Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

An Exploration Of Groups Dynamics And The Impact Of Unconscious Processes, Phil Hanlon

Level 3

Despite extensive research on groups, organisations continue to experience problems with them. Is this an inherent feature of the nature of groups? This article aims to provide a practical understanding of the unconscious processes in groups and how these impact on group functioning. It further elaborates some guidelines for managers on optimising team / group performance.

The article interrogates the work of Sigmund Freud regarding his views on how groups function, drawing mainly on his work Group Psychology and Analysis of the Ego (1921).

It asks if a study of Freud’s work can help organisations reconsider the nature of groups, …

Understanding The Importance Of Ambition In The Workplace, Jeff Bean

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Though a common term, ambition is a multifaceted concept that is vastly under researched despite it being labeled necessary for success in the workplace. Of even greater irony is that several sources indicate a significant majority of the reason that employees leave organizations is due to a perceived lack of career development or opportunity, a problem that speaks directly to talent management practices. In light the costly nature of this problem and the presence of sophisticated talent management professionals in large and medium-sized organizations which comprise half or more of the workforce, it causes one to question the assumptions that …

Does Extrinsic Motivation Affect Creativity Within Diverse Teams?, Gitanjali K. Viswanathan

Honors Theses

This study analyzes the relationship between extrinsic motivation and creativity in teams. The moderation effect of functionality, openness to experience, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and diversity within a team is also considered. A survey was constructed and distributed to students within Sections 1 and 6 of the course Principles of Management at The University of Mississippi. Survey data were collected from 77 respondents and used for hierarchical regression and moderation analysis. The results of this study do not support extrinsic motivation as a significant predictor of creativity. Functionality, agreeableness, and conscientiousness each demonstrate a separate, significant interaction effect with extrinsic motivation. However, …

The Performance Implication Of Obsessive Work Passion: Unpacking The Moderating And Mediating Mechanisms From A Conservation Of Resources Perspective, Dejun Tony Kong, Violet T. Ho

Management Faculty Publications

Work passion is an important determinant of work performance. While harmonious work passion (HWP) shows its consistent predictive value, obsessive work passion (OWP) appears to have a mixed relationship with work performance. To address this puzzle, we integrate research on OWP and emotional exhaustion with conservation of resources (COR) theory. Specifically, we argue that OWP determines emotional exhaustion, whose relationship with work performance is attenuated by leader-member exchange (LMX). By conducting a field study with a sample of 262 U.S. employees, we found supportive evidence, even when controlling for psychological detachment from work. The findings somewhat reconcile the inconsistent results …

Book Review: The Fearless Mind By Dr. Craig Manning, Kylan Rutherford

Marriott Student Review

A review of Dr. Craig Manning's The Fearless Mind. Manning provides understanding of and strategies for high mental performance. With a sports psychology background, he provides concrete examples that can be applied in any setting, be it on the field, in school, or at the office.

Managing A Large Scale Project: Using Strengthsfinder In The Website Redesign, Laura Edwards, Cristina Tofan

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

After doing a library-wide StrengthsFinder assessment that highlighted the strengths of its individuals, EKU Libraries decided to put this strategy into practice by applying it to one of the most complex projects in the life of an academic library: the website redesign. This decentralized approach allowed project managers to align strengths-based teams with phases of the redesign that would most benefit from that team’s unique strengths.

Predicting Attitude Toward Organizational Change, Antonio Manibusan, Sarah Moore

Summer Research

This study examined specific components that influence employee attitude toward organizational change. Prior research tested the effects of organizational identity, cultural readiness to change, age, and tenure as variables that predict attitude toward organizational change. While perception of the change is discussed in past research as another potential variable, it has yet to be examined as a mediating variable between the various components and attitude toward organizational change. In this study, we predicted that the mediating variable, perception of organizational change, affects the relation between organizational identity, cultural readiness to change, age, and tenure, and attitude toward organizational change.

To …

Customer Envy At Service Encounters, Gerardo Anaya

Open Access Theses

Envy has been regarded as a complex emotion which can produce both positive and negative outcomes for consumers. This study explored the subjective experience of customer envy at service encounters in order to better understand how customers respond to unflattering comparisons with an envied customer. A questionnaire was designed to measure the cognitive appraisals, emotional responses, and consequences of customer envy. Study participants were also asked to share their envy incidents in the survey. A sample of 300 participants was collected and used for analysis. The findings illustrate that distinctively different patterns of cognitive appraisals such as preferential treatment, are …

Gap Between Hospitality Employers' Demands And Hospitality Students' Perceptions Regarding Entry-Level Managers' Requirements In The United States, Yijun Huang

Open Access Theses

This study aims to identify the gap between recruiters and students regarding what knowledge, skills and abilities are most needed for graduates to secure entry-level managers in the hospitality industry. Previous literature used different approaches to attain a similar idea that students and recruiters do have different opinions, especially for those intrinsic or person-related characteristics. The researcher borrowed statements from different researchers and added two statements to make up the missing part of previous research and then combined, split and revised these statements to see whether students' thinking matched the industry's thinking. The results showed that recruiters generally ranked these …

An Exploratory Study Of Hotel Manager Side-Taking Behavior And Its Influence On Employee Unfairness Perception And Negative Emotion, Yan Zhou

Open Access Theses

It is not rare that hotel managers show inconsistent attitudes and behaviors in front of customers and employees in their daily work. With limited time and resource, sometimes it is inevitable that hotel managers present certain tendencies to side with one party over the other when service failures occur between the two groups. However, in academia few studies have discussed these side-taking phenomena. The present researcher conducted an exploratory study about their definition and influence on hotel employees. Two video-based experiments were conducted and their results testified to the hypotheses that hotel managers' side-taking behaviors can lead to employee perceptions …

Career Intentions Of International Master Students In Hospitality And Tourism Management, Wenjun Li

Open Access Theses

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate career intentions of international master's students in hospitality and tourism management (HTM) in the United States. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample of 19 participants at two different U.S. institutions. Interview questions were designed to better understand students' career intentions upon graduation and the determinants behind the plans. Results indicated that student's career intention should include measures of career decision self-efficacy, academic and career outcome expectations, and career exploration intentions. Unique personal background (e.g., gender and marital status, length of time in the U.S.), industrial working experience (e.g., internships), and …

An Eriksonian Approach To Consumer Identity, Sandra Rathod

Open Access Dissertations

Rathod, Sandra R. Ph.D., Purdue University, December 2013. An Eriksonian Approach to Consumer Identity. Major Professor: Richard A. Feinberg.

Ego development is the fifth stage in Erikson's Lifecycle Development theory (1959) and is a major psychosocial stage beginning in adolescence and lasting into emerging adulthood. Past research based upon Marcia's Ego Identity Status Paradigm (1996) has investigated a number of ideological and interpersonal domains relevant to one's ego identity, however in today's consumer societies, where what you have is at least as important is who you are or what you do, an Eriksonian approach to consumer ego identity (CEI) has …

Justice Expectations And Applicant Perceptions, Bradford S. Bell, Anne Marie Ryan, Darin Wiechmann

Bradford S Bell

Expectations, which are beliefs about a future state of affairs, constitute a basic psychological mechanism that underlies virtually all human behavior. Although expectations serve as a central component in many theories of organizational behavior, they have received limited attention in the organizational justice literature. The goal of this paper is to introduce the concept of justice expectations and explore its implications for understanding applicant perceptions. To conceptualize justice expectations, we draw on research on expectations conducted in multiple disciplines. We discuss the three sources of expectations – direct experience, indirect influences, and other beliefs - and use this typology to …

Can Leadership Be Developed By Applying Leadership Theories? : An Examination Of Three Theory-Based Approaches To Leadership Development, Joshua C. Laguerre

Honors Projects

Investigates the possibility of leadership development by application of leadership theory. Through a critical literature review, examines empirical studies utilizing three development approaches: Fiedler's Contingency Model, Burns and Bass's Transformational Leadership Theory, and Avolio's Authentic Leadership Theory. Concludes that, while leadership can be generated employing any of these theories, an overall framework for developing leadership is lacking. Presents a possible framework, based on the transformational and authentic leadership models.

A Correlational Study Of The Relationship Between Sense Of Humor And Positive Psychological Capacities, Larry W. Hughes

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Business

The constructs of sense of humor (Lefcourt, 2002) and positive psychological capacities (PsyCap; Luthans, 2002a) have been heralded as important phenomenon within the growing field of positive psychology, especially within the organizational sciences. Additionally, a sense of humor has been found to be related to positive affective experiences. Leaders can develop followers' confidence, hope, optimism and resiliency for what Avolio and Luthans (2006) called sustainable, veritable performance. The hypotheses presented and tested here will advance the theoretical and empirical discussion of leadership in organizations by linking several emerging constructs of interest, both in academe and practice. This study marks an …

Hardiness And Job Fitness For The Intensive Family Preservation Specialist: A Correlational Study, Sandi Fisher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It is costly to train the counselors who serve in intensive Family Preservation Services (IFPS). The hiring agency must pay for traveling expenses in addition to any fee paid for training. When an IFPS worker chooses to terminate employment before the end of two years of employment, this puts a strain on an already tight budget. This problem could be alleviated by finding an efficient pre-hire screening instrument. The three personality traits described in Hardiness Theory literature: commitment, challenge, and control, are traits often used to describe the ideal IFPS worker. This study assessed IFPS workers to determine if the …

Assessment Of Discrepancies Between Residential Employees' Work Values And Program Directors Perceptions Of Residential Employees' Work Values, Trinetia L. Respress

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study assessed discrepancies between residential employees' work values and program directors' perceptions of the residential employees' work values. Additionally, work values of residential employees were analyzed to identify variations when considering gender, age, educational level, length of service, job classification, and current position. The study was undertaken to assist in developing a clearer understanding of the work values of residential employees for the purpose of enhancing administrator-associate relationships and to determine factors in the work setting that might contribute to longevity and more productive, satisfied, motivated employees. Data for the study were gathered from 172 program directors and residential …

Organizational Culture: How Changes Impact Attitudes Toward Job Satisfaction, R. M. Browder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to examine how a shift in elements of organizational culture impacted attitudes toward job satisfaction in a medium-sized, consumer-owned electric utility over a period of 13 years. The unit of analysis was a municipal utility distributing electrical energy to approximately 27,000 customers. Data collection included the Science Research Associate Employee Inventory, a review of the organization's documents, and a subjective Job Satisfaction Questionnaire. A one-tailed z-test was performed to test whether or not the proportion of employees answering favorable in one survey was greater than the proportion answering favorable in the other survey. It …

Employment Qualifications For Community Service Agencies And Organizations In Midland And Odessa, Susan Garfield Edwards

Graduate Theses

The terms "social work," "casework," and "counseling" signify similar but separate professions, occupations, and techniques. Their places within the spectrum of community or helping services are clarified by a discussion of relevant literature. Based on these perspectives, a survey of 104 local helping service agencies and organizations was under taken to establish employment qualifications (educational, experiential, professional) for the helping professions. Follow-up was done in 10 situations where Master's Degrees in Social Work, Counseling, and Psychology were required for employment—to determine the particular value of the degree for the specific position. Indications from this study are: that, most positions available …