Affiliation: Rutgers University
Email: cong.a.liu@rutgers.edu

Biography

Dr. Cong Liu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Psychology at Rutgers University. She earned her Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of South Florida. Dr. Liu serves as an Associate Editor for Applied Psychology and previously held the same role at the International Journal of Stress Management.

Her research is centered on occupational health psychology, with a focus on improving employee health and well-being in the workplace. She investigates workplace relationships, challenge and hindrance job stressors, and the cultural values that shape employee behavior. A key area of her ongoing research is workplace mistreatment, including issues such as workplace ostracism, interpersonal conflict, and abusive supervision. Her current NSF-funded research examines employees’ emotional and physiological responses to workplace mistreatment and their subsequent coping behaviors. Dr. Liu’s work has been published in top-tier journals, including the Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Journal of Organizational Behavior, and Journal of Vocational Behavior. Additionally, she is the chief editor of the book Workplace Ostracism: Its Nature, Antecedents, and Consequences, published by Springer.

Article

Liu, C., Xu, S., Zhang, B., Siu, O., & Fan, J. (2024). Why and when employees ostracize their leaders: The effect of leader political act and integrity trustworthiness of the leader. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 33(6), 727-743. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2024.2409469

Liu, C., Peng, Y., Xu, S., & Azeem, M. U. (2024). Proactive employees perceive coworker ostracism: The moderating effect of team envy and the behavioral outcome of production deviance. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000389

Al-Atwi, A.A., Cogswell, J. E., & Liu C. (2024). “I am sorry, but I did not intend to hurt you”: A moderated-mediation model of group non-purposeful ostracism. Journal of Business and Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-024-09956-5

Azeem, M. U., Haq, I. U., Clercq, D. D. & Liu, C. (2024). Why and when do employees feel guilty when observing supervisor ostracism? The critical roles of observers’ silence behavior and Leader-Member exchange quality. Journal of Business Ethics,194(2), 317-334. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-023-05610-x

Gu, X., Liu, C., Ma, J., & Du, C. (2024). Supervisor ostracism and employees’ emotional labor: The moderating effect of interpersonal harmony. Journal of Business and Psychology, 39, 445-470. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-023-09891-x

Liu, C., Li, L., Li, H., Bruk-Lee, V., Ma, J., & Liu, Y. (2023). Supervisor–employee task conflict and supervisor ostracism: The moderating effect of interpersonal harmony values. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 72(3), 971-997. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12416

Williams, M. S. & Liu, C. (2023). Who am I and where do I belong? The impact of heritage cultural identity salience on immigrant workers acculturation strategies. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 24(2), 793-815. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-022-00978-7

Peng, Y., Liu, C., Su, S., & Rosenblatt, A. (2023). The hidden performance costs of professional isolation? A latent change score model of professional isolation during the early stage of COVID-19 pandemic. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 72(3), 1075-1096. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12420

Liu, C., Li, H., & Li, L. (2022). Examining the curvilinear relationship of job performance, supervisor ostracism, and turnover intentions. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 138, 1-14.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2022.103787  

Williams, M. S., & Liu, C. (2022). Workplace ostracism among immigrant workers: The moderating effect of cultural identity salience and interpersonal harmony value. International Journal of Stress Management, 29(3), 260 – 270. https://doi.org/10.1037/str0000256

Liu, C., Peng, Y., & *Rubenstein, K. (2022). Challenge job demands, time-based work–family conflict, and family well-being outcomes: The moderating effect of conscientiousness. International Journal of Stress Management, 29(2), 182–192. https://doi.org/10.1037/str0000242

Bao, H., Liu, C., Ma, J., Feng, J., & He, H. (2022). When job resources function as a stress buffer: A resource allocation perspective of the job demands-resources model. Personality and Individual Differences, 192, 111591, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2022.111591

Ma, J., Liu, C., Bao, H., & Gu, X. (2022). How to ward off the threat of workplace ostracism? The merit of self-compassion. Personality & Individual Differences, 187, 111396, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111396

Ma, J., Liu, C., Peng, Y., & Xu, X. (2021). How do employees appraise challenge and hindrance stressors? Uncovering the double-edged effect of conscientiousness. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 26(3), 243-257. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000275

Ma, J. & Liu, C. (2019). The moderating effect of emotional intelligence on the relationship between supervisor conflict and employees’ counterproductive work behaviors. International Journal of Conflict Management, 30(2), 227-245. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCMA-11-2017-0140

Liu, C. (2019). Ostracism, attributions, and their relationships with international students’ and employees’ outcomes: The moderating effect of perceived harming intent. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 24(5), 556-571. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000130

Hou, N., Fan, J., Tan, J., Stuhlman, M., Liu, C., & Valdez, G. (2019). Understanding ostracism from attachment perspective: Testing a moderated mediation model. Journal of International Students, 9(3), 856-872. https://doi.org/10.32674/jis.v0i0.706

Liu, C., Nauta, M. M., Yang, L.-Q. & Spector, P. E. (2018). How do coworkers ‘make the place’? Examining coworker conflict and the value of harmony in China and the United States. Applied Psychology, 67(1), 30-60. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12119

Liu, C., & Li, H. (2018). Stressors and stressor appraisals: The moderating effect of task efficacy. Journal of Business and Psychology, 33, 141-154. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-016-9483-4

Pyc, L. S., *Meltzer, D. P., & Liu, C. (2017). Ineffective leadership and employees’ negative outcomes: The mediating effect of anxiety and depression. International Journal of Stress Management, 24(2), 196-215. https://doi.org/10.1037/str0000030

Yang, L., Liu, C., Nauta, M.M., Caughlin, D.E., & Spector, P.E. (2016). Be mindful of what you impose on your colleagues: Implications of social burden for burdenees’ well-being, attitudes, and counterproductive work behavior. Stress and Health, 32, 70-83. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.2581

Liu, C., Li, C., Fan, J., & Nauta, M. M. (2015). Workplace conflict and absence/lateness: The moderating effect of core self-evaluation in China and the United States. International Journal of Stress Management, 22, 243-269. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0039163