Tove Helland Hammer, professor emerita of organizational behavior at Cornell University, passed away on September 12. She was 80 years old.
Born in Norway, Dr. Hammer traveled to the United States on a four-year Teagle Foundation scholarship to attend Cornell University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology. She went on to complete both her master’s degree in psychology and her Ph.D. in industrial and organizational psychology from the University of Maryland.
In 1973, Dr. Hammer joined the faculty of Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR), where she would stay for the entirety of her career. She began her tenure as an instructor in the department of organizational behavior, rising to assistant professor in 1974, associate professor in 1981, and full professor in 1990. She retired with emerita status in 2022.
During her long tenure, Dr. Hammer chaired the organizational behavior department on two occasions. In 1994, she became the first woman to serve as senior editor of the ILR Review. She held that position for 17 years, making her the journal’s longest-serving senior editor.
Early in her career, Dr. Hammer studied leadership, supervision, career mobility, employee stock ownership, worker buyouts, and labor representation on corporate boards of directors. Beginning in the 1990s, she expanded her research to the effects of the physical and psychosocial work environment on employees’ mental and physical health.
Throughout her career, Dr. Hammer served on the editorial boards of Administrative Science Quarterly, the Journal of Applied Psychology, the Journal of Vocational Behavior, and Groups and Organization Studies. She held long-standing visiting professor appointments at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and the University of Stavanger in Norway, and she served in sabbatical appointments at the Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine in London and at ESCP Europe in Paris. Dr. Hammer was also a member of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters and the Society for Organizational Behavior.