Human Resources Management Commons^™

A Descriptive Study Of Teens’ Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy, Cherie S. Roger

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to determine if differences exist between 4-H members and non 4-H members in a south Louisiana parish on career decision making self-efficacy. This study may help youth recognize experiences that help them make career decisions. This was a cross-sectional study designed to describe 4-H and non-4-H members on career decision making self-efficacy. This study describes the information obtained from a one-time pencil/paper survey. All participants will remain anonymous. There was a statistically significant positive association between career decision making outcome expectancy/intentions and goals and years in 4-H as well as total club membership. As …

Harmonious, Obsessive Or Altruistic? Why Employees Remain In The Not For Profit Sector, Ronelle Toop

Theses : Honours

The Not-For-Profit (NFP) sector is commonly described as having issues recruiting and retaining talented employees. This phenomenon places additional pressure on employees in the sector and has a negative impact on NFP organisational performance. NFP organisations are often prone to voluntary turnover pressure due to poor remuneration, poor working conditions, and onerous duties (Colleran, Gilchrist, & Morris, 2010). The majority of research in the NFP sector has focussed on the retention of volunteers. However, this study will explore the issue of retaining employees within the sector, in order to improve longevity of tenure and subsequent organisational performance.

There is a …

Obtaining Sponsorship In Organizations By Developing Trust Through Outside Of Work Socialization, Katie Kirkpatrick-Husk

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Sponsorship, defined as a relationship that produces objective career benefits for the person being sponsored, has recently grown in popularity in the media. This study sought to examine antecedents to sponsorship by testing the hypothesis that socializing outside of work with another individual leads to increased affect-based trust, which in turn positively affects the willingness to sponsor him or her. A dual-experimental design was employed to test this proposal in which the independent variable was manipulated in one experiment, and the mediator was manipulated in the second.

The study included 492 participants from the United States, 35% were female, and …

The Affect Of Employee Engagement Among Support Staff In Cork University Maternity Hospital, Marion Josephine Cottrell

Theses

In recent years the academic research relating to employee engagement has flourished. Despite the increase in engagement literature, there is a gap concerning employee engagement regarding support staff categories. This dissertation focuses of the minority grouping, support staff

The research methodology for this study is a quantitative method. In addition, questionnaires were administrated to ninety support staff working in Cork University Maternity Hospital, with seventy contributing to the data for this study. Analysis of questionnaires resulted in the identification of a number of findings.

One significant finding of this research study was the discovery of an extra dimension affecting employee …

Do Non Management Employees Value The Performance Management System, Especially The Performance Appraisal System Within A Cork Call Centre?, Caroline Mehigan

Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the topic of Performance Management, especially focusing on the non-management Performance Appraisal. The value associates place on the performance appraisal is assessed along with the views from both management and non management on performance appraisals. Organisations are very mindful of the important role employees can play in the success of their business and of course, in the reputation within the local market, therefore developing associate is vital for a number of reasons.

For this thesis, semi structured interviews took place with 23 associates, which consisted of management and non-management associates. The main …

Impact Of The Agency Worker Directive In Ireland, Laura Harney

Theses

The use of temporary agency workers in Ireland has increased consistently in Ireland over the last 20 years. They provide a readily available, flexible and skilled resource that can help businesses to meet market demands quickly and effectively.

On December 11th 2011 the Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Worker) Act 2012 came into effect in Ireland. This Act transposed the Directive on Temporary Agency Work (2008/104/EC) and it stated that all temporary agency workers must have equal treatment, in relation to their basic working conditions, as if they had been directly recruited by the hirer to do the same job. …

Adding Value For An Organisation Through Employee Engagement: A Case Study Of A Temporary Workforce, Hannah O'Shea

Theses

Over the last 10 years, the requirement for temporary workers has shown significant increases. Casual and part-time workers, on the live register, have increased during this period from 20,752 to 71,744. In March 2013 the numbers rose to 89,798, an all-time high in Ireland (Central Statistics Office, 2014). Consequently, it is becoming increasingly important to observe how organisations undertake engagement with temporary employees. This research study focusses on the employee engagement levels of a temporary agency workforce, working in an e-commerce organisation, on behalf of a third party agency. Questionnaires were completed by 55 temporary agency workers and three direct …

Generation Y Perceptions Of The Traditional Career Model, Aoife Kelliher

Theses

Generation Y will be expected to play the most significant role in the work place as their careers develop and older generations retire. Much of the research carried out on their work related values and career progression to date has relied on the viewpoints of Generation Y as undergraduates, prior to gaining substantial experience in the work place. This study responds to Ng and Gossett’s (2013) call for further research into the values, attitudes and expectations of young people as they will emerge as leaders of tomorrow. The purpose of the study is to examine if the traditional career model …

Generation Y Perceptions Of The Traditional Career Model, Aoife Kelliher

Masters

Generation Y will be expected to play the most significant role in the work place as their careers develop and older generations retire. Much of the research carried out on their work related values and career progression to date has relied on the viewpoints of Generation Y as undergraduates, prior to gaining substantial experience in the work place. This study responds to Ng and Gossett’s (2013) call for further research into the values, attitudes and expectations of young people as they will emerge as leaders of tomorrow. The purpose of the study is to examine if the traditional career model …

Flexible Working: What Does It Mean To The Worker And The Workplace?, Paul Kent

Masters

Separation of work and personal life is becoming more difficult. With the advances in technology, the use of personal devices for work, the mobility of work devices and the ability to remotely work for many, this research poses a question. What does Flexible Working mean to the worker and the workplace? Legislatively, Irish workers are protected by the Organisation of Working Time Act (1997). From the evidence in this study, however, this is often a law that is disregarded and has questionable applicability in modern working life. The study looks at how the current worker manages their time and contrasts …

Work Made For Hire – Analyzing The Multifactor Balancing Test, Ryan G. Vacca

Akron Law Faculty Publications

Authorship, and hence, initial ownership of copyrighted works is oftentimes controlled by the 1976 Copyright Act’s work made for hire doctrine. This doctrine states that works created by employees within the scope of their employment result in the employer owning the copyright. One key determination in this analysis is whether the hired party is an employee or independent contractor. In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court, in CCNV v. Reid, answered the question of how employees are distinguished from independent contractors by setting forth a list of factors courts should consider. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court did not give further guidance on …

Behavior Based Safety And The Multi-Generational Workforce, Edward Paul Grzybowski

Online Theses and Dissertations

Generational differences of Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials regarding their acceptance of feedback and observations were studied in order to determine if different approaches to each were needed in order to effectively implement a Behavior Based Safety program within a specific company. The study found that there was a greater difference between generations regarding observations than on other domains. The results suggest that additional research should be undertaken in order to extrapolate the findings to a larger population.

Effectiveness Of Mandatory Driver Training Programs For Fire Service Drivers, Ryan Neil Pietzsch

Online Theses and Dissertations

This research attempts to measure the effectiveness of mandatory driver training programs for fire service drivers. Effectiveness is defined by a decrease in the number of crashes per number of runs. Two states were identified for comparison, one with mandatory driver training requirements, Washington State (WA) and the other with no requirements, Pennsylvania (PA). Data was collected from state Department of Transportation (DOT) databases and state National Fire Incident Reporting Systems (NFIRS). A cross-sectional study was conducted to compare raw and adjusted crash rates calculated from state DOT crash numbers and NFPA run numbers. The WA effectiveness rate was then …

First Responder Training Transfer: Does Training Delivery Method Matter?, Brian Keith Simpkins

Online Theses and Dissertations

Technology-based training solutions are increasingly being utilized by organizations to achieve training objectives at lower costs as compared to traditional instructor-led training (ILT). This is especially true for the Nation’s first responder agencies that continue to face difficulties related to expanding training requirements that are pitted against limitations in agency financial and human resources. Despite the proliferation in the use of technology-based training solutions, such as web-based training (WBT), there is little research within the first responder community as to whether WBT is as effective as ILT in enabling trainees to transfer essential knowledge, skills, abilities (KSAs) from a training …

Affirmative Action Within The Fire Service: The Background On The Law And Its Effect On The Fire Service And How Fire Department Policies Reflect The Affirmative Action Legislation., Steven Michael Stecher

Online Theses and Dissertations

This research studied ten full time fire departments in the United States to develop a quantitative study showing demographic make-up of the fire department rosters and the citizens in which they serve. Affirmative action has been a polarizing issue since the day the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed. Many thoughts and feelings had been researched but no quantitative studies could be found. This study asked three main questions. Are the fire departments being studied meeting the number requirements set forth by the law in relation to equal representation of the community serviced by the department? Are the departments’ …

A Qualitative Exploration Of Firefighter Participation In Wellness Programs Within A Career Fire Department In Northern Ohio, Conner O'Halloran

Online Theses and Dissertations

Firefighters respond to dangerous emergencies every day. The physical and mental wellness of firefighters is very important to their overall job performance. To support this, fire departments must have established, comprehensive wellness programs (International Association of Firefighters, 2008). Even with national standard recommendation of wellness programs, one does not exist in a fire department located in Northern Ohio.

The focus of this research is to explore reasons why these highly recommended wellness programs are not established. Successful establishment of a wellness program requires understanding why this fire department is hesitant or unsuccessful in implementing and maintaining a wellness program.

This …

A Study Of Academic Performance In Police Basic Training, Robert Ramsey

Online Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of formal education and the effect it has on academic performance of the police recruits that attended the Department of Criminal Justice Training (DOCJT) for their basic training academy in Richmond, Ky. This study focused on the academic portion of recruit training only. This study assessed whether education level is a valid predictor of a recruit officers academic performance and will answer if higher education levels give a recruit officer an advantage academically while they are in basic training.

The sample chosen was from recruit classes that attended basic training …

Can Resilience Be Developed At Work? A Meta-Analytic Review Of Resilience-Building Programme Effectiveness, Adam J. Vanhove, Mitchel Herian, Alycia L. U. Perez, Peter D. Harms, Paul B. Lester

P. D. Harms Publications

Organizations have increasingly sought to adopt resilience-building programmes to prevent absenteeism, counterproductive work behaviour, and other stress-related issues. However, the effectiveness of these programmes remains unclear as a comprehensive review of existing primary evidence has not been undertaken. Using 42 independent samples across 37 studies, the present meta-analysis sought to address this limitation in the literature by summarizing the effectiveness of resilience-building programmes implemented in organizational contexts. Results demonstrated that the overall effect of such programmes was small (d = 0.21) and that programme effects diminish over time (d_proximal = 0.26 vs. d_distal = 0.07). Alternatively, …

Diversity, Inclusion And Organizational Citizenship Behaviours: A Study Of Nurses In The Irish Healthcare Sector, Deirdre O'Donovan

PhDs

This thesis focuses on inclusion, national culture and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) in the Irish healthcare sector. Due to the high number of migrant nurses employed in the sector, the level of understaffing and subsequent requirement for effective performance and behaviours, the Irish healthcare sector was chosen as the primnary focus for the research. In particular, the study draws on in-depth interviews undertaken with 37 nurses and midwives, from four cultures, currently employed in hospitals in Cork. Analysis of the interviews resulted in the identification of a number of findings. One significant finding concerns the identification of a set of …

Mcgregor's Theory X/Y And Job Performance: A Multilevel, Multi-Source Analysis, Leanna Lawter, Richard J. Kopelman, David J. Prottas

WCBT Faculty Publications

McGregor's Theory X/Y (1957; 1960/1985; 1966; 1967), one of the most famous theories of motivation and leadership, has had a profound effect on managerial thinking over the past fifty years. Yet the effect of X/Y attitudes on job performance has never been empirically demonstrated. The present research investigates whether X/Y attitudes and X/Y behaviors-examined as two distinct constructs-are related to job performance. Further, the present research uses a multilevel, multi-source design to examine via hierarchical linear modeling the performance effects of McGregor's (1957; 1960/1985; 1966; 1967) theorizing about managerial assumptions (and behaviors) at both individual and workgroup levels. As predicted, …

How Are We Doing After 30 Years? A Meta-Analytic Review Of The Antecedents And Outcomes Of Feedback-Seeking Behavior, Frederik Anseel, Adam S. Beatty, Winny Shen, Filip Lievens, Paul R. Sackett

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study provides meta-analytic estimates of the antecedents and consequences of feedback-seeking behavior (FSB). Clear support was found for the guiding cost/benefit framework in the feedback-seeking domain. Organizational tenure, job tenure, and age were negatively related to FSB. Learning and performance goal orientation, external feedback propensity, frequent positive feedback, high self-esteem, a transformational leadership style, and a high-quality relationship were positively associated with FSB. Challenging some of the dominant views in the feedback-seeking domain, the relationship between uncertainty and FSB was negative and the relationship between FSB and performance was small. Finally, inquiry and monitoring are not interchangeable feedback-seeking tactics. …

The Effects Of Education And Allocentrism On Organizational Commitment In Chinese Companies: A Multi-Level Analysis, Shuhong Wang, Dbl Insights Llc, Xiang Yi

Research, Publications & Creative Work

As Chinese companies move to the world stage of business, they must leverage a more knowledgeable and collaborative workforce to meet new challenges. This study investigates how two prominent individual attributes, education and allocentrism, create work tension for human capital practices in Chinese companies. By surveying nearly 500 workers in four Chinese companies and using multi-level methodology, we demonstrate that higher levels of education work to the detriment of employees’ affective organizational commitment and positively influence seeking-to-leave behavior. In addition, this study suggests a positive relation between allocentrism and affective organizational commitment. Personalized leadership, a common leadership style in high-power …

Establishing Hr Professionals' Influence And Credibility: Lessons From The Capital Markets And Investment Banking Sector, Paul Aldrich, Graham Dietz, Timothy Adrian Robert Clark, P.Eter Hamilton

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Through two separate studies involving 47 interviews inside 22 institutions in the capital markets and investment banking sector, we explore the levels of influence and sources of credibility for senior HR professionals, and examine the challenges they face in establishing credibility. We compare these findings against previous research, which has identified several determinants of HR's influence and credibility. Our findings confirm that HR's modest influence is contingent on the predispositions and convictions of key stakeholders, notably the CEO, but also depends on the decision being taken. We find that the basis for senior HR professionals' credibility is more individual than …

Toward A Synthesis Of Hr Competency Models: The Common Hr "Food Groups", Dave Ulrich, Wayne Brockbank, Mike Ulrich, David Kryscynski

Faculty Publications

As businesses face unprecedented rates of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA), business leaders increasingly recognize the importance of talent (workforce, competencies, skills, abilities), leadership (senior leader and leadership team), and organization (workplace, capability, culture, processes, systems) as sources of competitiveness. Competitors can readily copy access to capital, strategic intent, and operational efficiency but they have a more difficult time copying talent, leadership, and organizational practices. As a result of this increased visibility, HR issues have received increased attention in the C-suite.

Powerlessness Within A Budget-Driven Paradigm: A Grounded Theory Leadership Study From The Perspective Of Michigan Corrections Officers, Timothy Michael Eklin

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study explored the lived-experiences of 15 correctional officers and 5 sergeants working in adult state-operated prison facilities in Michigan. In particular, this qualitative grounded theory study revealed the impact that budget driven decision-making had on the lives of correctional officers: its effect on institutional custody, security, and safety. The study finds that many recent policy changes resulted in a sense of powerlessness expressed by the participants of the study. Participants found themselves in a precarious position, situated in between the prison population and the administration. Having an understanding of how correctional officers make meaning of their work in relation …

A Mixed Methods Study: Dimensions Of Cross-Cultural Professional Success: Experiences Of Western Women Living And Working In Eastern Cultures, Tami J. France

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

In this world of global interconnectedness women continue to develop cross-cultural careers and their experiences impact and influence global scholarship and practice. Through this study, the relationships, resources, and characteristics that support female expatriate success were explored, with additional focus on the role of mentor and coach relationships. The mixed-methods study was conducted using a sequential approach to research that began with one-on-one semi structured interviews with ten professional women from the United States and Canada working or formerly working in China and Hong Kong. A survey was designed based on the interview findings. Professional women from western countries working …

The Landwarnet School, The Army Learning Model, And Appreciative Inquiry: How Is A Centralized Training Organization Improved By Introducing Decentralization?, Lisa Jayne Stamper

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This exploratory, qualitative case study describes how a centralized training organization (LandWarNet School) was improved by introducing decentralization (Army Learning Model) toward “the best competitive position” or "sweet spot," defined by Brafman and Beckstrom (2006) as “enough decentralization for creativity, but sufficient structure and controls to ensure consistency” (pp. 189, 191). Any presence of the six chaordic elements of a decentralized organization, as described by Hock (1999), was also considered.

LandWarNet School (LWNS) trains approximately 6000 US Army Soldiers annually and is centrally organized. The new Army Learning Model (ALM) is a vision for a more decentralized training approach where …

High Fedelity Simulation: Its Impact On Self-Confidence And Satisfaction In Learning Among Sophomore And Senior Students, Kim Simoneaux Hurst

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of selected aspects of high fidelity simulation among students enrolled in a baccalaureate nursing program and the influence of these perceptions on students’ satisfaction and self-confidence in learning. In order to collect the necessary data, the Satisfaction and Self-confidence in Learning and Simulation Design Scale instruments were used. These instruments were completed by both sophomore and senior baccalaureate nursing students following simulation lab experiences. The majority of students surveyed was female of the Millennial Generation and averaged a GPA of 3.14. There were approximately equal numbers of sophomore and senior …

Work Readiness Among Graduate Students, Raymond Doe

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study explored work readiness among graduate program completers at a Research University (RU/VH) in the Southeastern Region of the United States. Work readiness, although a relatively new construct, is defined as the level to which graduate students are perceived as possessing attitudes and attributes that enable them to be prepared for success in the workforce. Graduate degree-seeking students in universities and colleges are projected to surpass bachelor seeking students in the future. Hiring of graduate degree holders by organizations, however, play a major role in recruitment of new employees. Increasingly, organizations report that recent graduate program completers are insufficiently …

Examining Male Infertility; The Association Between Age, Environment, And Reproductive Success In Male Patients That Have Participated In Assisted Reproductive Technology, Jeanne Lee Glaser

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

As the number and age of human couples turning to assisted reproductive technology (ART) continues to increase, it is essential for clinicians to understand infertility threats related to both female and male patients. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between age, environment, and reproductive success in male patients having participated in assisted reproductive technology. In corresponding experiments, male infertility variables such as; age, lifestyle exposures, body mass index (BMI), and infertility length with current partner (ILCP) were investigated. A retrospective collection of clinical male patient data from 2011 to 2014 was evaluated. Thirty-five variables were collected …