IWER's Mission and Structure

The MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER) is a multidisciplinary research and teaching unit that is located within the MIT Sloan School of Management and has run its own PhD program since 1937.

IWER’s mission is to conduct and disseminate cutting-edge research that improves the lives of workers and their loved ones and that guides managers in crafting a successful and inclusive future of work. IWER has long played a leadership role in influencing scholarship and practice related to work, labor and employment relations, diversity in the workplace, technology and analytics, and larger questions of inequality.

To accomplish our vision, we focus our research, teaching, and engagement on key questions like:

• 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 jobs and great careers for workers now and over the long term, while also competing successfully?
• What management practices, institutional structures, and public policies will foster an inclusive future of work and reduce inequality at work?
• How can we build organizations where conflict is managed well and social divides are bridged, so individuals, communities, and organizations can thrive?

IWER faculty are part of the Work and Organization Studies group at MIT Sloan, and we also have affiliated faculty from other parts of MIT, including the Departments of Economics, Political Science, and Urban Studies and Planning. These diverse affiliations and close working relationships with colleagues across the campus support a highly interdisciplinary and rigorous PhD program, a weekly research seminar, and a wide array of research projects.

IWER’s tradition of exploring the work experience of ordinary workers in every kind of job, alongside understanding the strategies pursued by managers and executives, is a distinctive aspect of MIT Sloan—and one uncommon at leading U.S. business schools.