Masterclass: Women in Business

Sofya Isaakyan is an Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at the Department of Organisation and Personnel Management, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. She received her Ph.D. in Organizational Behaviour from Maastricht University in 2018. Her research focuses on understanding employees' upward expression of ideas and concerns about work-related issues (i.e., voice behaviour) and the corresponding reactions by managers. Her second area of research focuses on how managers can effectively build their leadership capacity and leader identity. Her research has been published in top-tier academic outlets including the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes. Sofya is the recipient of a prestigious Veni research grant by NWO in 2022. She is an editorial member for the Journal of Management Studies.  

Sofya teaches a wide range of topics on Leadership, Leadership Development, and Teams in Bachelor, Master, Full-time MBA, Executive MBA, and Executive Education programs at RSM.  

Before entering academia, Sofya worked as a consultant in the area of leadership development. Today she bridges the gap from science to practice by working with business leaders and other non-academic collaborators interested in co-developing evidence-based solutions to real-world problems and challenges. 

Caroline is the Recruitment and Admissions Manager for Executive MBA programs and enjoys assisting candidates in their MBA journey. She has nearly a decade of experience working within the Higher Education sector in international recruitment, and program development and management. She has an academic background in education policy and governance with a masters from the University of Cambridge and a bachelors in her home country of the United States.