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Prof. Dr. Marcel Kern

Former head of work unit


  • Positive and negative consequences of work stressors
  • Social stressors and resources, team processes and conflicts
  • Service work, emotion work demands, and emotion regulation in customer interactions
  • Organizational change, change management, and work-related use of information and communication technologies

Sincce Dec. 2025:

Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology at the University of Göttingen

2022 – 2025

Assistant Professor for Applied Psychology in Work and Health

2019 – 2022

Post-Doc at Goethe University Frankfurt

2014 – 2019

PhD in Psychology at Goethe University Frankfurt

2008 – 2014

Bachelor and master studies in psychology

Publications in peer-review journals

2025

  • Baethge, A., Kern, M., & Vahle-Hinz, T. (2025). Working longer and more intensively to get the work done: The unintended effect of self-endangerment on quantitative stressors. Work & Stress. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2025.2551492
  • Schneider, J., Kern, M., & Lorenz, T. (2025). Unifying work values: Establishing a circular framework based on basic human values. Frontiers in Psychology, 16, 1526799. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1526799
  • Semmer, N. K., Kern, M., Mühlethaler, C. M., Jacobshagen, N., Kälin, W., Meier, L. L., & Elfering, A. (2025). Undermining the experience of task-related success by illegitimate tasks: A three-wave study. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 74(6), e70041. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.70041
  • Winkler, A. D., Pihan, N., Zapf, D., & Kern, M. (2025). Serving with masks: A comparative analysis of flight attendants’ emotional labor between normal and COVID-19 times. Service Business, 19, 15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11628-025-00585-3

2024

  • Heissler, C., Ohly, S., & Kern, M. (2024). “Dear manager, now I know what you expect”: Examining availability ambiguity in two studies. German Journal of Human Resource Management, 38(3), 259–282. https://doi.org/10.1177/23970022231196440
  • Kern, M., Ohly, S., Ďuranová, L., & Friedrichs, J. (2024). Drowning in emails: Investigating email classes and work stressors as antecedents of high email load and implications for well-being. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1439070. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1439070
  • Rigotti, T., Schilbach, M., & Kern, M. (2024). Sometimes here, sometimes there - Differential effects of social challenge and hindrance stressors depending on the work location. Frontiers in Organizational Psychology, 2. https://doi.org/10.3389/forgp.2024.1307311
  • Trumpold, K., Zapf, D., & Kern, M. (2024). A reverse perspective on emotion work and well-being: Connecting chronic burnout to emotion regulation from an antecedent perspective. International Journal of Stress Management. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/str0000336
  • Winkler, A.* D., Zapf, D., & Kern, M.* (2024). Effects of emotion-rule dissonance on emotional exhaustion and physiological health: A two-wave study. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 73(2), 540–564. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12489
    * These authors contributed equally.

2023

  • Fila, M. J., Semmer, N. K., & Kern, M. (2023). When being intrinsically motivated makes you vulnerable: Illegitimate tasks, and their associations with strain, work satisfaction, and turnover intention. Occupational Health Science, 7(2), 189-217. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41542-022-00140-w
  • Kern, M., Semmer, N. K., & Baethge, A. (2023). Energized or Distressed by Time Pressure? The Role of Time Pressure Illegitimacy. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 32(4), 575–598. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2023.2198708

2022   

  • Heissler, C., Kern, M., & Ohly, S, (2022). When thinking about work makes employees reach for their devices: A cross-lagged panel diary study. Journal of Business and Psychology, 37(5), 999–1016. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-021-09781-0

2021

  • Kern, M., Heissler, C., & Zapf, D. (2021). Social job stressors can foster employee well-being: Introducing the concept of social challenge stressors. Journal of Business and Psychology, 36(5), 771–792. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-020-09702-7
  • Kern, M., Trumpold, K., & Zapf, D. (2021). Emotion work as a source of employee well- and ill-being: The moderating role of service interaction type. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 30(6), 850–871. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2021.1873771
  • Kern, M., & Zapf, D. (2021). Ready for change? A longitudinal examination of challenge stressors in the context of organizational change. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 26(3), 204-223. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000214
  • Trumpold, K., Kern, M., & Zapf, D. (2021). Emotion regulation and service-related attitudes: Connecting customer orientation and service organization identification with customer interactions. Journal of Service Management Research, 5(4), 270–284. https://doi.org/10.15358/2511-8676-2021-4-270
  • Zapf, D., Kern, M., Tschan, F., Holman, D., & Semmer, N. K. (2021). Emotion work: A work psychology perspective. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 8, 139–172. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-012420-062451

2020

  • Kaluza, A. J., Schuh, S. C., Kern, M., Xin, K., & van Dick, R. (2020). How do leaders' perceptions of organizational health climate shape employee exhaustion and engagement? Toward a cascading-effects model. Human Resource Management, 59(4), 359–377. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.22000

2019

  • Irmer, J. P., Kern, M., Schermelleh-Engel, K., Semmer, N. K., & Zapf, D. (2019). The Instrument for Stress Oriented Task Analysis ISTA: A meta-analysis. Zeitschrift für Arbeits- und Organisationspsychologie, 63(4), 217–237. https://doi.org/10.1026/0932-4089/a000312
  • Kern, M., Buia, A., Tonus, C., Weigel, T. F., Dittmar, R., Hanisch, E., & Zapf, D. (2019). Psychische Belastungen, Ressourcen und Wohlbefinden von Chirurginnen und Chirurgen in Deutschland - Eine Querschnittsstudie. Der Chirurg, 90(7), 576–584. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00104-018-0780-5

2018

  • Kaluza, A. J., Schuh, S. C., Kern, M., Xin, K., & van Dick, R. (2018). The importance of organizational health climate for employee health: A multilevel cascading model. Academy of Management Proceedings, 1, 11709. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2018.157

2017

  • Johnson, S. J., Machowski, S., Holdsworth, L., Kern, M., & Zapf, D. (2017). Age, emotion regulation strategies, burnout, and engagement in the service sector: Advantages of older workers. Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 33(3), 205–216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rpto.2017.09.001

2016

  • Lang, J., Kern, M., & Zapf, D. (2016). Retaining high achievers in times of demographic change. The effects of proactivity, career satisfaction and job embeddedness on voluntary turnover. Psychology, 7, 1545–1561. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2016.713150


Book chapters

  • Kern, M. (2025). Psychische Belastungen und Beanspruchungen im Kontext von New Work und Implikationen für die Arbeitsgestaltung der Zukunft. [Stressors and strain in the context of new work and implications for future job design]. In I. Knappertsbusch & L. von Gilsa (Hrsg.). New Work und Arbeitsschutz: Sicherheit und Gesundheit in der neuen Arbeitswelt (S. 109–117). Springer Gabler. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-45837-9_14
  • Zapf, D., Kern, M., Tschan, F., Holman, D., & Semmer, N. K. (2024). Emotion work in organizations. In M. C. W. Peeters, J. De Jonge, T. W. Taris (Eds.). An introduction to contemporary work psychology (2nd ed., S. 170–189). Wiley.
  • Zapf, D., Kern, M., Trumpold, K. & von Gilsa, L. (2019). Psychischer Stress am Arbeitsplatz und Gesundheit. In T. Porsch & B. Werdes (Hrsg.). Verwaltungspsychologie: Ein Lehrbuch für Studiengänge der öffentlichen Verwaltung (S. 239–266). Göttingen: Hogrefe.


Other publications (with and without peer review)