Psychology Commons^™

Women’S Self-Nomination For Leadership Development Programs (Ldps): Gender, Personal Cultural Values, And The Mediating Role Of Leadership Self-Efficacy, Alessa Natale

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Organizations are looking for ways to increase representation of women in leadership and leadership development programs (LDPs). Traditionally, individuals are nominated for entry into these programs, which can result in bias against groups generally underrepresented in leadership. In response, firms may consider using a self-nomination model for entry, whereby individuals submit themselves for consideration for an LDP. However, scant research has focused on the implications of utilizing such a process.

The current work provides a first step towards filling this gap by examining gender and cultural differences in LDP self-nomination. Drawing from the proactive behavior literature, the present study examined …

The Bright And Dark Sides Of Upward Social Comparison: Knowledge Sharing And Knowledge Hiding Directed At High Performers, Soohyun (Ashley) Lee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present research investigated when and why employees might share or hide their work information from coworkers who perform better than themselves. Drawing from social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954) and social exchange theory (Blau, 1964), I predicted that upward social comparison would lead to both pleasant reactions (inspiration, perceived gain of work resources) and unpleasant reactions (envy, perceived loss of work resources), which in turn would differentially affect knowledge sharing/hiding behaviors targeting high-performing coworkers. I further predicted that individual differences in directing behaviors toward goals (goal orientation) and task structures requiring reliance on coworkers (task interdependence) would moderate the relationships …

Intelligence Testing In The New (Langu)Age: Effects Of Item-Type And Assessment Medium Features On Fluid Intelligence Test Linguistic Group Score Differences, Paige R. Alenick

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

As fluid intelligence tests are an integral part of modern employee selection protocols, assessment designers are tasked to ensure the construct is measured accurately for all test-takers regardless of their demographic traits. Disparities in bilingual and monolingual working memory capabilities, which are critical for successful fluid intelligence test performance, might make it challenging for test designers to accomplish this goal. Best design practice in such cases is to identify assessment conditions that allow for equitable expression of the test construct. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine whether the content of items present on a fluid intelligence test …

Tell Me A Story: Exploring The Use Of Narratives To Reduce Backlash To Organizational Diversity Initiatives, Desmond W. Leung

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Diversity initiatives represent key priorities for many organizations, but research and recent high-profile examples suggest that diversity initiatives can generate significant backlash, particularly among organizational members. The primary aim of this study is to investigate how narrative forms of diversity initiative messaging may attenuate backlash among organizational members compared to more traditional expository forms of diversity initiative messaging. Drawing on research related to narrative communication, persuasion, and diversity, I proposed a first-stage dual moderated mediation model where psychological reactance and perceptions of realistic threat mediate the negative effect of narrative (vs. expository) diversity messaging on backlash. Additionally, I examined whether …

Examining The Buffering Effect Of Mindfulness On The Relationship Between Stress And Ethical Decision Making, Irina Kuzmich

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Poor ethical decision making is an issue in many modern-day organizations. Academic research and the popular press have shown that failures in ethical decision making have resulted in harm to organizations, their employees, and the societies in which they exist. While there is much research into what may impact ethical decision making, this paper examined the effects of two understudied factors, stress and mindfulness, within a self-regulatory framework. A 2x2 experimental design with undergraduate student participants was used in which each participant was randomly assigned to a mindfulness training condition and a stress condition. Trait mindfulness was also measured as …

The Impact Of Personal Resources, Job Resources And Job Demands On Nurse Engagement, Michael J. Kern

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In today’s VUCA (Volatile, Complex, Uncertain, and Ambiguous) world, the more we understand about how individual differences interact with the work environment to impact employee engagement the greater our chances are of making changes to lead to positive work outcomes regardless of the profession. There is no profession better suited for this type of investigation than that of nursing. Previous research has shown that more highly engaged nurses are able to provide better care and thus increase the chances of a more favorable outcome. There are many factors that can impact work engagement and one accepted model that helps to …

In The Eye Of The Beholder: A Daily Diary Investigation Of Appraisals Of Illegitimate Tasks, Danielle Robyn Wald

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Traditional research on illegitimate tasks has focused on two dimensions, unreasonable tasks and unnecessary tasks, and has assumed that threat appraisal is the underlying mechanism explaining their effects. This study introduced a revised three-dimensional framework of illegitimate tasks that consists of promoting unreasonable tasks, demoting unreasonable tasks, and unnecessary tasks. Further, it explored the differential relationships of each dimension of illegitimate tasks with three outcomes: emotional exhaustion, organization-based self-esteem (OBSE), and psychological empowerment. Furthermore, it proposed that among the three appraisals, challenge appraisal is the strongest mediator between promoting unreasonable tasks and outcomes, threat appraisal is the strongest mediator between …

Is Less More? Examining The Effects Of Predictor Method Factors On Mobile Sjt Scores And Test-Taker Reactions, Anne E. Kato

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In recent years, job applicants have increasingly taken internet-based pre-employment tests on mobile devices (e.g., smartphones) in addition to nonmobile devices (e.g., computers). This mobile assessment phenomenon introduces new issues into the test design process, such as ensuring consistent assessment outcomes across different device types. Mobile assessment research has focused on device attributes and predictor constructs as explanations for potential differences across device types but has given little attention to predictor methods. Examining the role of predictor methods is important for understanding how to design assessments that perform comparably across device types, particularly for highly modular methods like situational judgment …

Motivation Of Networking Behavior: A Study Of Novel Interventions, Jeremy D. Rothstein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Networking is a critical yet potentially underutilized career self-management strategy. The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the extent to which novel reading and writing exercises could foster networking motivation and network use. The first set, based on Social-Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), was designed to increase participants’ confidence about their ability to engage in effective networking, and help them believe that networking is a valuable activity. The second set, based on Goal-Setting Theory (GST), was designed to help participants practice setting effective career development objectives and networking goals linked to those objectives. The Networking Information Control (NIC) condition was …

School Recess And Changes To Children's Play Opportunities In New York City, Keyonna Hayes

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The policy, No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 in US public schools was designed to improve how children learn and test in schools, but it has resulted in the decline or removal of recess from most schools. This thesis examines two important issues. The first issue is to assess the play opportunities that public elementary schools offer to children, in terms of both the time available for recess and the quality of the spaces and resources for play during recess. The second issue is to learn, alongside the question of the quality of school recess, how parents’ work …

Migration And Work: A Cross-National Comparative Analysis Of Migrant Groups And Their Labor Experiences, Post Migration, Jill Douek

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Although there is a large body of literature about migration and employment post migration, much of it is limited to study designs restricting either migrant groups or countries. In other words, current research is limited to focusing either a) only on one migrant group (usually expatriates), thereby failing to compare it to other migrant groups within the same country or cross-nationally or b) on multiple migrant groups in one country, thereby making it difficult to draw comparisons cross-nationally across those migrant groups. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to 1) examine the career-related outcomes, post migration, of three …

Exploring The Effects Of Coworker Ostracism On Feedback Inquiry And Voice: The Mediating Role Of Proactive Motivation, Ethan G. Rothstein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Coworker ostracism occurs when employees perceive that their coworkers are ignoring or excluding them. The current work examines how coworker ostracism predicts feedback inquiry and voice, two proactive behaviors important for individual and organizational success. Specifically, I explored whether these relationships are mediated by three proactive motivation states: organizational identification, control appraisal, and positive affect. I also examined whether political skill and perceived organizational support (POS) moderated the relationships between coworker ostracism and proactive motivation states, as well as the proposed indirect effects. I collected data from 309 participants via TurkPrime, using a two-wave lagged design with measurements separated by …

Illegitimate Tasks And Performance Outcomes: The Moderating Role Of The Perception Of Coworker Sharing Illegitimate Tasks Experiences, Marino Mugayar-Baldocchi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Illegitimate tasks are unreasonable and unnecessary tasks that violate an individual’s work identity and the existing literature suggests that they can be linked with various employee strains. The detrimental aspect of illegitimate tasks is mainly based on the recipients’ perception rather than on their inherent characteristics, yet prior research on illegitimate tasks fails to account for contextual factors that might affect the perception of this experience and its outcomes. In addition, behavioral outcomes within the domain of employee performance, such as in-role performance and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) have been largely overlooked. The current research explored the relationship between perceived …

#Fired: Survivor Reactions To Facebook Firing In Organizations, Rachel Omansky

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Facebook firing (i.e. employee termination due to social media activity) is a novel type of termination that has developed in recent decades. Though Facebook firing is becoming increasingly common, almost no research has been conducted on this practice. Using a multi-step, multi-method approach, this dissertation attempted to better define the construct and examine its implications for inciting negative reactions from surviving employees, or those employed with the terminated employee at the time of termination, who knew or knew of the employee but were uninvolved in the incident. Study 1 details an effort to identify Facebook firing’s characteristics through a case …

The Dynamic Linkages Between Structural Interdependencies, Computer-Mediated Communication, And Emergence In Newly Formed Virtual Groups, Erik Pesner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Virtual groups and teams are increasingly common in today’s organizations, particularly since the onset of the Covid-19 crisis. However, little is known about how specific design features predict communicative team processes and emergent phenomena in the days immediately following virtual team formation. This dissertation examined the effects of task interdependence (i.e., shared resources) and outcome interdependence (i.e., shared goals and feedback) on task-oriented and relationship-oriented electronic communication between group members and emergent group perceptions over a 5-day experimental simulation. Results showed that while the majority of hypotheses were not supported, three key findings were culled from the analysis. First, virtual …

Gender Differences In Personality: An Item-Level Analysis, Casey C. Smith

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Personality is a social and organizational construct with a substantial history and discourse. One particular area in personality that is of interest is gender differences in personality. Gender differences have been found on scales measuring various aspects of personality, such as narcissism (Grijalva et al., 2014). While there are differences present in personality data, there hasn’t been a consistent explanation for why this occurs. This research looked specifically at the construction of personality items to begin to understand the differences in personality by gender. While social roles and social context are mostly referenced to inform the response patterns of men …

The Squeaky Wheel Gets The Oil? On The Interpersonal Effects Of Boredom Expression, Manuel F. Gonzalez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

I explored how people react to employees who express boredom at work. I consider boredom expression as a social signal that the current situation does not adequately stimulate the expresser. The expression may then propel others to help stimulate the expresser, depending partly on others’ initial appraisals and reactions to the expression, and on the surrounding context. In Study 1, using qualitative surveys, I uncovered various affective, cognitive, and behavioral reactions to employees who expressed boredom. In Study 2, using experimental vignettes, I manipulated the emotion expressed by a “subordinate” (boredom, enthusiasm, or no emotion) and the manager’s beliefs about …

New Tower Of Babel: Probing The Antecedents And Consequences Of Linguistic Ostracism, Julia N. Leone

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

While workplace interactions are likely to be conducted in English, the lingua franca of international business (Janssens, Lambert, & Steyaert, 2004), employees may occasionally switch to their native language in their interactions with coworkers who share knowledge of this language. Linguistic ostracism (LO) refers to situations in which two or more people use a language that others in their presence cannot understand (Dotan-Eliaz, Sommer, & Rubin, 2009). This dissertation explored the contextual antecedents of LO in a business setting, probed managerial techniques currently used to mitigate the effects of LO, and examined the relationship between LO and organizational citizenship behaviors. …

Work–Family Conflict In Low-Income Households, Maritza G. Hiciano Ramos

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The United States is the only country not offering paid parental leave. Paid leave is left at the discretion of employers and only a few states offer Paid Family Leave benefits. The FMLA was established to protect workers from losing their jobs in case they needed to care for an elderly person or for their children. However, since value is not placed in family structures there has not been much development in that area. The FMLA fails to account for the grand majority of people in the U.S., especially those of lower socioeconomic status. Moreover, the vast inequalities that exists …

Exploring The Relationship Between Perceived Interpersonal Influence And Citizenship Behavior: The Mediating Roles Of Social Identity And Team Member Exchange, Laura Sywulak

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Social or interpersonal influence has been widely studied in both social and organizational psychology, however no research to date has examined how perceptions of one’s ability to influence their coworkers impacts work-related attitudes and behavior. Experimental work in lab settings provides evidence that successfully influencing others consistently leads to increased helping behavior (Bruno, 2013; Bruno et al., 2008; Sywulak, Sommer & Bourgeois, 2013), but the relationship between influence and helping has not been studied in an organizational setting. Further, while several mediating mechanisms have been tested, how perceived influence leads to helping is still unknown. I present a study that …

An Affective Events Theory Analysis Of Conflict Perception Emergence, Michael J. Covell

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Popular conceptualizations of conflict conflate conflict perception with other discrete constructs such as disagreement and emotions. This makes research using those conceptualizations difficult to interpret. I invoke affective events theory to describe how constructs conflated with conflict perception, as well as negative prescriptive expectancy violations (EVs), may collectively serve as antecedents to conflict perception. By reconceptualizing conflict perception as an evaluative judgment and distinguishing between episodic (short-term) and global (long-term) conflict perceptions, my model describes how episodic conflict perceptions cumulatively influence global conflict perceptions over time. Two types of events (disagreements and negative prescriptive EVs) were proposed to predict episodic …

The Development And Validation Of An Ideal Point Measure Of Work Engagement, Michael M. Denunzio

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Work engagement has been an extremely popular area of research and practice over the past two decades. However, organizational scholars have yet to thoughtfully consider alternative and potentially more appropriate ways of modeling how individuals report their work engagement and, relatedly, measuring the construct. This dissertation seeks to establish and support the position that (1) individuals use an ideal point (vs. dominance) process to identify how engaged they are and respond to work engagement items, and (2) an ideal point framework can be used to develop a construct valid work engagement scale with good psychometric properties. Since no such scale …

A Meta-Analysis Of Information Processing Measures Of Intelligence, Performance, And Group Score Differences, Elliott C. Larson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Intelligence is one of the most studied constructs in industrial-organizational (I-O) and educational psychology. Findings from numerous studies and meta-analyses have consistently demonstrated the power of intelligence measures to predict performance across a wide range of domains. This research has been fruitful and provides strong evidence for the utility of intelligence measures in organizations and schools. However, while intelligence measures have been developed and applied for over a century, most research in I-O psychology has relied on operationalizations of intelligence that focus on a person’s knowledge. Meta-theories of intelligence propose that intelligence can simultaneously be conceptualized as a person’s ability …

The Role Of Self-Disclosure In Improving Workplace Cross-Race Mentoring Outcomes, Christine R. Smith

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

While the racial diversity of the workforce is increasing, minority employees still do not appear to be advancing professionally at the same rates as White employees. There are many explanations for why minority employees do not experience the same rates of advancement as White employees. One key developmental relationship that can aid in increasing the opportunities for minority employees to advance and grow in an organization is the mentoring relationship. However, given the lack of diversity in the upper levels of organizational hierarchies, minorities are more likely to have a White mentor than they are to have a minority mentor. …

Colorism In Assessor Ratings: Exploring The Roles Of Social Dominance Orientation, Metaphorical Associations And Skin Tone Stereotypes, Tiwi D. Marira

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In recent years, public awareness of colorism, or discrimination based on skin tone, has grown. A previous study (Marira & Sommer, 2014) revealed that Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) (i.e., the desire for group-based hierarchy) predicted Black participants’ discriminatory résumé ratings and hiring decisions in favor of lighter-skinned over darker-skinned, African American job applicants. This investigation focused on replicating and extending these findings by utilizing a more racially inclusive sample of Black and White adults and by examining more realistic candidate evaluation and hiring assessments. These simulated workplace assessments were embedded in an online business simulation requiring participants to make …

Leadership Ineffectiveness: The Interactive Effects Of Leader Personality, Job Demands, And Job Resources On Ethical Climate And Employee Turnover Intentions, Michelle D. Corman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Goals of the present research were to demonstrate that: (a) leadership personality is related to employee perceptions of the organization’s ethical climate; (b) leader job stress moderates this relationship for certain personality attributes; and (c) such leader-associated ethical climate, in turn, is related to employee turnover intentions and ultimate turnover (see Figure 1). Specifically, I investigated how individual differences in certain leadership “dark side” traits interact with leader job stress to influence the perceived ethical climate of their employees, to ultimately impact employee turnover intentions and turnover. Another goal of this research was to make unique predictions for the leadership …

Broad Skill Focused Job Seeking: A Study Of Intervention And Employment Outcomes, Eric A. Knudsen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The job search has been the subject of research across many disciplines adopting varied perspectives. However, the industrial-organizational psychology literature on the job search has failed to properly consider the role of individual differences in thought about the utility of job skills independent of context. This dissertation is an attempt to establish and study the construct of broad skill focus- the extent to which individuals adopt a perspective and understanding of the broader generalizability of their work skills, versus their context-specific applications (i.e., the settings in which they were learned). As no measurement tool exists for studying this construct, Study …

Reasoning With Pseudowords: How Properties Of Novel Verbal Stimuli Influence Item Difficulty And Linguistic-Group Score Differences On Cognitive Ability Assessments, Paul Agnello

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Pseudowords (words that are not real but resemble real words in a language) have been used increasingly as a technique to reduce contamination due to construct-irrelevant variance in assessments of verbal fluid reasoning (Gf). However, despite pseudowords being researched heavily in other psychology sub-disciplines, they have received little attention in cognitive ability testing contexts. Thus, there has been an assumption that all pseudowords work equally and work equally well for all test-takers. The current research examined three objectives with the first being whether changes to the pseudoword properties of length and wordlikeness (how much a pseudoword resembles a typical or …

Libraries And The Missing Narrative: Practitioner Explorations In The Use Of Design Psychology And Environmental Autobiography For Library Buildings And Designs, Amy Beth

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Environmental Autobiography as a research method of Environmental Psychology and Design Psychology informs this study of the meaning and experiences of libraries described by six library-building design practitioners. Participants were guided through an adaptation of Toby Israel’s (2010) Design Psychology Toolbox (hereafter known as the DPT or the “Toolbox”) exercises. The research is intended to expand the practice of designing libraries as places and spaces where social and emotional affordance is supported. Emphasizing the significance of libraries as place and space where people often have rich and even transformative experiences serves to augment use-efficiency and evidence-based space planning. Primary goals …

The Effects Of Social Power Bases Within Varying Organizational Cultures, Ayanna Cummings

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study focuses on social power in the context of organizational culture and how this relationship impacts outcomes of follower compliance and trust. Power is the ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or a course of events (Handgraaf, et al., 2008). There are six different types of social power, including informational, referent, legitimate, coercive, rewarding, and expert (Fontaine & Beerman, 1977). Each type of social power may lead to varying psychological outcomes, such as compliance, satisfaction, and agreement. To date, the empirical literature has not fully addressed the issue of whether one type of power is more …