Digital Commons Network^™

Minority Student Perceptions Of The Veterinary Profession: Factors Influencing Choices Of Health Careers, Evan M. Morse

ETD Archive

The lack of racial and ethnic diversity in the profession of veterinary medicine is widely recognized. Despite this recognition, minority representation in veterinary colleges remains very low. No demographic data shows exactly how many minority veterinarians exist however, Elmore (2003) extrapolated numbers from recent graduates and suggested that about 91 of all veterinarians in the United States were white, 5 were Hispanic, 2 were African American, 1 were Asian/Pacific Islander, and less than 1 were American Indian/Alaskan Native. For minority groups, these percentages are significantly lower than the racial distribution in the population of the United States. Limited progress has …

Culture As Unfolding Process: Integrating Perspectives In Building A Theory, Ludmila N. Praslova

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

Current theory and research in culture and psychology produced multiple definitions and conceptualizations of culture. This paper reviews several approaches to understanding culture and introduces an integrative model of Culture as Unfolding Process (CUP) as a way of integrating insights from several perspectives. The model highlights mechanisms of cultural change and stability, and provides a versatile framework for understanding culture on multiple levels.

Developing Collaborative Leadership: A Study Of Organizational Change Toward Greater Collaboration And Shared Leadership, Jonathan Tyler Clark

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Implicit in leadership behavior is the ability to work with others, to be in relationship, and to collaborate. Contemporary theories about leadership have shifted from a focus on the individual “leader” toward the collective act of “leadership.” A concrete understanding of collaborative leadership remains somewhat underdeveloped in the literature and theoretically. This dissertation is a case study of organization's efforts to change from autocratic organizational leadership to a more collaborative working environment. Taking the form of a literary portrait, the study analyzes an example of action learning about collaborative leadership. The portrait will be of the agency's change, with special …

Energy-Flow – A New Perspective On James Macgregor Burns’ Transforming Leadership: A New Pursuit Of Happiness, Pi-Jern Caroline Fu

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This theoretical dissertation documents a personal transforming leadership experience; during which, I explored my Leadership as Energy-Flow model by having a virtual dialogue with the polymathic works of theorists and thinkers to corroborate and refine it. The model consists of a theory and a conceptual scheme. The energy-flow theory, based on the laws of physics and Chinese philosophy and cosmological science, fashions the energy-flow conceptual scheme. Using the conceptual scheme, I delve into the Premise of the Dialogue, “In what ways and to what extent would using the energy-flow frame of reference describe and stimulate new meanings in Transforming Leadership: …

Dimensions Of Mentoring Relationships In The Workplace: A Holistic Perspective, Miriam Grace-Rowland

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This was an exploratory study to understand the lived experience of those involved in mentoring relationships within a formal mentoring program in a corporate context. The researcher looked for rich detail about the nature of the relationship from the perspective of the mentor and mentee. To achieve a holistic perspective, the experience of organizational managers was deliberately included in the research. Exploration of this triadic relationship of mentor, mentee, and organizational manager has been neglected in the empirical literature. An exploration of where meaning intersected and diverged among the triad relationship members gave depth to the dimensional frame. Findings suggested …

Evolving Learning: Educators’ Inner Experiences Of Engaging In Service-Learning With Undergraduates, Cara Meixner

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Evolving Learning: Educators’ Inner Experiences of Engaging in Service-Learning with Undergraduates is an exploratory, qualitative study of faculty members’ learning, growth, and development in service-learning contexts. Through two, interwoven forms of constructivist grounded theory – situational mapping and dimensional analysis – this dissertation brought voice to a once ‘private’ perspective, making explicit what all is happening as participants make meaning of their experiences engaging in service-learning with college students. A three-phased series of recursive, comparative interviews and concurrent analysis resulted in the development of a grounded theory best captured by a core, organizing perspective – evolving learning. This perspective is …

The Validity Of Assessment Centres For The Prediction Of Supervisory Performance Ratings: A Meta-Analysis, Eran Hermelin, Filip Lievens, Ivan T. Robertson

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The current meta-analysis of the selection validity of assessment centres aims to update an earlier meta-analysis of assessment centre validity. To this end, we retrieved 26 studies and 27 validity coefficients (N=5850) relating the Overall Assessment Rating (OAR) to supervisory performance ratings. The current study obtained a corrected correlation of .28 between the OAR and supervisory job performance ratings (95% confidence interval .24 < =rho < =.32). It is further suggested that this validity estimate is likely to be conservative given that assessment centre validities tend to be affected by indirect range restriction.

Integrating Spirituality And Psychotherapy: Ethical Issues And Principles To Consider, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

Professional and scientific psychology appears to have rediscovered spirituality and religion during recent years, with a large number of conferences, seminars, workshops, books, and special issues in major professional journals on spirituality and psychology integration. The purpose of this commentary is to highlight some of the more compelling ethical principles and issues to consider in spirituality and psychology integration with a focus on psychotherapy. This commentary will use the American Psychological Association's (2002) Ethics Code and more specifically, the RRICC model of ethics that readily applies to various mental health ethics codes across the world. The RRICC model highlights the …

Dishonorable Treatment: Workplace Incivility, Cultures Of Honor, And Work Outcomes, Scott Kelley

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Workplace incivility is defined as rude and discourteous behavior that takes place in a work setting. Research shows that this type of behavior can negatively affect the well-being of employees who are the targets. However, the impact of workplace incivility may differ from person to person. One variable that may play a role in how workplace incivility affects an individual is U.S. region and whether or not they are located in a culture of honor. In cultures of honor, such as the Southern U.S. region, individuals are theorized to be especially sensitive to insults or challenges to their reputation. Using …

Multilevel Methods: Emergent Issues And Future Directions In Measurement, Longitudinal Analyses And Non-Normal Outcomes, Paul D. Bliese, David Chan, Robert E. Ployhart

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The study of multilevel phenomena in organizations involves a complex interplay between methods and statistics on one hand and theory development on the other. In this introduction, the authors provide a short summary of the five articles in this feature topic and use them as a platform to discuss the broad need for work in the two areas of (a) multilevel construct validation and measurement and (b) statistical advances in variance decomposition. Within these two broad frameworks, the authors specifically discuss, first, the need to continue moving beyond notions of isomorphism in developing and testing aggregate-level constructs. Second, they discuss …

Mediators Of The Leader-Member Exchange And Performance Relationship, Kurt L. Oborn

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The relationship of leader-member exchange (LMX) to task and contextual performance was examined using a sample of teleworkers. Path analysis results show evidence for mediation of the LMX and task performance and LMX and contextual performance relationships. Mediators and partial-mediators included self-management, telework satisfaction, affective commitment, and turnover intentions. LMX is not related to work-family conflict, and work-family conflict is not related to either task or contextual performance. Additional relationships among the mediating variables were also found. This study shows the importance of the leader-member relationship when leading teleworkers. More research is required to further understand differences between teleworkers and …

Strengthening The Scientific Foundations Of Professional Psychology: Time For The Next Steps, Timothy Melchert

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

The field of professional psychology has been tremendously successful, although it has also been characterized by many competing preparadigmatic theoretical orientations, which have led to a great deal of contention as well as conflicting views regarding psychological development, functioning, and behavior change. There is now widespread agreement regarding scientific explanations of many psychological processes, however, and, consequently, it is time to update the basic conceptual frameworks used for professional psychology education and practice. Replacing the traditional reliance on an array of theoretical orientations with a science-based biopsychosocial framework would resolve many of the contradictions and conflicts that characterized the preparadigmatic …

From Good Intentions To Good Actions: A Patient Safety Manual For Rural Healthcare Settings, Ann Freeman Cook, Helena Hoas

Psychology Faculty Publications

The materials offered in this patient safety manual draw on information from a robust database consisting of qualitative and quantitative data gathered over the course of nine years. These data come from a 4-year patient safety study conducted in rural hospitals in a 9-state area as well as a series of additional healthcare studies that focused on ethics and decision-making in rural settings.

The manual is a resource developed to fit a rural context. The first chapter discusses the national patient safety movement. The succeeding chapters discuss definitions of errors and lessons learned from the multi-method patient safety study. The …

Factors Influencing Mid Career Redirection Decisions In Professionals, Mark J. Halliday

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship of factors affecting a professional’s decision to change the direction of their career in during mid career and develop a comprehensive model incorporating each of these factors. There are four hypotheses in this study: la) higher scores in the personality attributes of openness to experience and extraversión will be correlated with a larger change in career redirection than those professionals with lower scores; lb) a higher score in the career attitude of risk-taking style and a lower score in the career attitude of career worries will be correlated with a …

Mentoring Expatriate Employees: The Influence Of Multiple Mentors On Overseas Experiences, Lisa Littrell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sending employees overseas for international work assignments has become a popular practice among today's multinational corporations, albeit one fraught with challenges. These expatriate employees, individuals who relocate internationally for work assignments, face many difficulties ranging from problematic adjustment to inadequate preparation. Mentoring has been proposed as one strategy for alleviating the challenges faced by expatriates and for providing the support expatriates need before, during, and after their assignments (Harvey & Wiese, 2002; Mezias & Scandura, 2005). In fact, expatriates that report having a mentor are more likely than expatriates without mentors to have positive career outcomes such as increased job …

Planting The Seeds: The Experiences Of Community Psychology Graduates As Agents Of Systemic Social Change, Peggy Ann Weston

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Social change is a part of human existence, but other than charismatic individuals such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi, little has been published about the lived experience of social change agents. Time (era, passage of time, etc.) is often neglected as an important temporal factor of analysis in systemic social change (SSC) activities. The intent is to explore the experience of people working as SSC agents and discover what influences their work. A better understanding of this experience would contribute to more effective SSC work and perhaps address challenges facing change agents. The main research question, “What …

Relations Between Personality And Coping: A Meta-Analysis, Jennifer K. Connor-Smith, Celeste Flachsbart

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Personality may directly facilitate or constrain coping, but relations of personality to coping have been inconsistent across studies, suggesting a need for greater attention to methods and samples. This meta-analysis tested moderators of relations between Big Five personality traits and coping using 2,653 effect sizes drawn from 165 samples and 33,094 participants. Personality was weakly related to broad coping (e.g., Engagement or Disengagement), but all 5 traits predicted specific strategies. Extraversion and Conscientiousness predicted more problem-solving and cognitive restructuring, Neuroticism less. Neuroticism predicted problematic strategies like wishful thinking, withdrawal, and emotion-focused coping but, like Extraversion, also predicted support seeking. Personality …

Psychotherapists Working With Homeless Clients: The Experience Of Stress, Burnout Symptoms, And Coping, Sharon D. Young

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Stress, secondary trauma, and burnout symptoms are significant problems within the field of human services. Homeless clients present many challenges, frequently are highly traumatized, and often require many services. Psychotherapist working with homeless clients experience negative effects of exposure to the stress and trauma of homeless clients, and as a result must develop strategies for coping in order to continue in the work. This study used a mixed method design to investigate psychotherapists' experience working with homeless clients through Healthcare for the Homeless grantee projects, and their strategies for coping with the stress of their work. A survey, which included …

Individual And Organizational Differences In Organizational Commitment And Escalation Of Commitment, Molly J. Russ

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The present study extended the literature on employee commitment and escalation bias to include individual and organizational difference factors. Escalation bias refers to the tendency for a decision-maker to become overly committed to the decision focus (e.g., the organization, supervisor, an ongoing project) even in light of negative feedback regarding the person’s or project’s performance (Moon, 2001; Staw, 1976). An escalation of commitment to a losing course of action is viewed as risky and often costly behavior to organizations. The main purpose of the present study was to identify factors that may predispose persons to escalate their commitment. While using …

The Effects Of Prolonged Job Insecurity On The Psychological Well-Being Of Workers, Cynthia Rocha, Jennifer Hause Crowell, Andrea K. Mccarter

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Job insecurity has been increasing since the 1980s. While researchers have found job insecurity to be negatively associated with multiple indicators of well-being for workers and their families in cross sectional studies, less is known about the long term effects of prolonged job insecurity. Specifically, there is a need to collect measures of both insecurity and its consequences at multiple time periods. The current study followed workers for 3 1/2 years to assess the effects of chronic job insecurity on psychological distress. Results indicate that while workers reported increased feelings of security over time, there were longer term negative effects …

Acceptance Of Technological Change: Do Age, Expertise And Self-Efficacy Matter?, Cheryl Fernandez

Student Work

This study was designed to examine the acceptance of change by employees of different ages, in different contexts. This study challenged the stereotypes held against older individuals by proposing that factors other than age contribute to the acceptance of changes. It examined two context-specific variables, self-efficacy and expertise which contribute to acceptance of technological changes. The findings indicated that older individuals with computer experience had higher self-efficacy. On the other hand, younger individuals had higher self-efficacy, regardless of computer experience. Also, individuals who felt younger than they actually were had higher self-efficacy when they had experience with computers, compared to …

Measurement Of Valuing Diversity: A Multidimensional Conception And Confirmatory Analysis, Rebekka A. Althouse

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study explored the construct validity of the Attitudes Toward Diversity Scale (ATDS; Montei et al., 1996) in relation to the Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy (SEE; Wang et al., 2003) and the Miville-Guzman Universality-Diversity Scale (M-GUDS; Miville et al., 1999) in a sample of 157 undergraduate and graduate students at Old Dominion University. Because there was no precedent in the literature, a purely theoretical relationship was hypothesized. The relationship between the SEE and the ATDS v as hypothesized to be stronger than between the M-GUDS and the ATDS. A multivariate structural model tested the hypothesized pattern of relationships emanating from …

A Construct-Driven Investigation Of Gender Differences In A Leadership-Role Assessment Center, Neil Anderson, Filip Lievens, Karen Van Dam, Marise Born

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study examined gender differences in a large-scale assessment center for officer entry in the British Army. Subgroup differences were investigated for a sample of 1,857 candidates: 1,594 men and 263 women. A construct-driven approach was chosen (a) by examining gender differences at the construct level, (b) by formulating a priori hypotheses about which constructs would be susceptible to gender effects, and (c) by using both effect size statistics and latent mean analyses to investigate gender differences in assessment center ratings. Results showed that female candidates were rated notably higher on constructs reflecting an interpersonally oriented leadership style (i.e., oral …

Formal And Informal Work Group Relationships With Performance: A Moderation Model Using Social Network Analysis, Benjamin R. Knost

Theses and Dissertations

Social networks have recently emerged in the management discipline as a unique way of studying individuals groups in organizations. While traditionally used in the analysis of un-bounded networks, applying social network analysis techniques to bounded work groups and organizational teams has become increasingly popular. Past research has established relationships between in-degree social network centrality and individual performance as well as social network density and overall group performance. This field study, conducted at a military training course, attempted to further refine this social network-performance relationship by modeling characteristics of both the formal and informal work group networks in relation to performance …

Large-Scale Investigation Of The Role Of Trait Activation Theory For Understanding Assessment Center Convergent And Discriminant Validity, Filip Lievens, Christopher S. Chasteen, Eric A. Day, Neil D. Christiansen

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study used trait activation theory as a theoretical framework to conduct a large-scale test of the interactionist explanation of the convergent and discriminant validity findings obtained in assessment centers. Trait activation theory specifies the conditions in which cross-situationally consistent and inconsistent candidate performances are likely to occur. Results obtained by aggregating correlations across 30 multitrait-multimethod matrices supported the propositions of trait activation theory, shedding a more positive light on the construct validity puzzle in assessment centers. Overall, convergence among assessment center ratings was better between exercises that provided an opportunity to observe behavior related to the same trait, and …

Challenges Facing Military Organizational Cultural Reform: A Study Of The 2004 Air Force Materiel Command Reorganization, Joy D. Mikulcik

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to measure the success of the Product Center (PC) portion of the Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) reorganization initiated in 2004. The purpose of this study is threefold, 1) to determine if the 2004 AFMC Product Center reorganization has met General Martin's four intended objectives, (2) the reorganizations effects on AFMC employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment and (3) to gather some general opinions about the reorganization overall. The literature review consisted of a detailed look at the history of AFMC, areas of organizational culture, and gathering detailed information regarding the 2004 reorganization itself. …

Effects Of Feedback, Education, And Work Experience On Self-Efficacy, Hieu Chi Pham

Theses Digitization Project

Examines the contextual effects of social persuasion (represented by self, client, peer and supervisor's feedback) and mastery experiences (represented by formal level of education and work experience) on specific self-efficacy outcomes and perceived advancement potential in a sample population of nurses at a Southern California hospital. Results of the study suggest that self, client, peer, and supervisor's feedback consistently predict significant self-efficacy outcomes.

The Effects Of Procedural Justice And Work Overload On Job Performance, Seana Maria NuñEz

Theses Digitization Project

This thesis explored the relationship between work overload and procedural justice on job performance. It used planned comparisons to test three hypotheses, which were tested by having the participants (N=132) randomly assigned to groups and perform a proofreading task in two timed intervals. The study design used quantitative methodologies and the procedures and measures were piloted before data collection. A participant exit survey was also employed. Suggestions for future research and study are discussed. The proofreading samples, the exit survey questions and the Mini-Marker Personality Inventory, the informed consent form, and results tables are included.

Emotional Intelligence And Leadership Emergence, Gilma Yannet Anderson

Theses Digitization Project

The study looked at how emotional intelligence helps leaders meet the needs of their team. In order to be successful, teams need to exist in an environment that is burn-out preventative and fosters creativity. It was hypothesized that leaders would help meet these needs by creating an unthreatening work environment. Data was gathered from 391 individuals working in existing self-managed work teams in private and public sectors. The hypothesized model was tested using a multilevel analysis approach of structural equation modeling. Results indicated that a leader's emotional intelligence predicts a non-threatening work environment for both between and within teams, thus …

A New Theory And Measure Of Ethical Work Climate: The Psychological Process Model (Ppm) And The Ethical Climate Index (Eci), Anke Arnaud

Management, Marketing and Operations - Daytona Beach

With this dissertation I developed a new theory and measure of ethical work climate (EWC). Currently, there exists one dominant theory and measure of EWC developed by Victor and Cullen (1988, 1987). Even though researchers have identified problems with this theory, such as inconsistencies with regard to its limited theoretical scope and troubling psychometric properties, it is the most widely utilized framework for conceptualizing and testing EWC. Therefore, I propose to develop an improved theory and measure of EWC, one capable of addressing some of the principle shortcomings of earlier efforts. Building on Rest’s (1986, 1979) “Four-Component” model of individual-level …