Psychology Commons^™

Third-Party Reactions To Performance Feedback, Daroon Mohammed Jalil

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Although the provision of feedback has traditionally been treated as a dyadic event, I argue for the existence of a neglected third-party - the witness. Drawing from the dual process model of vicarious mistreatment and feedback intervention theory, I hypothesize that 1) third parties experience negative [positive] affect when witnessing an unjust [just] feedback event, 2) negative [positive] affect is stronger when feedback cues are self-referenced [task-referenced], and 3) negative [positive] affect is related to a subsequent decrease [increase] in feedback seeking intentions. Results from a 2x2 between-subjects experiment with 470 participants provide partial support for the hypotheses. Third-parties experienced …

Dealing With The Effects Of Covid-19 Job Demands On Public Sector Employees’ Work Engagement And Job Burnout: The Role Of Public Service Motivation, Servant Leadership, And Mission Valence, Phillip Joseph Dillulio

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The global recession stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the public sector of the U.S. economy. Specifically, reduced tax revenues from a dramatic decline in economic activity and increased demand for public services resulted in new and increased job demands for public sector employees (Eggers et al., 2020). However, limited research has examined the effects of COVID-19-related demands on job burnout and work engagement among public sector employees, and the role of personal, social, and organizational resources to protect their well-being (Demerouti & Bakker, 2023). The current study addressed this gap by employing the Job Demands …

Determining The Degree To Which Ideational Behavior Predicts Occupational Identity Achievement In Emerging Adult College Students Preceding Entry Into The Fourth Industrial Revolution Workforce, Carrington M. Faulk

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

As emerging adults transition into the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) workforce, it is essential to understand the factors that predict successful occupational identity achievement, as automation will impact human occupational identity crises. This descriptive cross-sectional study implemented a correlation design to determine the degree to which ideational behavior predicts occupational identity achievement preceding entry into the 4IR workforce. Using a sample of 166 emerging adult college students from a Mid-Atlantic, diverse, four-year university, data were collected using Runco’s Ideational Behavior Scale (RIBS) and Melgosa’s Occupational Identity Achievement subscale (OIA). Results showed that ideational behavior significantly predicted occupational identity achievement ( …

Towards A Formal Theory Of Humor In Organizations, Richard Joseph Hayes

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Current theories and models of humor conceptualize humor at the individual, dyadic, and organizational level. These theories laid the foundation for research and empirical findings that have established humor’s impact in the workplace. Yet, because these theories are not integrated, they individually do not offer a comprehensive view of humor in the workplace across different levels, hindering the development of multilevel research designs. Additionally, the ambiguity of these narrative theories hampers empirical testing precision. This dissertation expands the literature by introducing a mathematical, multilevel model of humor and tests that theory using computational simulation methods. Synthetic environments reproduced observed correlations …

Two Essays On The Effects Of Ceo Social Activism, Habib Islam

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

The first essay theorizes and quantifies the effects of CEO activism on firms’ financial performance. We examine this relationship within the framework of screening theory. We find that CEO social activism generally leads to adverse investor reactions. This negative effect is most prominent when there is interdimensional incongruence in CEO social activism messages. In addition, we find that the negative effect of CEO social activism is moderated by organizational characteristics that resolve incongruence caused by disparate signals.

The second essay seeks to understand how a CEO’s social activism influences corporate social performance. We hypothesize that CEO social activism will have …

Human Resource Officer's Perspectives On Recruitment And Hiring Practices Of Diverse Candidates, Tara Kelton Mcdaniel

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

A wealth of research supports the positive impact minority teachers have on all students, but especially minority students. Benefits include an increase in academic achievement, an increase in educational engagement, and an overall sense of self-efficacy and autonomy. Unfortunately minority teachers and teachers of color are significantly underrepresented in the United States teaching workforce compared to their White counterparts. Challenges for diversifying the teaching workforce include historical factors of racism and suppression, the Whiteness of educator preparation programs as the prevailing ideology, and the presence of toxic work environment conditions during field placements and employment. While many historical and contemporary …

What Is The Meaning In This? Teachers' Propensity To Search For Meaning In Life During Covid-19 And The Role Of Meaningful Work, Seterra D. Burleson

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The global COVID-19 pandemic has presented notable challenges in teachers’ career paths. In the present study, Super’s life-span, life-space theory was applied to examine the interplay between K-12 teachers’ propensity to search for meaning in life and meaningfulness attributed to their work role (i.e., meaningful work) in predicting career-relevant outcomes in the face of challenging circumstances over the course of a semester. A model was proposed in which propensity to search for meaning in life led to better work and career outcomes, an effect moderated by meaningful work. Longitudinal data from a sample of 617 teachers over eight outcome measurement …

How Leader And Follower Mindfulness Relate To Performance And Ocb Through Conversation Quality And Empathy: A Moderated Mediation Model, Arianna White-Levatich

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Interest within the organizational research community regarding mindfulness has recently surged. Little research, however, has examined how employees’ mindfulness may influence interactions between leaders and followers. This study examined how followers’ trait mindfulness related to two specific aspects of dyadic interactions: leader – member conversational quality (LMCQ) and follower empathy toward a leader. Further, the study examined how this influence extended (via LMCQ and leader-oriented empathy) to task performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), two important workplace outcomes for followers. Leader mindfulness was also expected to have a significant influence on the relationships, in that it was expected to strengthen …

A Leader, A Follower, And Some Humor Walk Into A Meta-Analysis: A Review Of Positive And Negative Leader Humor, Richard Hayes

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Although leader humor is a growing research topic, there are still unaddressed issues surrounding this topic. In particular, there is disagreement surrounding the conceptualizations of positive and negative leader humor, conflicting theoretical predictions and empirical findings on the effects of leader humor, a dearth of research on the antecedents and correlates of leader humor, as well as a lack of research on the boundary conditions of these relationships. This qualitative and quantitative review of the nomological networks of positive and negative leader humor addressed these issues based on a meta-analysis of 67 empirical studies (N = 21,121). Results indicate that …

Helping Employees Help The Environment: An Intervention To Increase Environmental Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (Ocb-E) Via A Subtle Stimulus, Rebecca C. Garden

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Researchers’ understanding of the relationships between environmentally-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors (i.e., OCB-Es) and other workplace variables have improved since the turn of the century, but both our comprehension of the behaviors and the effectiveness of interventions targeting them require much more investigation. Further, there is very little research that examines the role of positive affect in promoting these behaviors, even though scholars have suggested that it may be the “silver bullet” (Kals & Müller, 2012) to facilitating employees’ voluntary environmental actions. To that end, the aim of the current research is to take an initial step towards understanding how organizations …

The Effects Of Optimism, Transformational Leadership, And Work Engagement On Work Outcomes: A Moderated Mediation Model, Chad Kenneally

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Optimism serves as a powerful resource that can help employees accomplish tasks at work and overcome challenges. However, there are still psychological connections that need to be drawn to explain why optimism has these effects. The Job Demands-Resources Model and the general resource perspective have previously investigated resources in the workplace and the relationships they hold with different work outcomes. In this study, work engagement was investigated as a mediator between optimism and task performance, work withdrawal, and turnover intention. Transformational leadership was investigated as a moderator for the relationship between optimism and work engagement. Optimism was expected to have …

The Effects Of Rating Source, Rating Target, And Job Position On Ratings Of Perceived Training Needs, Phillip Joseph Dillulio

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Organizational investments in employee training and development have steadily increased over the past decade, with a recent estimate of $160 billion dollars annually. An important component of any training program is the subsequent training needs assessment (TNA), which provides critical information regarding who and what needs trained. Unfortunately, TNA research is severely limited compared to other aspects of the training process. The primary aim of the current study was to examine two important variables that can potentially influence TNA ratings beyond an actual need for training, the source and target of TNA ratings. Based on the assumptions of attribution theory, …

Grateful Beneficiaries And Proud Benefactors: A Moderated Mediation Model Relating Supervisors' Gratitude Expression To Employees' Organizational Citizenship Behavior, William Peter Jimenez

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Few organizational researchers have considered examining gratitude or pride—much less both simultaneously. In the present study, two complementary emotion theories (i.e., affective events theory and broaden-and-build theory) are integrated in an examination of the prosocial consequences of supervisors’ gratitude expression, employees’ authentic and hubristic pride experiences, and employees’ narcissism in a large construction company in China. Results from the analyses of the moderated mediation model pathways indicated that most of the proposed relationships were nonsignificant. Supervisors’ gratitude expression predicted employees’ organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) but did not predict employees’ authentic or hubristic pride. Employees’ hubristic pride—but not authentic pride—predicted employees’ …

Threat Or Challenge? Intensified Job Demands And The Moderating Effect Of Differentiated Transformational Leadership, Benjamin Bass

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Over the past 30 years, industrialized democracies have experienced major economic change due to globalization, economic instability, and rapid technological innovation. To remain viable, organizations maximize flexibility through strategies like downsizing, just-in-time inventory, and temporary labor. Consequently, employees face heightened responsibility, variable workloads, and rising job insecurity. While these demands are stressful, at times, some may represent an exciting challenge. Recently, researchers started studying how the long-term intensification of work affects employees via intensified job demands. This dissertation builds on their efforts by exploring short-term job demand intensification. Specifically, the transactional model of stress and the job demands-resources model were …

Diversity Team Building: Impact On Virtual Team Performance, Nina C. Magpili-Smith

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Although organizations have addressed diversity issues at the organizational-level with resulting positive employee outcomes, lack of scholarly attention to team-level interventions remain. Team-level interventions would benefit organizations more directly as they address issues directly related to task accomplishment. Since diversity may lead to negative performance results for teams, a team building intervention based on the latest empirical research was developed and tested to address the potential performance losses associated to diversity in decision-making teams. The team building intervention provides six crucial elements, namely (1) direct experience of how deep-level team diversity affect team dynamics, (2) diversity education, (3) cultivation of …

An Investigation Into Perceived Productivity And Its Influence On The Relationship Between Organizational Climate And Affective Commitment, Kaitlynn Marie Castelle

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to investigate the influence of individually perceived productivity on the relationship between individually assessed organizational climate and affective commitment, from heterogeneous survey participant data. A theoretical framework is adopted to explain how organizational climate shapes employee perception and how this relationship is moderated by a perceived productivity. This is a relatively unexplored concept in the defined context and has been developed by the researcher. Perceived productivity was measured using an instrument developed in this research to gauge respondents’ perception of their productivity. The instrument, named the General Measure of Perceived Productivity (GMPP), was developed …

Supervisor And Subordinate Perceptions Of Leader-Member Exchange: Examining Idiosyncratic Deals And Work-Family Experiences In A Moderated Mediation Model, Michael L. Litano

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The extant literature recognizes that subordinates in high-quality leader-member exchange (LMX) relationships experience the most favorable outcomes (Dulebohn, Bommer, Liden, Brouer, & Ferris, 2012). In exchange for their unwavering commitment and superior job performance, high LMX subordinates benefit from greater access to valuable resources (e.g., communication, support, and negotiating latitude; Gerstner & Day, 1997), which can then be used to combat job demands and facilitate accomplishment of the subordinates’ salient goals (Agarwal, Datta, Blake-Beard, & Bhargava, 2012; Hobfoll, 2001). Meta-analytic evidence suggests that LMX also has critical implications for work-family outcomes (Litano, Major, Streets, Landers, & Bass, 2016), however, the …

Employee Behavioral Intention And Technology Use: Mediating Processes And Individual Difference Moderators, Robert Conrad Brusso

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Considering the substantial amount of time and organizational resources that are involved in the development and implementation of end-user technology (e.g., communication software platforms, social networking sites) within organizations, it is imperative to understand the factors that best predict use of end-user software. Although technology acceptance models, grounded in broader theories of behavior, do exist, these models fall-short in determining the most proximal antecedents of actual behavior. Currently, the majority of the research in the information technology arena posits behavioral intention as the most proximal antecedent of technology use. Behavioral intention does explain variance in use, but this relationship has …

An Evaluation Of Game Fiction-Enhanced Training: Using Narrative To Improve Trainee Reactions And Learning, Michael Beaumont Armstrong

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Gamification is growing in popularity in instructional contexts like education and workplace training, but it is unclear which game elements are specifically conducive to improve learning outcomes. Narratives, which represent one way the game element “game fiction” is commonly implemented, have been used to improve learning outcomes over expository texts in the context of psycholinguistics, whereas the Technology-Enhanced Training Effectiveness Model (TETEM) proposes that certain individual differences impact the relationships between technology-enhanced training and learning outcomes. From this theoretical basis, this study gamified a training session with game fiction in order to improve reactions to training and learning over the …

An Analysis Of The Relationship Between Military Leaders' Operational Adaptability And Knowledge Transfer, Vahap Kavaker

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A variety of research underlines the increasing need for adaptable leaders in the military and enhancing operational adaptability is accepted as one of the crucial factors for achieving success in future military operations. In general terms, operational adaptability is the ability to successfully respond to unforeseen changing situations during military operations. However, this study reveals that operational adaptability is not clearly conceptualized and supporting factors are not investigated in detail in the literature. Among possible factors, knowledge transfer is claimed to be an important practice that increases personal performance and effectiveness.

This research conceptualized operational adaptability and investigated the relationship …

Management And Leadership Style: Is Style Influenced By Engineering Education?, Jesse Levi Calloway

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This paper addresses one aspect of the opportunity for corporations to reduce leadership development infrastructure by narrowing the participant pool to candidates that, intuitively, may be multi-skilled and capable of handling diverse roles and assignments within the corporate environment. In particular, the study seeks to determine the effect that engineering education has on leadership style by comparing the leadership style of certified project managers (CPMs), and non-CPM managers with engineering degrees, to the same for CPMs, and non-CPM managers, who do not possess engineering degrees. Engineering degrees may be further defined as mechanical, electrical, industrial and the like. Leadership styles …

Self-Regulating Teamwork Behaviors In Low-Volume & High-Complexity Production, Aaron W. Powell

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

An environment of ever increasing competition drives manufacturing organizations to continually search for ways to improve the performance of their production operations. Lean manufacturing, born out of the Toyota Production System (TPS), has become the dominant improvement method sought to meet this need. Although well established in high-volume production settings, the application of lean production methods in low-volume and high-complexity (LVHC) manufacturing contexts has not been as successful. A commonly cited reason is a biased focus on the technical aspects of implementing lean methods with little regard for the social system involved in the change. In the LVHC manufacturing context, …

Mutual Performance Monitoring In Virtual Teams, Nathan Haugejorde Bjornberg

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The use of virtual teams in organizations has become commonplace (SHRM, 2012). While a great deal of research on teamwork exists, much of it has focused on collocated teams. Spatial and temporal separations inherent in virtual teams make working together as a team more difficult. This research examined a teamwork process previously unexplored within virtual teams -- mutual performance monitoring. An experimental intervention was conducted and outcomes at both the individual and team levels of analysis were examined. A total of 161 participants were assigned to work together in 47 teams on a decision-making task. Participants communicated and worked together …

An Investigation Into The Relationship Between An Engineering Manager's Purpose-Seeking Beliefs And Behaviors And The Engineering Manager's Perception Of Employee Creativity, Initiative And Purpose-Seeking Behavior, Charles Burton Daniels

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Organizations have placed an overwhelming emphasis on extrinsic motivation of its workforce, normally in the form of financial incentives, in an attempt to assure individual and organizational high performance. While a significant level of financial resources is expended in this attempt to predict and influence employee behavior, no objective evidence exists of a favorable return of investment. In fact, the primary impact of most extrinsic motivation might actually be demotivation – the opposite of the intended use.

In this research the prevailing literature was examined and a conclusion about the power of both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation was synthesized to …

Coping With Customer Sexual Harassment: Examining Retaliation As A Coping Strategy And Testing A Contextual Model, Valerie J. Morganson

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Research has established that customer sexual harassment (CSH) is a widespread and harmful workplace phenomenon. This dissertation consists of two studies on the topic. The first sought to operationalize a measure of coping with customer sexual harassment. In addition to three traditional factors of sexual harassment coping (i.e., external, internal, and social), Study 1 predicted that worker retaliation toward the customer would constitute an additional form of coping with CSH. The measure of coping was tested using a sample of 200 women customer service workers. Data were analyzed using factor analysis. As expected, retaliation was supported as a coping strategy, …

Social Networking And Individual Performance: Examining Predictors Of Participation, Michael Anthony Brown Sr.

School of Public Service Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation addresses relationships between social networking and individual performance. The "act" of social networking is a process and practice by which people and organizations are drawn together by family, work or hobby to interact via websites. The explosion of these new network connections in the workplace suggests the need for an exploration of the various ways organizations can affect and improve performance and productivity.

This dissertation suggests a social networking participation model that may help organizations predict and understand the value proposition that affects acceptance or rejection of participation. Innovation adoption, governing by network and social capital are important …

Effect Of Household Structure On Family-Friendly Benefit Utilization: Implications For Organizational Attraction And Workplace Withdrawal Behaviors Of Federal Government Employees, Sharyn J. Aufenanger

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the effect of household structure on utilization of family-friendly benefits in organizations, as well as the impact that family-friendly benefit utilization has on organizational attraction and workplace withdrawal behaviors among Federal government employees with children. Results showed that alternative work arrangements (e.g., compressed and flexible schedules) were popular among all employees who have children. Family-friendly benefit utilization rates were highest among single parent employees and lowest among traditional family employees. Single parent employees were more likely to use flexible schedules, part-time, compressed schedules, telework, and sick and annual leave. Dual income employees were more likely to use …

Teamwork In Chinese Organizations: A New Concept And Framework, Ying Liu

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Teamwork has always been a challenge in China, and the importance of teamwork has not been well recognized. This study was designed to explore the underlying definition of teamwork that Chinese people use to describe their teams, to identify variables related to teamwork, to develop a new framework and measure of teamwork in Chinese organizations, and to test the psychometric properties of the measure as well as the structural relationships of the new framework of teamwork in Chinese teams. This study also examines the influence of guanxi---an important Chinese cultural value that emphasizes exchange and reciprocity in relationships---on teamwork in …

Creating Inclusive Organizations: Its Meaning And Measurement, Bryan Christopher Hayes

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

There is growing interest in the concept of inclusion by both scientists and practitioners. The goal of the current study was to bring empirical support to the organizational inclusion literature. Inclusion was defined as a psychosocial need and a model was developed specifying its relationship to antecedent and consequence variables. The measurement model was explored with a sample of responses from 418 undergraduate students (Study 1). The measurement model was confirmed and the structural model was assessed with a sample of responses from 609 employees of a medical center (Study 2). Results of structural equation modeling provided limited support for …

Effects Of Organizational Climate, Feedback-Seeking Environment And Innovation Characteristics On The Implementation Of A 360-Degree Feedback System, Simon Alan Bartle

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The present study examined the effects of organizational climate, feedback seeking environment and innovation characteristics on the implementation of a 360-degree feedback system within a large financial holdings company. The effect of user attitudes toward the 360-degree feedback system was also assessed. A sample of responses from 255 360-degree feedback system users was collected over a 14-month time period. LISREL was used to test the hypothesized structural model. Overall goodness of fit for the model was poor (using generalized least squares estimates: the Non-Normed Fit Index (NNFI) = .95, Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = .96; Root Mean Square Error of …