Deborah E. Rupp

Professor

Industrial/Organizational Psychology: Employment Discrimination; Corporate Social Responsibility; Fairness & Justice in Organizations; Emotional Labor; Job Analysis, Selection, and Assessment; Assessment Centers

Biographical Summary

Deborah E. Rupp, PhD, is pleased to have joined the George Mason faculty Fall 2019. She was formerly Professor and William C. Byham Chair in Industrial-Organizational Psychology and Research Integrity Officer at Purdue University; and previous to that, Associate Professor of Psychology, Labor/Employment Relations, and Law at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has been a Visiting Professor at Singapore Management University, University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, and Illinois Institute of Technology. Her research, consulting, and expert testimony expertise span the areas of employment discrimination; organizational justice and corporate social responsibility; as well as issues surrounding job analysis, testing, assessment, and recruitment/selection by organizations. Her research has been cited in U.S. Supreme Court proceedings, and she has consulted to myriad organizations around the world. Rupp is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP). She has published seven books and 140 papers and chapters, and her work has appeared in outlets such as Nature Human Behavior, Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Journal of Management, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Annals, and Academy of Management Collections. She sits on the editorial boards of four journals, and is the former Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Management. She also served on the SIOP Executive Board as Publications Officer, overseeing a journal and three books series; as chair of SIOP’s Strategic Planning and Research Committee, and as a SIOP representative to the United Nations.

RuppLab

RuppLab research focuses on the intersection of organizational/social psychology and personnel practices, with an emphasis on innovations that improve fairness and other positive outcomes for working adults. RuppLab projects for this coming year include:

Partnering with Seth Kaplan's lab (KA-Lab) to investigate whether experience sampling methodology can reduce biases inherent to traditional job analysis methods
Policy-oriented papers that integrate psychological knowledge and changes to the HR legal landscape regarding employment discrimination
Experimental studies seeking to understand the psychological phenomena behind both the support of and opposition to workplace diversity initiatives
An integrative review of corporate social responsibility and self-determination theories

Information for Potential Grad Program Applicants

The admissions cycle is closed for Fall 2025. For more information about our program and how to apply for Fall 2026 please review the following:

The GMU I-O Psychology Program website

Our graduate program profile on the SIOP website

I-O Program Graduate Student Handbook

RuppLab Members

*advisee, **co-advisee, ***secondary advisee

PhD Students

MA/MPS Students

Undergraduate Students

PhD Alumni & Mentees

Jessie Cannon***

Natalia Felicelli*

Annie (Nottingham) Hoover*

Zein Fakhoury

Zackary Taweel

Meghan Thornton-Lugo*

Selected Publications

*Selected publications by topic areas listed below. See CV link (on right or at bottom of page) for full list

Policy-Making

Personnel Practices (Job Analysis, Selection, Assessment, Development, Assessment Centers, Employment Discrimination)

Disability in the Workplace

Justice and Fairness in Organizations

Corporate Social Responsibility

Emotional Labor

Policy-Making

Rupp, D. E., Pandey, N., & Rothman, D. (2024). Justice theory as a framework for policy-making consultation. Organizational Psychology Review, 14, 346-359.

Personnel Practices (Job Analysis, Selection, Assessment, Development, Assessment Centers, Employment Discrimination)

Rupp, D. E., Thornton, G. C., Bisbey, T., Hoover, A. N., Salas, E., & Murphy, K. R. (2024). An epistemology for assessment and development: How do we know what we know? Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 17, 252-268.

Wonders, M.E., Hoover, A. N., Rupp, D. E., Kaplan, S., Strah, N., Aitken, J., Ratwani, K. (2024). The application of within-person methods to promote inclusive job analysis. Organizational Psychology Review.

Nottingham, A., & Rupp, D. E. (2024). Inclusive leadership as an incrementally valid assessment center dimension. Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice.

Vodanovich, S. J. & Rupp, D. E. (2022). Employment Discrimination: A Concise Review of the Legal Landscape. Oxford University Press.

Strah, N., & Rupp, D. E. (2022). Are there cracks in our foundation? An integrative review of diversity issues in job analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 107, 1031–1051.

Strah, N., Rupp, D. E., & Morris, S. (2022). Job analysis and job classification for addressing pay inequality in organizations: Adjusting our methods within a shifting legal landscape. Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 14, 1–45.

Rupp, D.E., Song, Q., Strah, N. (2020). Addressing the so-called validity-diversity trade-off: Exploring the practicalities and legal defensibility of pareto-optimization for reducing adverse impact within personnel selection. Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 13, 246–271.

Thornton, G. C., Rupp, D. E., Gibbons, A., & Vanhove, A. J. (2019). Same-gender and same-race bias in assessment center ratings: Statistical significance and practical importance. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 27, 54–71.

Gibbons, A. M. & Rupp, D. E. (2017). Exploring the interpersonal and dynamic nature of persons and situations through assessment center methods. European Journal of Personality, 31, 456–457.

Monteith, M., Burns, M.D., Rupp, D.E., Mihalec-Adkins, B. (2015). Out of work and out of luck? Layoffs, system justification, and hiring decisions for people who have been laid off. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7, 77–84.

Brummel, B., Rupp, D. E., Spain, S. (2009). Constructing parallel simulation exercises for assessment centers and other forms of behavioral assessment. Personnel Psychology, 62, 135–170.

Gibbons, A. M. & Rupp, D. E. (2009). Dimension consistency as an individual difference: A new (old) perspective on the assessment center construct validity debate. Journal of Management, 35, 1154–1180.

Woo, S., Sims, C., Rupp, D., & Gibbons, A. M. (2008). Development engagement within and following developmental assessment centers: Considering feedback favorability and self-assessor agreement. Personnel Psychology, 61, 727–759.

Disability in the Workplace

Santuzzi, A., Keating, R. T., Martinez, J., Finkelstein, L., Rupp, D. E., Strah, N. (2019). Identity management strategies for workers with concealable disabilities: Antecedents and consequences. Journal of Social Issues, 75, 847–880.

Santuzzi, A. M., Waltz, P. R., Rupp, D. E., Finkelstein, L. M. (2014). Invisible disabilities: Unique challenges for employees and organizations. Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives in Science and Practice, 7, 204–219.

Justice and Fairness in Organizations

Strah, N., Rupp, D. E., Shao, R., King, E., Skarlicki, D. (2024) Why have we not detected gender differences in organizational justice perceptions? Journal of Organizational Behavior, 45, 1117-1146.

Rupp, D.E., Shapiro, D. L., Folger, R., Skarlicki, D. S., & Shao, R. (2017). A critical analysis of the conceptualization and measurement of organizational justice: Is it time for reassessment? Academy of Management Annals, 11, 915–959.

Lavelle, J. J., Rupp, D. E., Herda, D. N., & Lee, J. (2023). Customer injustice and employee-customer social exchange: Effects on service employees’ customer-oriented citizenship behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 44, 421-440.

Waldman, D., Balven, R., Vaulont, M, Siegel, D., Rupp, D. E. (2022). The role of justice perceptions in formal and informal university technology transfer. Journal of Applied Psychology, 107, 1397–1413.

Lavelle, J.J., Harris, C.M., Rupp, D.E., Herda, D.N., Young, R.F., Hargrove, M.B., Thornton-Lugo, M., & McMahan, G.C. (2018). Multifoci effects of injustice on targets of counterproductive work behaviors and the moderating roles of symbolization and victim sensitivity. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 39, 1022–1039.

Rupp, D. E., Shao, R., Jones, K., & Liao, H. (2014). The utility of a multifoci approach to the study of organizational justice: A meta-analytic investigation into the consideration of normative rules, moral accountability, bandwidth-fidelity, and social exchange, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 123, 159–185.

Rupp, D. E. (2011). An employee-centered model of organizational justice and social responsibility. Organizational Psychology Review, 1, 72–94.

Rupp, D. E., Bell, C. M. (2010). Extending the deontic model of justice: Moral self-regulation in third-party responses to injustice. Business Ethics Quarterly, 20, 89–106

Skarlicki, D., & Rupp, D. E. (2010). Dual processing and organizational justice: The role of rational versus experiential processing in third party reactions to workplace mistreatment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95, 944–952.

Liao, H., & Rupp, D. E. (2005). The impact of justice climate, climate strength, and justice orientation on work outcomes: A multilevel-multifoci framework. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 242–256.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Aguinis, H., Rupp, D. E., Glavas, A. (2024). Corporate social responsibility and human behavior. Nature Human Behavior, 8, 402-414.

Rupp, D. E., Aguinis, H., Siegel, D., Glavas, A., Aguilera, R.V. (2024). Corporate social responsibility: An ongoing and worthwhile journey. Academy of Management Collections, 3, 1-16.

Opoku-Dakwa, A., Chen, C., & Rupp, D. E. (2018). CSR initiative characteristics and employee engagement: An impact-based perspective. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 39, 580–593.

Farooq, O., Rupp, D. E., & Farooq, M. (2017). The multiple pathways through which internal and external corporate social responsibility influence organizational identification and multifoci outcomes: The moderating role of cultural and social orientations. Academy of Management Journal, 60, 954–985.

Rupp, D. E., Shao, R., Thornton, M. A., Skarlicki, D. (2013). Applicants’ and employees’ reactions to corporate social responsibility: The moderating effects of first-party justice perceptions and moral identity. Personnel Psychology, 66, 895–933.

Aguilera, R., Rupp, D. E., Williams, C., & Ganapathi, J. (2007). Putting the S back in corporate social responsibility: A multi-level theory of social change in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 32, 836–863.

Emotional Labor

Lavelle, J., Rupp, D.E., Herda, D.N., Pandey, A., & Lauck, J.R. (2021). Customer injustice and employee performance: The mediating roles of emotional exhaustion, surface acting, and demands-abilities fit. Journal of Management, 47, 654–682.

Grandey, A., Rupp, D. E., & Brice, W. (2015). Emotional labor threatens decent work: A proposal to eradicate emotional display rules. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36, 770–785.

Spencer, S., & Rupp, D. E. (2009). Angry, guilty, and conflicted: Injustice toward coworkers heightens emotional labor through cognitive and emotional mechanisms. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94, 429–444.

Rupp, D. E., McCance, A. S., Spencer, S., & Sonntag, K. (2008). Customer (in)justice and emotional labor: The role of perspective taking, anger, and emotional regulation. Journal of Management, 34, 903–924.

Rupp, D. E., & Spencer, S. (2006). When customers lash out: The effect of customer interactional injustice on emotional labor and the mediating role of discrete emotions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 971–978.

Grants and Fellowships

National Science Foundation. A Multi-Level Investigation of Engagement in Technology Transfer.

National Science Foundation. Computational Modeling from Narrative Scenario Development: A Pedagogy for Generating Novel Research Questions to Address Critical Societal Issues.

National Science Foundation. The Micro-Process of Social Responsibility in Organizations: A Bottom Up Perspective.

Virginia Department of Corrections. Correctional Officer Trait Assessment.

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Corporate Social Responsibility in Employee Ability, Motivation, Opportunity, and Performance.

Douglas W. Bray and Ann Howard Grant, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Foundation, Using Technology to See in the Dark: Capturing and Examining Decision Making Strategies within Managerial Assessment and Development Centers.

State Farm Companies Foundation. Corporate gift to the University of Illinois Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations to fund the research being conducted by the Rupp DACLab

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The Transnational Constitution of Sustainability: Governance, Finance and Regulation.

Korean Psychological Testing Institute. Funding for research on the validity of global, long distance, and high tech developmental assessment centers.

Douglas W. Bray and Ann Howard Award, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Foundation, Validity Evidence for Developmental Assessment Centers.

Center for Human Resource Management, University of Illinois, Inconsistency in Job Performance: Measurement Error or Something More?

Center for International Business Education and Research, University of Illinois, Corporate Social Responsibility: The Mediating Role of Employee Justice.

University of Illinois Campus Research Board, Organizational Justice and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Multilevel Cross-Cultural Investigation.

Center for Human Resource Management, University of Illinois. Maximizing Human Resource Potential through Corporate Social Responsibility.

University of Illinois Campus Research Board. Using Assessment Centers for Employee Development.

The University of West Florida Scholarly and Creative Activity Grant, Perceptions of Age in the Workplace: Job Stereotypicality and Attributions for Performance.