Shaul Oreg

Shaul Oreg is a Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Hebrew University Business School. He teaches the core MBA course Organizational Behavior, as well as electives and seminars on the topics of Organizational Change, Leadership, and Personality.

In his research, Oreg considers individual differences in social and organizational contexts, focusing on the effects of traits and values on individuals’ attitudes and behaviors, with a particular interest in people’s responses to organizational change. He is currently an associate editor of Personnel Psychology, and serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Organizational Behavior and Journal of Change Management. Amongst the journals in which his research has been published are the Academy of Management Annals, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and Personnel Psychology.

Prof. Oreg earned his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Cornell University. He holds an M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Ben-Gurion University, and a B.A. in Psychology and Computer Sciences from Tel-Aviv University.

Research summary

Prof. Oreg uses advanced quantitative research methods, employing both field and lab studies, to study the roles of personality and context in determining individuals’ behavior in social and organizational contexts. In one avenue of his research, he investigates the antecedents and outcomes of individuals’ responses to organizational change (for a review, see Oreg, Vakola, & Armenakis, 2011). Beyond a general role of individuals’ personal orientations toward the notion of change, Oreg’s findings point to the effects of change leaders in driving change recipients’ responses (e.g., Oreg & Berson, 2019; van Dam, Oreg, & Schyns, 2008), and in moderating the effects of change recipients’ personalities (e.g., Oreg & Berson, 2014). In other research, he more broadly demonstrates the impact of leaders’ personalities on subordinates’ work-related attitudes; and on organizational attributes and performance (for a review, see Oreg & Berson, 2018).

In another avenue of research, Professor Oreg systematically addresses the interaction of personality and situational attributes, by integrating extant personality taxonomies with newly established taxonomies of psychological situations. He recently developed the Situation Six taxonomy of psychological situations, which provides a parsimonious means of capturing people’s view of their environment (Oreg, Edwards, & Rauthmann, 2020). In a series of lab and field studies, Oreg is now examining how interactions between individuals’ personal values and situation perceptions shape their work-related attitudes and behaviors.

Education

• 1991-1994 Tel-Aviv University B.A. in Psychology and Computer Sciences
• 1994-1997 Ben-Gurion University M.A. in Clinical Psychology
• 1999-2003 Cornell University Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior