Education
Ph.D. in Business Administration, University of MichiganBBM Singapore Management University
Research Interest
Business ethics, corporate social responsibility, leadership, organizational behavior/human resource managementCourses Taught
MGMT 639 Negotiations in Competitive EnvironmentsMGMT 439 Negotiations
MGMT 475 Leadership Development
MGMT 372 Advanced Concepts in Organizational Behavior
Biography
Madeline (Maddy) Ong is an assistant professor in the Department of Management at Texas A&M’s Mays Business School. Prior to joining Mays, she was on the faculty at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Singapore Management University, and was a visiting scholar at INSEAD. She earned her Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Michigan.
Her research focuses on morality and meaning at work, examining how individuals do good and find purpose through their work. She studies how people navigate ethical dilemmas and tradeoffs, and how they transform difficult work experiences into personal growth. Her work has been published in Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and other outlets. She currently serves on the editorial boards of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (for which she received the 2025 Best Reviewer Award), Journal of Management, and Journal of Organizational Behavior.
Over her career, she has taught a wide range of undergraduate and master’s management courses at Texas A&M and other institutions around the world. She has received multiple teaching honors, most recently the 2025–2026 Montague Center for Teaching Excellence Scholar Award, a university-level recognition for excellence in teaching.
Research Publications
Ong, M., Kim, Y. H., & Koopman, J. (2024). Help yourself before helping others: When corporate social responsibility does not make a company more attractive to job seekers. Personnel Psychology, 77, 1267-1297.
Ong, M. (2023). The transforming power of self-forgiveness in the aftermath of wrongdoing. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 176, 104237.
Mayer, D. M., Ong, M., Sonenshein, S., & Ashford, S. J. (2019). The money or the morals? When moral language is more effective for selling social issues. Journal of Applied Psychology, 104(8), 1058-1076.
Lee, J. J., Ong, M., Parmar, B, & Amit, E. (2019). Lay theories of effortful honesty: Does the honesty-effort association justify making a dishonest decision? Journal of Applied Psychology, 104(5), 659-677.
Ong, M., Mayer, D. M., Tost, L. P., & Wellman, N. (2018). When corporate social responsibility motivates employee citizenship behavior: The sensitizing role of task significance. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 144, 44-59.
Bauman, C. W., Tost, L. P., & Ong, M. (2016). Blame the shepherd not the sheep: Imitating higher-ranking transgressors mitigates punishment for unethical behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 137, 123-141.
Wellman, N., Mayer, D. M., Ong, M., & DeRue, D. S. (2016). When are do-gooders treated badly? Legitimate power, role expectations and reactions to moral objection in organizations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(6), 793-814.