Russell Johnson
MSU Foundation Professorship
Russell Johnson's research examines the roles of leadership-based processes that underlie work attitudes and behaviors.
Get in touchBiography
Russell E. Johnson (johnsonr@broad.msu.edu) is an MSU Foundation Professor of management in the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. Previously, he was a member of the faculty at the University of South Florida. He received his Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from the University of Akron in 2006. His research examines the roles of motivation-, justice-, and leadership-based processes that underlie work attitudes and behaviors. He has published over one hundred ... and twenty research articles in numerous peer-reviewed journals, including Academy of Management Annals, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Organizational Research Methods, Organization Science, Personnel Psychology, Psychological Bulletin, and Research in Organizational Behavior, among others. His research has been cited in popular press outlets such as Forbes, The Globe and Mail, Harvard Business Review, NBC's Today, NPR, Psychology Today, TIME, and Wall Street Journal. He is a past associate editor at Academy of Management Review and Journal of Applied Psychology, and serves on several editorial boards. In 2013, Dr. Johnson received the Distinguished Early Career Contributions Award for Science from the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and in 2018 he received the Cummings Scholarly Achievement Award from the Organizational Behavior Division of Academy of Management. Originally from Canada, he still dreams of one day playing in the National Hockey League for his hometown Calgary Flames and living in a two-story igloo with an attached garage for his zamboni and life-size cardboard cutout of Wayne Gretzky.
Read MoreEducation
University of Akron: Ph.D., Industrial and Organizational Psychology | 2006
University of Akron: M.A., Industrial and Organizational Psychology | 2003
University of Calgary: B.A., Psychology | 2001
Selected Press
Your Inbox Runneth Over? How to Reduce Email Mess and Stress
The Wall Street Journal | 2023-02-05
Email is my personal Everest. I spend hours a day fighting my way through useless messages, hoping for the chance to glimpse the more important stuff.
These 5-to-9 habits could be hurting your 9-to-5 productivity
Fast Company | 2022-11-28
“Throughout the workday, people expend high levels of cognitive resources to complete their work,” says Russell E. Johnson, a professor of management at Michigan State University’s Broad College of Business. “These cognitive resources are needed to focus attention, block out distractions, work through problems, and regulate emotions and stress.”
MSU researchers recognized in ‘2022 Highly Cited’ list
MSU Today | 2022-11-18
Eleven Michigan State University researchers have been recognized in the 2022 Highly Cited Researchers List compiled by Clarivate Analytics.
Late-night emails sent by bosses could be killing their team’s productivity
Vogue India | 2022-10-11
The sentiment is seconded by studies that pinpoint an alarming lack of energy and scarcity of productivity the morning after. According to a study by the journal of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, upper-level managers who use their phones for work purposes beyond 9 PM find themselves feeling depleted in the morning, kickstarting a dangerous cycle of lower levels of work engagement during the day and hyperactivity to cram in more work at night. “Smartphones are almost perfectly designed to disrupt sleep. Because they keep us mentally engaged late into the evening, they make it hard to detach from work so we can relax and fall asleep,” says Russell Johnson, assistant professor of management at Michigan State University who has researched the subject.