K-State Department of Psychology Research: Industrial/Organizational

Industrial/Organizational

Dr. Downey's research is conducted in the following areas:

Part-time Employment: This line of research identified the general characteristics of part-time workers and how they differed from full-time employees. One of the more important findings was that part-time workers with a greater sense of job control (e.g., scheduling of work) were more satisfied with their work and had a lower intention to leave. This research has been expanded into service orientation and work-family conflict.

Service Orientation of Employees: This research has demonstrated the importance of employees' perceptions of the service environment in understanding the quality of service provided by an organization. More recently, this work has been linked with Job Stress and Burnout and Customer Contact research.

Job Stress and Burnout: Research interest in this area has been on understanding the antecedents and consequences of job burnout. Results have explicitly linked this work to a service environment and customer contact issues. Findings also suggest that both traits of the workers and the state of the organization need to be considered in understanding the service environment.

Customer Contact: This line of research grew out of the job burnout research. Many researchers have named customer contact as the source of job burnout, but little work has been done to empirically demonstrate this or to understand the nature of the customer contact. Preliminary work has concerned developing a better understanding of the contact and develops ways to measure it. Preliminary research has found that customer contact is a multi-faceted construct (e.g., frequency, emotional content, etc.).

Dr. Ronald Downey has additional information concerning this research.

 

Dr. Youngcourt does research on Work-Family Conflict: Research in this area has linked work-family conflict to job satisfaction and included a large part-time sample. Other research has developed a new approach to work-family conflict and included the concept of family-work conflict (i.e., the degree to which work causes conflict with the family).

 

Dr. Satoris Youngcourt has additional information concerning this research.

 

Dr. Knight's research focuses on the general issue of psychological commitments to various organizations and activities, and how these commitments affect workers' behaviors both on and off the job. Studies have examined commitments to work and school, work and church, part-time vs. full-time commitments, among others. In addition, this research has examined the process by which people make decisions to seek part-time employment. A model of this decision process has been developed and a series of studies testing the model are underway.

Dr. Patrick Knight has additional information concerning this research.

Psychology of Labor and Industrial Relations

Dr. Fullagar's research explores the application of organizational psychology to unions and the collective bargaining process. Current research includes the development of a model explaining why workers become committed to labor unions and what the psychological consequences are. Research also examines the phenomenon of dual allegiance, looking at the predictors and outcomes of different patterns of loyalty to both labor and employing organizations. Other areas of research include attitudes about organized labor, strike behavior, work-related stress, and leadership behavior in unions.

Dr. Clive Fullagar has additional information concerning this research.