About

Simon Restubog is the Interim Dean of the School of Labor and Employment Relations (LER) and a Full Professor of Human Resource Management and Industrial/Organizational Psychology at the University of Illinois. He joined the LER in August 2018 after a 13-year academic career in Australia, where he held positions at the Australian National University, the University of New South Wales, and the University of Queensland. His educational background includes a PhD in Organizational Psychology from the University of Queensland, an MA in Counseling with High Distinction from De La Salle University, and a BA in Psychology and BS in Education from De La Salle University. His research focuses on three main streams: employment relationships and the future of work, the dark side of human behavior in organizations and career development, and workplace adaptation and participation. He explores psychological contracts, which represent beliefs about mutual obligations between employees and employers, and investigates how these contracts are formed and maintained. He is also interested in understanding how artificial intelligence influences work tasks, careers, and identities. Additionally, his work examines why individuals engage in dysfunctional or destructive behaviors at work, the consequences of these behaviors, and strategies to minimize them. His research extends to the workplace experiences of students, professionals in STEM, and vulnerable or stigmatized groups, including victims of intimate partner aggression, migrant workers, and people living with HIV. Restubog has published over 100 journal articles in prominent outlets such as the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Journal of Management, among others. He was honored as a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science in January 2023, recognizing his sustained and exceptional contributions to psychology. He has secured numerous competitive grants totaling approximately USD 1.5 million from various countries and industry sources. He also serves in editorial roles for several academic journals, including as Senior Associate Editor of the Journal of Vocational Behavior and Associate Editor of Human Relations.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Political Science
• Social psychology
• Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Public relations
• Management science
• Virology
• Medicine
• Knowledge management
• Management
• Engineering
• Economics

Selected publications

• From dehumanization to action: reconciling social exchange and displaced aggression through subjective expected utility theory

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2026-04-14

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• The Power of Play in Organizations

  Journal of Organizational Behavior · 2026-03-31

  article1st authorCorresponding

  ABSTRACT Play is increasingly visible in contemporary organizations, yet it is often dismissed as peripheral to “serious” work. Challenging this view, this Special Issue advances an interdisciplinary understanding of workplace play as a consequential psychological, social, and organizational resource. Across four complementary articles using qualitative, experimental, and scale‐development approaches, the Special Issue demonstrates that play enables authentic connection, fosters psychological safety and inclusion, supports proactive work redesign, and enhances motivation and well‐being—while also being shaped and constrained by roles, diversity, power, and resource depletion. Collectively, the papers reposition play as relational infrastructure rather than frivolous diversion, highlighting its emergent, co‐created, and context‐dependent nature. Building on these insights, we outline a multilevel research agenda that examines how microepisodes of play accumulate into team climates, how contextual conditions enable or suppress play, and when play can backfire or reproduce inequality. Together, the contributions invite scholars to treat play as a central lens for understanding contemporary work.

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• A Reply to Obenauer (2025): On the Empirical Distinctions Between Bullshitting and Lying

  Group & Organization Management · 2026-01-03 · 1 citations

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• Heartsick for Home: An Integrative Review of Employee Homesickness and an Agenda for Future Research

  Group & Organization Management · 2025-02-04 · 1 citations

  articleCorresponding

  Homesickness is a common experience for employees who move for a job. We provide an integrative review of the literature on employee homesickness to offer four main contributions. First, we undertake a state-of-the-art review that integrates the disparate literature on homesickness, focusing on its antecedents, consequences, underlying mechanisms, and moderating influences. Second, we clarify the concept of homesickness and differentiate it from neighboring concepts to advance theory development and facilitate its measurement. Third, we integrate Conservation of Resources theory with the homesickness model to provide robust and parsimonious theoretical accounts relating homesickness to its antecedents and outcomes. Finally, we use this integrative framework to generate a promising agenda for future research, thus forging meaningful connections to other domains and stimulating theoretical and empirical advancements.

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• Overcoming the Odds: An Integrative Review of Women’s Experiences in Male-Dominated Occupations

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

  articleSenior author

  Research about the experiences of women in male-dominated occupations (WMDOs) is vast. However, our understanding is limited by the fragmented and siloed nature of this body of work, which is scattered across separate literatures, and characterized by narrow integration focusing on challenges and/or specific work contexts. This integrative review contributes to our collective understanding of WMDOs by moving the scientific conversation to include strengths and benefits women contribute in MDOs, strategies and interventions that foster positive change, and theoretical perspectives that explain unique contextual dynamics and how these impact women’s careers, as well as their teams and organizations. Based on a thematic and critical analysis of 254 empirical studies, we offer themes from our stated focus areas (i.e., challenges, benefits, strategies, theories), highlight research gaps, and discuss their implications for future research. Keywords: women, career, gender, gender studies, feminist, intersectionality, male-dominated occupations

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• Workplace Bullshitting: A Multidimensional Analysis of Motives

  Group & Organization Management · 2025-06-13 · 7 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The present research addresses the question: why do employees engage in bullshitting at work? We examined this research question over three phases of multidimensional scaling (MDS). In the first (elicitation) phase ( n = 222), we uncovered 36 unique motives for workplace bullshitting. Phase 2 analyses ( n = 610) yielded a two-dimensional MDS configuration of these 36 motives. Phase 3 interpretation ( n = 118) produced a four-quadrant typology of motives definable by the intersection of two motivation theories: striving goals and regulatory focus . Thus, employees engage in workplace bullshitting for the purposes of getting ahead (status-promotion), getting away (status-prevention), getting along (communion-promotion), and getting around (communion-prevention). The typology meets fundamental theory-building criteria and underpins a nomological network of workplace bullshitting that advances understanding of why employees engage in bullshitting and how the use of bullshitting may affect them.

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• Charting the Path for Vulnerable Workers: Theories and Evidence on Overcoming Challenges

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

  article

  This symposium addresses the underexplored work experiences of vulnerable workers within the management field, a crucial area for advancing corporate social responsibility and highlighting shifting labor market dynamics. By amplifying the voices of vulnerable workers, we strive to ensure their experiences inform workplace policies and organizational practices. The symposium features four scholarly papers that highlight the challenges faced by vulnerable workers, including those with criminal records, disabilities, refugee status, and HIV-positive employees. These contributions advance existing literature by offering a diverse range of theoretical frameworks (i.e., social cognitive theory and self-determination theory, etc.), and promoting an inclusive approach that incorporates the perspectives of underrepresented groups from various regions (i.e., Canada, Philippines, and Lebanon). The goal is to create an academic platform for in-depth analyses, stimulating discussions, and exploratory approaches to addressing the challenges faced by vulnerable workers. By fostering these conversations, the symposium aspires to influence impactful research and practices that contribute to more equitable and compassionate workplaces worldwide. The Impact of Employment Programming on Individuals with a Criminal History Author: Kemi Anazodo; University of Windsor Author: Rosemary Ricciardelli; Author: Christopher Chan; York University Author: Yawo Kobara; University of Windsor Author: Hannah Cook; - Author: Reza Ahmadi; AI for All? Unpacking the Impact of Generative AI for Employees with Disabilities Author: Mary Eve Speach; University of Georgia Author: Katie Badura; Georgia Institute of Technology Author: Brent John Lyons; York University Author: Jean-Marc Moke; Schulich School of Business, York University Work-Related Dehumanization Among Refugees: A Self-Enhancement and Self-Protection Perspective Author: Patricia Tabarani; Author: Teresa Cardador; Author: Constantin Lagios; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Author: Simon Lloyd D. Restubog; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign A Self-Determination Perspective on the Job Consequences of Stigmatization Author: Anna Carmella Ocampo; ESADE Business School Author: Fan Xuan Chen; Author: Lu Wang; University of Alberta Author: Simon Lloyd D. Restubog; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Author: Anthony Decoste;

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• The reputational consequences of victim signaling

  Personality and Individual Differences · 2025-11-04

  articleOpen access

  We examine how victim signaling, defined as publicly sharing experiences of suffering caused by disadvantage, harm, or limitations, affects how observers perceive the signaler. We conducted four studies ( N Total = 1430) on diverse samples (i.e., online participants and professionals in the Philippines), using different methodologies (i.e., employee-coworker dyads and vignette-based experiments), and ways of victim-signaling (i.e., contentious vs. subtle). Across contexts, we found that people who signal their victimhood were evaluated more negatively than those who did not emit this signal, despite the latter facing similar circumstances. We found this effect on a range of social judgments, including ratings of dark traits (Dark Triad and D) and perceived desirability of the signaler as a social partner (e.g., job performance ratings and perceptions of counterproductive workplace behavior). A post-hoc analysis in Studies 3 and 4 found that political beliefs moderated perceptions of victim signalers from minority groups; compared to conservatives, liberals were less likely to see victimhood signalers (vs. non-signalers) as narcissistic and psychopathic (Study 3) and were less likely to infer entitlement–Machiavellian traits from a victim-signaling candidate (Study 4). Our results contribute to understanding how victim signaling shapes social perception and the complexities of interpreting claims of harm. • Individuals who signal their victimhood are often perceived less favorably than those who do not. • Victim signaling is associated with inferences of dark personality traits and lower social desirability. • Public expressions of harm can lead to reputational costs. • Observers may infer unethical behavior from victim signaling.

  PublisherDOI

• Helicopter Bosses: Development and Validation of the Micromanagement Scale

  Journal of Management · 2025-11-11 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Micromanagement (MM) is a popular topic in management circles, where its negative reputation is palpable, and yet academics have not shared this interest. As a result, our understanding of MM is deficient, marred by disjointed definitions and paradoxical views. Our research aims to clarify the construct and measurement of MM through a series of five studies that (1) define the MM construct, (2) develop a psychometrically reliable and valid measure, and (3) validate a preliminary nomological network. Based on combined deductive and inductive approaches, we establish a comprehensive construct definition of MM. Subsequently, we develop and validate a nine-item Micromanagement Scale (MMS-9). Drawing on data from eight distinct samples encompassing 1,723 individuals employed across diverse industries, we found that (a) MM is a hierarchical construct comprising three related core attributes (i.e., controlling, close monitoring, detail focus) and three key features (i.e., excessive, sustained, unnecessary), (b) the MMS-9 exhibits nomological validity, as evidenced by its significant relationships with theorized antecedents (e.g., low trust and leader-member exchange) and consequences (e.g., high turnover intentions and emotional exhaustion), and (c) the MMS-9 demonstrates discriminant and incremental validity against relevant orbiting leadership constructs (i.e., authoritarian leadership, participative leadership, empowering leadership, initiating structure, directive leadership, and abusive supervision). We discuss the implications of the MMS-9’s availability for advancing the study of micromanagement, with particular focus on potential avenues for future research.

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• Artificial intelligence at work: A phenomenon-based interdisciplinary review and groundwork for multilevel scholarship

  Information & Management · 2025-10-30 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  The implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for work are significant and diverse, yet our understanding of its drivers remains siloed. This is partly due to a fragmented understanding of the AI phenomenon, its examination across diverse disciplines, and the contingent nature of its effects. We aim to help address these issues via two objectives. First, we explore the landscape of research by systematically reviewing how organizational science subdisciplines studying AI conceptualize, characterize, and investigate AI at work and then evaluate how this scholarship clarifies and contextualizes the phenomenon. By examining indicators of these dimensions, we identify distinct clusters of research that represent what we label as "application-orientation" and "generalized-orientation" categories. Comparatively, application-orientation research was the most likely to either define AI’s capabilities concretely or to situate their assessments within a specific function or industry, was less likely to characterize AI as a radically or wholly new and disruptive technology, less likely to contain claims regarding widespread technological unemployment resulting from AI, and less likely to focus on the negative (compared to the positive) outcomes of AI use for workers. Comparatively, generalized-orientation research was less likely to reference AI’s concrete capabilities or situate their analyses in a specific industry context, tended to be less empirical, and was more likely to position AI as radically disruptive or to focus on negative worker outcomes. Second, we seek to add to this research landscape by proposing an illustrative, interdisciplinary multilevel framework that suggests pathways toward balanced, multilevel assessments of the phenomenon.

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Frequent coauthors

• Prashant Bordia

  Australian National University

  62 shared

• Robert L. Tang

  De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde

  39 shared

• Patrick Garcia

  Macquarie University

  39 shared

• Nerina L. Jimmieson

  Queensland University of Technology

  28 shared

• Catherine Deen

  UNSW Sydney

  27 shared

• Anna Carmella Ocampo

  23 shared

• Jenny Liao

  University of Toronto

  22 shared

• Lu Wang

  University of Alberta

  21 shared

Education

• Other

  Australian National University

• Other

  University of New South Wales

• Other

  University of Queensland

Awards & honors

• Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science (2023)