again (“重新思考”). Beijing: CITIC Press.

Selected Practice Research Reports

• “New Era, New Perspectives – Leadership Research of Chinese Senior Executives in a Time of Transition” (2018)
• “Leadership Research of Chinese Senior Executives in a Time of Transition” (2019)
• “Driving Change – Leadership Research of Chinese Senior Executives” (2021)
• “Change and Continuity: The Values, Drivers, and Resilience Transmission of Generation Z” (2023)
• “Understanding China’s Gen Z in the Workplace” (English edition) (2023)
• “The Momentum of Recovery – Leadership Research of Chinese Senior Executives” (2023)
• “Steadfast in Adversity – China Entrepreneur Resilience Index Report 2020–2023” (2023)
• “China Entrepreneur Resilience Index Report, Issue 2” (2024)
• “AI × Psychology – Generative AI and Workplace Mental Health Research Report” (2025)
• “The Potential Within – Leadership Research of Chinese Senior Executives” (2025)
• “From Enduring to Recovering: A Four-Quadrant Model of Workplace Resilience under Chronic Pressure – Observations of Workplace Resilience in China 2020–2026” (working title) (2026, forthcoming)

Refereed Publications

• Huai, M., Zhang, X., Kwan, H. K., Lee, C., & Wang, T. (2026 forthcoming). CEO abusive behaviors and firm performance: The roles of TMT behavioral integration and task interdependence. Journal of Business Research. Advance online publication.
• Kwan, H. K., Zhang, X., Zhong, W., & Lee, C. (2026 in press). Do abusive CEOs kill firm innovation in turbulent environments? A moderated mediation model of the CEO–TMT interface. Asia Pacific Journal of Management.
• Qu, H., Zhang, Y., Walter, F., & Zhang, X. (2024). Unpacking the role of job insecurity for employee creativity: A multi-dimensional perspective. Journal of Management. DOI: 10.1177/01492063231213656
• Kwan, H. K., Chen, Y., Tang, G., Zhang, X., & Le, J. (2024). Benefits of empowering leadership behaviors for actors: An investigation of work engagement and power distance. Asia Pacific Journal of Management.
• Xu, X., Li, M., Kwan, H. K., & Zhang, X. (2023). The antecedents of moral identity: A meta-analytic review. Asia Pacific Journal of Management.
• Huang, G., Zhang, Y., Zhang, X. M., & Long, L. (2021). Job insecurity, commitment, and proactivity toward the organization and one’s career: Age as a condition. Human Resource Management Journal, 31: 532-552.
• Hill, N. S., Zhang, H., & Zhang, X. M. (2020). The impact of surface and deep acting on employee creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 32(3): 287-298.
• Liu, X.-Y., Kwan, H. K., & Zhang, X. M. (2020). Introverts maintain creativity: A resource depletion model of gossip. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 37: 325-344.
• Zhang, X. M., & Kwan, H. K. (2019). Team behavioral integration links team interdependence with team performance: An empirical investigation in R&D teams. Frontiers of Business Research in China, 13(1): 7-26.
• Zhang, X. M., & Kwan, H. K. (2019). Empowering leadership and team creativity: The roles of team learning behavior, team creative efficacy, and team task complexity. In C. Mainemelis, O. Epitropaki, & R. Kark (Eds.), Creative Leadership: Contexts and Prospects: 95-121. New York, NY: Routledge.
• Kwan, H., Zhang, X. M., Liu, J., & Lee, C. (2018). Workplace ostracism and employee creativity: An integrative approach incorporating pragmatic and engagement roles. Journal of Applied Psychology, 103(12): 1358-1366.
• Zhang, X. M., & Kwan, H. (2018). Team learning goal orientation and innovation: Roles of transactive memory system and task interdependence. Journal of Business Management and Administration Affair, 1(109): 2-10.
• Zhang, X. M., & Zhou, J. (2017). Configuring challenge and hindrance contexts for introversion and creativity: Joint effects of task complexity and guanxi management. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 143: 54-68 (equal contribution).
• Zhang, X. M., & Bartol, K. M. (2015). Empowerment and employee creativity: A comprehensive review. In C. Shalley, M. Hitt, & J. Zhou (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship. New York: Oxford University Press, 31-45.
• Zhang, X. M., & Kwan, H. K. (2015). Workplace ostracism and employee performance outcomes: The pragmatic and psychological effects. Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings.
• Zhang, X. M., & Zhou, J. (2014). Empowering leadership, uncertainty avoidance, trust, and employee creativity: Interaction effects and a mediating mechanism. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 124: 150-164 (equal contribution).
• Zhang, H., Kwan, H. K., Zhang, X. M., & Wu, L.-Z. (2014). High core self-evaluations maintain creativity: A motivational model of abusive supervision. Journal of Management, 40(4): 1151-1174.
• Seo, M., Taylor, S., Hill, S., Zhang, X. M., Tesluk, P., & Lorinkova, N. (2012). The role of affect and leadership during organizational change. Personnel Psychology, 65: 121-165.
• Wu, L., Yim, F., Kwan, H. K., & Zhang, X. M. (2012). Coping with workplace ostracism: The roles of ingratiation and political skill in employee psychological distress. Journal of Management Studies, 49(1): 178-199.
• Wang, S., Zhang, X. M., & Martocchio, J. (2011). Thinking outside of the box when the box is missing: Role ambiguity and its linkage to creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 23(3): 211-221.
• Zhang, X. M., & Bartol, K. M. (2010). The influence of creative process engagement on employee creative performance and overall job performance: A curvilinear assessment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(5): 862-873.
• Zhang, X. M., Chen, Y., & Kwan, M. (2010). Empowering leadership and creativity in R&D teams: The roles of team learning behavior, team creative efficacy, and team task complexity. Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings.
• Zhang, X. M., & Bartol, K. M. (2010). Linking empowering leadership and employee creativity: The influence of psychological empowerment, intrinsic motivation, and creative process engagement. Academy of Management Journal, 53(1): 107-128.
• Zhang, X. M., Bartol, K. M., Smith, K. G., Pferrer, M., & Khanin, D. (2008). CEO on the edge: Earnings manipulation and stock-based incentive misalignment. Academy of Management Journal, 51(2): 241-258.
• Pferrer, M., Smith, K. G., Bartol, K. M., Khanin, D., & Zhang, X. M. (2008). Coming forward: The effects of social and regulatory forces on the voluntary restatement of earnings. Organization Science, 19: 386-403.
• Somaya, D., Williamson, I. O., & Zhang, X. M. (2007). Combining patent law expertise with R&D for patenting performance. Organization Science, 18(6): 922-937.
• Bartol, K. M., & Zhang, X. M. (2007). Networks and leadership development: Building linkages for capacity acquisition and capital accrual. Human Resource Management Review, 17: 388-401.
• Zhang, X. M., & Sims, H. P., Jr. (2005). Leadership, collaborative capital, and innovation. In M. Beyerlein, S. Beyerlein, & F. Kennedy (Eds.), Advances in Interdisciplinary Studies of Work Teams. Elsevier/JAI annual series, Volume 11. JAI Press.

Selected Practice Research

• Zhang, X. M. (2024, June). Winning over the “Generation Z” in the workplace: Exploring motivation. Harvard Business Review (China).
• Zhang, X. M. (2022, August). Activating the resilient flywheel amidst the crisis. Harvard Business Review (China).
• Zhang, X. M. (2022, February). Organizational resilience: From consensus to empathy. Harvard Business Review (China).
• Zhang, X. M. (2020). H.E.R. leadership: Bridging the gender gap by degendering. Harvard Business Review (China), 11: 138-141.
• Zhang, X. M. (2019). Chinese executive leadership transformation: Leading change by change. Harvard Business Review (China), 4: 138-140.