Over the past decade, the topic of social class in organizations has enjoyed unexpected growth. However, management researchers lack an in-depth understanding of what we know (and do not know) about the role of social class in organizations. This lack of understanding is exacerbated by the fragmentation of extant research across disciplinary and paradigmatic lines. Accordingly, in this paper, we review over 400 quantitative, qualitative, and conceptual articles and offer an in-depth look at the current state of literature on social class and work. Specifically, we introduce a framework for organizing extant social class research and draw attention to the institutionalization of social class distinctions in organizations. We also identify opportunities for scholars to engage understudied areas and to connect across paradigms. Overall, we hope to fuel future research and further organizational scholars’ understanding of this complex yet impactful phenomenon.

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Research increasingly acknowledges the far-reaching impact of social class and the many ways in which it can meaningfully shape individuals’ work and working lives. As such, social class and concomitant class privilege represent relevant and necessary content for the management classroom. In this paper, we begin by offering an overview of select research addressing social class and work, which helps to emphasize the significance of social class in organizational life. Next, to help educators bring “class” into the management classroom, we present teaching resources from across disciplines. We also advocate for educator reflexivity, the development of broader vocabularies around social class, and engagement with activities that increase students’ understanding of class-based inequalities at the individual, institutional, and social or cultural levels. Overall, we bring together research and resources that relate to social class and work, to not only inspire and inform management educators, but also to offer resources that help students prepare for navigating a class-diverse workplace.

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