Dr. Kuna Shani

Areas of interest

• Management Consulting and Organization Development
• Workforce Diversity
• Human Resource Management
• Evaluation and Assessment of Culture Organizations

Teaching

• Introduction to Organizational Consulting
• Organizational Consultants and Human Resource Managers as Change Agents
• Practicum
• Organizational Consulting & Development - Micro
• Developing Consulting Skills
• Consulting Challenges in the Private, Public & Third Sectors
• Practicum- Selected Issues
• Leading Change Processes in Organizations

I study management consulting and human resource management. I aim to understand how these interrelated occupations contribute to organizational effectiveness as well as shape work and working relations. Considering the multiple challenges confronted by organizations, the study of these practices is fascinating and fruitful for both theory and practice.

I have also been exploring workforce diversity, a significant issue in terms of the occupational prospects of marginalized groups in Israeli society.

ISF (2019-2023)

Placement practices of socially diverse jobseekers from the perspectives of staffing agencies and their client organizations

Selected Publications:

Kuna, S., & Nadiv, R. (2013). Organizational development dilemmas in nonprofit organizations in difficult economic times. The Organization Development Journal, 31 (2), 62-71.

Kuna, S. (2014). Liquid professionalism: A critical view of management consulting. Tel Aviv: Resling. (Hebrew)

Bozer, G., Kuna, S., & Santora, J.C. (2015). The role of leadership development in enhancing succession planning in the Israeli nonprofit sector. Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance, 39(5), 492-508.

Kuna, S. (2017). Paradoxical processes impeding public management reform implementation: Perspectives of management consultants. Public Personnel Management, 46(2), 188-207.

Nadiv, R., Raz, A., & Kuna, S. (2017). What a difference a role makes: Occupational and organizational characteristics related to HR strategic role among human resource managers. Employee Relations, 39(7), 1131-1147.

Kuna, S. & Nadiv, R. (2018). Divided we stand? Boundary work between HR managers and external OD practitioners. Employee Relations, 40(5), 848-867.

Kuna, S., & Nadiv, R. (2019). The embodiment of otherness: Deconstructing power relations between staffing agencies, diverse jobseekers and organizations in the Israeli business sector. In M. Fotaki & A. Pullen (Eds.), Diversity, affect and embodiment in organizing (pp. 195-224). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Kuna, S. (2019). All by myself: Executives' experiences of impostor syndrome and loneliness as catalysts for engaging in executive coaching with management consultants. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 55 (3), 306-326. 

Nadiv, R. & Kuna, S. (2020). Diversity management as navigation through organizational paradoxes. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, 39(4), 355-377.

Kuna, S., & Nadiv, R. (2020). Diversifying diversity, for a change? Critical diversity management practices of human resource practitioners in the Israeli business sector. In M. Krumer-Nevo, R. Strier, & I. Weiss-Gal (eds.), Critical theory in action: Critical practices in the social sphere in Israel (pp. 195-232). Tel Aviv: Resling. 

Kuna, S. & Nadiv, R. (2021). Socially underprivileged students in the Israeli periphery contending with paradox in an academic entrepreneurship education program. Israeli Sociology, 22(2), 128-148. 

Kuna, S. & Nadiv, R. (2021). Human resource practitioners as sexual harassment commissioners: Sisyphus amid gender inequalities. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, 40(6), 737-761. . https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-10-2020-0305

Kuna, S. (2023). Far from “Fauda”: Creative workers with disabilities in an established-outsider figuration in the Israeli film and television industries. Employee Relations, 45(1), 69-89. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/ER-08-2021-0377/full/html

Selected Presentations:

Kuna, S. & Nadiv, R. Paradoxical professionalism processes of human resource managers. Paper presented at the The European Sociological Association Conference, Prague University, August 27, 2015.

Kuna, S. Teaching evidence-based management in the Israeli third sector: Exploring an evolving scholarship. Paper presented at the Conference of the International Society for Third Sector Research, Ersta University, Stockholm, June 30, 2016.

Nadiv, R. & Kuna, S. The matchmakers: The evasive role of staffing agencies in (de)increasing diversity in organizations. Paper presented at the 16th International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations, Granada, Spain, July 28, 2016.

Nadiv, R. & Kuna, S. Can bureaucracy defeat prejudice? Lessons from the Israeli business sector's reaction to recent legislation for employment of people with disabilities. Paper presented at the 17th International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations, Toronto University, July 26, 2017.

Kuna, S. & Nadiv, R. Managing workforce diversity from outside-in: The role of Israeli NPOs in promoting the employment of people with disabilities in the business sector. Paper presented at the Conference of the International Society for Third Sector Research, Vrije University, Amsterdam, July 12, 2018.

Kuna, S. & Nadiv, R. Double-edged sword? Labor market intermediaries' influence on the employment precariousness of socially diverse jobseekers from the perspectives of staffing agencies and their human resources clients, Paper presented at the Conference, Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE), The New School, NYC, June 27, 2019.

Kuna, S. & Nadiv, R. Human resource practitioners as sexual harassment commissioners: Sisyphus in the midst of the politics of (in)equality. Paper presented at the European Group of Organization Studies (EGOS), July 4, 2019.

Kuna, S. & Nadiv, R. The toll of the sexual harassment commissioner role on work-family concerns of female practitioners, Work and Family Researchers Network Conference, New York, October 7, 2020.

Kuna, S. & Nadiv, R. The effects of the COVID-19 epidemic on workforce diversity in the gig economy. Paper presented at the International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations, June 2, 2021.