Digital Commons Network^™

Turning Passion Into Profit: When Leisure Becomes Work In Modern Roller Derby, Amanda Nicole Draft

Wayne State University Dissertations

Modern roller derby operates as a “by the skater, for the skater” business model, where participants are not paid but must devote a certain amount of time, effort, and money to sustaining their sport and respective organizations. At the same time, while derby is grounded in anti-corporate values, a growing industry has sprouted to support the sport, the larger share of which consists of small business retailers selling gear, apparel, and other accessories. I use the context of modern roller derby to examine the changing natures of work and leisure, specifically how they operate as greedy institutions and emphasizing the …

Gender And Decision-Making In The C-Suite, Trang Doan

Wayne State University Dissertations

This study empirically tests the implications of five theories on the importance of gender in the C-suite. Specifically, I examine the impact of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) gender on the stock price response at the appointment of the executive and on post-hiring firm performance. The results from both tests are in support of the notion that female executives are less overconfident, but not less risk-averse, than their male counterparts. Particularly, I find that investors respond relatively less favorably to the appointment of female CFOs compared to that of male CFOs at firms characterized by high uncertainty. Further, the evidence …

Sex, Labor, And The American Way: Detroit Aesthetic In Mid-Twentieth-Century Literature, Jenna F. Gerds

Wayne State University Dissertations

The essay analyzes Sinclair Lewis short fiction in If I Were Boss, U.S.A. by John Dos Passos, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by James Agee and Walker Evans, and Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby, Jr. The primary literature is juxtaposed with a study of visual texts and historic research with a locational and thematic basis in Detroit. Ford Times and early automobile advertisements, Diego Rivera's mural Detroit Industry, photographs of the Sojourner Truth housing project riots, and the accounts of gay union workers comprise a framework for each of the central texts. Detroit aesthetic is gritty, realist, …

Communication And Identity: The Paternity Leave Decision, Scott Sellnow-Richmond

Wayne State University Dissertations

Paternity leave has remained an under-studied phenomenon in the United States. The US stands in contrast to countries such as Sweden and Norway, which have a history of government-regulated paid time off for fathers of new children. Therefore new fathers in the US face a unique situation regarding their decision of whether or not to take whatever form of paternity leave may be available to them. This study explores what aspects of new fathers’ identities are salient regarding the paternity leave decision. The Communication Theory of Identity (CTI) is used as a theoretical framework to explore how these identities correspond …

Subordinate-Supervisor Demographic And Perceived Value Similarity: Relationships To Subordinate Perceptions Of Organizational Justice, Charles Levi Wells, Iv

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the empirical relationship between subordinate-supervisor demographic and value similarity with subordinate perceptions of organizational justice using three structural equation models. The first model indicated that subordinate-supervisor demographic and value similarity were directly related to subordinate perceptions of organizational justice (Direct Model). The second model indicated that subordinate perceived value similarity with their supervisor mediated the relationship between the subordinate-supervisor demographic similarity and subordinate perceptions of organizational justice (Mediated Model). The last model indicated subordinate perceived value similarity with their supervisor moderated the relationship between subordinate-supervisor demographic similarity and subordinate perceptions of organizational …

The Power To Protect Themselves: Gender, Protective Labor Legislation, And Public Policy In Michigan, 1883-1913, Amy Marie-Holtman French

Wayne State University Dissertations

This study provides a narrative of laborers' fight for legal protection through the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Since American law was one of the most important forces in shaping and limiting workplace reform, both labor unionists and reformers used the law to try to solve labor problems. Reformers employed the law to force state control over women and children, while labor unionists attempted to craft legislation to allow working men control over industrial relations.

Although society and the law treated men as independent agents, working men were not truly free. Common law designated workers as servants. Employers denied laboring …