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Dr. John P. Meyer

Professor of Industrial/Organizational Psychology

Chair of Industrial/Organizational Psychology Area

RESEARCH

Email: meyer@uwo.ca
Office: SSC 8411
Tel: 519-661-2111 ext. 83679
Curriculum Vitae

 

Dr. John Meyer received his Ph.D. from The University of Western Ontario in 1978.  After spending three years at St. Thomas University in Fredericton NB, he returned to Western where he is now a professor and chair of the graduate program in industrial and organizational psychology and director of the Research Unit for Work and Productivity.  He is also an adjunct professor in the Institute for Positive Psychology and Education at the Australian Catholic University. His research interests include employee commitment, work motivation, leadership, and organizational change. 

 

His work has been published in leading journals in the field of I/O psychology (e.g., Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology) and management (e.g., Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management), and has been cited more than 50,000 times according to Google Scholar. He is also co-author of Commitment in the Workplace: Theory, Research and Application (Sage Publications, 1997) and Best Practices: Employee Retention (Carswell, 2000), co-editor of Commitment in Organizations: Accumulated Wisdom and New Directions (Routledge, 2009) and editor of the Handbook of Employee Commitment (Elgar, forthcoming). He has been invited to conduct seminars and workshops in Canada and the US as well as Europe, Asia, and Australia.  Dr. Meyer is a Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association, the American Psychological Association, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, the International Association of Applied Psychology, and the Association for Psychological Science. 

 

He is a former chair of Canadian Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and editor of the OB/HRM section of the Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences. He currently holds the Science seat on the Board of Directors for CPA and is Chair of the Publications committee. In 2007 he was recognized by the Canadian Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology for his “distinguished contributions to Industrial-Organizational Psychology in Canada,” and in 2012 was awarded the Helmuth Prize for Achievement in Research by The University of Western Ontario.

B.A. - University of Western Ontario, 1973 
M.A. - University of Western Ontario, 1975 
Ph.D. - University of Western Ontario, 1978

My primary research interests are in the areas of workplace commitments, work motivation and engagement, leadership and organizational change, and employee well-being. A major objective of my research over the last 30 years has been to gain a better understanding of the meaning, development, and consequences of commitment in the workplace. Together with Dr. Natalie Allen, I developed the three-component model (TCM) of commitment along with a set of measures for use in research and practice. These measures have now been used in well over a thousand studies in more than 50 countries around the world. Although developed initially to explain employee commitment, the TCM has been extended to include other targets of commitment including occupations, teams, supervisors, and organizational change. Most recently, I have been involved in the promotion and application of a person-centered approach to research. In contrast to the more traditional variable-centered approach typically used in most branches of psychology, including industrial and organizational psychology, the person-centered approach is more holistic and examines the different ways that multiple variables combine within individuals. I started by applying this approach to investigate how the different forms of commitment in the TCM (affective, normative, continuance) combine, and later extended the approach to examine combinations of commitment to different targets (e.g., organization and occupation). Most recently, I have been using the person-centered approach to examine how the six trait dimensions in the HEXACO model combine to form personality profiles. In the future, I plan to apply this approach to identify patterns of motivation, leadership, and well-being among other multifaceted constructs. Finally, I have an interest in the ‘science-practice’ gap and its implications for research and practice in the workplace of the future.

 

More on Dr. Meyer's Organizational Behavior Laboratory

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Books

  • Meyer, J.P. & Schneider, B. (Eds). (2021). A Research Agenda for Employee Engagement in a Changing World of Work. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

  • Meyer, J.P. (Ed.) (2016), Handbook of Employee Commitment. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

  • Klein, H.J., Becker, T.E., & Meyer, J.P. (Eds.) (2009). Commitment in Organizations: Accumulated Wisdom and New Directions. Florence, KY: Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group.

  • Meyer, J.P., & Allen, N.J. (1997). Commitment in the workplace: Theory, research, and application. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

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Journal Articles and Book Chapters

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Organizational Commitment

  • Meyer, J.P. (2021). Commitment at work: Past, present, and future. In P. Graf & D.J.A. Dozois (Eds.), Handbook on the State of the Art in Applied Psychology (pp. 19-49). New York: John Wiley & Sons. 

  • Meyer, J.P., Stanley, D.J., Jackson, T.A., McInnis, K.J., Maltin, E.R., & Sheppard, L. (2012). Affective, continuance, and normative commitment levels across cultures: A meta-analysis. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 80, 225-245.

  • Meyer, J.P., Becker, T.E., & Van Dick, R. (2006). Social identities and commitment at work: Toward an integrative model. Journal of Organizational Behavior. 27, 665-683.

  • Meyer, J.P., Becker, T. E., & Vandenberghe, C. (2004). Employee motivation and commitment: A conceptual analysis and integrative model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89, 991-1007.

  • Powell, D. & Meyer, J. P. (2004). Side-bet theory and the three-component model of organizational commitment. Journal of Vocational Behavior. 65, 157-177.

  • Meyer, J.P., Stanley, D.J., Herscovitch, L., & Topolnytsky, L. (2002). Affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organization: A meta-analysis of antecedents, correlates and consequences. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 61, 20-52.

  • Lee, K., Allen, N. J., Meyer, J.P., & Rhee, K-Y. (2001). Cross-cultural generalizability of the Three-Component Model of organizational commitment: An application to South Korea. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 50, 596-614.

  • Tett, R.P., & Meyer, J.P. (1993). Job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intention, and turnover: Path analyses based on meta-analytic findings. Personnel Psychology, 46, 259-293.

  • Meyer, J.P., & Herscovitch, L. (2001). Commitment in the workplace: Toward a general model. Human Resource Management Review, 11, 299-326.

  • Allen, N.J., & Meyer, J.P. (1996). Affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organization: An examination of construct validity. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 49, 252-276.

  • Meyer, J.P., Allen, N.J., & Smith, C.A. (1993). Commitment to organizations and 

  • occupations: Extension and test of a three-component model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 538-551.

  • Meyer, J.P., & Allen, N.J. (1991). A three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment. Human Resource Management Review, 1, 61-89.

  • Allen, N.J., & Meyer, J.P. (1990). The measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organization. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 63, 1-18.

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Person-centered Research (Methods and Applications)

  • Espinoza, J.A., Daljeet, K.N., & Meyer, J.P. (2020). Establishing the structure and replicability of personality profiles using the HEXACO-PI-R. Nature Human Behavior, 4, 713-124.

  • Meyer, J.P., Morin, A.J.S., Stanley, L.J., & Maltin, E.R. (2019). Teachers’ dual commitment to the organization and occupation: A person-centered analysis. Teaching and Teacher Education, 77, 100-111.

  • Daljeet, K.N., Bremner, N.L., Giammarco, E.A., Meyer, J.P., & Paunonen, S.V. (2017). Taking a person-centered approach to personality: A latent-profile analysis of the HEXACO model of personality. Journal of Research in Personality, 70, 241-251.

  • Meyer, J.P., Morin, A.J.S., & Wasti, A. (2018). Employee commitment before and after an economic crisis: A stringent test of profile similarity. Human Relations, 71(9), 1204-1233.

  • Kam, C., Morin, A.J.S., Meyer, J.P., & Topolnytsky, L. (2016). Are commitment profiles stable and predictable? A latent transition analysis.  Journal of Management, 42, 1462-1490.

  • Meyer, J.P., & Morin, A.J.S. (2016). A person-centered approach to commitment research: Theory, research, and methodology. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36, 584-612.

  • Morin, A.J.S., Meyer, J.P., Creusier, J., & Biétry, F. (2016). Multiple-group analysis of similarity in latent profile solutions. Organizational Research Methods, 19, 231-254.

  • Meyer, J.P., Morin, A.J.S., & Vandenberghe, C. (2015). Dual commitment to organization and supervisor: A person-centered approach. Journal of Vocational Behavior. 88, 56-72.

  • Morin, A.J.S., Meyer, J.P., McInerney, D.M., Marsh, H.W., & Ganotice, F.A. (2015). Profiles of dual commitment to the occupation and organization: Relations to well-being and turnover intentions. Asian Pacific Journal of Management, 32, 717-744. (electronic supplementary material available at doi:10.1007/s10490-015-9411-6)

  • Jackson, T.A., Meyer, J.P., & Wang, X.H. (2013). Leadership, commitment, and culture: A meta-analysis. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 20, 84-106.

  • Meyer, J.P., Stanley, L.J., & Vandenberg, R.M. (2013). A person-centered approach to the study of commitment. Human Resource Management Review, 23, 190-202.

  • Meyer, J.P., Kam, C., Goldenberg, I., & Bremner, N.L. (2013). Organizational commitment in the military: Application of a profile approach. Military Psychology, 25, 381-401. 

  • Meyer, J.P., Stanley, L.J., & Parfyonova, N.M. (2012). Employee commitment in context: The nature and implications of commitment profiles. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 80, 1-16.

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Work Motivation & Engagement

  • Meyer, J.P., Espinoza, J.A., Vaters, C., Anderson, B.K., & Beletski, L.V. (2022, in press). Motivational mindsets versus reasons for action: Implications for the dimensionality debate in self-determination theory. Motivation & Emotion. (available on-line at https://rdcu.be/cPOAd)

  • Meyer, J.P. & Schneider, B. (2021). The promise of engagement. In J.P. Meyer & B. Schneider (Eds.), A Research Agenda for Employee Engagement in a Changing World of Work (pp. 3- 19). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

  • Meyer, J.P. (2017). Has employee engagement had its day: What’s next and does it matter? Organizational Dynamics, 46, 87-95.

  • Meyer, J.P. (2014). Employee commitment, motivation, and engagement: Exploring the links. In M. Gagné (Ed.). The Oxford handbook of work engagement, motivation, and self-determination theory (pp. 33-49). New York: Oxford University Press.

  • Meyer, J.P. (2013). The science-practice gap and employee engagement: It’s a matter of principle. Canadian Psychology, 54, 235-245.

  • Meyer, J.P., & Gagné, M. (2008). Employee engagement from a self-determination theory perspective. Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 1, 60-63.

  • Organizational Change

  • Meyer, J.P., & Beletski, L.V. (2022, in press). Commitment to organizational change: Theory, research, principles, and practice. In S. Oreg, M. Alexandra, & B.T. Rune (Eds.), The Psychology of Organizational Change: New Insights on the Antecedents and Consequences of Individuals’ Responses to Change - Part II. Cambridge University Press.

  • Morin, A.J.S., Meyer, J.P., Bélanger, É., Boudrias, J.-S., Gagné, M., & Parker, P.D. (2016). Longitudinal associations between employees’ perceptions of the quality of the change management process, affective commitment to change and psychological empowerment. Human Relations, 69, 839-867.

  • Meyer, J.P., Hecht, T.D., Gill, H., & Toplonytsky, L. (2010). Person-organization (culture) fit and employee commitment under conditions of organizational change: A longitudinal analysis. Journal of Vocational Behavior,76, 458-473.

  • Meyer, J.P., Srinivas, E.R., Lal, J.B., & Topolnytsky, L. (2007). Employee commitment and support for an organizational change: Test of the three-component model in two cultures. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 80, 185-211.

  • Herscovitch, L., & Meyer, J.P. (2002). Commitment to organizational change: Extension of a three-component model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 474-487.

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Well-Being

  • Anderson, B.K., Meyer, J.P., Vaters, C., & Espinoza, J.A. (2020). Measuring personal growth and development in context: Evidence of validity in educational and work settings. Journal of Happiness Studies, 21, 2141-2167.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-019-00176-w

  • Espinoza, J.A., Meyer, J.P., Anderson, B.K., Vaters, C., & Politis, C. (2018). Evidence for a bifactor structure of the Scales of Psychological Well-being using exploratory structural equation modeling. Journal of Well-being Assessment, 2, 21-40.

  • Meyer, J.P., & Maltin, E.R. (2010). Employee commitment and well-being: A critical review, theoretical framework, and research agenda. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 77, 323-337.

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Measurement and Assessment

  • Kam, C. & Meyer, J.P. (2022, in press). Testing the nonlinearity assumption underlying the use of reverse-keyed items: A logical response perspective. Assessment.

  • Kam, C., & Meyer, J.P. (2015). How careless responding and acquiescence response bias can influence construct dimensionality: The case of job satisfaction. Organizational Research Methods, 18, 512-541.

  • Kam, C., & Meyer, J.P. (2015). Implications of item keying and item valence for the investigation of construct dimensionality. Multivariate Behavior Research, 50, 457-469.

  • Kam, C., & Meyer, J.P. (2012). Do optimism and pessimism have different relationships with personality dimensions? A reexamination. Personality and Individual Differences, 52, 123-127.

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