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Ruth Kanfer, Professor of Psychology
Ph.D. (1981) Psychology
Arizona State University
Faculty Page for the School of Psychology

My research examines the role of motivation, personality, emotion, and self-regulation in training, performance, and work transitions across the lifespan. During the past few years, I have worked with other faculty and students on laboratory and field projects investigating the structure and influence of motivational traits (such as mastery, desire to learn, competitiveness, worry and emotionality) on goals and skill training, the personality-motivational determinants and consequences of job search behavior, and the predictive validity of traits for academic and job success. Current research interests also include emotion regulation, motivation in the aging workforce, and person determinants of contextual work behaviors. Support for this work has been provided by grants from the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

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Recent Professional Activities

Professional Appointments:

Academy of Management Governing Board representative (2004-2007)
APA, APS, and SIOP Fellow
Academy of Management Organizational Behavior Division Chair (2000)

Editorial Board Memberships:

Applied Psychology: An International Review
Human Performance
Journal of Management
Journal of Applied Psychology (1990-2001)
Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology
Frontier Series Advisory Board (1996-1999)
Academy of Management Learning and Education
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (1989-1998)

Scholarly Honors and Awards:

2001 International Society for the Study of Individual Differences Best Paper Award

Affiliations

Fellow, American Psychological Association
Fellow, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology
Charter Fellow, American Psychological Society

Academy of Management Association
American Educational Research Association
International Association of Applied Psychology
Personnel and Human Resources Research Group
Psychonomic Society
Society of Organizational Behavior
Sigma Xi

Books and Selected Publications

Books:

• Lord, R., Klimoski, R., & Kanfer, R. (Eds) (2002). Emotions in the Workplace: Understanding the Structure and Role of Emotions in Organizational Behavior. San Francisco, CA: Jossey- Bass.
• Kanfer, R., Ackerman, P. L., & Cudeck, R. (Eds.) (1989). Abilities, motivation, and methodology: The Minnesota Symposium on Learning and Individual Differences. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Publications:

• Kanfer, R. (In press). Motivation. In N. Nicholson, P. Audia, & M. Pilluta (Eds.), Blackwell Encylopedic Dictionary of Management: Organizational Behavior (2nd Edition).
• Kanfer, R., & Ackerman, P. L. (In press). Aging, adult development, and work motivation. Academy of Management Review.
• Kanfer, R. (In press). When to leave the table. TIP. The Industrial/ Organizational Psychologist. Bowling Green, Ohio: Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.
• Bennett, S., Miller Franco, L., Kanfer, R., & Stubblebine, P. (2004). Determinants and consequences of health worker motivation in hospitals in Jordan and Georgia. Social Science and Medicine, 58, 343-355.
• Kanfer, R., & Klimoski, R. (2002). Workplace emotions: Looking back to the future. To appear in R. Lord, R. Klimoski, & R. Kanfer (Eds.), Emotions in the Workplace: Understanding the Structure and Role of Emotions in Organizational Behavior (pp. 473-490). San Francisco, CA: Jossey- Bass.
• Kanfer, R., and Kantrowitz, T. M. (2002). Emotion regulation: Command and Control of emotions in work life. In R. Lord, R. Klimoski, & R. Kanfer (Eds.), Emotions in the workplace: Understanding the structure and role of emotions in organizational behavior (pp. 443-472). San Francisco, CA: Jossey- Bass.
• Franco, L. M., Bennett, S., & Kanfer, R. (2002). Health sector reform and public sector health work motivation: A conceptual framework. Social Science and Medicine, 54, 1255-1266.
• Kanfer, R., & Kantrowitz, T. M. (2002). Ability and non-ability predictors of performance. In S. Sonnentag (Ed.), Psychological management of individual performance: A handbook in the psychology of management in organizations (pp. 27-50) England: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
• Kanfer, R., Wanberg, C., & Kantrowitz, T. M. (2001). Job search and employment: A personality-motivational analysis and meta-analytic review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 837- 855.
• Kanfer, R. (2001). I/O Psychology: Working at the basic-applied psychology interface. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 235-240.
• Heggestad, E., & Kanfer, R. (2000). Individual differences in trait motivation: Development of the Motivational Trait Questionnaire (MTQ). International Journal of Educational Research, 33,751-776.
• Kanfer, R., & Ackerman, P. L. (2000). Individual differences in work motivation: Further explorations of a trait framework. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 49, 470-482.
• Wanberg, C., Kanfer, R., & Banas, J. T. (2000). Predictors and outcomes of networking behavior among unemployed job seekers. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85, 491-503.
• Wanberg, C., Kanfer, R., & Rotondo, M. (1999). Unemployed individuals: Motives, job-search competencies, and job-search constraints as predictors of job seeking and reemployment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 897-910.
• Kanfer, R. & Heggestad, E. (1997). Motivational traits and skills: A person-centered approach to work motivation. In L. L. Cummings and B. M. Staw (Eds.), Research in Organizational Behavior (Vol. 19, pp. 1-57). JAI Press, Greenwich, CT.
• Kanfer, R., Ackerman, P. L., & Heggestad, E. (1996). Motivational skills and self-regulation for learning: A trait perspective. Learning and Individual Differences, 8, 185-209.
• Murtha, T. C., Kanfer, R., & Ackerman, P. L. (1996). Towards an interactionist taxonomy of personality and situations: An integrative situational-dispositional representation of personality traits. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 193-207.
• Schneider, R. J., Ackerman, P. L., & Kanfer, R. (1996). To "Act wisely in human relations:" Exploring the dimensions of social competence. Personality and Individual Differences, 21, 469-481.
• Kanfer, R., Ackerman, P. L., Murtha, T., & Goff, M. (1995). Personality and intelligence in industrial and organizational psychology. In D. H. Saklofske & M. Zeidner (Eds.), International Handbook of Personality and Intelligence (pp. 577-602). New York: Plenum.
• Ackerman, P. L., Kanfer, R., & Goff, M. (1995). Cognitive and non-cognitive determinants of complex skill acquisition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 1, 270-304.
• Kanfer, R., Dugdale, B., & McDonald, B. (1994). Empirical findings on the Action Control Scale in the context of complex skill acquisition. In J. Kuhl & J. Beckmann (Eds.), Volition and personality: Action- and state-oriented modes of control (pp. 61-77). Göttingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber Publishers.
• Leon, G., Kanfer, R., Hoffman, R. G., & Dupre, L. (1994). Group processes and task effectiveness in a Soviet-American expedition team. Environment and Behavior, 26, 149-165.
• Kanfer, R., Ackerman, P. L., Murtha, T. C., Dugdale, B., & Nelson, L. (1994). Goal setting, conditions of practice, and task performance: A resource allocation perspective. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79, 826-835.
• Ackerman, P. L., & Kanfer, R. (1993). Integrating laboratory and field study for improving selection: Development of a battery for predicting Air Traffic Controller success. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 413-432.
• Kanfer, R. (1992). Work motivation: New directions in theory and research. In C. L. Cooper & I. T. Robertson (Eds.), International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (Vol. 7, pp.1-53). London: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
• Kanfer, R., & Kanfer, F. H. (1991). Goals and self-regulation: Applications of theory to work settings. In M. L. Maehr & P. R. Pintrich (Eds.), Advances in Motivation and Achievement (Vol. 7, pp. 287-326). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
• Steele, D. J., & Kanfer, R. (1992). Goal-performance relations: The effects of initial task complexity and task practice. Motivation and Emotion, 16, 117-141.
• Leon, G., Kanfer, R., Hoffman, R. G., & Dupre, L. (1991). Interrelationships of personality, coping, and group processes in a Soviet-American expedition team. Journal of Research in Personality, 25, 357-371.
• Kanfer, R. (1990). Motivation theory and Industrial/Organizational psychology. In M. D. Dunnette and L. Hough (Eds.), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology. Volume 1. Theory in industrial and organizational psychology (pp.75-170). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
• Kanfer, R. (1990). Motivation and Individual Differences in Learning: An Integration of Developmental, Differential, and Cognitive Perspectives. Learning and Individual Differences, 2, 221-239.
• Lind, E. A., Kanfer, R., & Earley, P. C. (1990). Voice, control, and procedural justice: Instrumental and noninstrumental concerns in fairness judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 952-959.
• Kanfer, R., & Ackerman, P. L. (1989). Motivation and cognitive abilities: An integrative/aptitude-treatment interaction approach to skill acquisition. Journal of Applied Psychology - Monograph, 74, 657-690.
• Paese, P. W., Lind, E. A., & Kanfer, R. (1989). Procedural fairness and work group responses to performance evaluation systems. Social Justice Research, 2, 193-205.
• Kanfer, R., Crosby, J. V., & Brandt, D. M. (1988). Investigating behavioral antecedents of turnover at three job tenure levels. Journal of Applied Psychology, 73, 331-335.
• Kanfer, R., Sawyer, J., Earley, C., & Lind, A. (1987). Fairness and participation in evaluation procedures: Effects on task attitudes and performance. Social Justice Research, 1, 235-249.
• Kanfer, R. (1987). Task specific motivation: An integrative approach to issues of measurement, mechanisms, processes, and determinants. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 5, 237-264.
• Drasgow, F., & Kanfer, R. (1985). Equivalence of psychological measurement in heterogeneous populations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 70, 662-680.
• Kanfer, R., & Hulin, C. L. (1985). Individual differences in successful job searches following lay off. Personnel Psychology, 38, 835-848.
• Earley, P. C., & Kanfer, R. (1985). The influence of component participation and role models on goal acceptance, goal satisfaction, and performance. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 36, 378-390.
• Kanfer, R., & Zeiss, A. (1983). Interpersonal standard setting and self efficacy expectations in depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 92, 319 329.

Frequently Taught Courses

Individual Behavior in Organizations
Workplace Motivation and Emotion

Contact Information

Office Location: 226 Psychology Building
Phone Number: 404/894-5674
FAX: 404/894-7347
E-mail: rk64@prism.gatech.edu

Last Revised: August 2004

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