Ruth Kanfer

Last updated
Ruth Kanfer
Ruth Kanfer.jpg
CitizenshipAmerican
Alma mater Arizona State University (Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology)

Arizona State University (M.A. in Clinical Psychology

Contents

Miami University (B.A. in Psychology)
Known for motivation, goal setting, self-regulation, adult learning, work and aging, work transitions
AwardsDistinguished Scientific Contributions Award from the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology(2008)

William R. Owens Scholarly Achievement Award (with P. L. Ackerman) from the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (2006)

Outstanding Publication of the Year in Organizational Behavior Award (with P. L. Ackerman) from the Academy of Management (1989, 2004)

Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology (Applied Research) from the American Psychological Association (1989)
Scientific career
Fields Psychology, Industrial and Organizational Psychology
Institutions Georgia Institute of Technology (current)

University of Minnesota (1984-1997)

University of Illinois (1983-1984)
Doctoral advisor Antonette Zeiss

Ruth Kanfer is a psychologist and professor at Georgia Institute of Technology in the area of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. She is best known for her research in the fields of motivation, goal setting, self-regulation, job search, adult learning, and future of work. Kanfer has received numerous awards for her research contributions including the American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution in Applied Research in 1989, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) William R. Owens Scholarly Achievement Award in 2006 and the SIOP Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award in 2007. Ruth Kanfer has authored influential papers on a variety of topics including the interaction of cognitive abilities and motivation on performance, [1] the influence of personality and motivation on job search and employment. [2] and a review chapter on motivation in an organizational setting.

Biography

Ruth Kanfer is the oldest child of Frederick and Ruby Kanfer. [3]   As the child of an academic, she lived in a number of places throughout her childhood. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Miami University of Ohio in 1976. Under the direction of Antonette Zeiss, Ruth completed her thesis in 1981 on the topic of self-efficacy and depression. [4]   After graduating, Ruth decided to pursue an academic career in Work Psychology, and took a NIH post-doc in Quantitative Psychology and retooled with Chuck Hulin at the University of Illinois from 1981 to 1984. [5]   She took her first position at the University of Minnesota. During her 14 years at Minnesota, she collaborated with Phillip Ackerman on a resource allocation theory of motivation and abilities and co-developed an air traffic controller simulation to test basic tenets of the theory. [6] She was promoted to Professor in 1991. In 1997, she moved to the Georgia Institute of Technology. [7]

Professional Affiliations

Ruth Kanfer has been on the editorial boards of the following journals: Work, Aging, and Retirement (2016 - ), European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology (2013 - ), Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (2004 - ), Human Performance (1997 - ), Applied Psychology: An International Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Basic and Applied Social Psychology. She has also been the Chair of the Academy of Management Organizational Behavior Division (1997 - 2001) and on the Board of Governors for the Academy of Management (2004-2007). She has also been a member of the Sloan Research Network on Aging & Work Steering committee, the Scientific Advisory Board of the Jacobs Center for Lifelong Learning (Bremen University, Germany), and is the founding Director of the Work Science Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Awards

Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology [8]

William R. Owens Scholarly Achievement Award (with Phillip Ackerman), Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology [9]

Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology (in Applied Research), American Psychological Association [10]

Elected Fellow: Academy of Management, [11] American Psychological Association, Association for Psychological Sciences, [12] Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Influential Publications

The following publications each have over 1,000 citations according to Google Scholar. [13]

Published books

The following are books that have been written and edited by Ruth Kanfer:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Industrial and organizational psychology</span> Branch of psychology

Industrial and organizational psychology is the science of human behavior in the workplace and work-life interface. It is an applied discipline within psychology and is an international profession. Depending on the country or region of the world, I-O psychology is also known as occupational psychology in the United Kingdom, organisational psychology in Australia and New Zealand, and work and organizational (WO) psychology throughout Europe and Brazil. Industrial, work, and organizational (IWO) psychology is the broader, more global term for the science and profession.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Work design</span> Area of research and practice within industrial and organizational psychology

Work design is an area of research and practice within industrial and organizational psychology, and is concerned with the "content and organization of one's work tasks, activities, relationships, and responsibilities" (p. 662). Research has demonstrated that work design has important implications for individual employees, teams, organisations, and society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwin A. Fleishman</span> American psychologist (1927–2021)

Edwin A. Fleishman was an American psychologist best known for his work in the field of industrial and organizational psychology. Among his notable achievements was a taxonomy for describing individual differences in perceptual-motor performance. The Fleishman Job Analysis Survey (F-JAS) that he developed under Management Research Institute has been cited 100 times since 1995. Additionally, Fleishman is the author of more than 250 research articles and journals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Hogan (psychologist)</span> American psychologist (born 1937)

Robert Hogan is an American personality psychologist and organizational psychologist known for developing socioanalytic theory, which fuses psychoanalytic theory, role theory, and evolutionary theory. Hogan is the president of Hogan Assessment Systems, which he cofounded with the late Joyce Hogan, PhD, in 1987. He is the author of three widely used personality inventories—the Hogan Personality Inventory; the Hogan Development Survey; and the Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory—along with more than 300 scholarly articles, chapters, and books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Affective events theory</span> Psychological model

Affective events theory (AET) is an industrial and organizational psychology model developed by organizational psychologists Howard M. Weiss and Russell Cropanzano to explain how emotions and moods influence job performance and job satisfaction. The model explains the linkages between employees' internal influences and their reactions to incidents that occur in their work environment that affect their performance, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction. The theory proposes that affective work behaviors are explained by employee mood and emotions, while cognitive-based behaviors are the best predictors of job satisfaction. The theory proposes that positive-inducing as well as negative-inducing emotional incidents at work are distinguishable and have a significant psychological impact upon workers' job satisfaction. This results in lasting internal and external affective reactions exhibited through job performance, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment.

K. Anders Ericsson was a Swedish psychologist and Conradi Eminent Scholar and Professor of Psychology at Florida State University who was internationally recognized as a researcher in the psychological nature of expertise and human performance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Onboarding</span> Management jargon for introducing new employees to employers policies and practices

Onboarding or organizational socialization is the American term for the mechanism through which new employees acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and behaviors to become effective organizational members and insiders. In standard English, this is referred to as "induction". In the United States, up to 25% of workers are organizational newcomers engaged in onboarding process.

Employment testing is the practice of administering written, oral, or other tests as a means of determining the suitability or desirability of a job applicant. The premise is that if scores on a test correlate with job performance, then it is economically useful for the employer to select employees based on scores from that test.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Occupational health psychology</span> Health and Safety psychology

Occupational health psychology (OHP) is an interdisciplinary area of psychology that is concerned with the health and safety of workers. OHP addresses a number of major topic areas including the impact of occupational stressors on physical and mental health, the impact of involuntary unemployment on physical and mental health, work-family balance, workplace violence and other forms of mistreatment, psychosocial workplace factors that affect accident risk and safety, and interventions designed to improve and/or protect worker health. Although OHP emerged from two distinct disciplines within applied psychology, namely, health psychology and industrial and organizational psychology, for a long time the psychology establishment, including leaders of industrial/organizational psychology, rarely dealt with occupational stress and employee health, creating a need for the emergence of OHP. OHP has also been informed by other disciplines, including occupational medicine, sociology, industrial engineering, and economics, as well as preventive medicine and public health. OHP is thus concerned with the relationship of psychosocial workplace factors to the development, maintenance, and promotion of workers' health and that of their families. The World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization estimate that exposure to long working hours causes an estimated 745,000 workers to die from ischemic heart disease and stroke in 2016, mediated by occupational stress.

Job performance assesses whether a person performs a job well. Job performance, studied academically as part of industrial and organizational psychology, also forms a part of human resources management. Performance is an important criterion for organizational outcomes and success. John P. Campbell describes job performance as an individual-level variable, or something a single person does. This differentiates it from more encompassing constructs such as organizational performance or national performance, which are higher-level variables.

The Situational Leadership Model, is a model created by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard, developed while working on Management of Organizational Behavior. The theory was first introduced in 1969 as "life cycle theory of leadership". During the mid-1970s, life cycle theory of leadership was renamed "Situational Leadership Theory."

Rodney L. Lowman is an American psychologist, academic administrator and entrepreneur whose major contributions have been in the areas of career assessment and counseling, ethical issues in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, the integration of clinical psychology and I-O psychology and helping to develop the field of consulting psychology. In a study of the most prolific contributors to the Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, Lowman was rated the second highest contributor for articles for the period 1992–2007.

Goal orientation, or achievement orientation, is an "individual disposition towards developing or validating one's ability in achievement settings". In general, an individual can be said to be mastery or performance oriented, based on whether one's goal is to develop one's ability or to demonstrate one's ability, respectively. A mastery orientation is also sometimes referred to as a learning orientation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astronaut organization in spaceflight missions</span>

Selection, training, cohesion and psychosocial adaptation influence performance and, as such, are relevant factors to consider while preparing for costly, long-duration spaceflight missions in which the performance objectives will be demanding, endurance will be tested and success will be critical.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology</span>

The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) is a professional organization that promotes the "science, practice, and teaching" of industrial and organizational (I/O) psychology. SIOP is also known as Division 14 of the American Psychological Association (APA). The society publishes I/O-related journals, provides its members with resources, and organizes an annual conference.

Abusive supervision is most commonly studied in the context of the workplace, although it can arise in other areas such as in the household and at school. "Abusive supervision has been investigated as an antecedent to negative subordinate workplace outcome." "Workplace violence has combination of situational and personal factors". The study that was conducted looked at the link between abusive supervision and different workplace events.

Everett Lowell Kelly was an American clinical psychologist, professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, president of the American Psychological Association (1954–55), and chairman of the Executive Committee for the Boulder Conference on Graduate Training in Clinical Psychology (1948–49).

Deborah L Gebhardt is an American scientist focusing on issues related to health, fitness and workplace health safety. Gebhardt was also a college basketball and softball coach. Gebhardt was the first coach for both the softball and women's basketball teams at the University of California, Berkeley. She coached Purdue's first women's basketball team. She was a physical education teacher prior to becoming the head coach in the 1973–74 season. She coached one year and then left Purdue. The Purdue team finished 8–8 and finished third in the Big Ten tournament.

Russell Cropanzano is an American management scholar. As of 2022, he is a professor of organizational behavior at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sharon K. Parker</span> Australian organisational psychologist and academic

Sharon Kaye Parker is an Australian academic and John Curtin Distinguished Professor in organisational behaviour at Curtin University. Parker is best known for her research in the field of work design, as well as other topics such as proactivity, mental health and job performance. She is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organisational Psychology, and in 2016 received the Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellowship. Parker's research has been cited over 28,000 times internationally and she has been recognised as one of the world's most influential scientists in the 2019 Highly Cited Researchers list by Clarivate, as well as the 2020 World's Top 2% Scientists list by Stanford University.

References

  1. Kanfer, Ruth; Ackerman, Phillip L. (1989). "Motivation and cognitive abilities: An integrative/aptitude-treatment interaction approach to skill acquisition". Journal of Applied Psychology. 74 (4): 657–690. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.74.4.657. ISSN   1939-1854.
  2. Kanfer, R.; Wanberg, C. R.; Kantrowitz, T. M. (2001). "APA PsycNet". The Journal of Applied Psychology. 86 (5): 837–855. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.86.5.837. PMID   11596801 . Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  3. "APA PsycNet". American Psychologist. 45 (4): 465–467. 1990. doi:10.1037/h0091605 . Retrieved 2021-03-18.
  4. Kanfer, Ruth; Zeiss, Antonette M. (August 1983). "APA PsycNet". Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 92 (3): 319–329. doi:10.1037/0021-843x.92.3.319. PMID   6619407 . Retrieved 2021-03-18.
  5. "APA PsycNet". American Psychologist. 45 (4): 465–467. 1990. doi:10.1037/h0091605 . Retrieved 2021-03-18.
  6. Kanfer, Ruth; Ackerman, Phillip L. (1989). "Motivation and cognitive abilities: An integrative/aptitude-treatment interaction approach to skill acquisition". Journal of Applied Psychology. 74 (4): 657–690. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.74.4.657. ISSN   1939-1854.
  7. "Ruth Kanfer | Georgia Tech - School of Psychology". psychology.gatech.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-18.
  8. "winners". SIOP. Retrieved 2021-03-18.
  9. "winners". SIOP. Retrieved 2021-03-18.
  10. "APA Distinguished Scientific Awards for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology". American Psychological Association. February 2021. Retrieved March 18, 2021.
  11. "Leadership Directory". my.aom.org. Retrieved 2021-03-18.
  12. "Association for Psychological Science: APS Fellows". www.psychologicalscience.org. Retrieved 2021-03-18.
  13. "Ruth Kanfer". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  14. Kanfer, Ruth; Ackerman, Phillip L. (1989). "APA PsycNet". Journal of Applied Psychology. 74 (4): 657–690. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.74.4.657 . Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  15. Kanfer, Ruth; Ackerman, Phillip L. (2004). "Aging, Adult Development, and Work Motivation". The Academy of Management Review. 29 (3): 440–458. doi:10.2307/20159053. ISSN   0363-7425. JSTOR   20159053.
  16. Kanfer, Ruth; Wanberg, Connie R.; Kantrowitz, Tracy M. (2001). "Job search and employment: A personality–motivational analysis and meta-analytic review". Journal of Applied Psychology. 86 (5): 837–855. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.86.5.837. ISSN   1939-1854. PMID   11596801.