Peter Belmi
Scott C. Beardsley Professor of Business Administration
Academic Area
Areas of Expertise
Education: Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior, Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Peter Belmi is the Scott C. Beardsley Professor of Business Administration at the Darden School of Business. He is also a Shannon Fellow at the University of Virginia. Belmi earned his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Stanford Graduate School of Business. He serves on the editorial boards of Organization Science, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, and Academy of Management Discoveries.
Belmi’s research seeks to understand the socioeconomic divide in the United States and the role organizations can play in supporting upward mobility. He examines power and politics in organizations, the cultural dynamics of mainstream and elite firms, and the experiences of upwardly mobile individuals, people in lower socioeconomic contexts, and members of historically underrepresented groups.
Belmi’s work has been published in leading psychology and management journals, including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Science, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Organization Science, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. His research has received numerous awards, including the Outstanding Research Award from the Society of Personality and Social Psychology, the Best Paper Award from the Excellence in Ethics Research Conference, the Best Article Award from the Academy of Management, and the Wells Fargo Award for Most Outstanding Research Publication. Thinkers50 named Belmi one of the “30 management thinkers most likely to shape the future.” His work has also been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, Fortune, Forbes, NPR, Newsweek, Financial Times, MarketWatch, The Boston Globe, Medium, Harvard Business Review, and Inside Higher Ed.
At Darden, Belmi teaches courses on power, leadership, and organizational behavior. He is the course head for the First-Year Leading Organizations Core Course and the instructor of a Second-Year MBA elective, “Paths to Power,” in the Full-Time Residential MBA program. He also teaches in The Executive Program (TEP)—Darden’s senior advanced management program for top global executives—and The Partnership for Leaders in Education (PLE), Darden’s leadership development program for school leaders seeking to elevate the quality of education and life outcomes for students across the United States. Outside academia, he works with executives, managers, and professionals across a wide range of industries.
Belmi has been recognized multiple times for his impact in the classroom. In 2018, Poets & Quants named him one of the ‘40 Best Business Professors Under 40.’ That same year, he received the University of Virginia’s Mead-Colley Award, a distinction given to a Darden professor who embodies the Jeffersonian ideal of teaching. In 2020, Belmi received the Faculty Diversity Award for his exceptional contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion within the Darden community. And in 2023, 2024, and 2025, the graduating class voted Belmi as Faculty Marshal for the Residential MBA Program, the highest honor bestowed by graduating students. In 2025, Belmi received the All-University Teaching Award, a recognition given to the most dedicated, passionate, and creative instructors at the University of Virginia.
Peter Belmi's Ideas to Action Posts
Selected Publications
Han, I., Belmi, P., Thomas-Hunt, M., & Summers, C. (2025). Managers can support employees in working-class contexts by promoting growth mindsets. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 51(11), 2307–2322.
Belmi, P., Raz, K., Neale, M., & Thomas-Hunt, M. (2024). The consequences of revealing first-generational status. Organization Science, 35(2), 667–697.
Belmi, P., Jun, S., & Adams, G. (2022). The “equal-opportunity jerk” defense: Rudeness can obfuscate gender bias. Psychological Science, 33(3), 397–411.
Belmi, P. & Schroeder, J. (2021). Human “resources”? Objectification at work. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 120(2), 384–417.
Belmi, P., Neale, M., Reiff, D., & Ulfe, R. (2020). The social advantage of miscalibrated individuals: The relationship between social class and overconfidence and its implications for class-based inequality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 118(2), 254–282.
Belmi, P., & Laurin, K. (2016). Who wants to get to the top? Class and lay theories about power. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111(4), 505–529.