Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources
Academic Areas
The OBHR area aims to understand various aspects of human behaviour at work. Many of our faculty members are funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to conduct leading edge research in such areas as employee motivation, leadership, workplace bullying, diversity and culture, decision-making, sustainability, and employee well-being and safety. Our area has a thriving PhD program with students from all over the world working with faculty to conduct world-class research.
Spotlight on Research
Abusive Supervision Differentiation and Employee Outcomes: The Roles of Envy, Resentment, and Insecure Group Attachment
Tunde Ogunfowora, Justin M. Weinhardt, & Christine C. Hwang
When employees experience distressful events such as abusive supervision, they often rely on their workgroup for sense making and social support. However, research also shows that supervisors tend to differentially abuse members of the same group (i.e., abusive supervision differentiation, ASD). We argue that this behavior threatens an employee’s socioemotional bond with and reliance on the workgroup for support. Specifically, ASD drives negative comparisons of “self versus others” that diminish one’s socioemotional relationship with the group as a whole, particularly if one experiences more abuse than others. Drawing on attachment theory, we develop an individual-level conceptual model that links perceptions of ASD to employee outcomes through two forms of unhealthy person-group bonding—group attachment anxiety and group attachment avoidance. The results of two studies show that group attachment anxiety and avoidance uniquely explain the effects of ASD perceptions, over and above group identification. While both attachment patterns mediated the effects of ASD on psychological distress, group attachment avoidance primarily mediated the effects on quit intentions, and group attachment anxiety primarily mediated the effects on interpersonal deviance (Study 2).
This paper is published in Journal of Management.
Naor Cohen
Assistant Professor (Teaching)
Area of expertise: Ethical leadership; Organizational Behaviour and BComm Honours
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Loren Falkenberg
Professor Emerita
Area of expertise: Business ethics; corporate social responsibility, decision-making
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Andrew Hayes
Professor
Area of expertise: Behavioural Statistics; Psychometrics; Self-Censorship
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Sandy Hershcovis
Professor, Associate Dean - Faculty, Future Fund Professor in Equity Diversity and Inclusion, Senior Associate Dean, Research and Faculty
Area of expertise: Abusive supervision; workplace bullying; sexual harassment
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Mali Mansouri
Assistant Professor (Teaching)
Area of teaching expertise: ethical leadership; organizational behaviour
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Laurie Milton
Professor Emerita
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Julian Alexa Norris
Assistant Professor (Teaching)
Area of expertise: Complexity & system change; depth-based leadership; Adventure learning
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Tunde Ogunfowora
Associate Professor
Area of expertise: Leadership; ethical cognitions and behaviours; personality at work
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Peter Sherer
Professor
Area of expertise: Macro and strategic HR; institutional change; organizational innovation
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Piers Steel
Professor
Area of expertise: Meta-analysis; selection; motivation
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Nick Turner
Area Chair - OBHR, Professor
Area of expertise: Leadership; occupational health and safety; work design
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Julie Weatherhead
Assistant Professor
Area of expertise: Leadership; emotions; socioeconomic status and inequality
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Justin Weinhardt
Associate Professor
Area of expertise: Motivation; decision-making; computational modeling
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Leighton Wilks
Associate Professor (Teaching), Associate Dean - Teaching and Faculty Development
Area of expertise: Negotiation; cross-cultural management; corporate social responsibility
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