Alan Witt

Alan Witt is Professor of Management and Psychology at the University of Houston. He holds a Ph.D. degree in industrial/organizational psychology from Tulane University.

He was a human resources director in the financial services sector and has consulted with public sector organizations at the local, state, and federal levels and with private sector organizations ranging from small professional firms and family-owned businesses to multi-national banks, international airlines, and multi-national telecommunications companies.

Professor Witt has authored over 200 journal articles and professional papers. He is currently and has been on the editorial boards of several academic journals (e.g., Personnel Psychology). He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, Association for Psychological Science, and Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychology.

Research Interests

• Strategy-culture alignment
• Customer service
• Social and political skill
• Work performance (e.g., adaptive performance, core task performance, and counterproductive behavior)
• Personality
• Employee selection
• Organizational politics and support
• Work-family interface

Publications

• Colbert, A., & Witt, L. A. (In press). The role of goal-focused leadership in enabling the expression of conscientiousness. Journal of Applied Psychology.
• Witt, L. A., & Spitzmueller, C. (2007). Person-situation predictors of maximum and typical performance. Human Performance, 20, 1-11.
• Witt, L. A., & Carlson, D. (2006). The work-family interface and job performance: Moderating effects of conscientiousness and perceived organizational support. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 11, 343-357.
• Witt, L. A., & Ferris, G. R. (2003). Social skill as moderator of the conscientiousness-performance relationship: Convergent results across four studies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 809-820.
• Witt, L. A., Kacmar, K. M., Carlson, D. S., & Zivnuska, S. (2002). Interactive effects of personality and organizational politics on contextual performance. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 23, 911-926.
• Hochwarter, W. A., Witt, L. A., & Kacmar, M. K. (2000). Perceptions of organizational politics as a moderator of the relationship between conscientiousness and job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85, 472-478.
• Witt, L. A. (2002). The interactive effects of extroversion and conscientiousness on job performance. Journal of Management, 28, 835-851.
• Witt, L. A. Burke, L. A., Barrick, M. R., & Mount, M. K. (2002). The interactive effects of conscientiousness and agreeableness on job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 161-169.
• Mount, M. K., Witt, L. A., & Barrick, M. R. (2000). Incremental validity of empirically keyed biodata scales over GMA and the five factor personality constructs. Personnel
• Witt, L. A. (1998). Enhancing organizational goal congruence: A solution to organizational politics. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83, 666-674.

Working Papers

• Colbert, A., & Witt, L. A. (In press). The role of goal-focused leadership in enabling conscientiousness. Journal of Applied Psychology.