Industrial and Organizational Psychology Commons^™

Impact Of Organizational Culture And Leadership In Professional Environments, Eli Wolman

Capstone Showcase

This paper addresses the importance of a strong organizational culture and effective leadership in a professional working environment. Leadership has been shown to profoundly impact a professional working environment's performance, productivity, mental well-being, and goal attainment. Organizational Culture is the set of values and norms a group shares. As influential organizational culture proves to be effective, leadership may come in the form of several styles, including transformational leadership, directive leadership, or empowering leadership, which also play a pivotal role in the success of a group. Ultimately, even though this paper primarily prioritizes the implications of leadership and culture on professional …

Leadership And Environmental Sustainability: An Integrative Conceptual Model Of Multilevel Antecedents And Consequences Of Leader Green Behavior, Hannes Zacher, Clara Kühner, Ian M. Katz, Cort W. Rudolph

Psychology Faculty Publications

Environmental sustainability is a strategic and ethical imperative for organizations, and numerous studies have investigated associations between leadership and employee pro-environmental or “green” behavior. However, these studies have typically focused on leadership styles that conflate leader behavior with its assumed antecedents or consequences. Moreover, the literature on relations between leadership and environmental sustainability constructs is fragmented and in need of systematic integration to effectively guide future research and practice. Accordingly, we pursue three goals in this conceptual paper. First, after a brief review of key insights from extant theoretical and empirical research, we define leadership in the context of environmental …

The Impact Of Leadership Turnover On Child Welfare Workforce Initiatives, Courtney Harrison, Megan Paul

QIC-Takes

Turnover among public child welfare leaders is prevalent. Across the eight QIC-WD intervention sites, leadership turnover was one of the most common implementation challenges observed by the QIC-WD team. Leadership changes can disrupt the implementation of a workforce initiative by shifting agency-level priorities, the organizational climate, or key staff.

Child welfare leaders may be appointed or hired in many different ways in different jurisdictions. In some states, the Governor appoints a cabinet-level child welfare director who oversees a stand-alone agency. This means that child welfare leadership changes follow the political election cycle with new governors appointing new agency leaders every …

Human Psychology Factors Influencing Agile Team Autonomy In Post-Pandemic Remote Software Organizations, Ravikiran Kalluri

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Agile project management methods are gaining in popularity in the software industry as software development teams are being asked to be adaptive to market needs and resilient to change and uncertainty. With increasing market uncertainty, global competition, and time-to-market pressure, it is becoming a challenge to develop an innovative product and deliver it on-time without the opportunity that comes from team autonomy to experiment and learn from failures in a remote workplace. To resolve this challenge, it is critical to understand the myriad human psychological factors in play that influence Agile team autonomy in a remote work environment.

The role …

The Dark Side Of Leadership: Mid-Level Managers And Their Experience With Hubristic Behaviors Of Executives, Leili Sadaghiani

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to identify the emotional reactions of mid-level managers to executives’ hubris behaviors in a corporate setting.

Methodology: This leadership study uses qualitative phenomenological methodology was executed to explore the lived experiences of mid-level managers with past executives who practiced hubristic behavior.

Findings: The findings of this research on the lived experiences of mid-level managers with hubristic behaviors of executives suggest that the lack of support lessens the mid-level manager’s confidence; with little support; the mid-level manager was either afraid to fight the executive or gave up trying; the mid-level manager faced stress even …

From A Boy To A Leader, Alejandro Zayas

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The following autoethnographic dissertation examines my personal experiences of trauma, abuse, and violence. Drawing on journals, memories, and artifacts from my life, I use self-reflection to illustrate the impacts of trauma on my childhood and adulthood. My traumatic experiences of sexual abuse, childhood violence, and emotional abuse are situated within broader sociocultural contexts of masculinity, Hispanic culture, and social norms. This study illuminates possibilities for healing and transformation for myself and others with shared traumatic backgrounds. It calls for trauma-informed education, masculinity, and resiliency. Evocatively sharing my traumatic life events provides an accessible window into often silenced experiences, bearing witness …

Transformational Leadership, Sarah Stepanek, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is transformational leadership? Transformational leadership refers to leadership behaviors that transcend the basic employment contract and help motivate followers to achieve beyond expectations (Antonakis et al., 2003; Bass, 1999). Transformational leaders seek to “uplift the morale, motivation, and morals of their followers” (Bass, 1999, p. 9). Through the four facets of transformational leadership (idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration), transformational leaders help followers create meaning, selfactualize, feel part of a collective, find greater self-worth, and achieve great things (Bass, 1999). The dimensions of transformational leadership are further detailed below. ► Idealized influence: This dimension of transformational …

Subtle Leadership: When Referent Power Is Subtly Powerful, Luz E. Quiñones-González

The Journal of Values-Based Leadership

The following research presents the construct of “subtle leadership” in a conceptual discussion as a new way of perceiving and studying leaders of the twenty-first century. Its core objective points toward the conceptualization of “subtle leadership,” sharing a basic definition to provoke discussion and emerging theoretical framework in order to better understand the current organizational reality. Some leadership styles such as servant leadership, shared leadership, and authentic leadership are discussed to compare and contrast them with “subtle leadership,” emphasizing that leadership is viewed as a process and not only as styles or personal traits. Subtle leadership is primarily based on …

Are All High-Potentials Successful Leaders? Exploring The Underlying Effect Of Impostor Syndrome And Evaluative Concerns On The Relationship Between Hipo Designation And Leadership Self-Efficacy., Anjishnu Chakrabarti, Lisa M. Finkelstein

Honors Capstones

The rising prevalence of high-potential (HiPo) employee programs in organizations has led academicians to begin to research this newly developing area under the realm of industrial/organizational psychology. High-potential programs are intended to find employees with the maximum potential to succeed in strategic leadership roles within the organization and provide those individuals with specialized training and related developmental opportunities. The term “HiPo” refers to such employees who are designated as having higher potential than the average. This study aimed to explore the relationship that exists between employees being designated as HiPo and their self-perception of being successful leaders (measured as leadership …

Gender Differences In The Impact Of Worklife On Executives’ Psychological Health, Marcus B. Mueller

WCBT Faculty Publications

The Impact of Worklife on Executives’ Psychological Health Purpose: This is the first scientific research studying the impact of worklife factors on executives’ psychological health by gender. The study has a particular focus on the factors of ‘Community’ and ‘Work-life balance’.

Design: Survey data were collected from N=481 senior executives to measure seven worklife factors and psychological health. Standardized regression analysis was performed for each worklife in a regression model predicting psychological health by gender.

Findings: Results showed significant differences between female and male senior executives in the profiles of seven worklife factors in terms of their relationship with …

The Social Cognitive Model Of Leadership Perceptions: Proposing A Dynamic, Integrated Theory Of Leadership Identification And Appraisal, Leah Howard, Justin Travis

University of South Carolina Upstate Student Research Journal

This paper is an exploration of the relationships between the stereotype content model, implicit leadership theory, and leadership behavior theory with a focus on illuminating the elements held in common by these three theories and identifying the positive implications of integrating these theories into an inclusive social cognitive model for future leadership research.

After briefly summarizing the three focal theories, we highlight the correspondence between them. We then establish the importance of organizing these theories into a comprehensive model which can be used to understand and explain leadership from a cohesive, multidimensional approach. In proposing such a theoretical model, we …

Improving The Child Welfare Workforce Through Training: Common Questions And Evidence-Informed Answers From The Qic-Wd, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

QIC-Tips

Training is often the first intervention child welfare agencies use to address critical workforce development issues. This QIC-Tip aims to answer child welfare agency leaders’ questions about effective training strategies to increase knowledge, enhance skills, and improve job performance. Answers are drawn from the QIC-WD Umbrella Summaries which present a synopsis of the published meta-analyses of specific workforce topics.

What broad-based training approaches can improve employee learning outcomes and job performance?

Coaching uses a structured learning process, over time, to help the learner reach specific goals. Meta-analytic research on the use of professional coaches (not managers or experienced coworkers) …

Leadership Training, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is leadership training? Leadership training is a broad term with no universal definition. For the purposes of this review, it refers to “programs that have been systematically designed to enhance leader knowledge, skills, abilities, and other components” and it includes “all forms of leader, managerial, and supervisory training/development programs and/or workshops” (Lacerenza et al., 2017, p. 1687). As with all training, leadership training can vary in many ways. Below are some of the more common aspects that have been empirically evaluated:  Needs analysis: whether a systematic process was used to identify training needs and design the training accordingly …

Navigating The Murky Middle: Understanding How Career Aspirations And Experiences Influence The Career Progression Of Women Identifying, Student Affairs, Middle Managers, Lindsey Gilmore

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

Even though women have made tremendous strides in many facets of education, ascending the administrative and leadership ranks within universities at a proportionate ratio to the number of women who peak as middle managers is not one of them. In the past 40 years, the number of women serving as presidents of universities across the nation has increased less than 10% from 21.1% in 1975 to 30.1% in 2016 (ACE, 2018). If a woman does find herself serving at the helm of an institution, it is more than likely at a “private, liberal arts schools rather than at doctoral granting, …

An Integrative Study Of Service And Safety Climate And Performance: Do Climates Compete?, Jeffrey B. Paul

Selected Faculty Publications

Organizational scholars continue to expand our knowledge of the contextual forces influencing employee behavior in organizations. A notable stream in this research agenda includes organizational climate studies that describe the social processes guiding employee perceptions of their environment. These shared perceptions formulate climate constructs that have demonstrated through theorizing and empirical findings relationships with attitudinal, behavioral, and performance outcomes across multiple levels of analysis. Contemporary climate studies have focused on facet-specific climates, such as a service climate or safety climate, and have linked facet climates with the same facet related performance (e. g. safety climate predicts increased safety performance). Given …

Video Meetings In A Pandemic Era: Emotional Exhaustion, Stressors, And Coping, Betty J. Johnson

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

In the first quarter of 2020, societal upheavals related to the COVID-19 pandemic included employers’ work-from-home mandates and an almost overnight adoption of video meetings to replace in-person meetings no longer possible due to contagion fears and social distancing requirements. This exploratory study aimed to address, in part, the scientific knowledge gap about video meetings as a source of emotional labor. The study used mixed methods to explore three hypotheses concerning how the contemporary use of video meetings related to emotional exhaustion, stressors, and coping. Data were gathered through an online survey questionnaire. Emotional exhaustion, the dependent variable in the …

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 …

The Replication Of The Globe Study In Turkey: Understanding The Effects Of Social, Economical, And Political Changes On Cultural Dimensions And Leadership Ideals: A Mixed Methods Study, Zeki Pagda

Dissertations

Starting in 1995, the GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness) project has conducted a comprehensive study of cultural values and leadership ideals of 62 countries. GLOBE has identified nine cultural and six leadership dimensions, examined the relationship between cultural values and leadership ideals, grouped countries into clusters, and presented culturally derived leadership ideals. According to the 1995 GLOBE findings, Turkey fits in the Middle Eastern cluster with its corresponding expectations regarding leadership ideals. However, in the past thirty years, Turkey has undergone dramatic social, economic and political changes that may have affected ideals of leadership. The goal of this …

The Empathetic Leader, Sarah Romney

Marriott Student Review

Research shows that “empathy” is an important quality in a leader and improves one’s ability to resolve group needs, obtain followers, perform prosocial behaviors, and get positive results. However, many business students do not recognize the value of empathy. Business schools can help improve this by teaching the importance of empathy and giving students the opportunity to develop it.

The Changing Nature Of Work, Leadership, And Organizational Culture In Future Ready Organizations, Saloni Dhir

CMC Senior Theses

Abstract

The relationship between individual and organizational performance is a key challenge for leaders in modern organizations, especially with the current disruption in technology and innovation. This thesis is a literature review and compilation of the relevant empirical evidence on various processes of industrial groups and organizational characteristics such as the changing nature of work, leadership, and company culture in detail. I investigate the complex challenges that millennials and organizations are facing in the current VUCA work environment as well as their potential responses to these changes. I map out the evolution of the concept of work and compare changes …

The Relationship Between Mindfulness And Leadership: How Mindfulness Practices Affect Leadership Practices, James Van Auken

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The aim of this study was to explore and understand the relationship between mindfulness practices and actual leadership practices. This qualitative study utilized narrative inquiry with phenomenological interviewing techniques to explore selective leaders who use mindfulness practices, and see how they used mindfulness in their leadership practice. Sixteen in-depth interviews were conducted and thematic analysis was utilized. Eleven themes were identified with multiple sub- and sub-sub-themes, including: “Personal, Internal Mindfulness Practice,” “Being Mindful Toward Self,” “Being Present with Others,” “Being Present with a Group,” “Mindful Shift of Focus/Attention,” “Emotional Intelligence,” “Buffering of Reactivity,” “Resilience and Recovery,” “Alignment,” “Improved Job Performance,” …

Positive Organizational Leadership: Some Recent Findings In Positive Organizational Scholarship, Lawrence Chan

M.A. in Leadership Studies: Capstone Project Papers

The study of positivity is multifaceted, with roots across psychology, philosophy, and more recently organizational behavior (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997; 2014). This review article highlights the framework from which the study of positivity originates, and then explores positive behaviors in the workplace that have correlated to increases in fulfillment, productivity, engagement, and leadership capacity (Cameron & Dutton, 2003). This essay reveals core components of positive organizational scholarship (POS), notably the interaction of positivity within job demands and job resources, positive employee engagement, and positive deviance, and uncovers some recent findings of these POS components in empirical research and application within human resource …

The Relationship Between Leadership Style And Volunteer Intention To Staymark, Mark E. Smith

Scholar Week 2016 - present

Cohort XI

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 …

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 …

Cultural Diversity In Student Ministry Leadership, Steven Zhou

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

In an attempt to contribute to how ministries and Christian academia is addressing issues of diversity, I am conducting a study to analyze correlations between ethnicity and styles/values of leadership. The goal is to uncover whether or not a particular ethnicity generally prefers one style of leadership over another. Past research on the subject has already seen that, in the business world, certain practices work better than others. For example, those from an Asian culture are more likely to prefer formality and authority as opposed to the collaborative and relationship-oriented style of leadership found in America. I will contribute to …

Blue The Bee Learns To Be Happy, Connie Reimers-Hild, Deborah J. Weitzenkamp, Connie Reimers-Hild, Kim Wellsandt

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Faculty and Staff Publications

Do you sometimes feel sad or blue and don't know what to do? If so, this book was written just for you!

Join Blue the Bee as she travels through Happy Orchard meeting her friends (Flutter, Buzz, Bonita and Ernie) to learn the 7 Happiness Habits. When happiness is a habit, it comes without thinking. You can choose how to spend your day and use your time. You choose how to live your life and what is on your mind.

Each page was designed to enjoy at any age. People can become pollinators of happiness in any life stage!

This …

Optimizing Workforce Performance: Perceived Differences Of Army Officer Critical Thinking Talent Across Level Of Education, Richard B. Ayers

Dissertations

The U.S. Army’s operating environment continues to become increasingly complex and unpredictable, where U.S. technological advantage continues to erode. The complexities stem from the Army’s doctrinal assumption that the future operating environment is unknown and constantly changing (Department of the Army [DA], 2014a). Diminishing technological advantage results in more reliance on soldiers’ cognitive capability, and less on high technology weapons systems (McMaster, 2015).

A review of military literature shows extensive research on the importance of Army leaders to be talented critical thinkers (Fischer, Spiker, & Riedel, 2008, 2009; Gerras, 2008; Thomas & Gentzler, 2013). Human capital literature reveals many college …

From Creativity To Team Innovation: Building The Bridge In Organizations, Jonathan Brown

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

The outcome of this project is a new model for team innovation. It was created as a result of the need for teams to be better prepared to innovate. The approach of this project was to investigate, clarify, combine, synthesize and finally propose useful ways to accelerate team innovation in organizations. It started with a diagram and evolved into an articulation of each step of the model. This prototype model is called Model for Purposeful Team Innovation. The model is divided in seven steps that include identity, mission, quality, targets for improvement, roadmap, execution, monitoring to assess the maturity and …

Facilitating A Whole-Life Approach To Career Development: The Role Of Organizational Leadership, Michael L. Litano, Debra A. Major

Psychology Faculty Publications

This article focuses on the whole-life approach to career development. A review of the ways in which career paths have been conceptualized over time demonstrates that increasing consideration has been given to nonwork factors (i.e., personal life and family life) in defining careers. The whole-life perspective on career development acknowledges that employees are striving for opportunities for professional development as well as individualized work-life balance, which changes over the life course. Although the careers literature has emphasized interorganizational mobility as the primary mechanism for achieving these goals, whole-life career development can also be achieved within a single organization when organizational …