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The Impact Organizational Psychology Can Have To Optimize Performance In Elite Athletes, Managers, And Executives., Colin Pugh

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The development of major organizations has led to an increase in the use of different psychological principles. Organizational psychology has many different applications within sports organizations and, if used correctly, these applications can improve overall performance. When the principles of Organizational psychology are implemented properly, the attitude, motivation, and leadership qualities of individual members within the organization are enhanced. This improvement of individual members will have an impact on the performance of the entire organization. A successful organization should be adaptable, committed, goal-orientated, and synchronized. To apply these principles and concepts, the organization needs good leaders who can manage the …

A Practical Scale For Multi-Faceted Organizational Health Climate Assessment, Zandra M. Zweber

Master's Theses

The current study sought to develop a practical scale to measure workplace health climate in a way that has not previously been conceptualized – as a three-faceted approach from the employee perspective serving as an indicator of a healthy organization. The goal was to create a short, useable yet comprehensive scale that could translate into practical use by organizations and occupational health professionals planning workplace interventions. To accomplish this, the proposed multi-faceted organizational health climate scale (MOHCA) assesses three-facets which match up with three organizational levels: 1) organization 2) supervisor and 3) workgroup. Ten items were developed and tested on …

Effects Of Practice With Imposed Communication Delay On The Coordination And Effectiveness Of Distributed Teams, Megan L. Dove-Steinkamp

Master's Theses

The current study tested whether introduction of audio transmission delays during skill acquisition would benefit the performance effectiveness of distributed teams in a novel transfer context. Two-person university student teams (N=40) performed a simulated firefighting task in 4 practice trials and a novel transfer condition. Intra-team communications were systematically perturbed with closed-loop transmission delays ranging from 2 to 6 seconds. On average, teams were able to improve performance over time despite transmission delay, with significant differences in performance observed between certain groups both over the course and at the end of the experiment: Short (2s blocked) practice delay was associated …

The Effects Of Altering Response Effort During Data Collection On Observer Accuracy: Data Collection Procedures On Hand Hygeine Compliance, Krista Hinz

Masters Theses

When dealing with human observers and error, tight control in data collection and methodology is essential for accurate representation of compliance. Although observational studies are popular, little has been done to study the integrity of human observers and the data collection process. Incomplete analysis of data collection integrity threatens functional findings, leading to problematic interpretation and decreased replication. The purpose of the current study was to assess whether manipulating the response effort associated with data collection has an effect on the accuracy of data collection. Participants of the study were undergraduate psychology students at a Midwestern university who were enrolled …

Emotional Labor And Authentic Leadership, John E. Buckner V

Doctoral Dissertations

Organizational research has begun to once again focus on the importance of emotions in the workplace. In particular, the concept of emotional labor, the management of emotions at work to influence clients and customers, has recently received much attention. While research has addressed the impact of emotional labor on both employees and clients or customers, research has not examined emotional labor within the context of leadership.

Authentic leadership, an emerging construct in the study of leadership, is proposed to relate to emotional labor. Leaders' authentic behavior has been shown to positively impact followers, such as increasing trust in their leader …

The Effects Of Feedback Delivery Mechanisms On Employee Engagement Participation, Augusto Espinosa

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The effects of different feedback mechanisms on safety engagement were examined in an industrial manufacturing setting with twenty employees. During a 30-day period, participants who received feedback showed a significant increase in safety engagement participation when compared to a five-month baseline period of no feedback. There was no significant difference in safety engagement participation between employees who received verbal feedback versus those who received written feedback. Furthermore, survey responses indicated that feedback improved employee attitudes toward the plant's safety program. Together, these findings suggest that feedback systems can be used to effectively improve industrial safety programs.

The Role Of The Resiliency Process In Skilled Immigrants' Job Search, Kelly Kisinger

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

For many skilled immigrants settling in Canada, the obtainment of employment is a difficult and lengthy process. The current study seeks to examine how skilled immigrants deal with the adversity of the job search by applying a process model of resiliency (King & Rothstein, 2010) to the job search of skilled immigrants. The study examined the interplay between individuals’ psychological characteristics, knowledge, and environment and their self-regulatory processes, and how those processes influenced the job search individuals performed and subsequent job search outcomes. Using a cross sectional design, 94 immigrants throughout Canada completed an online survey. The findings showed individuals’ …

Applicant Behavior On Internet Job Boards: The Effects Of Content And Style, Samuel Young

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Although job boards are the largest single source of recruitment in the modern workplace, little research on what influences job seeker behavior has been conducted in this context. In order to address this gap in the literature, the present research draws on the theories of planned behavior and signaling theory to hypothesize a series of factors that may impact job seeker behavior. Despite theoretical support for many job posting characteristics, only formatting influenced job seeker behavior. Discussion of the implications and areas for future research are presented.

Attracting Talent Across Cultures: The Impact Of Cultural Values On Generating And Maintaining Applicants, Emily Twichell

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

The current study investigated whether different strategies for attracting and maintaining applicants should be used in order to effectively recruit talent from different cultures, which had not been previously researched. It was predicted that culture would have a direct impact on what attracts individuals to apply to an organization, what causes them not to submit an application, and the length of time between submitting an application and being invited to interview. Additionally, it was predicted that culture would interact with perceptions of job posting content, application length, recruiter perceptions, and time delays in predicting job pursuit intentions and changes in …

A Comparison Of Lmx, Communication, And Demographic Differences In Remote And Co-Located Supervisor-Subordinate Dyads, Larisa Niedle

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

The objectives of this research were to examine the growing organizational trends of distributed work, reliance on various media for communication, and increased diversity in the workforce. Napier and Ferris' (1993) theory of distance, which includes structural, functional, and psychological distance, served as a framework for much of this research. Leader-Member Exchange theory (LMX), which Napier and Ferris (1993) translated into the functional distance component of their theory, was used to inform hypotheses on supervisor-subordinate relationships and performance ratings. Communication theories of media richness and social presence were used as a basis for the hypotheses involving communication. Finally, the similarity-attraction …

Effects Of Goal Orientation Profile Types On Organizational Outcoms In Veterinarians, Kathleen Arnold

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Goal orientation and work avoidance dimensions and profiles were studied in relationship to performance, satisfaction, self-efficacy, commitment and tenure. It was found that dimensions were the only significant predictors of satisfaction and self-efficacy. Still, there was evidence that the profiles were related to outcomes and, specifically, profiles were a stronger predictor of tenure. In addition, the dimension of work avoidance appears to provide additional information to the emerging profile types. These results provide important evidence of the emerging common goal orientation profile types. These groups were found to have different outcomes, most notably in performance and tenure. This research provides …

The Relationship Between Culture And Counterproductive Workplace Behaviors: A Meta-Analysis, Olusore Anita Taylor

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In the last few decades, there has been a growing interest in counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs) – behaviors that are deemed harmful to organizations and their employees (Bennett & Robinson, 2000). Unfortunately, little knowledge exists on the universality of well-established theories on CWBs across different cultures. Most theories have been developed using studies conducted in the United States and Canada, limiting our ability to confidently extrapolate these theories to other cultures.

In this study, I examine the relationship between culture and CWBs. Specifically, two questions are addressed. First, does culture have a direct relationship with CWBs? Using GLOBE’s cultural dimensions, …

The Effects Of Equity Sensitivity And Teamwork Self-Efficacy On Team Reward Preference, Hayden Jerney Randolph Woodley

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This investigation explored the extent to which individuals’ teamwork self-efficacy moderated the relations between their equity sensitivity orientation and their team reward attitude. Two studies were conducted to examine this relation. The first examined the dimensionality of equity sensitivity, whereas the second examined the relation among the three constructs. Participants (N = 1455) completed a battery of questionnaires through an online testing process that included measures of equity sensitivity, teamwork self-efficacy, and team reward attitudes. Results of a confirmatory factor analysis showed that equity sensitivity is bidimensional, consisting of two factors: input and outcome orientation. Moreover, results showed that teamwork …

Taking A Closer Look At Workplace Incivility: Dimensionality And Source Effects, Rima C. Tarraf

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of this thesis was twofold. First, it sought to investigate whether taking a multi-foci approach to the study of workplace incivility would result in differential relations with affective commitment, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. In general, the results were supported. When the source of incivility was measured jointly, relations between incivility and organizational outcomes were overestimated. Measuring incivility from a supervisor and a co-worker separately showed that incivility from a supervisor was more strongly associated with job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Co-worker incivility was more strongly associated with affective commitment. Second, this thesis critically assessed the dimensionality of …

Advertising Preferences Among College Students, Bianca A. Vasvani

Psychology and Child Development

The purpose of this study was to examine if there is a difference in advertising preferences among college students. Three different types of advertisements were presented for five different products for the participants to review in this study. These three types of advertisements were sex, computer generated imagery and sustainability. The five different products were Orbit Gum, Pepsi, Absolut Vodka, Nike and Aveeno. The participants were asked to rate which one of the three advertisements was most compelling. The variables of gender, ethnicity and year in college were examined. The study also wanted to find out which advertisement overall was …

An Exploration Of Engagement: A Customer Perspective, Laura M. Flynn

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

This study examines a proposed framework for measuring customer engagement with support from employee engagement literature. Archival data was utilized to evaluate these relationships which included 4.530 participants that were customers of a business-to-business (B2B) organization and utilized the business' website. A similar factor structure resulted for the measurement of customer engagement. Structural equation modeling showed partial support for the hypothesized predictors of engagement (i.e. commitment, brand image, preference and decision making) because the relationship between satisfaction and engagement was not significant. The hypothesized outcome variables of engagement were also partially supported with loyalty, sales, average order value, and website …

Personality, Organizational Commitment, And Job Search Behavior: A Field Study, Cynthia Ward Hackney

Doctoral Dissertations

This field study examined the relationships among the personality traits conscientiousness and openness to experience; organizational commitment; and job search behaviors in a work environment, to test hypotheses about the relationships of three types of commitment – affective, normative and continuance – with the personality traits and search behaviors, using established measures. Participants were 282 employees of cell phone sales organization located in the Southeastern United States, who completed on-line surveys. As hypothesized, individual conscientiousness showed a strong positive relationship with affective, normative and continuance commitment and a strong negative relationship with job search behaviors. Openness to experience showed the …

Integrity, Self-Control, And The Impact Of Ego Depletion On Counterproductive Behavior, Joshua D. Bazzy

Doctoral Dissertations

Although integrity has been found to significantly predict job performance and counterproductive behaviors, the constructs that underlie it have remained unclear. Personality, specifically conscientiousness, has been linked to integrity most consistently, but only accounts for a small amount of integrity’s variance. Research points to a relationship between integrity and self-control, but this has not been investigated.

The present investigation examined the nature and implications of this relationship. Results found that self-control contributed significantly to the variance in integrity beyond conscientiousness and the other dimensions of personality. Indeed, the addition of self-control to the model, essentially eliminated conscientiousness as a significant …

Testing Work Characteristics As Mediating Factors In The Relationships Among Nurse Leadership, Burnout, And Engagement, Heather Kaye Smith

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Nurse staff burnout is a critical element of the quality of worklife for nurses, due to burnout’s positive relationship with turnover/turnover intentions. This study attempted to bridge the gap between two areas of related research: transformational leadership and burnout/engagement, using work characteristics (i.e., areas of worklife: AWL) as mediators of the relationship between leadership and burnout/engagement. A sample (N = 142) of practicing nursing students and full-time working nurses who were recruited from a university, hospital, and social network connections completed a questionnaire that gathered their perceptions of nurse leadership, AWL, and burnout/engagement. Results suggested that transformational leadership is strongly …

Designing An "Information-Experience" Using Creativity Science Theory And Tools, Stephanie Belhomme

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

An “information-experience” encapsulated by a technological/digital audio-visual tool presents data and potentially meaningful information to prompt actionable knowledge concerning: “unspoken creative process elements;” their profound impacts on both how well our “physiology of creativity” functions; but also on how well foundational creative thinking and behavioral prerequisites (energy, motivation, imagination, and ownership) are leveraged.

The product: 1) introduces the user to one component of the CPS (Creative Problem Solving) Facilitation Process - Exploring the Challenge; 2) features a content specific component which prompts exploration of the many correlations between societal, organizational / community, human physiological / behavioral data, and the direct …

Ethics And Downsizing : A Policy-Capturing Approach, Diana Evans

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Downsizing has become a prominent part of the business landscape and is reshaping the way people work and deal with their organizations. The present study investigated how the context and process behind a downsizing decision can influence people’s perceptions of the organization. Using a policy capturing methodology, subjects read 67 scenarios about downsizing organizations and were asked to rate the fairness of the organization and indicate if an ethical violation had occurred. The cues manipulated included the size of the organization, whether the company is currently losing money, whether the company tried other options before considering downsizing, whether the layoffs …

Expatriate Success: Cultural Intelligence And Personality As Predictors For Cross-Cultural Adjustment, Elizabeth Hallaine Evans

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Businesses are more marketable if they have a global presence. However, with global expansion comes a need to communicate with organizations having diverse cultural backgrounds. This causes issues when selecting expatriates for the job. Expatriates possessing particular characteristics may adjust better than others. Research supports both cultural intelligence (CQ) and personality as valid predictors of cross-cultural adjustment, but do those higher in CQ adapt better than those with culturally compatible personality factors? I hypothesized that cultural intelligence (CQ) accounts for more incremental validity of crosscultural adjustment than personality alone. The sample of approximately 111 foreign expatriates working in various countries …

Evaluating The Sustained Psychological Benefits Of On-Site Employee Health Programs, Stephen Spencer Clancy

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The present study was conducted to explore whether employee wellness programs actually promote long term changes in participating employees’ psychological health. Forty four participants were included in the final sample from a large southeastern organization currently offering three different structured wellness programs to its employees. A semi-longitudinal study design was implemented involving three data points over a 5 month time frame. Analyses were conducted to examine factors impacting participation in the programs and the changes those programs have on employees’ perceived levels of stress, psychological well-being, job-satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Results suggest that participation in these programs does result improved …

The Moderating Role Of Equity Sensitivity On The Optimism And Stress Relationship, James William Dalluge

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Research supports optimism as a predictor of how well individuals are able to cope with stress (Chang, Rand, & Strunk, 2007; Riolli & Savicki, 2003). Additionally perceived inequity is considered as a stressor (Taris, Peeters, Le Blanc, Scheurs, & Schaufeli, 2001) and the extent to which individuals perceive inequity is determined by equity sensitivity (Miles, Hatfield, Huseman, 1989). The present research proposes a new framework in which the relationship between optimism and feelings of inequity is moderated by equity sensitivity. The final part of the framework analyzes perceived inequity’s relationship to perceived stress. The results indicated that optimism’s relationship was …

Understanding Time Use, Stress, And Recovery Among Medical Resident, Nicole Marie Cranley

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The medical resident population is especially likely to experience burnout and other negative health-related consequences due to the workplace stressors they encounter. A primary purpose of the present study was to provide insight into the stress and recovery challenges faced by medical residents in a typical hospital environment. Thirty-eight participants provided rich quantitative and qualitative data regarding their daily work and non-work time usage, recovery practices, and needs. Results showed that medical residents report (on average) longer working hours, less leisure time, and shorter amounts of sleep when compared with the average working American. A detailed assessment of time usage …

Work Value As A Moderator Of The Value Congruence-Employee Attitude Relationship, Rachael Johnson-Murray

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Researchers have identified the extent to which an individual values work as a potentially key component in the relationship between on-the-job experiences and employee attitudes. In a replication and extension of Amos and Weathington (2008), this study examined the moderating effects of work value on the relationship between employee-organization value congruence and attitudinal outcomes (i.e., satisfaction, commitment, and turnover intent). It was hypothesized that value congruence would positively correlate to affective and cognitive job satisfaction, organizational satisfaction, and organizational commitment, yet negatively correlate to employee turnover intent. It was also hypothesized that these relationships would be moderated by the employee’s …

The Role Of Ethics In Employee Behavior, Jacqueline Karen Kott

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Past research has related the perceived ethical norms of the work environment to certain employee behaviors. The present study focuses on two general types of employee behaviors: organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and counterproductive work behavior (CWB). It was hypothesized that ethical relativism moderates these two relationships. Self-report data was collected among 108 employees of a southeastern manufacturing company through a series of surveys. Correlational and moderated regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses. Results did not support that ethical norms affect employee behavior. Future research directions and implications for organizational settings are addressed.

The Role Of Valence In Construct Dimensionality Debates, Chun Seng Kam

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

There continues to be debate about the dimensionality of important psychological constructs (e.g., anxiety; job satisfaction). The standard procedures for determining whether a construct is unidimensional or two-dimensional have been to (a) conduct factor analyses and (b) test for differences in the nomological network of correlations with other variables. I argue, and demonstrate empirically, that these approaches can sometimes mislead researchers to draw incorrect conclusions. In Study 1, I examined how item valence (i.e., favorability of item content) can affect factor analyses and nomological network analyses with two separate samples of undergraduate students. Results consistently showed that item valence can …

Coping Experiences Of 911 Communication Workers, Sarah G. Horsford

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This research explored coping experiences among emergency communications personnel. Ten individuals from a communication centre of a policing unit in Ontario participated in semi-structured interviews. Seven themes emerged to form the content analysis including Meaning-Focused Coping, Emotion-Focused Coping, Problem-Focused Coping, Reappraisal, Comm Centre Culture, Occupational Dimensions and Organizational Structure. Themes were compared to workplace stress, coping and burnout literature in addition to literature regarding organizational interventions and emergency responders. Implications were presented for counselors working with communications personnel and emergency responders.

Institutional Variables, Collegial Relationships, And Occupational Satisfaction: Testing The Conceptual Framework Of Faculty Job Satisfaction Among Counselor Educators, Rebecca E. Michel

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

Occupational satisfaction is the extent to which individuals are fulfilled by their employment. The Conceptual Framework of Faculty Job Satisfaction (Hagedorn, 2000) describes how aspects of work impact occupational satisfaction, yet researchers have not previously used this model with counselor educators. This study investigated the applicability of the model, as well as the impact of institutional and interpersonal variables, on a sample of 296 counselor educators (26.86% response rate). Findings suggested the model predicted over half of the variance in occupational satisfaction. Significant predictors of satisfaction included work itself, responsibility, recognition, salary, collegial relationships, administration, and climate. Counselor educator occupational …