Professional Bio

Research Interests: Personality & Organizational Behavior

For the last 20 years, I have focused on developing, testing, and revising the Conditional Reasoning Theory of Personality. This theory is anchored on the basic concept of motivated reasoning.  Specifically, we believe that individuals with strong personality motives (e.g., motive to aggress; motive to achieve; motive for power) develop cognitive biases (e.g., hostile attribution bias; efficacy of persistence bias; agency bias) whose purpose is to facilitate the pursuit of behavior that satisfies the underlying motives (e.g., harming others; working evenings and weekends; pursuing positions of leadership).  As part of this research program, I have been involved in the development and validation of several measures designed to assess the implicit motives to aggress, to achieve, and for power.  We have then relied on these measures to test hypotheses linking personality to organizational outcomes including counterproductive work behavior, leadership, team processes & performance, and job attitudes.

Representative Publications

(Current & Former Graduate Students in Boldface)

1. Woo, S. E., LeBreton, J. M., Keith, M., & Tay, L. (2023). Bias, fairness, and validity in graduate admissions: A psychometric perspective. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 18(1), 3-31.

2. Schoen, J. L., DeSimone, J. A., Meyer, R. D., Schnure, K. A., & LeBreton, J. M. (2021). Identifying, defining, and measuring justification mechanisms: The implicit biases underlying individual differences. Journal of Management, 47(3), 716-744.

3. Van Iddekinge, C. H., Aguinis, H., LeBreton, J. M., Mackey, J. D., & DeOrtentiis, P. S. (2021). Assessing and interpreting interaction effects: A reply to Vancouver, Carlson, Dhanani, and Colton (2021). Journal of Applied Psychology, 106(3), 476-488.

4. LeBreton, J. M., Grimaldi, E. M., & Schoen, J. (2020). Conditional reasoning: Suggestions for test and development and validation. Organizational Research Methods, 23(1), 65-95.

5. Smith, D., Hoffman, M. E., & LeBreton, J. M. (2020). Conditional reasoning: An integrated approach to item analysis. Organizational Research Methods, 23(1), 124-153.

6. Yuan, Z., Morgeson, F. P., & LeBreton, J. M. (2020). Maybe not so independent after all: Exploring meta-analytic assumptions about the relationship between situational moderators and criterion reliability. Personnel Psychology, 73, 491-516.

7. LeBreton, J. M., Shiverdecker, L. K., & Grimaldi, E. M. (2018). The dark triad and workplace behavior. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 5, 387-414.

8. LeBreton, J. M., Scherer, K. T. & James, L. R. (2014). Corrections for criterion unreliability in validity generalization: A false prophet in a land of suspended judgment. Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 7(4), 478-500. * Invited Focal Article

9. Baysinger, M., Scherer, K. T., & LeBreton, J. M. (2014). Exploring the disruptive effects of psychopathy and aggression on group processes and group performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(1), 48-65.

10. Tonidandel, S., & LeBreton, J. M. (2013). Beyond step down analysis: A new test for decomposing the importance of dependent variables in MANOVA. Journal of Applied Psychology, 98(3), 469-477.

11. Krasikova, D. V., & LeBreton, J. M (2012). Just the two of us: Misalignment of theory and methods in examining dyadic phenomena. Journal of Applied Psychology, 97, 739-757.

12. Krasikova, D. V., Green, S., & LeBreton, J. M. (2013). Destructive leadership: A theoretical review, integration, and future research agenda. Journal of Management, 39(5), 1308-1338.

13. Wu, J., & LeBreton, J. M. (2011). Reconsidering the dispositional basis of counterproductive work behavior: The role of aberrant personality traits. Personnel Psychology, 64, 593-626.

14. James, L. R., & LeBreton, J. M. (2010). Assessing aggression using conditional reasoning. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19, 30-35.

15. LeBreton, J. M., & Senter, J. L. (2008). Answers to twenty questions about interrater reliability and interrater agreement. Organizational Research Methods, 11, 815-852.

*  Winner of ORM 2008 Best Paper Award

* Winner of 2014 Robert McDonald Advancement of Research Methodology Award

16. LeBreton, J. M, Tonidandel, S. (2008). Multivariate relative importance: Extending relative weight analysis to multivariate criterion spaces. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 329-345.

17. LeBreton, J. M., Barksdale, C. D., Robin, J. D. & James, L. R. (2007). Measurement issues associated with conditional reasoning tests of personality: Deception and faking. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 1-16.

18. LeBreton, J. M., Hargis, M. B., Griepentrog, B., Oswald, F. L., & Ployhart, R. E. (2007). A multidimensional approach for evaluating variables in organizational research and practice. Personnel Psychology, 60, 475-498.

19. LeBreton, J. M., James, L. R., & Lindell, M. K. (2005). Recent issues regarding r_WG, r*_WG, r_WG(J), and r*_WG(J). Organizational Research Methods, 8, 128-139.

20. LeBreton, J. M., Burgess, J. R. D., Kaiser, R. B., Atchley, E. K. P., & James, L. R. (2003). The restriction of variance hypothesis and interrater reliability and agreement: Are ratings from multiple sources really dissimilar? Organizational Research Methods, 6, 80-128.