Faculty
Keith Leavitt
Scott and Loni Parrish Chair in Business and Professor of Management
Management

Keith Leavitt

541-737-8631

keith.leavitt@oregonstate.edu

Faculty
Keith Leavitt
Overview
Overview
Background
Publications

Overview

Biography

Research areas: Organizational Behavior; Business Ethics.

Research interests: Social cognition; workplace identity; behavioral ethics; machine learning and work; epistemology and research methods.

Dr. Keith Leavitt's research interests include behavioral ethics, identity and situated judgment, and research methods/epistemology. Specifically, much of his research focuses on how social expectations and constraints inform or inhibit ethical behavior in the workplace. His research has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, the Academy of Management Review, the Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (OBHDP), the Journal of Management, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Organizational Research Methods, the Journal of Organizational Behavior, the Journal of Vocational Behavior, and the Journal of Business Ethics. He previously served as an Associate Editor at OBHDP and currently serves on the editorial boards of AMJ, OBHDP, and JAP. He is currently serving as the Program Chair (second year of the elected five-year leadership track) of the Organizational Behavior Division of the Academy of Management, and is a former Associate Editor at OBHDP.

Keith's work has been featured in over 200 news and media outlets including the New York Times, Forbes, NBC News, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Inc. Magazine, Vice News, Wall Street Journal Radio, The Huffington Post, Time Magazine, and prominently on the front of his mother's refrigerator. 

In his spare time, he enjoys mountain biking, fly fishing, skiing, the occasional existential crisis, and trying to ignore rapidly-accumulating indicators of middle-age.  

Credentials

Doctorate in Management and Organization (Ph.D.) University of Washington, Seattle, WA Concentration: Organizational Behavior/ Human Resource Management, Spring 2009. Minors: Research Methods and Sociology (Institutional Analysis).

Career Interests

Research areas: Organizational Behavior; Business Ethics.

Research interests: Social cognition; workplace identity; behavioral ethics; machine learning and work; epistemology and research methods.

Dr. Keith Leavitt's research interests include behavioral ethics, identity and situated judgment, and research methods/epistemology. Specifically, much of his research focuses on how social expectations and constraints inform or inhibit ethical behavior in the workplace. His research has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, the Academy of Management Review, the Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (OBHDP), the Journal of Management, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Organizational Research Methods, the Journal of Organizational Behavior, the Journal of Vocational Behavior, and the Journal of Business Ethics. He previously served as an Associate Editor at OBHDP and currently serves on the editorial boards of AMJ, OBHDP, and JAP. He is currently serving as the Program Chair (second year of the elected five-year leadership track) of the Organizational Behavior Division of the Academy of Management, and is a former Associate Editor at OBHDP.

Keith's work has been featured in over 200 news and media outlets including the New York Times, Forbes, NBC News, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Inc. Magazine, Vice News, Wall Street Journal Radio, The Huffington Post, Time Magazine, and prominently on the front of his mother's refrigerator. 

In his spare time, he enjoys mountain biking, fly fishing, skiing, the occasional existential crisis, and trying to ignore rapidly-accumulating indicators of middle-age.  

 

 

Background

Experience

  • Professor of Management, Oregon State University College of Business (July 2023-present).
  • Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Management, Oregon State University College of Business (September 2021-present).
  • Associate Dean for Research and Associate Professor, Oregon State University College of Business (July 2020-September 2021).
  • Associate Professor, Oregon State University College of Business (Fall 2015-Spring 2020).
  • Assistant Professor, Oregon State University College of Business (Fall 2011-Present).        
  • Assistant Professor, Army Center for the Professional Military Ethic, United States Military Academy at West Point (Summer 2009-Summer 2011).

Honors & Awards

  • Scott & Loni Parrish Professor of Business (2024-present).
  • College of Business External Research Award (2024).
  • College of Business Prominent Scholar Award (2022).
  • College of Business Prominent Scholar Award (2021).
  • College of Business Prominent Scholar Award (2020).
  • College of Business Scholarly Impact Award (2020).
  • Best Reviewer Award, Academy of Management Journal (2019).
  • OSU College of Business Betty S. Henry Amundson Faculty Scholar Award in Ethics (2015-2024).
  • Betty & Forest Simmons Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award, OSU College of Business (2018).
  • College of Business Prominent Scholar Award (2018).
  • College of Business Prominent Scholar Award (2017).
  • Finalist, Academy of Management Review 2015 Best Paper Award.
  • Western Academy of Management Ascendant Scholar (early career) Award (2015). 
  • College of Business Dean's Professorship in Excellence (2013-2015).
  • College of Business 2013 Excellence in Scholarship Award. 
  • Organizational Research Methods 2011 Best Paper Award.
  • Academy of Management Journal 2010 Best Paper Award.
  • 2011 Saroj Parasuraman Award for outstanding publication (presented by the gender and diversity in organizations division of the Academy of Management).
  • Outstanding reviewer award, Academy of Management Annual Meeting (OB division), 2010.
  • Outstanding reviewer award, Academy of Management Annual Meeting (MOC division), 2009.
  • Graduate teaching excellence award, University of Washington Business School, 2007.
  • Kindergartner of the week (with no distinction), Crosby Elementary School, 1982.

Publications

Academic Journal
Management

“Contributing from Inside the Outer Circle: The Identity-Based Effects of Noncore Role Incumbents on Group Relational Coordination and Organizational Climate”

To function optimally, most workgroups need an interdependent mix of members in strategically core and noncore roles who work effectively together. However, whereas researchers have investigated the contributions of star performers and strategically core group members, relatively little is known about individuals in noncore roles and how they may facilitate group functioning and contribute to the relational climate of organizations. In this paper, we develop a multi-level, bottom-up model that explains two paths through which employees in noncore roles facilitate the dissemination of relational coordination in organizations. We leverage insights from self-categorization theory and relational coordination theory to explain different ways in which noncore role incumbents attempt to enact their noncore role identities. Then, we describe how the relational stances of those occupying core roles can enable or hinder the identity validation of those in noncore roles, and how validating the role-based identities of members in noncore roles fosters relational coordination at the group level while fostering positive identification with noncore roles. Finally, we theorize how relational coordination facilitated by noncore role incumbents contributes to the relational climate of the organization, which subsequently motivates core role incumbents throughout the organization to support their teammates in noncore roles.
Details

680-703 pages 2018 Alex Bolinger Anthony Klotz Keith Leavitt View on: Google Scholar

Academic Journal
Management

“Different hats, different obligations: Plural occupational identities and situated moral judgments.”

It is well understood that moral identity substantially influences moral judgments. However, occupational identities are also replete with moral content, and individuals may have multiple occupational identities within a given work role (e.g., engineer-manager). Consequently, we apply the lenses of moral universalism and moral particularism to categorize occupational identities and explore their moral prescriptions. We present and test a model of occupational identities as implicitly-held and dynamically-activated knowledge structures, cued by context and containing associated content about the absolute and/or relationship-dependent moral obligations owed by the actor to stakeholders. Results from one field study and two situated experiments with dual-occupation individuals indicate that moral obligations embedded in occupational identities influence actors’ work-role moral judgments in a predictable and meaningful manner.
Details

1316-1333 pages 2012 Keith Leavitt Scott Reynolds Christopher Barnes Pauline Schilpzand Sean Hannah View on: Google Scholar

Academic Journal
Management

“Getting Explicit about the Implicit: A Taxonomy of Implicit Measures and Guide for their Use in Organizational Research”

Accumulated evidence from social and cognitive psychology suggests that many behaviors are driven by processes operating outside of awareness, and an array of implicit measures to capture such processes have been developed. Despite their potential application, implicit measures have received relatively modest attention within the organizational sciences, due in part to barriers to entry and uncertainty about appropriate use of available measures. The current paper is intended to serve as an implicit measurement “toolkit” for organizational scholars, and as such our goals are fourfold. First, we present theory critical to implicit measures, highlighting advantages of capturing implicit processes in organizational research. Second, we present a functional taxonomy of implicit measures (i.e., accessibility-based, association-based, and interpretation-based measures) and explicate assumptions and appropriate use of each. Third, we discuss key criteria to help researchers identify specific implicit measures most appropriate for their own work, including a discussion of principles for the psychometric validation of implicit measures. Fourth, we conclude by identifying avenues for impactful “next generation” research within the organizational sciences that would benefit from the use of implicit measures.
Details

553-601 pages 2012 Eric Uhlmann Keith Leavitt Jochen Menges Joel Koopman Michael Howe Russell Johnson View on: Google Scholar