Professor Karen Niven
BSc, MSc, PhD
Management School
Head of Work Psychology Subject Group
Professor of Organisational Psychology
+44 114 222 0987
Full contact details
Management School
B038
Sheffield University Management School
Conduit Road
Sheffield
S10 1FL
- Profile
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I am a Professor of Organisational Psychology. I joined Sheffield University Management School in March 2022. Prior to this, I was a Professor and Head of the Organisational Psychology Group at Alliance Manchester Business School.
My research focuses on social relationships in the workplace, particularly how people influence the emotions of those around them and the 'darker' side of relationships (e.g. bullying, aggression). I have published in a range of organisational psychology, management and social psychology journals and co-edited two popular science books.
I currently hold an Associate Editor role at Organizational Psychology Review and serve on the Editorial Review Boards of Journal of Management, Journal of Organizational Behaviour, Human Relations, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, and Journal of Applied Social Psychology.
Outside of work, my time is mainly spent parenting two small children, baking, and helping to renovate the dilapidated wreck my family and I like to call home!
- Qualifications
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PhD Psychology - University of Sheffield
MSc Work Psychology - University of Sheffield
BSc Psychology - University of Leeds
- Research interests
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My research focuses on social relationships in the workplace. I have two key research areas:
- Interpersonal emotion regulation
- Workplace mistreatment
My research on interpersonal emotion regulation focuses on understanding how and why we try to manage other people's emotions. Current projects include studying how the effects of interpersonal emotion regulation 'spill over' between work and home and 'cross over' between partners, and exploring the role of factors like personality and age in shaping people's ability to manage others' feelings.
In the area of mistreatment, my current research focuses on understanding how bystanders behave when they witness acts of mistreatment and exploring the role of targets' coping strategies in shaping ongoing mistreatment processes such as bullying.
I use a variety of methods, including diary studies, social network analysis, longitudinal and dyadic surveys, experimental designs and interventions.
My research has been funded by the ESRC, UKRI, Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) and the Richard Benjamin Trust. I collaborate with colleagues in the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, Chile, Canada, USA and Australia.
- Publications
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Books
- Workplace moods and emotions: A review of research. CreateSpace. View this article in WRRO
- Should I Strap a Battery to My Head? (And Other Questions About Emotion). CreateSpace.
Edited books
- Making a difference with psychology. Richard Benjamin Trust.
Journal articles
- The influence of personality on interpersonal emotion regulation in the context of psychosocial stress. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(4).
- What influences the relationship between workplace bullying and employee well-being? A systematic review of moderators. Work & Stress.
- Satisfaction with one's job and working at home in the COVID-19 pandemic: a two-wave study. Applied Psychology.
- Uncertainty and well-being amongst homeworkers in the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal study of university staff. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(16).
- Does bystander behavior make a difference? How passive and active bystanders in the group moderate the effects of bullying exposure. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 27(1), 119-135.
- Daily effects of face-to-face and cyber incivility via sadness, anger and fear. Work and Stress. View this article in WRRO
- Leader interpersonal emotion regulation motives, group leader–member exchange, and leader effectiveness in work groups. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 42(9), 1168-1185.
- Observer reactions to workplace mistreatment: it's a matter of perspective. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 26(5), 374-392. View this article in WRRO
- Homeworking, well-being and the COVID-19 pandemic: a diary study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(14).
- Does interpersonal emotion regulation ability change with age?. Human Resource Management Review.
- Leader interpersonal emotion regulation and follower performance. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 19(2), 97-101.
- Personality traits and emotion regulation : a targeted review and recommendations. Emotion, 20(1), 63-67.
- ‘I could help, but . . .’ : a dynamic sensemaking model of workplace bullying bystanders. Human Relations, 73(12), 1718-1746.
- Does interpersonal affect regulation influence others’ task performance? The mediating role of positive mood. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 28(6), 820-830.
- Leader interpersonal emotion regulation and innovation in teams. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 92(4), 787-805.
- Do the effects of interpersonal emotion regulation depend on people's underlying motives?. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 92(4), 1020-1026.
- Career plateau : a review of 40 years of research. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 110, 286-302.
- Prosocial versus instrumental motives for interpersonal emotion regulation. Journal of Theoretical Social Psychology, 3(2), 85-96.
- Witnessing workplace bullying and employee well-being: A two-wave field study. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 24(2), 286-296. View this article in WRRO
- Investigating a process model for leader affective presence, interpersonal emotion regulation, and interpersonal behaviour in teams. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 27(5), 642-656. View this article in WRRO
- Predicting workplace relational dynamics using an affective model of relationships. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 39(9), 1129-1141. View this article in WRRO
- “That's not what I signed up for!” A longitudinal investigation of the impact of unmet expectation and age in the relation between career plateau and job attitudes. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 107, 71-85.
- The four key characteristics of interpersonal emotion regulation. Current Opinion in Psychology, 17, 89-93.
- Assumptions beyond the science: encouraging cautious conclusions about functional magnetic resonance imaging research on organizational behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 37(8), 1150-1177.
- Does Leader-Affective Presence Influence Communication of Creative Ideas Within Work Teams?. Emotion, 16(6), 798-802. View this article in WRRO
- Managerial abuse and the process of absence among mental health staff. Work, Employment and Society, 30(5), 783-801.
- Why do people engage in interpersonal emotion regulation at work?. Organizational Psychology Review, 6(4), 305-323.
- Sharing concerns: Interpersonal worry regulation in romantic couples.. Emotion, 16(4), 449-458.
- Leader affective presence and innovation in teams.. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(5), 673-686. View this article in WRRO
- Susceptibility to the ‘Dark Side’ of Goal-Setting: Does Moral Justification Influence the Effect of Goals on Unethical Behavior?. Journal of Business Ethics, 137(1), 115-127.
- Variability in the use of mobile ICTs by homeworkers and its consequences for boundary management and social isolation. Information and Organization, 25(4), 222-232. View this article in WRRO
- Why do you Make us Feel Good? Correlates and Interpersonal Consequences of Affective Presence in Speed–Dating. European Journal of Personality, 29(1), 72-82. View this article in WRRO
- Hope and Optimism in the Face of Change: Contributions to Task Adaptivity. Journal of Business and Psychology, 30(4), 733-745.
- Can music with prosocial lyrics heal the working world? A field intervention in a call center. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 45(3), 132-138.
- Burnout and the Fine-Tuning of Cognitive Resources. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 28(2), 274-278.
- Achieving the same for less: Improving mood depletes blood glucose for people with poor (but not good) emotion control. Cognition & Emotion, 27(1), 133-140.
- Does emotion regulation protect employees from the negative effects of workplace aggression?. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 22(1), 88-106.
- Ruminative thinking exacerbates the negative effects of workplace violence. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 86(1), 67-84.
- Discrimination and Well-Being in Organizations: Testing the Differential Power and Organizational Justice Theories of Workplace Aggression. Journal of Business Ethics, 115(3), 617-634.
- Can employees be emotionally drained by witnessing unpleasant interactions between co-workers? A diary study on induced emotion regulation.. Work & Stress, 26(2), 112-129. View this article in WRRO
- How to win friendship and trust by influencing people’s feelings: An investigation of interpersonal affect regulation and the quality of relationships. Human Relations, 65(6), 777-805.
- Does Regulating Others' Feelings Influence People's Own Affective Well-Being?. The Journal of Social Psychology, 152(2), 246-260.
- Emotion Regulation of Others and Self (EROS): The Development and Validation of a New Individual Difference Measure. Current Psychology, 30(1), 53-73. View this article in WRRO
- Our emotional neighbourhoods. Psychologist, 23(6), 474-477. View this article in WRRO
- Changing moods and influencing people: The use and effects of emotional influence behaviours at HMP Grendon. Prison Service Journal, 173, 39-45. View this article in WRRO
- Individual differences in interpersonal emotion regulation: What makes some people more (or less) successful than others?. Social and Personality Psychology Compass.
- Mind-wandering contents and characteristics: an exploratory study comparing between work and non-work contexts. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), 1-14.
- Becoming popular: interpersonal emotion regulation predicts relationship formation in real life social networks. Frontiers in Psychology, 6.
- The hidden dangers of attending work while unwell: A survey study of presenteeism among pharmacists.. International Journal of Stress Management, 22(2), 207-221.
- The neural correlates of regulating another person's emotions: an exploratory fMRI study. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8. View this article in WRRO
- You Spin Me Right Round: Cross-Relationship Variability in Interpersonal Emotion Regulation. Frontiers in Psychology, 3.
- A classification of controlled interpersonal affect regulation strategies.. Emotion, 9(4), 498-509. View this article in WRRO
Chapters
- The bystanders of workplace bullying In Einarsen S, Hoel H, Zapf D & Cooper CL (Ed.), Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace Theory, Research and Practice CRC Press
- Emotional labor at the unit-level In Grandey A, Diefendorff J & Rupp DE (Ed.), Emotional Labor in the 21st Century: Diverse Perspectives on Emotion Regulation at Work Routledge Academic
- Research Agenda, A Day in the Life of a Happy Worker (pp. 158-177). Psychology Press
- Emotional influence and empathy in prison-based therapeutic communities In Shuker R & Sullivan E (Ed.), Grendon and the Emergence of Forensic Therapeutic Communities (pp. 233-246). Wiley View this article in WRRO
- Affect regulation and well-being in the workplace: An international perspective In Antoniou A-SG (Ed.), Handbook of Managerial Behavior and Occupational Health (pp. 218-228). Edward Elgar Publishing View this article in WRRO
Reports
- Workplace bullying: Causes, consequences, and intervention strategies.
- Workplace moods and emotions: A review of research. CreateSpace. View this article in WRRO
- Research group