Cort W. Rudolph

Wayne State University | WSU · Department of Psychology

This article reports the results of a 33-wave longitudinal study of relations between job insecurity and physical and mental health based on monthly data collected between April 2020 and December 2022 among n = 1,666 employees in Germany. We integrate dynamic theorizing from the transactional stress model and domain-specific theorizing based on str...

The temporal precedence of the association between climate change anxiety and pro-environmental behavior has not yet been established. This study examines reciprocal relations between the two variables while controlling for personal values to rule out potential third-variable explanations. Based on theorizing on the functionality of anxiety and sel...

Objective Trauma can have a range of effects on individuals over time, including the potential for positive changes in favorable outcomes commonly referred to as posttraumatic growth. The posttraumatic growth literature has been criticized for various methodological limitations and has largely neglected the exploration of factors that may strengthe...

Objective. Trauma can have a range of effects on individuals over time, including the potential for positive changes in favorable outcomes commonly referred to as posttraumatic growth. The posttraumatic growth literature has been criticized for various methodological limitations and has largely neglected the exploration of factors that may strength...

Dual-income couples, where both partners in a romantic couple are employed, comprise a considerable portion of the workforce. Both partners can carry strain from paid work into the home, and the spillover-crossover model posits that individuals carry strain from one domain into another, affecting their well-being (i.e., spillover) and their partner...

Dual-income couples, where both partners in a romantic couple are employed, comprise a considerable portion of the workforce. Both partners can carry strain from paid work into the home, and the spillover-crossover model posits that individuals carry strain from one domain into another, affecting their well-being (i.e., spillover) and their partner...

In this study, we consider how changes in work uncertainty (i.e., systematic, linear trajectories that reflect over-time changes in resource, task, and input/output uncertainty) moderate the generally negative relation between employee age and occupational future time perspective (OFTP) (i.e., employees’ perceptions of their remaining time, oppor...

In this study, we consider how changes in work uncertainty (i.e., systematic, linear trajectories that reflect over time changes in resource, task, and input/output uncertainty) moderate the generally negative relation between employee age and occupational future time perspective (i.e., employees’ perceptions of their remaining time, opportunities,...

Based on an integration of meta‐theoretical perspectives on the “too much of a good thing” effect with psychological demands and resources theories, we propose and test nonlinear relations between the percentage of time people work from home and a variety of important work‐related outcomes (i.e., professional isolation, work from home satisfaction,...

Based on an integration of meta-theoretical perspectives on the “too much of a good thing” effect with psychological demands and resources theories, we propose and test non-linear relations between the percentage of time people work from home and a variety of important work-related outcomes (i.e., professional isolation, work from home satisfaction...

This article reports the results of a 33-wave longitudinal study of changes in, and reciprocal relations between, workplace digitalization and workload. Monthly data were collected between April 2020 and December 2022 from n = 1661 employees in Germany. Based on theoretical models of workplace information and communication technology use, stress, a...

Environmental sustainability is a strategic and ethical imperative for organizations, and numerous studies have investigated associations between leadership and employee pro-environmental or “green” behavior. However, these studies have typically focused on leadership styles that conflate leader behavior with its assumed antecedents or consequences...

Over the past decades, the Western workforce has experienced two notable demographic shifts: there has been an increase in the percentage of women occupying leadership roles and the workforce is aging. Considering these two trends in unison, it would be intuitive that the future workforce will be defined by an increasingly age and gender-diverse gr...

Pro-environmental or “green” behavior is an increasingly studied topic in the work context. Research on the relations between job characteristics and employee green behavior generally suggests that positive features of work contexts free psychological resources that lead to higher levels of employee green behavior. However, knowledge on these assoc...

The concepts of generations and generational differences have received much attention in the academic literature , in the popular press, and among practitioners, policymakers, and politicians. Despite the continued interest, research has failed to find convincing evidence for the existence of distinct generations, commonly conceptualized as broad g...

Feedback orientation reflects an individual difference in one’s receptivity to feedback. We present the results of a meta-analysis of the feedback orientation literature. Based on k = 46 independent samples, representing n = 12,478 workers, meta-analytic results suggest that feedback orientation is positively related to learning goal orientation (r...

This article reports the results of a longitudinal study conducted between December 2019 and December 2022 (35 waves) with 979 participants in Germany. Based on event, transition, and adaptation theories, trajectories of subjective wellbeing (i.e., life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect) were hypothesized and tested across multiple nat...

Numerous studies have examined individual differences in subjective wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic, but few have collected data from the same individuals before the pandemic and at regular intervals across several stages of the pandemic. This article reports the results of a large-scale longitudinal study conducted between December 2019 and...

This study tests the hypotheses that overall environmental knowledge and climate-specific knowledge are inversely related to climate change anxiety, such that people who know more (less) about the environment in general, and about climate in particular, are less (more) anxious about climate change. Time lagged data were collected from N = 2,066 ind...

This article reports the results of an eleven-wave longitudinal study of personality change conducted between December 2019 and December 2022 with 1,328 participants in Germany. Based on theories of personality change, we investigated trajectories of big five personality factors (i.e., extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stabi...

This article reports the results of an eleven-wave longitudinal study of personality change conducted between December 2019 and December 2022 with 1,328 participants in Germany. Based on theories of personality change, we investigated trajectories of big five personality factors (i.e., extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stabi...

Due to the increasing digitalization and connectivity of work, more and more employees engage in technology-assisted supplemental work (TASW). TASW refers to the performance of work-related tasks after regular work hours with the aid of technological tools. Based on a conceptual model of TASW, we present a comprehensive meta-analysis of potential a...

Over the past two decades, knowledge hiding has rapidly emerged as an important research stream in organizational behavior and knowledge management literature. However, our understanding of this phenomenon is limited, because of a lack of synthesis across the nomological network of knowledge hiding and its related constructs. Therefore, we present...

The notion of the "older worker" is frequently used in the organizational literature, in organizational practice, and in society, but so far, no research has investigated why people consider someone to be an older worker at a certain age. In the qualitative part of this study, we examined potential reasons for considering workers to be "older" at a...

Among the many work (and life) characteristics of relevance to adult development and aging, various forms of control are some of the most extensively and diversely studied. Indeed, “control,” whether objectively held (i.e., “actual” control), perceived, or enacted through self-regulation, is a concept central to our understanding of person-environm...

Among the many work (and life) characteristics of relevance to adult development and aging, various forms of control are some of the most extensively and diversely studied. Indeed, “control,” whether objectively held (i.e., “actual” control), perceived, or enacted through self-regulation, is a concept central to our understanding of person-environm...

Research on work, aging and retirement has reached a level of maturity as indicated by an established base of empirical findings and an increasing number of empirical studies on these and related phenomena. Given the development of the field, it is a good time to critically reflect on the measurement of core theoretical constructs that inform our u...

Conceptual and statistical models that include conditional indirect effects (i.e., so-called “moderated mediation” models) are increasingly popular in the behavioral sciences. Although there is ample guidance in the literature for how to specify and test such models, there is scant advice regarding how to best design studies for such purposes, and...

The concept of implicit organizational timetables suggests that leaders are expected to be older than their followers. However, increased age diversity in the workforce has led to situations in which this is not the case. Expanding on the core tenets of leader categorization theory, the present study establishes the concept of an age-prototypical t...

How do individuals with a higher versus lower occupational status experience major, unexpected changes to their work life? The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted most areas of work life and, thus, provides a unique opportunity to examine changes in work attitudes in response to a worldwide crisis. We predict that individuals with higher, but not with...

Research on job resources suggests strong links with work engagement, but less is known about its association with personal resources and possible mechanisms linking personal resources to work engagement. Based on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model and lifespan development theories, we develop and test a model of the indirect relationships betw...

Research has shown that there is an association between body dissatisfaction (a person’s negative evaluation of their own physical body) and romantic relationship satisfaction. Some have suggested that individuals with higher levels of body dissatisfaction report less satisfaction with their romantic relationships. However, others have suggested th...

Research on commuting to work and its potential consequences for employee strain and wellbeing has accumulated across various disciplines. However, this has led to a narrow research scope with wide methodological variability. An integration of this literature is needed to understand the breadth of the commuting experience and interpret heterogeneou...

The concept of implicit organizational timetables suggests that leaders are expected to be older than their followers. However, increased age diversity in the workforce has led to situations in which this is not the case. Expanding on the core tenets of leader categorization theory, the present study establishes the concept of an age-prototypical t...

Research on commuting to and from work and its potential consequences for employee strain and wellbeing has accumulated across various disciplines. However, this has led to a narrow research scope with wide methodological variability. An integration of this literature is needed to understand the breadth of the commuting experience and interpret het...

Researchers and practitioners have become increasingly interested in the role of political orientation in the workplace. Importantly, people do not always agree with other members of their profession when it comes to politics. However, the effects of such person-occupation political orientation misfit on people’s work-related attitudes remain uncle...

Researchers and practitioners have become increasingly interested in the role of political orientation in the workplace. Importantly, people do not always agree with other members of their profession when it comes to politics. However, the effects of such person-occupation political orientation misfit on people’s work-related attitudes remain uncle...

The field of I-O psychology often paints distinctions between the competing goals of science and practice, but this is a false dichotomy. The focal article by Guzzo et al. (2022) relies on the convenience of this distinction to argue that openness has both positive and negative implications for the science and practice of I-O psychology. We counter...

With this commentary, we aim to add an international perspective to the discussion on how industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology could help address the problem of racialized police violence. We describe how policing was reformed in Germany after World War II, as well as the problems Germany currently faces regarding racialized police violen...

Boundary management refers to the ways that individuals create, maintain, and manage demarcations between work and personal life. Research regarding boundary management provides multi-disciplinary value across the organizational sciences, including work-family and work-nonwork research, but is hindered by terminological confusion and construct prol...

Thriving at work has been defined as employees’ joint sense of vitality and learning. Based on the socially embedded model of thriving at work, we examine several competing operationalizations of thriving at work. We hypothesize effects of (a) composite thriving, (b) separate vitality and learning scores, and (c) the interaction between vitality an...

Thriving at work has been defined as employees’ joint sense of vitality and learning. Based on the socially embedded model of thriving at work, we examine several competing operationalizations of thriving at work. We hypothesize effects of (a) composite thriving, (b) separate vitality and learning scores, and (c) the interaction between vitality an...

Environmental sustainability has become an ethical and strategic imperative for organizations, and more and more employees are interested, encouraged, or instructed to act in environmentally sustainable ways. Consequently, organizational scholars have increasingly studied individual-level antecedents of employee pro-environmental or employee green...

Environmental sustainability has become an ethical and strategic imperative for organizations, and more and more employees are interested, encouraged, or instructed to act in environmentally sustainable ways at work. Consequently, organizational scholars have increasingly studied individual-level antecedents of employee pro-environmental or “green”...

Boundary management refers to the ways that individuals create, maintain, and manage demarcations between work and personal life. Research regarding boundary management provides multi-disciplinary value across the organizational sciences, including work-family and work-nonwork research, but is hindered by terminological confusion and construct prol...

Although popular in the organizational sciences, in the media, and in practice, the concepts of “generations” and “generational differences” have been increasingly scrutinized based on theoretical, methodological, and statistical concerns. Here, we present a short obituary to bid adieu to these troubled concepts, with the hopes of memorializing and...

In this chapter, we take a broad, psychological perspective in reviewing ageism and age-related stereotyping in the modern world. We answer the following three questions: (1) What predominant age-related stereotypes exist in and across life contexts?; (2) What are the origins and pervasiveness of these stereotypes?; and (3) How do these stereotypes...

Murphy and DeNisi (2021) offer that there is scant evidence that age-based stereotypes affect personnel judgments and decisions. However, this conclusion is drawn from evidence that assumes that biased judgments follow from stereotypes, rather than from evidence suggesting that stereotypes precede biased judgments. In this reply to Murphy and DeNis...

Objective: Anecdotal evidence suggests work fatigue has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, and work interventions to offset stresses have been effective. Our study sought to test these propositions, documenting and describing the complexity of worker well-being around two lockdown periods. Methods: Using 17 waves of data from a longitudinal...

Objective: Anecdotal evidence suggests work fatigue has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, and work interventions to offset stresses have been effective. Our study sought to test these propositions, documenting and describing the complexity of worker well-being around two lockdown periods. Methods: Using 17 waves of data from a longitudinal st...

Although popular in the organizational sciences, in the media, and in practice, the concepts of “generations” and “generational differences” have been increasingly scrutinized based on theoretical, methodological, and statistical concerns. Here, we present a short obituary to bid adieu to these troubled concepts, with the hopes of memorializing and...

Based on transactional stress theory and theoretical propositions regarding affective perceptions and reactions, we develop and test a model of reciprocal within-person relations between perceptions of directive and empowering leadership and employee emotional engagement and fatigue. A sample of n = 1,610 employees participated in a study with a th...

Due to climate change, the need to protect biodiversity and reduce pollution, and governmental regulations, many organizations are aiming to become more environmentally sustainable. In this context, researchers and practitioners are increasingly interested in the construct of employee green behavior (EGB). EGB has been considered by numerous empiri...

Due to climate change, the need to protect biodiversity and reduce pollution, and governmental regulations, many organizations are aiming to become more environmentally sustainable. In this context, researchers and practitioners are increasingly interested in the construct of employee green behavior (EGB). EGB has been considered by numerous empiri...

Folk wisdom suggests that “you cannot teach an old dog new tricks.” Accordingly, as the average age of the workforce increases, there is a potential concern based on negative stereotypes that organizations will become less innovative. Drawing from lifespan development theories and theorizing on innovation, we explore this concern by testing, at the...

Folk wisdom suggests that “you cannot teach an old dog new tricks.” Accordingly, as the average age of the workforce increases, there is a potential concern based on negative stereotypes that organizations will become less innovative. Drawing from lifespan development theories and theorizing on innovation, we explore this concern by testing, at the...

The edited volume Age and Work: Advances in Theory, Methods, and Practice presents a systematic collection of key advances in theory, methods, and practice regarding age(ing) and work. This cutting-edge collection breaks new ground by developing novel and useful theory, explaining underutilized but important methodological approaches, and suggestin...

Based on transactional stress theory and theoretical propositions regarding affective perceptions and reactions, we develop and test a model of reciprocal within-person relations between perceptions of directive and empowering leadership and employee emotional engagement and fatigue. A sample of n = 1,610 employees participated in a study with a th...

The strength and vulnerability integration (SAVI) model posits that development across the adult lifespan is accompanied by improvements in emotion regulation and declines in physiological flexibility. Due to these age-related changes, emotional well-being is expected to be higher among older (vs. younger) adults when they experience no or only min...

Organizational researchers and practitioners have become increasingly interested in how subjective age—employees’ perceived age—is related to important work and career outcomes. However, the direction of the relationship between employees’ subjective age and retirement intentions remains unclear, thus preventing theoretical advances and effective i...

Organizational researchers and practitioners have become increasingly interested in how subjective age—employees’ perceived age—is related to important work and career outcomes. However, the direction of the relationship between employees’ subjective age and retirement intentions remains unclear, thus preventing theoretical advances and effective i...

Talk about generations is everywhere and particularly so in organizational science and practice. Recognizing and exploring the ubiquity of generations is important, especially because evidence for their existence is, at best, scant. In this article, we aim to achieve two goals that are targeted at answering the broad question: “What accounts for th...

Little is known about the relative influence of age-differentiated leadership on healthy aging at work. Likewise, the age-conditional influence of age-differentiated leadership is understudied, and especially so in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a three-wave longitudinal study, we examined the role that age-differentiated leadership pl...

The strength and vulnerability integration (SAVI) model posits that development across the adult lifespan is accompanied by improvements in emotion regulation and declines in physiological flexibility. Due to these age-related changes, emotional well-being is expected to be higher among older (vs. younger) adults when they experience no or only min...

Lifespan theories seek to explain the ways that individuals manage their development, staying healthy and content amidst age-related gains and losses. However, the lifespan literature is fragmented, with constructs studied separately rather than in concert. This study addresses these issues, generating evidence regarding the integrative factor stru...

Over the past two years, numerous empirical studies in the fields of human resource management, organizational behavior, and industrial, work, and organizational psychology have investigated employee experiences and behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of this paper is to take a step back and to outline several theoretical and methodolog...

Over the past two years, numerous empirical studies in the fields of human resource management, organizational behavior, and industrial, work, and organizational psychology have investigated employee experiences and behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of this paper is to take a step back and to outline several theoretical and methodolog...

Lifespan theories seek to explain the ways that individuals manage their development, staying healthy and content amidst age-related gains and losses. However, the lifespan literature is fragmented, with constructs studied separately rather than in concert. This study addresses these issues, generating evidence regarding the integrative factor stru...

Due to increased dynamics in the world of work and the resulting responsibility of individuals to shape their careers more independently, there is an increased need to focus on the individual as an active agent in the development of a successful career. Drawing on action regulation theory, this four-wave longitudinal study investigates the dynamic...

Feedback environment reflects the perceptions of the contextual, day-to-day feedback process within supervisor–subordinate relationships. Here, we present a comprehensive meta-analysis of the feedback environment literature. On the basis of K = 112 independent samples, representing N = 31,089 workers, results suggest that feedback environment is po...

Conceptual and statistical models that include conditional indirect effects (i.e., so-called “moderated mediation” models) are increasingly popular in the behavioral sciences. Although there is ample guidance in the literature for how to specify and test such models, there is scant advice regarding how to best design studies for such purposes, and...

Research has recently started to examine relationships between proactive behavior and employee well-being. Investigating these relationships is important to understand the effects of proactive behavior at work, and whether proactive behavior leads to an increase or a decrease in well-being. In this daily-diary study, we investigated effects of proa...

Feedback environment reflects the perceptions of the contextual, day-to-day feedback process within supervisor-subordinate relationships. Here, we present a comprehensive meta-analysis of the feedback environment literature. Based on K = 112 independent samples, representing N = 31,089 workers, results suggest that feedback environment is positivel...

Based upon theories that describe the process of family stress adaptation, we model changes in family demands and satisfaction with family life during the COVID-19 pandemic among a sample of n = 1,042 respondents from Germany. Moreover, based on ecological perspectives on the role of family context, we consider partnership status and parental statu...

The goal of this longitudinal study was to examine how three dimensions of self-reported work performance, including task proficiency, adaptivity, and proactivity, changed between December 2019 and September 2020 in Germany. Based on event system and transition theories, we expected work performance to decline due to the "lockdown" between early Ap...

The goal of this longitudinal study was to examine how three dimensions of self-reported work performance, including task proficiency, adaptivity, and proactivity, changed between December 2019 and September 2020 in Germany. Based on event system and transition theories, we expected work performance to decline due to the “lockdown” between early Ap...

A great deal of attention has been paid to various contextual features of the aging process, and this is especially true in the study of aging, work, and retirement. Here, we review two books—one written for a “popular” audience, the other for an “academic” audience—that explore features of later-life work and retirement. Across both texts, a commo...

Control is one of the most ubiquitous and fundamental concepts to the study of psychology, including to theory, research, and practice related to aging and work. Indeed, control constructs exist in many different forms (e.g., self-efficacy, job autonomy, locus of control), and they have been extensively linked to performance and well-being with age...

Control is one of the most ubiquitous and fundamental concepts to the study of psychology, including to theory, research, and practice related to aging and work. Indeed, control constructs exist in many different forms (e.g., self-efficacy, job autonomy, locus of control), and they have been extensively linked to performance and well-being with age...

Only recently has research started to examine relationships between proactive behavior and employee well-being. Investigating these relationships is important for understanding the effects of proactivity at work, and whether proactivity leads to an increase or a decrease in well-being. In this study, we investigated day-level effects of proactive b...

Career adaptability is a psychosocial resource that aids in coping with current and anticipated tasks, transitions, and traumas that people experience in their occupational roles. Although there is a great deal of evidence that career adaptability relates to important career outcomes, the role that it is perceived to play in involuntary, radical, a...