Michael D. Baer
Dean's Council Distinguished Professor, Arizona State University W. P. Carey School of Business
Michael D. Baer receives the Early- to Mid-Career Scholarly Achievement Award for a rapidly growing body of scholarship and service that, as his nominators emphasize, "Mike represents the kind of star scholar I hope we want to spotlight: someone who lifts others, advances OB with unwavering standards, and leads with principle and generous citizenship. He has exemplified the OB Division's mission in distinctive, enduring ways that deeply align with what our field aspires to be." His record reflects the highest standards of scientific quality: careful theory, methodological soundness, and a commitment to building knowledge that is robust and cumulative. Rather than chasing novelty, his work clarifies and advances understanding of core OB phenomena in ways other scholars can confidently build on.
Since completing his PhD in 2015, Professor Baer has published a remarkable stream of research, including 23 articles in consensus top-tier OB outlets, that has fundamentally "changed the conversation" in the trust and justice literatures. His research pushes the field toward a more psychologically and organizationally realistic model of trust dynamics, challenging the assumption that feeling trusted is uniformly positive. Instead, he has shown it can be a double-edged sword, simultaneously increasing pride and performance while also creating pressure, workload, and reputation concerns that can elevate burnout. He extended this by demonstrating the misalignment costs of trust desired versus trust received. In the fairness domain, his work has counterintuitively revealed that "talking it out" about supervisor unfairness can actually damage relationships and impede emotional recovery.
Just as important, his rigor extends to the way he approaches the scientific enterprise itself. As Editor-in-Chief of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, he has strengthened the review process, recruiting a diverse and high-caliber team of associate editors, shepherding the journal's adoption of Level 2 Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) guidelines, and increasing submissions by roughly 50%. Beyond his editorial leadership, he is a consummate citizen of the OB Division who "builds the people and social infrastructure that enable our science." He repeatedly volunteers for divisional service, mentoring doctoral students who coauthor a striking share of his top-tier work and guiding them toward top-tier placements. As one nominator observed, "he is the person who shows up, especially when the work is invisible, time-consuming, and designed to serve others instead of his own record."