The WSC lab conducts research across many areas of focus within I\/O Psychology. Click on each study below to see excerpts from some of our most recent journal publications:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“[R]esearch revealed that restaurant and foodservice workers who regularly
use service robots in the dining room experience a complex set of issues and challenges related to robot reliability, management training and support, leveraging the robot to entertain the customer, feelings of dread, anger and frustration, and indications of decreased physical exertion as a proxy for well-being.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\nShoss, M. K., <\/strong>& Ciarlante, K. (2022). Are robots\/AI viewed as more of a workforce threat in unequal societies? Evidence from the Eurobarometer survey. Technology, Mind, and Behavior: Special Issue in Work, Technology, and Inequality. <\/em>https:\/\/tmb.apaopen.org\/pub\/rv1x9zq4\/release\/2<\/a><\/summary>\n
\n” Utilizing the Eurobarometer 87.1 dataset, we found that country inequality, as operationalized via the Gini Index, was positively associated with perceptions that AI\/robots pose threats of general job loss….These findings advance theory on inequality and suggest that the broader context\u2014both objective and perceived\u2014may play a role in how people view disruption associated with AI\/robots at work.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n
Selenko, E., Bankins, S., Shoss, M. K., <\/strong>Warbuton, J. \u2020, & Restubog, S. (2022). Artificial intelligence and the future of work: A functional-identity perspective. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 31, <\/em>272-279.https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full\/10.1177\/09637214221091823<\/summary>\n
\n“[W]e propose a functional-identity framework to examine AI\u2019s effects on people\u2019s work-related self-understandings and the social environment at work. We argue that the conditions for AI to either enhance or threaten workers\u2019 sense of identity derived from their work depends on how the technology is functionally deployed (by complementing tasks, replacing tasks, and\/or generating new tasks) and how it affects the social fabric of work.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n
Shoss, M.<\/strong> K.<\/strong>,Behrend, T., Crandell, H., & Tracy, M. (2026). Health and stress and AI. In G. Yankov, I. Hernandez, & I. Thompson (Eds.),SIOP Handbook AI for I-O Psychologists: Research and Applications. <\/em>SIOP Frontiers Series. <\/summary>\n
\n“The goal of this chapter is to explore implications and uses of AI regarding worker stress, health, and well-being. We organize our thoughts within the US Surgeon General\u2019s 2022 Framework for Workplace Mental Health. This framework provides five essential priorities to foster mental health and well-being in the workplace: protection from harm, connection and community, work\u2013life harmony, mattering at work, and opportunity for growth. These considerations provide not only a structure in which to consider AI\u2019s impacts on well-being, but also a set of guiding principles for AI development and implementation going forward….We hope that this framework and discussion
provide a foundation for readers to contribute to the development and implementation of technologies that promote both organizational effectiveness and human well-being.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\nJob Insecurity<\/strong> & Precarious Work<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Rudolph, C. Shoss, M<\/strong>., & Zacher, H. (2025). Dynamic and reciprocal relations between job insecurity and physical and mental health. Journal of Applied Psychology, 110(7- July), 948\u2013962. <\/em>https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1037\/apl0001259<\/a><\/summary>\n
\n“We find that lower physical health predicted subsequent increases in job insecurity and higher physical health predicted subsequent decreases in job insecurity. However, job insecurity did not have a significant influence on physical health. Furthermore, higher job insecurity predicted subsequent decreases in mental health, and higher mental health predicted subsequent decreases in job insecurity. This pattern of findings suggests a dynamic and reciprocal within-person process wherein positive deviations from one’s average trajectory of job insecurity are associated with subsequently lower levels of mental health and vice versa.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n
Shoss, M. K.,<\/strong> Min, H\u2020., Horan, K. \u2020, Schlotzhauer, A. E. \u2020, Nigam, J. A. S., & Swanson, N. G. (2023). Risking one\u2019s life to save one\u2019s livelihood: Precarious work, presenteeism, and worry about disease exposure during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 28<\/em>(6), 363\u2013379. doi: 10.1037\/ocp0000366.<\/summary>\n
\n“[T]he findings suggest that precarity related to being able to keep one’s job and a sense of powerlessness at work contribute to concerns about the risk of COVID-19 exposure at work and, simultaneously, behaviors that may contribute to the health risks faced by others. This research provides added support to the argument that precarious work should be addressed in order to improve both worker well-being and public health.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n
Shoss, M. K., <\/strong>Su, S., Schlotzhauer, A.\u2020, Carusone, N.\u2020 (2023). Working hard or hardly working? An examination of job preservation responses to job insecurity. Journal of Management, 49, <\/em>2387-2414. <\/em>https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/0149206322110787<\/a><\/summary>\n
\n“The current study leverages and expands ideas from the Conservation of Resources theory about resource investment to examine how and when job insecurity is associated with behaviors indicative of promotive or protective job preservation strategies aimed at social or task targets…[Our findings] suggest that job insecurity is associated with strategic behavior when employees are facing proximal threats to their jobs; however, these efforts are rarely in the best interest of organizations.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n
Employee Adaptation to Change<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n