Biography

Dr. Caitlin Porter is an Associate Professor of Management in the Fogelman College of Business & Economics at The University of Memphis. She earned her Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Purdue University. Prior to joining UofM, she was an Assistant Professor of Industrial and Organizational Psychology at the University of Houston. 

Teaching

Dr. Porter teaches Human Resource Management at both the undergraduate and doctoral levels:

• MGMT 3215: Intro to Human Resource Management
• MGMT 4401: Human Resource Analytics
• MGMT 8220: Research in Human Resource Management

Service & Outreach

Dr. Porter currently serves as an Associate Editor for Human Resource Management and on the editorial boards of Personnel Psychology, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Human Resource Management Review, and Journal of Vocational Behavior. She is a Representative-at-Large for the Careers Division of the Academy of Management (2022-2025).

Dr. Porter is a Society for Human Resource Management, Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) and regularly works with HR leaders and organizational psychologists to conduct research investigating employee mobility, retention, and career success. She has worked with healthcare organizations, including Texas Children’s Hospital and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center as well as major corporations, such as FedEx Express. 

Research

Dr. Porter’s program of research investigates how people navigate their careers within and across employing organizations and the role of personal and professional relationships in this process. As such, her research addresses the topics of work relationships, most often professional and social networks, employee withdrawal and turnover and career mobility and success. This work has been published in quality outlets such as Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Journal of Management and Journal of Organizational Behavior.

Dr. Porter discusses recent research on Turnover Contagion:

Representative Publications

Porter, C. M., Woo, S. E., Alonso, N. A., & Snyder, G. P. (2023). Why do people network? Professional networking motives and their implications for networking behavior and career success. Journal of Vocational Behavior.

Porter, C. M., Hancock, J., Allen, D. G., & Snyder, G. P. (2023). The Multiple Roles of Network Ties in the Employee Job Search Process. Human Resource Management. 

Porter, C. M., & Rigby, J. R. (2021). The turnover contagion process: An integrative review of theoretical and empirical research. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 42, 212-228. 

***Tied for 1st place for FCBE’s Outstanding Conceptual Publication Award, 2022

Woehler, M.†, Cullen-Lester, K. L.†, Porter, C. M.†, & Frear, K. (2021). Whether, how, and why networks influence men's and women's career success: Review and research agenda. Journal of Management, 47, 207-236. 

Porter, C. M., Posthuma, R., Maertz, C. P., Jr., Joplin, J., Rigby, J. R., Gordon, M., & Graves, K. (2019). On-the-Job and Off-the-Job Embeddedness Differentially Influence Relationships between Informal Job Search and Turnover. Journal of Applied Psychology, 104, 678-689. doi: 10.1037/apl0000375

Porter, C. M., Woo, S. E., Allen, D. G., & Keith, M. G. (2019). How do instrumental and expressive network positions relate to turnover?: A meta-analytic investigation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 104, 511-536. doi: 10.1037/apl0000351

Porter, C. M., Woo, S. E., & Campion, M. A. (2016). Internal and external networking differentially predict turnover through job embeddedness and job offers. Personnel Psychology, 69, 635-672. DOI: 10.111/peps.12121

***Finalist for Personnel Psychology’s 2016 Best Article Award, 2018

Porter, C. M., & Woo, S. E. (2015). Untangling the networking phenomenon: A dynamic psychological perspective on how and why people network. Journal of Management, 41(5), 1477-1500.