Work and Career Decisions Lab

The Work and Career Decisions Lab is a team of researchers investigating topics in the domains of human resource management, organizational behavior, and industrial-organizational psychology. Our overall mission is to better understand the key decisions that people make in pursuit of work and career goals, with the ultimate objective of improving work performance, work commitment, and career success. We conduct empirical research on a variety of workplace and career topics.

Recent and current topics of study include:

The causes of frequent job change (job-hopping)
How managers make important workplace decisions, such as hiring new employees
How differences in decision-making styles influence workplace behaviors
How career orientations affect work and career commitment and success
Investigating and improving scales used to measure workplace attitudes and cognitions

The lab team is led by Christopher Lake, Assistant Professor of Management at the University of Alaska.
Graduate and undergraduate researchers play an important role in the lab by leading projects, assisting with study design, and conducting statistical analyses.

Want to learn more about the work and career decisions that you make?

Complete our interactive survey to determine if you are you a career maximizer.

Change jobs frequently? Complete our interactive survey to determine your job-hopping motives.

Researchers and practitioners can download and use these surveys free of charge.