Rellie Derfler-Rozin is an associate professor of management & organization at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. She received her PhD in organizational behavior from London Business School. She studies decision making in the social context. In her research, she looks at how people may deviate from decisions/behaviors that are rational from a pure profit maximization (traditional economics) perspective to satisfy needs that relate to their social world (e.g. the need to belong to a group, the need to have status in the group). Within this broad umbrella she is studying managerial decision making (e.g. looking at how managers may be averse to use their discretion in allocation decisions to satisfy belongingness needs to their group of employees), trust and ethics (e.g. looking at how group members who are at risk of social exclusions may show higher trusting behaviors and unethical behaviors that serve the group in an effort to promote re-inclusion in the group). More theme-related topics of interest to her are emotions, ethics, status and hiring decision biases.
Hiring Managers Risk Harsh Moral Judgments
Hiring managers invite harsh moral judgments when they give jobs to friends and acquaintances referred by high-powered individuals within their organizations, new research from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business shows.
Turn Off ‘Automatic Pilot’ Mindset to Boost Compliance
When employees break the rules at work, it might not be mischief. It might be monotony. A new study from Smith School professor Rellie Derfler-Rozin finds that employees whose tasks are organized in a more routine and repetitive way are more likely to fall prey to ethical lapses and break rules to make their workday easier. But there's good news. The researchers found that shaking up the order in which employees perform tasks can reduce rule-breaking. Read more...
A new study finds that employees whose tasks are organized in a routine and repetitive way are more likely to break rules to make their workday simpler. But there's good news. The researchers found that shaking up the order in which employees perform tasks – even without changing the tasks themselves – can prevent rule-breaking. "What was surprising, but also encouraging, for me was that such a very subtle manipulation in the field and in the lab could create such an effect," says Smith School assistant professor Rellie Derfler-Rozin. Read more...
Research by Rellie Derfler-Rozin
Managers can mitigate the effects that verbally abusive customers have on employees
Rellie Derfler-Rozin is an Associate Professor of Management & Organization at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. She received her PhD in Organizational Behavior from London Business School.
