Rui Zhong

Color portrait of Rui Zhong

Assistant Professor

Department Management and Organization
Office Address 438 Business Building
Email Address rui.zhong@psu.edu

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Dr. Rui Zhong is an Assistant Professor in Organizational Behavior at the Smeal College of Business. He obtained his Ph.D. from University of British Columbia.

Expertise

Dr. Rui Zhong studies the so-called “dark side” of workplace life: gossip, deviance, mistreatment, and psychological challenges such as homesickness and death awareness. Adopting a paradoxical lens, Dr. Zhong's research examines not only how these phenomena can be harmful and how employees can cope with them but also how they may generate constructive outcomes, revealing an often-overlooked “bright side.” Dr. Zhong's work seeks to equip employees and managers with insights to more effectively navigate these less desirable yet inevitable parts of organizational life and, where possible, leverage them as opportunities for growth and resilience.

Dr. Zhong uses a variety of methods, such as experience samplings, meta-analyses, experiments, and narrative reviews. His research has been published in a number of top-tier management journals, including Journal of Applied Psychology, Academy of Management Annals, Personnel Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Journal of Management.

Education

Ph.D., Organizational Behavior, University of British Columbia, 2023

BMgt, Construction Management, Tianjin University, 2017

Courses Taught

MGMT 326 – Org Beh and Design (3)
Concepts, theories, and methods of managing people and designing organizations. MGMT 326 Organizational Behavior and Design (3) This introductory course covers the concepts, theories, and methods of managing people and designing organizations. Issues and challenges of managing at different organizational levels (individual, group, project, and total organization) are discussed and illustrated with real-world examples. Students learn about the latest means of designing high-performing organizations, including how to change an organization. This course will serve as a foundation for taking advanced management courses. The primary method of evaluation is an examination after each of the four major parts of the course, but class participation and short papers may also be used for evaluation.

Selected Publications

Zhong R., Lee S. H., Chen J., Wilson K. S., Deng Y., "Spilling the tea at home: The effects of sharing negative work gossip with one's partner." Personnel Psychology, 2026
Zhong R., Yao J., Wang Y., "Filling the secrecy vacuum: Examining employees’ responses to perceived supervisor secrecy." Personnel Psychology, vol. 78, no. 4, 2025, pp. 594 - 623
Zhong R., Yu L., Zhu J., Zhu L., "Combat poison with “poison”: Leader-targeted negative team gossip mitigates the detrimental team consequences of abusive supervision climate." Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 110, no. 9, 2025, pp. 1174–1197
Zhong R., Lee S., Deng Y., "Not all workplace gossip is equal: A moral-emotions perspective on how gossip type shapes recipients’ reactions to gossipers." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, vol. 190, 2025, pp. 104440
Zhong R., Yao J., Wang Y., Lyubykh Z., Robinson S., "Workplace aggression and employee performance: A meta-analytic investigation of mediating mechanisms and cultural contingencies." Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 110, no. 4, 2025, pp. 536–574
Lyubykh Z., Zhong R., Vuong T., Robinson S., Hershcovis S., "Understanding the impact of witnessed workplace mistreatment: A meta-analysis of observer deontic reactions and employee outcomes." Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 110, no. 3, 2025, pp. 381–403
Zhong R., Tang P., Lee S., "The gossiper’s high and low: Investigating the impact of negative gossip about the supervisor on work engagement." Personnel Psychology, vol. 77, 2024, pp. 621–649
Zhong R., Lian H., Hershcovis S., Robinson S., "Mitigating or magnifying the harmful influence of workplace aggression: An integrative review." Academy of Management Annals, vol. 17, 2023, pp. 516–545
Zhong R., Robinson S., "What happens to bad actors in organizations? A review of actor-centric outcomes of negative behavior." Journal of Management, vol. 47, no. 6, 2021, pp. 1430-1467
Zhong R., Paluch R., Shum V., Zatzick C., Robinson, S., "Hot, cold, or both? A person-centered perspective on death awareness during the COVID-19 pandemic." Journal of Applied Psychology., vol. 106, no. 6, 2021, pp. 839-855

Editorships

Management and Organization Review, Editorial Board, January 2026 - Present
Journal of Organizational Behavior, Editorial Board, January 2025 - Present
Personnel Psychology, Editorial Board, January 2025 - Present

Honors and Awards