Work-Life and Organizational Effectiveness Lab

07/23/2026

Excited to share a new publication from the Work–Life and Organizational Effectiveness (WLOE) Lab in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, one of the top journals in occupational health psychology!

Michel, J. S., McGoey, K., Shifrin, N. V., Shannon, F. A., Postier, L. E., Barrett, J. R., Himmler, J. R., & Hardin, L. (2026). Reducing the Shirom–Melamed Burnout Measure: Development and validation of nine-item and three-item short forms. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. Advance online publication.

This project developed and validated nine-item and three-item versions of the Shirom–Melamed Burnout Measure across nine samples, including cross-sectional, longitudinal, and daily diary studies. The SMBM-9 provides balanced coverage of physical fatigue, cognitive weariness, and emotional exhaustion, while the SMBM-3 offers an ultra-brief option when survey space is especially limited.

This was an idea our lab had been discussing since our 2022 meta-analysis of the SMBM, which was also published in JOHP. It is especially rewarding to see that idea develop into a large, multi-study project.

Congratulations to WLOE Lab members and alumni Kendall McGoey, Nicole Shifrin, Faith Shannon, Lauren Postier, Julia Barrett, Joseph Himmler, and Lucia Hardin on this publication!

Job-related burnout is a central concern in occupational health psychology, yet practical constraints often limit the use of comprehensive measures. The 14-item Shirom–Melamed Burnout Measure (SMBM-14) is widely used and grounded in a three-facet symptom framework consisting of physical fatigue, c...

07/06/2026

Congratulations to our WLOE Lab leader and alumni on the publication of their new article, “Managing Work and Family Demands during Times of Crisis: A Mixed Methods Examination with Evidence from COVID-19,” published today in Occupational Health Science.

This paper makes an important contribution to the work-family and occupational health literature by using a mixed methods approach to better understand how employees managed competing work and family demands during the COVID-19 crisis. It is always exciting to see WLOE Lab scholarship advancing theory, evidence, and practice in this area.

Congrats to the full author team on this excellent contribution!

Read the article here:

05/30/2026

The Work-Life and Organizational Effectiveness (WLOE) Lab was well represented at SIOP 2026 in New Orleans!

Our students Lucia Hardin, Faith Shannon, Joseph Himmler, and Julia Barrett organized and presented the panel, "Academic Demands, Evaluation Standards, and Scientist-Practitioner Engagement." The session focused on graduate training experiences, evaluation standards, and ways to strengthen scientist-practitioner engagement within I-O Psychology.

Pictured here are Faith Shannon and Lucia Hardin with fellow panelists following the presentation.

Congratulations to Lucia, Faith, Joseph, and Julia on a successful session and for representing the WLOE Lab and Auburn University at SIOP 2026!

War Eagle!

12/26/2025

Excited to share that a chapter by WLOE Lab leader Dr. Jesse Michel is now published in How to Conduct and Publish High-Quality Research in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. This is an excellent volume featuring top I-O scholars and high-quality research on conducting and publishing impactful work in the field. Honored to be included among such strong contributions!!!

"How to Conduct and Publish High-Quality Research in Industrial-Organizational Psychology" published on 09 Dec 2025 by Edward Elgar Publishing.

11/07/2025

Congrats to WLOE members (Dr. Michel) and alumni (Drs. Rotch, Shifrin, DeBaylo, and Lennox) on the manuscript titled "Work–family conflict and enrichment predict work and family negative and positive affect and (sometimes) vice versa: A prospective analysis" currently in press at IJSM!!!

11/07/2025

Congrats to WLOE lab member Lauren Postier for successfully proposing her dissertation today!!!

09/26/2025

The WLOE Lab is proud to share that our director, Dr. Jesse Michel, has been named a SIOP Fellow by the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology!

This recognition honors sustained and significant contributions to the science and practice of I-O psychology.

Congratulations, Jesse!

https://www.siop.org/about-siop/awards-recognition/scholarships-fellowships/siop-fellowship/new-fellows/

08/05/2025

This one’s a bit delayed, but we wanted to highlight a paper published last year by Dr. Jesse Michel and former WLOE Lab member Dr. Michael Rotch in Journal of Business and Psychology -- "What’s holding you back? Development of the Multi-Facet Organizational Constraints Scale (MOCS)"
🔗 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10869-024-09961-8

This project was sparked by a great discussion during Dr. Nathan Bowling’s visit to Auburn, where he spoke about survey length and careless responding. Grateful for that visit and the ideas it generated!

Well done to both authors and thanks again to Dr. Bowling for inspiring the conversation that led to this work! 👏

Organizational constraints—which include any workplace condition that undermines a worker’s ability to perform his or her job tasks—are an important type of work stressor. Previous research has typically assessed organizational constraints as a global (i.e., unidimensional) construct. In the c...

08/06/2024

An exciting weekend for the WLOE lab as Kendall McGoey received her doctorate🥳She’s soon to be starting her career as a consultant for leadership development in New Orleans! Cheers and War Eagle🧡💙

05/09/2024

Closing out the spring semester with a lab lunch at Hamilton’s on Magnolia! Celebrating lots of WLOE milestones, including Lauren Postier completing her closed book GDE, Julia Barrett proposing her thesis project, and Faith Shannon beginning an internship with the Army Research Institute. Cheers🎉