Jieun Pai is a postdoctoral researcher at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. She received her Ph.D. in Management and Organization from Anderson School of Management at UCLA and holds an M.A. in Human Resources from the University of Minnesota and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from KAIST, South Korea. Her work challenges the extant assumption that status conflict is a battle over rank with winners and losers. Empirically, she introduces the strategy of communicating unconditional respect, which allows status challengers to attain their desired status with the defender in a win-win manner by focusing on respect. Second, she questions assumptions from extant theory that all people strive for more status. She introduces the concept of stasis-striving, a work motivation characterized by a desire to maintain one’s current role and level of responsibility through sustained effort and diligence while avoiding opportunities to attain higher status. Together, this presentation explores the full spectrum of status striving motivation, ranging from those who care so much about moving up the hierarchy that they actively challenge others for more status to those who find it unappealing to aggressively seek opportunities for advancement while nonetheless being completely engaged in their current job.