Professor, Department of Psychology
Faculty, Industrial/Organizational Psychology
Director, Interface of Leadership and Teams Lab
Faculty, Industrial/Organizational Psychology
Director, Interface of Leadership and Teams Lab
EMail
Office Hours
Wednesdays 10am to 12noon, and by appointment
Office Address
219 Williams Hall
Office Phone
Research Center/Lab
Short Bio
Dr. Foti received her Ph.D. from The University of Akron. She is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science (APS) and the Society for I-O Psychology (SIOP). She received the SIOP Distinguished Teaching Contributions for 2006 and the Virginia Tech Alumni Association Teaching Award for 2005. In 2018, she received the Outstanding Mentor award for the College of Science.
Dr. Foti's research focuses on leadership perceptions, how leaders emerge in teams, leader – follower relationships, and the measurement of leadership behaviors. Currently, her research is funded by two grants from the Army Research Institute, and one grant from NSF.
Dr. Foti also has a strong interest in improving the effectiveness of interdisciplinary research teams. As part of her a co-principal investigator role on an National Science Foundation IGERT grant, Dr. Foti developed and tested a model to understand the teamwork in interdisciplinary research teams. In addition to the research framework, she collaborated on the development of innovative courses for both graduate students and faculty designed to enhance competencies needed for effective interdisciplinary research teams.
In addition, Dr. Foti continues to be involved in AdvanceVT. The mission of AdvanceVT is to assist Virginia Tech in preparing, recruiting, and retaining high quality and diverse faculty. AdvanceVT began in 2003 with a grant from the National Science Foundation to promote and enhance the careers of women in academic science and engineering through institutional transformation. Grant funding continued until August 2010. A key component of Virginia Tech’s program was a leadership assessment, coaching and development program for senior women faculty, which Dr. Foti developed.
Dr. Foti also works with a variety of organizations to help individuals develop teamwork skills. She conducts workshops on team problem solving, team communication, and team conflict management.
Dr. Foti's research focuses on leadership perceptions, how leaders emerge in teams, leader – follower relationships, and the measurement of leadership behaviors. Currently, her research is funded by two grants from the Army Research Institute, and one grant from NSF.
Dr. Foti also has a strong interest in improving the effectiveness of interdisciplinary research teams. As part of her a co-principal investigator role on an National Science Foundation IGERT grant, Dr. Foti developed and tested a model to understand the teamwork in interdisciplinary research teams. In addition to the research framework, she collaborated on the development of innovative courses for both graduate students and faculty designed to enhance competencies needed for effective interdisciplinary research teams.
In addition, Dr. Foti continues to be involved in AdvanceVT. The mission of AdvanceVT is to assist Virginia Tech in preparing, recruiting, and retaining high quality and diverse faculty. AdvanceVT began in 2003 with a grant from the National Science Foundation to promote and enhance the careers of women in academic science and engineering through institutional transformation. Grant funding continued until August 2010. A key component of Virginia Tech’s program was a leadership assessment, coaching and development program for senior women faculty, which Dr. Foti developed.
Dr. Foti also works with a variety of organizations to help individuals develop teamwork skills. She conducts workshops on team problem solving, team communication, and team conflict management.
Interests
- Process of how leaders emerge in small groups
- Role of followers' perceptions in the leader emergence process
- Congruence of leader and follower perceptions of leadership
- Measurement of implicit leadership and followership theories
- Differences in the way male vs. female leaders emerge
- Improving the measurement of leadership behavior
- Shared leadership in autonomy-human teams
Recent Courses Taught
- 5114 - Survey of Industrial & Organizational Psychology
- 6934 - Advanced Topics:Implicit Leadership Theory
- 4024 - Industrial and Organizational Psychology
- 4364 - Senior Seminar: Leadership
Select Publications
- * indicates student co-author
- Coyle, P.T., Goswami, A., & Foti, R. J. (2023). Using a Role-Based Approach to Develop a Comprehensive Follower Typology. Group and Organization Management, 48, 468-506. https://doi.org/10.1177/10596011231162725
- Coyle, P.T., & Foti, R.J. (2022). Do leaders and followers see eye to eye? Exploring patterns of congruent expectations and self-views in leader-follower relationships. Leadership and Organization Development Journal. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-06-2021-0274
- Coyle, P.T., & Foti, R. J. (2021). How Do Leaders vs. Followers Construct Followership? A Field Study of IFT’s and Work-Related Affect Using Latent Profile Analysis. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/15480518211053529
- Hansbrough, T.K., Lord, R.G., Schyns, B., Foti, R.J., Liden, R.C., & Acton, B.P. (2021). Do you remember? Rater memory systems and leadership measurement. The Leadership Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2020.101455
- *Acton, B.P., Braun, M.T., & Foti, R.J. (2020). Built for unity: assessing the impact of team composition on team cohesion trajectories. Journal of Business and Psychology, 35, 751-766.
- Lord, R.G., Epitropaki, O., Foti, R. J., & Hansbrough, T. K (2020). Implicit Leadership and Followership Theories and Dynamic Processing of Leadership Information. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 7, 49-74.
- Schyns, B, Kiefer, T, & Foti, R.J. (2020). Does thinking of myself as leader make me want to lead? The role of congruence in self-theories and implicit leadership theories in motivation to lead. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 122, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2020.103477
- *Abraham, E. K., *McCusker, M. E., & Foti, R. J. (2019). Competing Conversations: An Examination of Competition as Intra-Team Interactions. Frontiers in Psychology: Organizational Psychology.
- McCusker, M.E., Foti, R. F., *Abraham, E. K. (2019). Leadership research methods: Progressing back to process. In R. Riggio (Ed)., What Wrong with Leadership: Improving Leadership Theory, Research, and Practice. New York, NY: Routledge.
- Acton, B. P., Foti, R. J., Lord, R. G., & *Gladfelter, J. G. (2019). Putting emergence back in leadership emergence: A dynamic, multilevel process-oriented framework. The Leadership Quarterly, 30, 145-164.
- Foti, R. F., & *McCusker, M. E. (2018). Person-Oriented Approaches to Leadership: A Roadmap Forward. In B. Schyns, R. Hall & P. Neves (Eds.), Handbook of Methods in Leadership Research. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.
- Foti, R. J., Hansbrough, T. K., Epitropaki, O., & Coyle, P. T. (2017). Dynamic Viewpoints on Implicit Leadership and Followership Theories: Approaches, Findings, and Future Directions. The Leadership Quarterly, 28, 261-266.
- Coyle, P. T. & Foti, R. J. (2015). If you’re not with me, you’re…? The role of congruence and cooperation in leader-follower relationships. The Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies. 22,161-174
- Bray, B. C., Foti, R. J. *Thompson, N. J., & *Wills, S. F. (2014). Disentangling the effects of self leader perceptions and ideal leader prototypes on leader effectiveness using loglinear modeling with latent variables. Human Performance, 27, 393-415.
- Hayes, H. & Foti, R. J. (2013). The impact of shared leadership on teamwork mental models and performance in self-directed teams. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 16, 46-57.
- Foti, R. J., Bray, B. C., Thompson, N. J., & Allgood, S. J. (2012). Know Thy Self, Know Thy Leader: Contributions of A Pattern-Oriented Approach to Examining Leadership Perceptions. The Leadership Quarterly, 23, 702-717.
- Williams, F., Foti, R.J. (2011). Formally developing creative leadership as a driver of organizational innovation. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 13, 279-296.