James Beck

Associate Professor
Head shot of James Beck

BS (Michigan State University), MA (University of Akron), PhD (University of Minnesota)

Contact information

Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

I may be accepting new graduate students for Fall 2026. 

Research interests

My research examines how people allocate limited resources—such as time, energy, and attention—when they face competing demands at work.

One line of my research focuses on trade-offs between speed and accuracy. Employees often face pressure to work quickly while also following procedures designed to ensure quality and safety. I study the psychological processes that shape these moment-to-moment decisions, examining how perceptions of progress, deadlines, and workload influence whether people prioritize speed, follow procedures carefully, or make mistakes when they feel they are falling behind.

A second line of my research examines managerial feedback and performance management. Providing high-quality feedback to employees takes time and effort, yet managers must divide their attention among multiple subordinates while also managing competing responsibilities. My work investigates how managers decide when, how, and for whom to invest effort in feedback, as well as why some employees receive more developmental attention than others.

More broadly, my work examines how people set, revise, and pursue goals over time. I study how perceptions of progress and confidence influence how people regulate their effort and adjust their priorities. The need to allocate limited resources across competing demands is a common feature of work, and understanding these processes is relevant to a broad range of organizational issues. Ultimately, my research provides insights into how organizations can design systems that improve performance, learning, and safety.

Selected publications

Student co-authors are underlined.

  • Law, D., Nishioka, M., Brown, D. J., & Beck, J. W. (in press). Clarifying perceived task help receipt in the workplace: Construct definition and scale development. Applied Psychology: An International Review.
  • Nishioka, M., Bobocel, D. R., & Beck, J. W. (in press). Making sense of claims of unfairness: Third-party overall fairness perceptions negatively affect claim veracity. Journal of Business and Psychology.
  • Beck, J. W. & Dahling, J. J. (2026). Delivering high-quality feedback is a choice: A self-regulatory framework for understanding feedback provision in organizations. Human Resource Management Review, 36, 101117.
  • Gödöllei, A. F., Beck, J. W., Cowan, R., Cruickshank, J., & Malikiak, L. (2025). More than how you start or finish: Performance trajectories predict interns’ post-graduation vocational outcomes. Education + Training, 67, 581-594.
  • Beck, J. W., Scholer, A. A., Hughes, J., & Phan, V. (2025). Reconsidering the trade-off between speed and accuracy: The role of goal progress velocity. Journal of Business and Psychology, 40, 925-939. 
  • Beck, J. W., Nishioka, M., Scholer, A. A., & Beus, J. M. (2024). Moderation in all things, except when it comes to workplace safety: Accidents are most likely to occur under moderately hazardous work conditions. Personnel Psychology, 77, 963-995.
  • White, N. C., Minnikin, A. F., Malo, O. R., & Beck, J. W. (2024). Research productivity norms among Canadian I-O psychology scholars. Canadian Psychology / Psychologie Canadienne, 65, 28-33.
  • Phan, V., Nishioka, M., Beck, J. W., & Scholer, A. A. (2023). Goal progress velocity as a determinant of shortcut behaviors. Journal of Applied Psychology, 108, 553-570.
  • Phan, V. & Beck, J. W. (2023).Why do people (not) take breaks? An investigation of individuals’ reasons for taking and for not taking breaks at work. Journal of Business and Psychology, 38, 259-282.
  • Gödöllei, A. F. & Beck, J. W. (2023). Insecure or optimistic? Employees’ diverging appraisals of automation, and consequences for job attitudes. Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 12, 100342.
  • Minnikin, A., Beck, J. W., & Shen, W. (2022). Why do you ask? The effects of perceived motives on the effort that managers allocate toward delivering feedback. Journal of Business and Psychology, 37, 813-830
  • Beck, J. W., & Flow, A. (2022). The effects of contracting Covid-19 on cognitive failures at work: Implications for task performance and turnover intentions. Scientific Reports, 12, 8826. 
  • Gödöllei, A. F. & Beck, J. W. (2020). Development and validation of the State Regulatory Focus Scale. Human Performance, 33, 104-129. 
  • Phan, V. & Beck, J. W. (2020). The impact of goal progress velocity on affect while pursuing multiple sequential goals. Motivation Science, 6, 247-258. 
  • Beck, J. W., & Gödöllei, A. F. (2020). A dynamic perspective on workplace motivation. In Y. Griep & S. D. Hansen (Eds.), Handbook on the Temporal Dynamics of Organizational Behavior (pp. 237-250). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
  • Beck, J. W., Schmidt, A. M., & Natali, M. W. (2019). Efficient proximal resource allocation strategies predict distal team performance: Evidence from the National Hockey League. Journal of Applied Psychology, 104, 1387-1403.  
  • Beck, J. W., & Shen, W. (2019). The effects of U.S. presidential elections on work engagement and job performance. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 68, 547-576. 
  • Beck, J. W., & Schmidt, A. M. (2018). Negative relationships between self-efficacy and performance can be adaptive: The mediating role of resource allocation. Journal of Management, 44, 555-588. 
  • Beck, J. W., Scholer, A. A., & Hughes, J. (2017). Divergent effects of distance versus velocity disturbances on emotional experiences during goal pursuit. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102, 1109-1123. 
  • Beck, J. W., Scholer, A. A., & Schmidt, A. M. (2017). Workload, risks, and goal framing as antecedents of shortcut behaviors. Journal of Business and Psychology, 32, 421-440. 
  • Beck, J. W., Beatty, A. S., & Sackett, P. R. (2014). On the distribution of job performance: The role of measurement characteristics in observed departures from normality. Personnel Psychology, 67, 531-566. 
  • Beck, J. W., & Schmidt, A. M. (2013). State-level goal orientations as mediators of the relationship between time pressure and performance: A longitudinal study. Journal of Applied Psychology, 98, 354-363. 
  • Beck, J. W., & Schmidt, A. M. (2012). Taken out of context? Cross-level effects of between-person self-efficacy and difficulty on the within-person relationship of self-efficacy with resource allocation and performance. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 119, 195-208. 
  • Beck, J. W., Carr, A. E., & Walmsley, P. T. (2012). What have you done for me lately? Charisma attenuates the decline in U.S. presidential approval over time. Leadership Quarterly, 23, 934-942.