Institute for Work and Employment Research
The MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER) is a multidisciplinary research and teaching unit located within the MIT Sloan School of Management. IWER’s mission is to conduct and disseminate cutting-edge research that improves the lives of workers and guides managers in crafting a successful and inclusive future of work. For nine decades, IWER has played a leadership role in shaping scholarship and practice on work, labor and employment relations, workplace inclusion, technology and analytics, and larger questions of inequality.
To accomplish this vision, IWER focuses its research, teaching, and engagement on key questions such as:
- What does a fair and inclusive future of work look like? What are the critical elements of job quality for the next 50 years?
- How can organizations provide good careers for workers now and in the future while also competing successfully?
- How is technological change—including AI, automation, and digitization—reshaping employment, skill demands, and the competitiveness of organizations and economies?
- What management practices, institutional structures, and public policies will foster an inclusive future of work and reduce workplace inequality?
- How can we build organizations where conflict is managed well and social divides are bridged, so individuals, communities, and organizations can thrive?
IWER brings a critical multi-stakeholder perspective to the forces reshaping work today by drawing on the expertise of core faculty at the MIT Sloan Work and Organization Studies Group and affiliates across the departments of Computer Science, Economics, Political Science, and Urban Studies and Planning. These campus networks support a highly interdisciplinary and rigorous PhD program, a weekly research seminar, and a wide array of research projects.
IWER’s commitment to examining work at every level, from the front line to the executive suite, is distinctive among leading U.S. business schools. IWER’s tradition of investigating the experiences of workers alongside the strategies of managers and leaders reflects a powerful premise: that building good jobs and good companies go hand in hand. It is a premise consistent with MIT Sloan’s own mission to develop principled, innovative leaders who improve the world.
IWER's co-directors are Erin L. Kelly and Emilio J. Castilla. Faculty affiliated with IWER teach a range of courses for undergraduates, MBAs, executive MBAs, and executives. IWER also offers an online listing of MIT Sloan MBA courses related to managing people.
For more information about IWER or to sign up for IWER’s newsletter, email iwer@mit.edu.