About

Cliff H. Lee is a Professor of Education at Mills College, located on the Oakland campus. He holds a PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles. His professional role involves academic leadership within the college's education department, contributing to the institution's mission of fostering innovative learning and research in education. Further details about his specific research focus, key contributions, or scholarly work are not provided in the available page text.

Research topics

• Social psychology
• Psychology
• Computer Science
• Cognitive psychology

Selected publications

• Creative Unethicality and Its Ripple Effect: A Perceived Relative Deprivation Perspective

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  While research has examined the factors that drive employees’ unethical behaviors, there is less understanding of how perceived relative deprivation – the feeling of being unjustly deprived of outcomes deserved in comparison to peers – can encourage creative unethicality. Drawing on the personal relative deprivation theory, it is proposed that when employees observe their peers benefiting from engaging in creative yet unethical acts, they are likely to perceive relative deprivation. As a result, they are more inclined to participate in creative unethicality themselves as a means to psychologically restore equity. This tendency is heightened in highly competitive team environments. Utilizing a multi-wave study design, data were gathered from 515 full-time employees and their 110 supervisors across a variety of industries in China. The findings corroborated the hypotheses. Theoretical contributions include the clarification of perceived relative deprivation, which is separate from moral disengagement, as an alternate pathway that leads to creative unethical conduct when employees compare themselves to misbehaving peers. On the practical side, implications involve the monitoring of team competitiveness climates that intensify relative deprivation spirals and the implementation of strategies to curb the proliferation of creative unethicality within organizations.

  PublisherDOI

• Job Insecurity: Coping, Conceptualization, and Dynamic Processes

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

  article

  Given rapid technological advances, economic uncertainty, and volatile job markets, workers today are increasingly facing job insecurity. As a prominent work stressor, job insecurity has been found to have detrimental effects on employee job attitudes, well-being, and health. While these consequences are widely acknowledged, less is known about what actions employees can take to cope with job insecurity (reactive coping), how employees may proactively reduce their vulnerability to it (proactive coping), and whether job insecurity tends to diminish or escalate over time. The first two papers focus on reactive coping by examining the relationship between job insecurity and coping responses, namely falsifying work hours within the organization and searching for new jobs. They also explore the mediating mechanisms and boundary conditions. Shifting the focus from reactive to proactive approaches, the third paper investigates how job insecurity evolves over time and how proactive coping shapes this process. Extending the previous unidimensional conceptualization, the fourth paper distinguishes between qualitative and quantitative job insecurity. It examines why and when qualitative job insecurity may escalate into quantitative job insecurity. The four papers included in this symposium draw upon various theoretical perspectives (i.e., conservation of resources, self-regulation, and adaptation theories), employ rigorous research designs (i.e., meta-analytic, time-lagged, and longitudinal designs), and use diverse samples (samples from Australia, China, the US, and New Zealand). We hope this symposium can enrich the understanding of how employees cope with job insecurity as well as the conceptual frameworks and dynamic processes surrounding job insecurity, paving the way for future research on this topic. Job Insecurity, Covert Competition, and Falsifying Work Hours: The Role of Zhongyong Beliefs Author: Xizhi Liu; The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen Author: Xiaomin Xu; The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen Author: Mengyuan Wang; Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University Job Insecurity: How A Boundaryless Mindset Shapes Its Influence on Territoriality and Job Search Author: Xingwen Chen; Fudan University Author: Cynthia Lee; Northeastern University Author: Guohua (Emily) Huang; Hong Kong Baptist University Understanding Job Insecurity Over Time: The Role of Future-Oriented Planning Author: Yan Tu; Central China Normal University Author: Lixin Jiang; The University of Auckland When it Rains, it Pours: From Qualitative Job Insecurity to Quantitative Job Insecurity Author: Lixin Jiang; The University of Auckland Author: Xiaowen Hu; Queensland University of Technology Author: Maike Debus; University of Neuchâtel Author: Sergio López Bohle; Author: Laura Petitta; Sapienza University of Rome Author: Lara Christina Roll; PricewaterhouseCoopers Belgium BV/SRL Author: Marius Stander; North-West University Author: Hai-Jiang Wang; Huazhong University of Science and Technology

  PublisherDOI

• Police Officer Use of Force and Officer-created Jeopardy After Barnes V. Felix: The Supreme Court's Important (Albeit Incomplete) Step in the Right Direction

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Creative Unethicality and Its Ripple Effect in Competitive Settings: A Perceived Relative Deprivation Perspective

  Journal of Business Ethics · 2025-09-10 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Honoring Angela Harris: A Review of "Gender, Violence, Race, and Criminal Justice"

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  reviewOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Teaching the First-Year, Hands-On Engineering Design Experience Online

  2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings · 2024-02-20 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract During the summer of 2020, a team of faculty re-imagined the School of Engineering's first-year design course to create consistency between individual sections, to create space for first-year students attending online classes to form friendships, to explicitly teach design thinking and problem solving in a virtual environment, and to integrate ethics into the project-based course. This fall-term course enrolled the entire first-year class of approximately 140 chemical, civil, electrical, mechanical, and general engineering students. Interdisciplinary teams worked on projects in the general theme of "Engineering for Social Good." Project topics included: designing smarter and more resilient cities, developing therapeutic devices, designing shelter for refugees in flight, and making fuel from food waste. The faculty designed and led their own section's projects while having a set of common activities and deliverables with similar timelines and baseline rubrics. To build community among the students, every project team had a maximum of eight students mentored by an undergraduate teaching assistant. Each class dealt with the limits of the pandemic in different ways; for instance, some courses developed "@Home" kits, some courses provided limited access to campus spaces, and some courses had all virtual projects. The faculty met weekly to assess course progress. Additionally, a survey was developed to assess how well students communicated, formed bonds, and enjoyed the course across different sections and approaches to handling a project-based course in the era of COVID.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Firearms and the Homeowner: Defending the Castle, the Curtilage, and Beyond

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Reflecting on Failures: The Dual Impact of Disclosing Failures During Transition Across Teams

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2024-07-09

  articleSenior author

  This study explores the complex nature of failures within organizations, especially in project teams where individuals act as knowledge conduits. Despite the acknowledged importance of failure for organizational learning, a reluctance to share past failures due to social self-image remains prevalent. Grounded in self-disclosure theory, the research examines how disclosing past failures in new teams has dual effects on individuals’ perceived evaluation, peer acceptance, and performances. The study also develops a nuanced analysis of different disclosure approaches. Our empirical investigation, conducted through a survey of 364 employees in a dynamic organizational setting characterized by frequent inter-team transitions, sheds light on the dual nature of peer responses to failure disclosures. Findings reveal that such disclosures elicit both positive recognition and negative stigma from peers. The research also identifies the distinct moderating effects of descriptive and evaluative sharing on the benefits and costs of these disclosures. This investigation reveals the complexities of disclosing past failures, underscoring the balance between the benefits and drawbacks of such revelations, and deepening the understanding of failure disclosure dynamics within team-based organizational settings.

  PublisherDOI

• Zoom and Beyond: New Frontiers and Evidence on Virtual Communication and Multicultural Teams

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2024-07-09

  articleSenior author

  This symposium examines the dynamic landscape of multicultural virtual teams in the post-COVID-19 era, advocating for a re-examination of research on virtual communication in multicultural teams. Established findings, rooted in the contrast between text-based and face-to-face communication, may not generalize to the new normal in which digital communication tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams Slack, or Basecamp offer media-rich communication channels that make nonverbal behaviors and cultural differences in these behaviors much more salient. Accordingly, the key question that guides this symposium is: How can multicultural virtual teams thrive in a world where technological advances enable rich verbal and nonverbal communication among team members? To answer this question, we bring together four evidence-based papers that explore new frontiers in virtual communication and multicultural teams. Two of the papers explore a new cultural dimension of high/low-context communication and associated nonverbal behaviors in the context of virtual teams and two papers examine team processes and outcomes in global virtual teams. Collectively, the papers provide timely insights into various aspects of nonverbal communication, as well as the social, cultural, cognitive, and metacognitive skills required in media-rich digital and culturally diverse environments. In doing so, this symposium offers a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by virtual teams, aiming to pave the way for improved teamwork in the future. Non-verbal Communication and Virtuality, Relational Processes, and Team Performance Author: Valerie Alexandra; San Diego State U. Author: Nancy Buchan; Darla Moore School of Business, U. of South Carolina Author: Wendi Lyn Adair; U. of Waterloo Author: Ruonan ZHAO; Xi'an Jiaotong U. Author: Ye Zhang; Tesla ‘Silent language’ in intercultural communication Author: Thomas Rockstuhl; Nanyang Technological U. Author: Kok Yee Ng; Nanyang Technological U. Author: Soon Ang; Nanyang Technological U. Expected vs Observed Challenges of Communication in GVTs: Effects on Interactions and Performance Author: Thomas Rockstuhl; Nanyang Technological U. Joint Effects of Cultural and Virtual Skills on Task Coordination in Virtual Multicultural Teams Author: Ella Glikson; Graduate School of Business Administration Bar Ilan U. Author: Shelly Lev-Koren; Technion - Israel Institute of Technology Author: Miriam Erez; Technion - Israel Institute of Technology How Global Virtual Teams Cultivate Intercultural Communication Competence? A Constructivist Approach Author: Fernando Trochez; Georgia State U. Author: Leigh Anne Liu; Georgia State U.

  PublisherDOI

• Is leader proactivity enough: Importance of leader competency in shaping team role breadth efficacy and proactive performance

  Journal of Vocational Behavior · 2023-03-23 · 14 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Jiing‐Lih Farh

  China Europe International Business School

  27 shared

• Susan J. Ashford

  Michigan United

  24 shared

• Guohua Huang

  Hong Kong Baptist University

  24 shared

• Chun Hui

  HKU-Pasteur Research Pole

  23 shared

• Angela P. Harris

  17 shared

• Jerome McCristal Culp

  University of California, San Diego

  16 shared

• Adrienne D. Davis

  16 shared

• Ibrahim J. Gassama

  University of California, San Diego

  16 shared

Education

• Ph.D.

  University of California, Los Angeles