Industrial/Organizational Lab
Principal Investigator:
Contact Information:
Email: probst@vancouver.wsu.edu
Office: VCLS 208K - Vancouver (Regional Campus)
Phone: (360) 546-9746
Website:
Lab websiteSummary:
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.