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Core Faculty of the Industrial/Organizational Program

For more details about the members of our faculty, please click on their names to navigate to their complete faculty profiles.

Wendi Adair, Associate Professor
(BSc, Georgetown; MSc, PhD, Northwestern)

My research focuses on negotiation and conflict management in the global marketplace. Much of my work investigates the universality of negotiation theory that has been largely developed in the West (information exchange, persuasion, decision-making biases, reciprocity, offer-counter offers) and defines cultural norms for negotiation strategies, sequences, and stages in multiple national cultures. Other areas of research include the role of context in communication, behavioral adaptation, and third culture building in cross-cultural interactions. My research on reciprocity in cross-cultural negotiations has received awards from both the American Psychological Association and the International Association for Conflict Management. My work identifying the different paths that U.S. and Japanese negotiators take to generate joint gains was recognized with an award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.

James Beck, Assistant Professor
(BS, Michigan State University; MA, University of Akron; PhD, University of Minnesota)

My research deals primarily with motivational and self-regulatory processes. I am interested in how individuals allocate finite resources, such as time, effort, and attention across multiple, competing demands. Much of my work to date has dealt with how individuals use perceptions of ability and beliefs about the likelihood of success to efficiently allocate resources. Recently I've begun to study how non-conscious decision-making processes influence this resource allocation process. Some specific trade-offs I've studied include speed vs. accuracy, long- vs. short-term performance, learning vs. avoiding failure, and safety vs. productivity. My overarching goal to produce research that helps individuals be safe, productive, and personally fulfilled at work.

Ramona Bobocel, Associate Professor
(BSc, Alberta; MA, PhD, Western Ontario)

There is an increasing awareness among social scientists that people's attitudes and behavior in many domains, such as the workplace, are strongly influenced by their experience of justice (or fairness). Underlying my recent research program is a continuing interest in judgments of justice in the workplace, with particular emphasis on (a) the effects of such judgments on attitudes (e.g., organizational commitment, leader trust), and (b) determinants of the experience of justice itself. An overarching goal is to understand the psychological mechanisms underlying fairness effects. 

Doug Brown, Associate Professor
(BA, Alberta; MSc, Calgary; PhD, Akron)

My research interests and publications span both the "I" and "O" side of the field of industrial psychology. On the "I" side, I am interested in how individuals form perceptions of organizations as well as the impact that faking has on the validity of selection instruments. On the "O" side, my interests lie in the areas of leadership, deviance, and the self as well as the intersection between these domains. My published work has addressed how leadership perceptions form and how and when malicious forms of leadership will impact subordinate well-being and sense of self.    

John Michela, Associate Professor
(BS, Maryland; MA, PhD, University of California-Los Angeles)

My research concerns a variety of influences on employee motivation and performance. My primary focus of study involves vision as a component of leadership. Can a leader's vision influence the direction and intensity of employees' efforts? If so, how and why? Related questions concern how such a vision should be formulated (collaboratively?) and communicated (with "charisma"?). Another line of study concerns organizational culture and climate as these influence motivation and stress at work. Finally I am studying cognitive and social factors in the performance of innovators as they create new products or services. One focus here is on how the "representation" of the problem to the innovator impacts success in problem solving.

Pat Rowe, Professor Emeritus
(BA, Toronto; MA, Dalhousie; PhD, McGill)

As an Industrial/Organizational (I/O) psychologist, my research interests are in the area of work behaviour, with primary emphasis on the "I" or personnel side of I/O psychology. One long-term interest has been on the selection interview and the decisions made by both the employer and the applicant. Another area of interest is the effect of work experience on subsequent job performance, work attitudes, and employment status. Much of this latter work involves students at Waterloo in co-operative (alternating work/study terms) education programs.

Cross-appointed Faculty from the University of Waterloo

Paul Guild, Professor
Department of Management Sciences (D. Phil, University of Oxford)

Dr. Guild studies technology management for product differentiation in global markets and exploring new products, services and applications that future users will want, value and accept. He was central to the creation of Innovate, Inc., a not-for-profit company housed at the University which helps entrepreneurs to develop their venture concepts prior to the "incubation" stage.

Adjunct Faculty

Lisa Keeping, Assistant Professor
Management and Organizational Behaviour, School of Business and Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University (PhD, University of Akron)

Dr. Keeping's primary research interests focus on employees' reactions to HR functions. Specific interests include self-ratings of performance, performance appraisal reactions, and reactions to feedback.

Practitioner in Residence

Jim Clemmer, Practitioner in Residence
As Practitioner in Residence, Jim Clemmer expands the range of opportunities for UW I/O graduate students to observe and participate in management and organization development practice. Mr. Clemmer is a bestselling author and internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, workshop/retreat leader, and management team developer on leadership, change, customer focus, culture, and personal growth. Jim co-founded Canada's largest consulting and training firm, The Achieve Group, now part of AchieveGlobal. He currently heads The CLEMMER Group, a coaching and consulting organization based in Kitchener, Ontario

Additional Faculty with Interests in Industrial/Organizational Psychology

There are several faculty members in other divisions of our Psychology Department with research interests in areas related to I/O (e.g., Mark Zanna in Social, Derek Koehler in Cognitive, Geoff Fong in Health and Social).