Stephanie M. Merritt, Ph.D.

Dr. Stephanie Merritt is a Professor of Global Leadership and Management with a focus on Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management. She holds a Ph.D. from Michigan State University. Prior to joining the Department of Global Leadership and Management, she was a member of the faculty of the Department of Psychological Sciences, where she chaired 8 completed PhDs in Industrial-Organizational Psychology. Her primary research interests include diversity and inclusion in organizations and non-rational influences on trust in advanced technologies. She has also conducted research on a wide variety of OB/HR topics including job attitudes, unethical pro-organizational behavior, application of signature character strengths at work, organizational politics, and faking of implicit attitude measures. Her work has been published in journals including The Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Human Factors, and The Journal of Business and Psychology. Dr. Merritt teaches courses related to organizational behavior, human resource management, industrial-organizational psychology, and both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Education

Ph.D. (Psychology, Industrial/Organizational Emphasis), Michigan State University, 2007

M.A. (Psychology, Industrial/Organizational Emphasis), Michigan State University, 2005

B.S. (Psychology), Truman State University, 2002

Courses

MGMT 3600 – Organizational Behavior

BUS AD 7102 – Qualitative Methods I

Awards

Anheuser-Busch Teaching Award - Graduate Track (2022)

Finalist - Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Prize (2014)

Best Paper Published in Human Factors (2008)

Research & Publications

Merritt, S. M., & Lynch, E. (2020). Weight and gender bias in observer perceptions of organizational leadership: Effects of perceived leader prototypicality and unit performance. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. [online first publication]. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12730 

Merritt, S., Shirase, L. 1, & Foster, G. (2020). Normed Images for X-ray Screening Vigilance Tasks. Journal of Open Psychology Data, 8(1), p.2. https://doi.org/10.5334/jopd.48

Bryant, W. 1, & Merritt, S. M. (2019). Unethical pro-organizational behavior and positive leader-employee relationships. Journal of Business Ethics. [online first publication]

Taylor, M. J., Wexler, B., & Merritt, S. M. (2019). Assessment trepidation for FFM personality tests: Much “ADA” about nothing? Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 12(2), https://doi.org/10.1017/iop.2019.38

Merritt, S., Huber, K., & Bartkoski, T.J. (2019). Application of signature strengths at work: A dual-level analysis. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 14(1), 113-124.

Merritt, S. M., Ako-Brew, A., Bryant, W. J., Staley, A., McKenna, M., Leone, A., & Shirase, L. (2019). Automation-Induced Complacency Potential: Development and Validation of a New Scale. Frontiers in Psychology, 10.

Merritt, S. M., Rottman, C, . Wexler, B., Huber, K., Staley, A., & Banister, C.  (2018). Imagine Me and You, I Do: Effects of Imagined Intergroup Contact on Anti-Fat Bias in the Context of Job Interviews. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 48, 80-89.

Merritt, S. M., & Havill, L.  (2016).  Electronic and face-to-face communication in mentoring relationships. Development and Learning in Organizations, 30(3), 17-19.

Huber, K., Hill, S. E., & Merritt, S. M. (2015). Minding the gap: Extending mindfulness to safety-critical occupations. Industrial-Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 8(4), 699-705.

Merritt, S. M., Unnerstall, J., Lee, D., & Huber, K. (2015).  Measuring individual differences in the perfect automation schema. Human Factors, 57, 740-753.

Merritt, S. M., Sinha, R., Curran, P., & Ilgen, D. (2015). Attitudinal predictors of relative reliance on human vs. automated advisors. International Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics, 3(3/4).

Merritt, S. M., Lee, D., Unnerstall, J., & Huber, K. (2015).  Are well-calibrated users effective users? Associations between calibration of trust and performance on an automation-aided task. Human Factors, 57, 34-47.

Presentations

Merritt, S. M., & Taylor, M. J. (April 2021). What was that? Predicting interpretations of potential racial microaggressions. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. New Orleans, LA. (Virtual).

Bell, C. M. 1, Goldman, A. 1, Vogus, C. 1, Zhang, I. 1, & Merritt, S. M. (Sept. 2020). Don’t shoot the messenger: A grounded theory study of manager performance appraisal anxiety. Educated Management Scholarship Conference. Online

Boyle, E. 1, Johnson, C. 1, Merritt, S., Neimann, P. 1, & Parsley, S. 1 (Sept. 2019). Blinded by the Pain: A Grounded Theory of Myopia During Job Transition. Educated Management Scholarship Conference. Antwerp, Belgium.

Butler, W. 1, Decker, G. 1, Peters, J. 1, Thomas, A. 1, & Merritt, S. M. (Sept. 2019). Positive Organizational Politics: A Grounded Theory Study. Educated Management Scholarship Conference. Antwerp, Belgium.

Zimmerman, H. 1, Goodwin-Sak, C. 1, Wieck, M. 1, McClain-Mpofu, C. 1, & Merritt, S. (Sept. 2019). Courageous Cultures Embrace Automation: A Grounded Theory Study of Individual Willingness to Adopt Automation in the Workplace. Educated Management Scholarship Conference. Antwerp, Belgium.

Merritt, S. M., McKenna, M., & Kim, B. (April, 2018). Can Respondents Fake Having No Bias on an Implicit Association Test?  Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Chicago, IL.

Bryant, W., & Merritt, S. M. (April, 2018). Investigating the Effect of LMX and Moral Identity on Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Chicago, IL.

Gardner, C. 1, Wexler, B. 1, Huber, K. 1, Merritt, S. M., Holmes, C. 1, & Miller, A. 1 (April, 2017). Using imagined intergroup contact to reduce interview bias. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Orlando, FL.

Herrmann, E. 1, & Merritt, S. M. (April, 2017). Effects of Weight Bias on Leader Categorization and Evaluation. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Orlando, FL.

Merritt, S. M., & Smajic, A. 1 (April, 2017). Development of a valence-balanced measure of implicit conscientiousness. In Gorman, et al. “Does the Format Matter? Advancements in Rating Format Research”. Symposium presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Orlando, FL.