Journal of Applied Psychology
Stay current with IO Psychology research
Aggregated feeds from the field's top journals, automatically updated daily. Browse recent articles, explore past research, and subscribe via RSS.
Articles about
Abstract
Recent Articles
View all
The Leadership Quarterly
Leadership
Research questions matter: A five-criterion framework for centering decisions in congruence research
The Leadership Quarterly
Training & Development
Leadership
Measuring CEO responsible leadership: Development and validation of a linguistic-based instrument
Abstract
Responsible leadership (RL) has gained growing attention in both academia and organizational practice. However, extant research faces three key limitations: a lack of conceptual clarity (i.e., tautologies and overlaps with other leadership constructs), a conflation of leader behaviors with follower evaluations, and overreliance on surveys, which typically capture supervisory rather than top-executive perspectives. To address these issues, we introduce a novel behavioral measure of responsible…
Responsible leadership (RL) has gained growing attention in both academia and organizational practice. However, extant research faces three key limitations: a lack of conceptual clarity (i.e., tautologies and overlaps with other leadership constructs), a conflation of leader behaviors with follower evaluations, and overreliance on surveys, which typically capture supervisory rather than top-executive perspectives. To address these issues, we introduce a novel behavioral measure of responsible CEOs based on linguistic markers. We leverage computer-aided text analysis (CATA) to develop and validate a keyword-based CEO RL measure, combining deductively derived words with inductively derived words from machine learning (ML) and human raters. We then empirically examine the relationship between CEO RL and firm Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Using a sample of 955 CEOs over 19 years, we find that CEO RL is positively associated with CSR. Finally, we derive a taxonomy of RL behaviors (RLBs) and show overlaps and distinctions with Ethical Leader Signals (ELS). We conclude with a roadmap for future research.
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
The downside of generosity: How rare giving fosters stronger social connection
Abstract
Giving serves not only to benefit others and society but also to foster social connections between givers and recipients. However, more giving is not necessarily merrier. This research finds that social connection depends not only on the act of giving but also on how many others receive the gesture from the same giver. Rare givers—those who give to fewer recipients—are perceived as more socially connected to each recipient than broad givers—those who give to many (the rare giving effect). This…
Giving serves not only to benefit others and society but also to foster social connections between givers and recipients. However, more giving is not necessarily merrier. This research finds that social connection depends not only on the act of giving but also on how many others receive the gesture from the same giver. Rare givers—those who give to fewer recipients—are perceived as more socially connected to each recipient than broad givers—those who give to many (the rare giving effect). This effect emerges across diverse contexts, including interpersonal gift exchanges in both new and existing relationships and corporate donations. As a result, rare givers enjoy a relational advantage: their gifts are valued more, and they are more likely to receive reciprocation (e.g., a gift in return or purchasing from the firm), even though they are perceived as less generous than broad givers. However, the negative effect of the number of recipients on perceived connection is attenuated when recipients are closely connected (e.g., donations to multiple charities supporting the same cause) or when gifts reinforce connections between recipients (e.g., friends sharing items in a matching set). These findings highlight an overlooked cost of broad generosity, with implications for managing interpersonal relationships and firms’ giving strategies.
Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology
Leadership
Always a good thing? The resource perspective to understand the double‐edged sword effect of empowering leadership on employee expediency
Abstract
Prior studies have documented the positive effects of empowering leadership on task efficiency. However, this research stream has largely overlooked that employees might promote task efficiency through potentially unethical means. Given that expediency represents a covert, less morally intense, yet prevalent form of unethical behaviour for task efficiency, we introduce a novel resource‐based perspective to explore when and how empowering leadership positively or negatively influences employee…
Prior studies have documented the positive effects of empowering leadership on task efficiency. However, this research stream has largely overlooked that employees might promote task efficiency through potentially unethical means. Given that expediency represents a covert, less morally intense, yet prevalent form of unethical behaviour for task efficiency, we introduce a novel resource‐based perspective to explore when and how empowering leadership positively or negatively influences employee expediency. Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory, we contend that empowering leadership is positively related to employee expediency via increased emotional exhaustion when task complexity is higher, but it also reduces expediency via decreased emotional exhaustion when task complexity is lower. Results from a two‐wave field study (N = 236) and two pre‐registered scenario‐based experiments (Ns = 213, 230) consistently supported our hypotheses. We contribute to the literature on empowering leadership, employee expediency and work design.
Journal of Vocational Behavior
Careers
Research Methods
A meta-analytic review of 60 years of role stressor research
Journal of Management
Leadership
Theory & Philosophy of Science
Is My Boss Gaslighting Me? Uncovering the Nomological Network of Gaslighting In Leader-Employee Relationships
Abstract
The term gaslighting is widely used today to describe deliberate attempts to undermine a person’s sense of reality. Although predominantly studied in romantic relationships, research suggests that gaslighting can occur in any context where a power ...
The term gaslighting is widely used today to describe deliberate attempts to undermine a person’s sense of reality. Although predominantly studied in romantic relationships, research suggests that gaslighting can occur in any context where a power ...
Journal of Organizational Behavior
Training & Development
Well-being & Health
Research Methods
The Power of Play in Organizations
Abstract
Play is increasingly visible in contemporary organizations, yet it is often dismissed as peripheral to “serious” work. Challenging this view, this Special Issue advances an interdisciplinary understanding of workplace play as a consequential psychological, social, and organizational resource. Across four complementary articles using qualitative, experimental, and scale‐development approaches, the Special Issue demonstrates that play enables authentic connection, fosters psychological safety and…
Play is increasingly visible in contemporary organizations, yet it is often dismissed as peripheral to “serious” work. Challenging this view, this Special Issue advances an interdisciplinary understanding of workplace play as a consequential psychological, social, and organizational resource. Across four complementary articles using qualitative, experimental, and scale‐development approaches, the Special Issue demonstrates that play enables authentic connection, fosters psychological safety and inclusion, supports proactive work redesign, and enhances motivation and well‐being—while also being shaped and constrained by roles, diversity, power, and resource depletion. Collectively, the papers reposition play as relational infrastructure rather than frivolous diversion, highlighting its emergent, co‐created, and context‐dependent nature. Building on these insights, we outline a multilevel research agenda that examines how microepisodes of play accumulate into team climates, how contextual conditions enable or suppress play, and when play can backfire or reproduce inequality. Together, the contributions invite scholars to treat play as a central lens for understanding contemporary work.
Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology
Leadership
Research Methods
Normalization of toxicity in organizations: A multilevel process framework of toxicity normalization cascade
Abstract
Workplace toxicity imposes enormous costs on employees, organizations, and society, yet scholarship lacks an integrated explanation of how harmful practices become routine and why they endure. This article develops the toxicity normalization cascade (TNC), a multilevel process framework addressing two interrelated questions: how does workplace toxicity become normalized, and why does it persist through leadership changes, regulatory interventions, and sincere reform efforts? Drawing on…
Workplace toxicity imposes enormous costs on employees, organizations, and society, yet scholarship lacks an integrated explanation of how harmful practices become routine and why they endure. This article develops the toxicity normalization cascade (TNC), a multilevel process framework addressing two interrelated questions: how does workplace toxicity become normalized, and why does it persist through leadership changes, regulatory interventions, and sincere reform efforts? Drawing on foundational theories of normalization of deviance and corruption, moral disengagement theory, and structuration theory, TNC traces how four dimensions of organizational context generate systemic pressures that activate psychological mechanisms of normalization. These mechanisms co‐evolve through social interaction and crystallize into normalized toxic culture. The framework's central contribution is the reproduction mechanism: the process through which normalized culture feeds back to reconstitute the systemic pressures that enabled its emergence, creating self‐perpetuating cascades. Six testable propositions specify the framework's architecture. We present an illustrative application, demonstrate generalizability across organizational contexts, propose a research agenda, and derive practical implications for systemic intervention.
Academy of Management Journal
The Resource Insecurity Mindset: Why CEOs from Lower-Class Origins Are Both Greedier and More Generous
Abstract
Understanding how executives’ backgrounds influence corporate behavior is essential for organizational science and society. Previous research offers conflicting predictions about whether childhood resource scarcity leads to self-focused or prosocial tendencies, with evolutionary theories predicting greed and social psychology theories pointing to generosity. This contradiction is especially relevant for chief executive officers (CEOs), whose decisions significantly impact stakeholders. Here, we…
Understanding how executives’ backgrounds influence corporate behavior is essential for organizational science and society. Previous research offers conflicting predictions about whether childhood resource scarcity leads to self-focused or prosocial tendencies, with evolutionary theories predicting greed and social psychology theories pointing to generosity. This contradiction is especially relevant for chief executive officers (CEOs), whose decisions significantly impact stakeholders. Here, we show that CEOs from lower social class origins engage in both more greedy behaviors (e.g., pursuing excessive compensation) and more prosocial behaviors (e.g., internal corporate social responsibility) than their higher-class counterparts. Using survey data from 135 S&P 1500 CEOs, we demonstrate that both behaviors stem from the same psychological mechanism: a resource insecurity mindset formed during childhood. This mindset makes lower-class origin CEOs simultaneously vigilant about personal resource accumulation and compassionate toward others facing constraints. We examine how CEO job insecurity and overconfidence influence these effects. Through experiments, coded CEO interviews, and executive qualitative interviews, we find broad support for our theory. These findings resolve a significant theoretical contradiction by showing that self-serving and other-serving behaviors can coexist and share common roots. Understanding these dual behavioral tendencies has important implications for corporate governance, executive selection, and organizational inequality.
Journal of Vocational Behavior
Careers
Research Methods
Now is the time to set things right: A qualitative study on crafting sustainable careers with a chronic illness
Explore
Browse All Articles
Search, filter by journal or topic, and sort through the complete collection of recent research.
Past Research
Explore articles from 1–3 years ago.
Journal Directory
Metadata, impact factors, and publication details for every tracked journal.
How do I subscribe to an RSS feed?
- Right-click any "Subscribe" link and select "Copy Link"
- Open your RSS reader (Feedly, NewsBlur, Inoreader, etc.)
- Look for the "Add Feed" or "Subscribe" button
- Paste the URL and confirm