Work stress & appraisal
How employees interpret job demands as challenges, hindrances, or threats—and how these appraisals shape motivation, well-being, creativity, and performance.
Research
I use quantitative and qualitative methods to understand how people experience work and how organisations can create healthier, more effective workplaces.
Leadership
The individual and organisational consequences of empowering, servant, and destructive leadership across different contexts and cultures.
AI & ethics at work
How employees use generative AI and the performance, social, and ethical implications of emerging technologies in organisations.
Evidence synthesis
Meta-analysis, longitudinal research, structural equation modelling, and open tools that support cumulative organisational science.
Open research
Tools for cumulative science
MetaRho
A Shiny application for meta-analysis of correlation coefficients.
Open MetaRho ↗Leadership Meta Essentials
A meta-analysis database of leadership studies, which I manage: more than 78,000 articles searched, 4,000 coded, and over 200 researchers involved in coding and screening.
Explore the project ↗Recognition
Awards
- 2026
Best Young Scholar Award, Social Sciences and Humanities
7th Annual Conference of the Association of British Chinese Professors · University of Cambridge
Speaking
Invited talks
- 2026
Matching Good Questions with Good Methods: Design Logic and Method Choice in Social Science Research
ABCP Monthly Talk, Association of British Chinese Professors · Online · 30 October 2026
Conferences
Selected conference presentations
- 2025
When Hiding Hurts: How Stealth Use of Generative AI Resources Impairs Task Performance
Li, P., Ma, L., Dong, N., Xing, L. L., & Yuan, S. · Academy of Management Proceedings · DOI ↗
- 2025
Challenge, Hindrance, or Threat? A Meta-Analysis of Appraisals of Work Stressors in Modern Workplace
Li, P., Liu, F., Zheng, Y., Peeters, M. C. W., & Taris, T. W. · Academy of Management Proceedings · DOI ↗
- 2024
Embedding Bootlegging in Team Culture Tightness: Is Innovation from Coworkers a Blessing or a Curse
Qu, J., Li, P., & Xu, S. · Academy of Management Proceedings · DOI ↗
- 2023
It’s Not My Job... But a Challenge? Perceiving and Reacting to Illegitimate Tasks
Xing, L., & Li, P. · Academy of Management Proceedings · DOI ↗
Funding
Research funding
- 2026–27
Barriers and Solutions to Responsible Applications of AI in Mental Health Across Cultures
WUN Research Development Fund 2025 · £30,000 · PI: Xue (Skylar) Wan
- 2023
Junior Postdoctoral Fellowship
Special Research Fund (BOF), Ghent University · Awarded; relinquished on joining the University of Leeds
- 2023–26
Knowledge Creation-Oriented Performance Management Behavior: Its Connotative Structure, Mechanism of Action, and Influencing Factors
National Natural Science Foundation of China (72272011) · RMB 450,000 · PI: Yin Kui · Participant
Service & reach
Service and public engagement
- 2025–27
Associate Editor
Human Resource Development Quarterly
- 2025–
UK Ambassador
Academy of Management, HR Division
- 2019–
Co-founder & Editor-in-Chief, Chinese Psychometric Association WeChat platform
Statistics tutorials and research experience shared with 72,400+ followers · About the platform ↗