Biography
Charlie O. Trevor is a professor and the Ruth L. Nelson Chair in Business in the Department of Management and Human Resources at the Wisconsin School of Business. He is also the academic director of the Strategic Human Resource Management Center.
His research focuses on employee turnover, particularly of the employees that companies can least afford to lose, layoff effects on human capital, and the determinants and consequences of employee compensation.
Charlie’s work has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Journal of Management, Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, Competitiveness Review, and World at Work Journal.
His research on downsizing and turnover rates at 200 companies was awarded the 2009 Scholarly Achievement Award for the best article of the year from the Human Resources Division of the Academy of Management. In “Keeping Your Headcount When All About You Are Losing Theirs: Downsizing, Voluntary Turnover Rates, and the Moderating Role of HR Practices,” Trevor and his co-author, Anthony Nyberg (Ph.D. ’09), found that downsizing can set off an exodus among retained employees that in some cases is much greater than the reduction achieved through the layoffs.
Charlie teaches courses on negotiations, employee compensation, research methods, and HR systems.
He received his Ph.D. in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University.
Research
Selected Published Journal Articles
Gerhart, B. & Trevor, C. & Scott, D. (2023). Merit Pay Performance Management Systems: A Global Perspective
Trevor, C. & Piyanontalee, R. (2020). Discharges, Poor-Performer Quits, and Layoffs as “Valued Exits”: Is It Really Addition by Subtraction? Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior
Trevor, C. & Charlie, T. & Ingo, W. & Dennis, D. (2019). Referral Hire Presence Implications for Referrer Turnover and Job Performance. Journal of Management
Nyberg, A. & Pieper/Fitzke, J. & Trevor, C. (2016). Pay-For-Performance’s Effect on Future Employee Performance: Integrating Psychological and Economic Principles toward a Contingency Perspective. Journal of Management
Davis, P. & Trevor, C. & Feng, J. (2015). Creating a more quit-friendly national workforce? Individual layoff history and voluntary turnover Journal of Applied Psychology
Trevor, C. & Reilly, G. & Gerhart, B. (2012). Reconsidering Pay Dispersion’s Effect on the Performance of Interdependent Work: Reconciling Sorting and Pay Inequality Academy of Management Journal
Hausknecht, J. & Trevor, C. (2011). Collective turnover at the group, unit, and organizational levels: Evidence, issues, and implications Journal of Management
Trevor, C. (2010). What teachers want: Teacher preferences regarding nontraditional pay approaches Economic Policy Institute
Nyberg, A. & Trevor, C. (2009). After Layoffs, Help Survivors Be More Effective Harvard Business Review
Lee, T. & Gerhart, B. & Weller, I. & Trevor, C. (2008). Understanding Voluntary Turnover: Path-Specific Job Satisfaction Effects and the Importance of Unsolicited Job Offers Academy of Management Journal
Trevor, C. & Nyberg, A. (2008). Keeping Your Headcount When All About You are Losing Theirs: Downsizing, Voluntary Turnover Rates, and HR Practices Academy of Management Journal
Sturman, M. & Trevor, C. & Bourdreau, J. & Gerhart, B. (2003). Is it worth it to win the talent war? Using turnover research to evaluate the utility of performance-based pay Personnel Psychology
Presentations
Academy of Management Annual Meeting (2020) Talent Dispersion: Core/Periphery Distinctions, Team Performance, and Individual Talent Development
Academy of Management (2010) Employee Performance as a Function of an Integrative Pay-for-Performance Framework
Teaching
Undergraduate Courses
Negotiations (MHR 628), Fall 2011.
Theory and practice of negotiations.
Negotiations (MHR 628), Fall 2011.
Theory and practice of negotiations.
Negotiations (MHR 628), Fall 2011.
Theory and practice of negotiations.
Negotiations (MHR 628), Fall 2012.
Negotiations (MHR 628), Fall 2012.
Negotiations (MHR 628), Fall 2012.
Negotiations (Kohls) (MHR 628), Fall 2012.
Employee Compensation (MHR 610), Fall 2007.
Determinants of wage levels, wage structures and individual wages; analysis of the impact of wages on individual attitudes and decisions to participate and perform in organizations.
Compensation: Theory and Administration (MHR 610), Fall 2002.
Determinants of wage levels, wage structures and individual wages; analysis of the impact of wages on individual attitudes and decisions to participate and perform in organizations.
Compensation: Theory and Administration (MNG 610), Spring 2002.
Determinants of wage levels, wage structures and individual wages; analysis of the impact of wages on individual attitudes and decisions to participate and perform in organizations.
Compensation: Theory and Administration (MHR 610), Fall 2003.
Determinants of wage levels, wage structures and individual wages; analysis of the impact of wages on individual attitudes and decisions to participate and perform in organizations.
Compensation: Theory & Adm (MHR 610), Spring 2009.
Determinants of wage levels, wage structures and individual wages; analysis of the impact of wages on individual attitudes and decisions to participate and perform in organizations.
Compensation: Theory and Administration (MNG 610), Fall 2001.
Determinants of wage levels, wage structures and individual wages; analysis of the impact of wages on individual attitudes and decisions to participate and perform in organizations.
Compensation: Theory and Administration (MNG 610), Spring 2001.
Determinants of wage levels, wage structures and individual wages; analysis of the impact of wages on individual attitudes and decisions to participate and perform in organizations.
Compensation: Theory and Administration (MHR 610), Fall 2005.
Compensation: Theory & Adm (MHR 610), Spring 2010.
Determinants of wage levels, wage structures and individual wages; analysis of the impact of wages on individual attitudes and decisions to participate and perform in organizations.
Seminar:Human Resources Issues (MHR 471), Spring 2009.
Analysis and discussion of selected issues in human resource management.
Seminar: Human Resources Issues (MHR 471), Fall 2005.
Analysis and discussion of selected issues in human resource management.
Seminar: Human Resources Issues (MHR 471), Fall 2002.
Analysis and discussion of selected issues in human resource management.
Seminar: Human Resources Issues (MHR 471), Spring 2004.
Analysis and discussion of selected issues in human resource management.
Seminar: Human Resources Issues (MHR 471), Spring 2005.
Analysis and discussion of selected issues in human resource management.
Seminar:Human Resources Issues (MHR 471), Spring 2008.
Analysis and discussion of selected issues in human resource management.
Graduate Courses
Rsch Meth-Management I (MHR 835), Fall 2008.
(First of a two-course sequence; may be taken as a single course.) Review and critique of published research with focus on the improvement of method. Ethics, theory and research, generating testable theory, reliability, validity, operationalization, measurement and scaling, and surveys.
Research Methods in Management I (MHR 835), Fall 2005.
(First of a two-course sequence; may be taken as a single course.) Review and critique of published research with focus on the improvement of method. Ethics, theory and research, generating testable theory, reliability, validity, operationalization, measurement and scaling, and surveys.
Rsch Meth-Management I (MHR 835), Fall 2009.
(First of a two-course sequence; may be taken as a single course.) Review and critique of published research with focus on the improvement of method. Ethics, theory and research, generating testable theory, reliability, validity, operationalization, measurement and scaling, and surveys.
Rsch Meth-Management I (MHR 835), Fall 2010.
(First of a two-course sequence; may be taken as a single course.) Review and critique of published research with focus on the improvement of method. Ethics, theory and research, generating testable theory, reliability, validity, operationalization, measurement and scaling, and surveys.
Research Methods (MHR 835), Fall 2007.
(First of a two-course sequence; may be taken as a single course.) Review and critique of published research with focus on the improvement of method. Ethics, theory and research, generating testable theory, reliability, validity, operationalization, measurement and scaling, and surveys.
Learning/Teaching Oriented Publications
Gerhart, B. & Trevor, C. (2008). Merit Pay Performance Management Systems: A Global Perspective