Prof. Sharon Toker

Sharon Toker is an Associate Professor and the head of the Healthcare Management program at Tel Aviv University’s Coller School of Management.

She graduated from Tel Aviv University, completing her B.A. in Psychology and Sociology (1997) and her Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior with distinction (Accelerated Doctoral Program, 2007). In 2008 she completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University and soon after joined the Department of Organizational Behavior in Tel Aviv University’s Coller School of Management.

Prof. Toker served as the associate editor of the Academy of Management Perspectives Journal and the Occupational Health Science Journal. She has published more than 40 papers and book chapters and was awarded the Early Career Achievement Award by the American Psychological Association (APA) and the National Institute of Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH) in 2013.

Sharon teaches Organizational Behavior and Stress Management courses, and was granted numerous teaching awards including the Tel-Aviv University Rector Award (2013), Tel-Aviv University best 100 lecturers awards, and the Coller School of Management teaching awards in 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 & 2021.

In addition to her academic activity, Prof. Toker is an active advocate for employees' wellbeing. She is working with the Israeli Ministry of Health and with the Ministry of Law to reduce employees' burnout levels.

Last but not least, Sharon is also an illustrator, translating her research findings into visual images. Her illustrations appear in both academic and non-academic outlets. Instagram: sharon_toker 

Prof. Toker’s research strives to discover the extent to which occupational and environmental factors, stress perceptions, and organizational resources affect the physical and mental wellbeing of employees. By combining various areas of knowledge such as occupational psychology, cognition, and medicine, in addition to conducting experimental as well as observational longitudinal studies among thousands of employees, she points to the risk involved in exposure to occupational and environmental stressors (including the fear of terrorism). She also strives to identify effective ways of coping with such risks. Her studies combine new models and constructs that are at the forefront of current psycho-occupational research (e.g., stress perceptions and mind wandering). As an expert in the field of work stress and health, Prof. Toker’s research serves as the basis for policy change on both national and international scales. 

 

Focal topics of Prof. Toker’s research include:

>> Stress, burnout, and employee health

>> Stress theory, perception, and mindset

>> Mind wandering at work

>> Health promotion in organizations

>>  Gender inequality at work

>>  Organizational cynicism 

How stressors, burnout & depression affect our health:

• Toker, S., & Melamed, S. (2017).  Stress, Recovery, Sleep, and Burnout. In C. Cooper, & Campbell, J., C., (Ed.) The Handbook of Stress and Health: A Guide to Research and Practice, 168-185.‏
•  Armon, G., Melamed, S & Toker, S. ,  Berliner, S., & Shapira, I.  (2014). Joint effect of chronic medical illness and burnout on depressive symptoms among employed adults. Health Psychology, 33(3):264-272.
• Shirom, A., Toker, S., Melamed, S., Berliner, S. & Shapira, I.  (2013). Burnout and Vigor as Predictors of the Incidence of Hyperlipidemia among Healthy Employees. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being. 5(1), 79-98.  
• Toker, S., Gavish, I., & Biron, M.  (2013). Job Demand-Control-Support and diabetes risk: The moderating role of self-efficacy. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology. 22(6), 711-724.
• Zelber-Sagi, S*., Toker, S*. Armon, T., Melamed, S., Berliner, S., Shapira, I., Halpern, Z., Santo, E., & Shibolet, O. (2013). Elevated alanine transaminase independently predicts new onset of depression in employees undergoing health screening examinations.  * Equal contribution.  Psychological Medicine. 43(12), 2603-2613.
• Toker, S., Shirom, A., Melamed, S. & Armon, G.  (2012). Work Characteristics as Predictors of Diabetes Incidence among Apparently Healthy Employees.  Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. 17(3), 259-267.
•  Toker, S., Melamed, S., Shirom, A., Berliner, S., Zeltser, D. & Shapira, I. (2012) Burnout Is Associated with Coronary Heart Disease Incidence: A Prospective Study of 8,838 Employees. Psychosomatic Medicine, 74(8), 840-847.
• Shirom, A., Toker, S., Melamed, S. & Shapira, I.  (2012). The relationships between self-rated health and serum lipids across time. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. 19(1), pp 73-81.
• Toker, S., Shirom, A., Shapira, I., Berliner, S., & Melamed, S. (2005). The association between burnout, depression, anxiety, and inflammation biomarkers: C-reactive protein and fibrinogen, in men and women.  Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 10, (4), 344-362.
• Melamed, S., Shirom, A., Toker, S., Berliner, S., & Shapira, I. (2006). Burnout and risk of cardiovascular disease: Evidence, possible causal paths, and promising research directions. 
  Psychological Bulletin. 132(3), pp. 327-353.
•  Toker, S., Shirom, A., & Melamed, S. (2008).  Depression and the Metabolic Syndrome: Gender Dependent Associations.  Depression and Anxiety. 25(8) pp. 661-669.
• Melamed, S., Shirom, A., Toker, S., & Shapira, I. (2006). Burnout and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: A Prospective Study of Apparently Healthy Employed Persons. Psychosomatic Medicine, 68, pp. 863-869.
• Shirom, A., Toker, S., Berliner, & S., Shapira, I., (2008). The Job Demand-Control-Support Model and Micro-inflammatory Responses among Healthy Male and Female Employees: A Longitudinal Study. Work & Stress 28(2), pp 661-669.

Media Coverage:

The Atlantic-13 Mar 2013, Study: Job Burnout Associated With a 79% Increased Risk of Heart Disease.

Metro-14 Mar 2013, Burnout 'is a bigger heart attack risk than smoking'

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The role of the organization in supporting employees' wellbeing:

• Freidin, H., Toker, S., & Turgeman-Lupo, K. (In press). Acknowledging Employees’ Grief: The Role of Organizational Support. In Perrewé, P. & Meurs, J. (Eds.), Stress and Quality of Working Life. Information Age Publishing.  
• Toker, S., Heaney, C. A., & Ein-Gar, D. (published on-line , ahead-of-print), Why Won't They Participate? Barriers to Participation in Worksite Health Promotion Programs. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology.24 (6), 866-881.
• Armon, G. & Toker, S. (2013). The role of personality in predicting repeat participation in periodic health screening. Journal of Personality. 81 (6), 452-464.

Media Coverage:

Science Daily-16 Dec 2014, Worksite health promotion programs: Why don't people don't participate?.

 

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Mind-wandering at work:

 

• Yaor, E., & Toker, S. (In press). Mind Wandering at Work: When employees’ thoughts drift away. In Perrewé, P. & Meurs, J. (Eds.), Stress and Quality of Working Life. Information Age Publishing.  

 

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Perceiving others' stress:

• Ben-Avi, N., Toker, S., & Heller, D. (2018). “If stress is good for me, it's probably good for you too”: Stress mindset and judgment of others' strain. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 74, 98-110.
• Ben-Avi, N & Toker, S., (2017). Being stressed about stress- Do people's beliefs about stress matter?. In P. Perrewé, M. Rossi & J. Meurs (Ed.) Stress and quality of working life. 23-40.

Media Coverage:

Science Daily-13 Nov 2017, How well do we perceive other people's stress levels in the workplace.

Psychology Today (blog)-5 Jun 2018, 8 Ways to Test Your Stress Mindset

PsychCentral.com-14 Nov 2017, Many Project Their Feelings About Stress Onto Others

From the Grapevine-27 Nov 2017, Why you should think twice before bringing holiday stress to work.

 

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Physical activity can help: 

• Toker, S. & Biron, M. (2012). Job Burnout and Depression: Unraveling their Temporal Relationship and Considering the Role of Physical Activity. Journal of Applied Psychology. 97(3). 699-710.
• Shirom, A., Toker, S., Berliner, S., Shapira, I., & Melamed, S. (2008).The effects of physical fitness and feeling vigorous on self-rated health. Health Psychology, 27(5), pp. 567-575.

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The importance of social support at work:

• Hoppe, A., Toker, S., Schachler, V., & Ziegler, M. (2017). The effect of change in supervisor support and job control on change in vigor: Differential relationships for immigrant and native employees in Israel. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(3), 391-414.
• Kalish, Y., Luria, G., Toker, S. & Westman, M. (accepted) Till stress do us part: On the interplay between perceived stress and communication network dynamics. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100 (6), 1737-1751.
• Shirom, A., Toker, S., Alkalay, Y., Jacobson, O., & Balicer, R. (2011). Work-based predictors of mortality: A 20-year follow-up of healthy employees. Health Psychology. 30(3), 268-275

Media Coverage:

PsychCentral.com-22 Feb 2019, Women's Social Support Tied to Mortality Risk

FM100.3-7 Jun 2019, Work relationships affect your health, study says

Telegraph.co.uk-5 Aug 2011, Getting along with colleagues helps you live longer

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Gender inequalities:

                                      

• de Reuver, R. S. M., Biron, M., & Toker, S. (2016). Employees are equal, but some are more equal than others: Dominance, agreeableness and status inconsistency among men and women. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology ‏ 25(3), 430-446.

Media coverage:

Science Daily-22 Nov 2016, 'Nice' women earn less than their more assertive counterparts

Quartz-28 Nov 2016, New research confirms that it pays to be a nasty woman

International Business Times UK-22 Nov 2016, Women – being nice at work means you get paid less

Globalnews.ca-23 Nov 2016, Nice gals finish last: Agreeable women earn less money, says study.

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The protective effect of positive psychology:

• Fried, Y., Laurence, G. A., Shirom, A., Melamed, S., Toker, S. Berliner, S. & Shapira, I. (2013). The relationship between job enrichment and abdominal obesity: A longitudinal field study of apparently healthy individuals. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology 18(4), pp.458-468.
• Shirom, A., Toker, S., Shapira, I., Berliner, S., & Melamed, S. (2010). Vigor, anxiety and depressive symptoms as predictors of changes in fibrinogen and C-reactive protein. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 2(3), 251-271.
• Shirom, A., Toker, S., Melamed, S., Berliner, S. & Shapira, I.  (2012). Life and Job Satisfaction as Predictors of the Incidence of Diabetes. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being.  4(1), 31-48

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·     The effect of fear of terror on our health

• Shenhar-Tsarfaty, S., Yayon, N., Waiskopf, N., Shapira, I., Toker, S., Zaltser, D., ... & Soreq, H. (2015). Fear and C-reactive protein cosynergize annual pulse increases in healthy adults. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(5)  E467–E471.
• Toker, S., Laurence, G. & Fried, Y.( 2015), Fear of terror and increased job burnout over time:  Examining the mediating role of insomnia and the moderating role of work support. Journal of Organizational Behavior.  36(2), 272-291.
•  Shirom, A., Toker, S., Jacobson, O., & Balicer, R. (2010). Feeling Vigorous and Risk of All-Cause Mortality, Ischemic Heart Disease and Diabetes: A 20-years Follow-up of Apparently Healthy Employeesץ Psychosomatic Medicine 72, pp 727-733.
• Melamed, S., Shirom, A., Toker, S., Berliner, S. & Shapira, I. (2004). Association of fear of terror with low grade inflammation among apparently healthy employed adults. Psychosomatic Medicine 66, pp. 481-491.
• Shirom, A., Toker, S., Shapira, I., Berliner, S., & Melamed, S. (2007). Exposure to and fear of terror as predictors of self-rated health among apparently healthy employees. British Journal of Health Psychology, 257-271.

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Inflammation biomarkers:

•  Shenhar-Tsarfaty, S., Toker, S., Shapira, I., Rogowski, O., Berliner, S., Ritov, Y., & Soreq, H. (2016). Weakened cholinergic blockade of inflammation associates with diabetes-related depression. Molecular Medicine, 22, 156.‏
• Toker, S., Rogowski, O., Melamed, S., Shirom, A., Shapira, I., Berliner, S., et al. (2004). Association of components of the metabolic syndrome with the appearance of aggregated red blood cells in the peripheral blood. An unfavorable hemorheological finding
  . Diabetes/Metabolism Research and Reviews, 21, 197-202
• Mardi, T., Toker, S., Melamed, S., Shirom, A., Zeltser, D., Shapira, I., et al. (2005). Increased erythropoiesis and subclinical inflammation as part of the metabolic syndrome.
   Diabetes Research And Clinical Practice  , 69(3), 249-255.  
•  Rogowski, O., Toker, S., Shapira, I., Melamed, S., Shirom, A., Zeltser, D., et al. (2005). Values of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein in each month of the year in apparently healthy individuals. American Journal of Cardiology, 95(1), 152-155
• Rogowski, O., Shapira, I., Toker, S., Melamed, S., Shirom, A., Berliner, S., et al. (2005). Obesity-related correlation between C-reactive protein and the calculated 10-y Framingham Coronary Heart Disease Risk Score. International Journal of Obesity (Lond), 29(7), 772-777.  
• Rogowski, O., Shapira, I., Shirom, A., Melamed, S., Toker, S., & Berliner, S. (2007). Heart rate and microinflammation in men: a relevant atherothrombotic link. Heart, 93(8), 940-944. 
• Steinvil, A, Shirom, A., Melamed, S., Toker, S., Justo, S., Saar, I., et al. (2008). Relation of educational level to inflammation-sensitive biomarker level. American Journal of Cardiology, 102(8), pp. 1034-1039.