Research Opportunities in I/O Psychology
with Dr. Probst

I am interested in several different industrial/organizational research topics. In addition, I have been involved in several student-initiated research projects. So, if you have a great idea for some I/O-related research, but don't see it described below, chances are you can still pursue your interests.

Antedecents and Consequences of Job Insecurity

My main research area centers around the development of an integrated model of job insecurity. Specifically, I am interested in understanding factors (individual, job-related, and organizational) that lead to the perception of job insecurity among employees. In addition, I am interested in the process by which this job insecurity results in a variety of employee outcomes such as decreased job satisfaction - yet increased productivity - lower organizational commitment, higher turnover intentions, and more mental distress.

More recently, I have become very interested in pursuing employee safety as an important outcome of job insecurity. Research that I conducted with a former undergraduate student (now pursuing a Ph.D. in I/O Psychology) showed that job insecurity is related to lower employee safety knowledge and motivation, less safety compliance, and more accidents and injuries. A follow-up study (published 2002 in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology) showed that this decrease in safety is also accompanied by a decline in employee emphasis on product quality. Interestingly, when threatened with layoffs, employees focus more energy on sheer production at the expense of safety and quality. However, preliminary research being conducted right now in my lab shows that while productivity may increase, creativity decreases. Thus, organizations may "win" the productivity battle, but lose out when it comes to employee creativity and adaptability.

Representative Publications: (Student co-authors are in boldface.)

Probst, T. M., & Tierney, B. W. (under review). Productivity and creativity: The ups and downs of job insecurity. 2004 Conference of the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Orlando, FL.

Probst, T. M. (in press). Safety and insecurity: Exploring the moderating effect of organizational safety climate. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology.

Probst, T. M. (in press). Exploring employee outcomes of organizational restructuring: A Solomon four-group study. Group and Organization Management.

Probst, T. M., & Brubaker, T. L. (2003, March). Organizational safety climate and supervisory layoff decisions: Preferences versus predictions. Paper presented at the 2003 APA/NIOSH Conference on Work, Stress, and Health, Toronto, Canada.

Probst, T.M. (2003). Development and validation of the Job Security Index and the Job Security Satisfaction Scale: A classical test theory and IRT approach. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology.

Probst, T.M. (2003). Job insecurity: Exploring a new threat to employee safety. In J. Barling, & M. Frone (Eds.) Psychology of workplace safety. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Probst, T. M. (2002). Layoffs and tradeoffs: Production, quality, and safety demands under the threat of job loss. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 7(3), 211-220.

Probst, T.M. (2002). The impact of job insecurity on employee work attitudes, job adaptation, and organizational withdrawal behaviors. In J. M. Brett & F. Drasgow (Eds.) The psychology of work: Theoretically based empirical research. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Probst, T.M. & Brubaker, T.L. (2001). The effects of job insecurity on employee safety outcomes: Cross-sectional and longitudinal explorations. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 6, 139-159.

Brubaker, T.L., & Probst, T.M. (2000, April ). Exploring the effects of job insecurity on employee safety motivation and compliance. Poster presented at the 15th Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, New Orleans, LA.

Probst, T.M., & Brubaker, T.L. (2000, April). Can job insecurity be detrimental to employee safety motivation and compliance? Results from a longitudinal field study. Paper presented at the 2000 Western Psychological Association, Portland, OR.

Probst, T.M. (2000). Wedded to the job: Moderating effects of job involvement on the consequences of job insecurity. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 5, 63-73.

Workplace Diversity, Discrimination, and Harassment

I am also very interested in workplace diversity and the experiences of those who face discrimination and harassment at work. In addition, I am interested in examining the effectiveness of university diversity course requirements at changing students attitudes towards women and minorities. Recents projects I have been involved in include: (a) a study examining the effects of being a multiple minority in the workplace, (b) developing a scale to measure an organization's diversity climate, and (c) examining the effects of being a sexual minority in the workplace as a function of state and organizational anti-discrimination laws and policies.

Representative Publications:
Johns, D. J., & Probst, T. M. (in press). Sexual minority identity formation in an adult population. Journal of Homosexuality.

Nelson, N. L., & Probst, T. M. (forthcoming). Multiple minority identities and organizational diversity climate: Predictors of harassment and discrimination in the workplace. In J. L. Chin (Ed.) The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination.

Probst, T. M. (2003). Changing attitudes over time: Assessing the effectiveness of a psychology course on workplace diversity. Teaching of Psychology.

Probst, T. M., & Nelson, N. L. (2003, April). Development and validation of the organizational diversity climate scale. Paper presented to the 2003 Conference of the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Orlando, FL.

. Probst, T. M., Ferdman, B., & Davidson, M. (2003, April). Teaching about diversity: What works, what doesn't, and much in-between. Education, teaching, and learning forum presented at the 2003 Conference of the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Orlando, FL.

Probst, T.M., & Johns, D. (2002). Harassment and discrimination in the workplace. In J.C. Thomas & M. Hersen (Eds.) Handbook of mental health in the workplace. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publication, Inc.

Johns, D., & Probst, T.M. (2000, March). An empirical test of a theoretical model of sexual minority identity formation. Paper presented at the 25th Annual Conference of the Association for Women in Psychology, Salt Lake City, UT.

Probst, T.M., & Johns, D. (2000, April). Assessing the effects of organizational policies on the experiences of sexual minorities in the workplace. Paper presented at the 2000 Western Psychological Association, Portland, OR.

Cross-Cultural I/O Research

In addition, I also conduct cross-cultural I/O research and have recently travelled to China, India, and Mexico on data collection ventures. For these projects, my collaborators and I are attempting to answer a number of questions. One major question concerns the cross-cultural effectiveness of human resource practices. As corporations increasingly become multi-national, there is a tendency for these organizations to export their HR practices to these new locations. Our research, however, suggests that HR practices that may be welcomed in one country may have a very different reception in others.

Other cross-cultural research efforts look at translation equivalence across languages, and different negotiation tactics used in different cultures.

Representative Publications:
Drasgow, F. & Probst, T. M. (in press). The psychometrics of translation: An evaluation of measurement equivalence across languages. In R. Hambleton, P. Merenda, & C. Spielberger (Eds.) Adapting educational and psychological tests for cross-cultural assessment. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Robert, C., Probst, T. M., Drasgow, F., Martocchio, J., & Lawler, J. (2001). Matching management practices to national culture in India, Mexico, Poland, and the U.S. Academy of Management Executive, 15(2), 130-132. Research translation by M. C. Marchese.

Triandis, H. C., Carnevale, P. J., Gelfand, M., Robert, C., Wasti, A., Probst, T. M., Kashima, E., Dragones, T., Chan, D., Chen, X. P., Kim, U., de Dreu, C., van de Vliert, E., Iwao, S., Ohbuchi, K-I., & Schmitz, P. (2001). Culture and deception in business negotiations: A multilevel analysis. International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management, 1, 73-90.

Robert, C., Probst, T. M., Drasgow, F., Martocchio, J., & Lawler, J. (2000). Empowerment and continuous improvement in the U.S., Mexico, Poland, and India: Predicting fit on the basis of the dimensions of power distance and individualism. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85, 643-658.

Probst, T. M., Carnevale, P. J., & Triandis, H. C. (1999). Cooperation and culture in intergroup and single-group social dilemmas. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 77, 171-191.

For a description of how I have incorporated undergraduate and graduate students into my research, please read below...

Current and Former Research Assistants:

Name Time Period Position Held Current Location Activities
Chris Nye Summer, 2002 - present Undergraduate RAWSU Vancouver
  • Field Research Project design
  • Indepedently located organizational data site
  • Data collection
  • Data entry
  • Data analysis
  • Preparation of organizational feedback reports
Brad Tierney Fall, 2002 - present Undergraduate RAWSU Vancouver
  • Field Research Project design
  • Independent acquisition of organizational data sites
  • Laboratory Experiment design
  • Data collection
  • Data entry
  • Data analysis
  • Preparation of organizational feedback reports
  • Conference presentation submission, 2004 Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology
Jennifer Walton Fall, 2003 - present Undergraduate RAWSU Vancouver
  • Project design
  • Independent acquisition of organizational data sites
  • Data collection
  • Data entry
  • Data analysis
  • Preparation of organizational feedback reports
Nicole Nelson Fall, 1999 - Dec, 2001 Graduate RAPersonnel Research Psychologist, Federal Aviation Administration
  • Project design
  • HTML programming for web-based survey
  • Data collection
  • Data entry
  • Data analysis
  • Preparation of organizational feedback reports
  • Conference presentation
  • Co-authored book chapter
Alison Dezsofi Fall, 2001 - Fall, 2002 Undergraduate Honor StudentPursuing graduate school in I/O psychology
  • Project design
  • Data collection
  • Data entry
  • Data analysis
  • Preparation of organizational feedback reports
  • Conference Presentation, 2003 Western Psychological Association
John Dabbs Fall, 2001 Undergraduate RAGraduated WSU Vancouver
  • Project design
  • Data collection
  • Data entry
  • Data analysis
  • Preparation of organizational feedback reports
Ruth Berry Fall, 2001 Undergraduate RAPursuing MSW at EWU
  • Project design
  • Data collection
  • Data entry
  • Data analysis
  • Preparation of organizational feedback reports
Altovise Rogers Summer, 2001Mellon Research Fellowship Undergraduate RA Rice University, TX
  • Performed content coding analyses on WSU Workplace Diversity survey data
Bob Brandenburg Summer, 2001Undergraduate RA Graduated WSU Vancouver; Pursuing law degree
  • Data collection
  • Data analysis
  • Preparation and presentation of organizational feedback report
Banu Sadri Spring, 2001Undergraduate RA Graduated WSU Vancouver, 2001
  • HTML programming for web-based survey
  • Data collection
Jeff Grant Spring, 2001Undergraduate RA Graduated WSU Vancouver, 2001
  • HTML programming for web-based survey
  • Data collection
Matt Canham Fall, 2000 - Spring, 2001 Undergraduate RA Pursuing Ph.D. at UC Santa Barbara
  • HTML programming for web-based survey
  • Data collection
  • Data analysis set-up
Donna Johns Fall, 1998 - Spring, 2000 Undergraduate RAPacific University, Psy.D. program in Clinical Psychology
  • Data collection
  • Data entry
  • Preparation of organizational feedback reports
  • 2 Conference presentations
  • Co-authored book chapter and journal article
Ty Brubaker Fall, 1998 - Spring, 2000 Undergraduate RA Portland State University, Ph.D. program in Industrial/Organizational Psychology
  • Data collection
  • Data entry
  • Preparation of organizational feedback reports
  • 3 Conference presentations
  • Co-authored journal article
Katie Lindley Fall, 1998 - Spring, 2000 Undergraduate RA Human Resources, Nordstroms, Seattle
  • Data collection
  • Data entry
  • Preparation of organizational feedback reports

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