Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Department of Psychology faculty involved in industrial and organizational research:

Dr. Nicolette Hass, Professor of Practice and I/O Program Director

Prior to joining UTA in 2007, Dr. Hass consulted for several years for a large multinational aeronautics organization. That experience was integral to the formation of her teaching and mentoring philosophy, which ultimately led to her current role as professor of practice. With a focus on the application of I/O, one of her primary roles is serving as director of The Industrial and Organizational Psychology Center, which connects the business community with UTA students in the I/O master’s program. Faculty and graduate students associated with The Center have collaborated with organizations on projects such as employee attitudes assessment, organizational change implementation, performance management system improvement, and leadership training and development. Past collaborators include:

  • Dallas County Medical Reserve Corps
  • Tarrant County Mental Health Services
  • CompuCom
  • Service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses

Jared B. Kenworthy, Lewis Hollweg Endowed Professor of Industrial-Organizational Psychology

Group and Intergroup Processes Research Lab

Dr. Kenworthy joined the Psychology Department at UTA in 2005. Before coming to UTA, he was a post-doctoral fellow for three years at the University of Oxford (UK) studying (a) the effects of crossed and multiple categorization on intergroup bias and prejudice reduction, and (b) the development of trust between the Catholic and Protestant communities of Northern Ireland. At UTA, he continued to focus on prejudice reduction, primarily via various means of intergroup contact. In the past few years, his research has also included intragroup processes. Specifically, he has studied the processes involved in group creativity and decision-making. He has published several books, numerous book chapters, and dozens of peer-reviewed research articles on these topics. He teaches undergraduate Advanced Topics in Social Psychology, graduate-level Social Psychology, graduate-level Group and Team Processes, as well as seminars on intergroup relations and meta-analysis.

Dr. Logan Watts, Assistant Professor

Leaders have important impacts on employee well-being and organizational performance. The PELICAN Lab, directed by Dr. Watts, explores how leaders solve complex problems related to employee ethics and creativity. His ethics research shines a light on professional issues in I-O psychology and best practices in professional ethics training programs. His creativity research uncovers cognitive processes and individual differences that facilitate creative thinking, with a special interest in understanding how workers identify and refine creative ideas. Finally, Dr. Watts studies how leader attributes and behaviors influence workplace ethics and innovation.

Prof. Michelle Martín-Raugh, Assistant Professor of Psychology

Michelle Martín-Raugh is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and director of the Employee Assessment, Selection, and Training (EAST) Lab at UTA. Research conducted in the EAST Lab explores the development, use, and validity of assessments (e.g., situational judgment tests [SJTs], video-based interviews, performance-based team tasks) for use in personnel selection and training contexts. Prior to joining UTA, she previously worked as a Research Scientist for Educational Testing Service (2013-2022) and received her Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology in 2013 from Rice University. She has authored publications featured in outlets such as the Journal of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management Review, and has served as a guest editor for a special issue of the Journal of Intelligence. She holds a patent for the automatic scoring of video-based interviews, and her research on SJTs has been federally funded by the Army Research Institute.

RESEARCH INTERESTS
Situational Judgment Tests (SJTs), Employment Interviews, Assessment, Personnel Selection, Negotiation Skills, Ethical Behavior in Teams

Larry R. Martinez, Associate Professor, A. Dale Thompson Endowed Chair of Leadership

Diversity, Allies, Stereotypes, and Health (Dash) Lab

Dr. Martinez's work is focused on inclusion, diversity, stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination in the workplace. In particular, his work has focused on the experiences of traditionally under-represented employees including cancer survivors, transgender individuals, individuals with disabilities, and sexual orientation minorities. Dr. Martinez uses multiple methodologies to examine these experiences including surveys; lab and field experiments; meta-analyses; and interviews, focus groups, and other qualitative techniques. Dr. Martinez's work has evolved to focus on engaging non-stigmatized "ally" employees in diversity initiatives.

Dr. Martinez's work has been published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Journal of Business and Psychology, Journal of Vocational Behavior, and several other journals. He has served as chair of SIOP's LGBT Committee and as the inaugural chair of SIOP’s Diversifying I/O Psychology Committee. He served as guest editor for a special issue in the Journal of Vocational Behavior focused on the experiences of sexual orientation and gender identity minority employees in 2017 and is currently an associate editor at Applied Psychology: An International Review. He received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation in 2020 to further his work on allyship and was a co-investigator on Portland State’s NSF ADVANCE Award.

Dr. Martinez is devoted to community-engaged and participatory research practices with organizational partners. He serves on multiple boards and community groups and is devoted to conducting science that furthers the goals of multiple stakeholders. Dr. Martinez is the Director of the Insights for Organizations Center at UT Arlington.