Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons^™

Two Essays On Corruption, Fdi, And Digitalization, Mahdi Forghani Bajestani

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

Corruption is detrimental to both society and economy and is yet prevalent in many countries. Thus, research in this field is imperative to help alleviate the problem. Drawing on institutional theory and eclectic paradigm, this dissertation seeks to first, delineate the mechanisms through which corruption influences economic decision-making, and second, identify its root causes and tools for controlling it.

This dissertation’s central research question is addressed in two essays. Essay 1 builds on insights from research on corruption in international business to advance our understanding of how perception of bribery in foreign markets shapes investment behaviors. The literature is dominated …

Communicating With Muted Groups: The Case Of Human Trafficking, Amy Matzke-Fawcett

Communication & Theatre Arts Theses

The problem of human trafficking is global, affecting men and women, adults, and children, with exploitation of various forms including (but not limited to) sex work, hospitality and entertainment, labor, agriculture, soldiering, forced begging and organ removal. While it has been the focus of movies, news articles, documentaries, legislation and research, the discussion of the communication surrounding human trafficking is still in the formative stages. What is the messaging about human trafficking in legislation, both historically and in the present day, and how did news and popular media help to frame the discourse around trafficking in the United States? Using …

Do They See A Half-Full Water Cooler? Relationships Among Group Optimism Composition, Group Performance, And Cohesion, William P. Jimenez, Xiaoxiao Hu, Chad Kenneally, Feng Wei

Psychology Faculty Publications

In the present study, relationships among group composition of trait optimism (the mean, standard deviation, and minimum and maximum scores of optimism), group cohesion, and three group performance variables (task performance, contextual performance, and creative performance) were examined. Multi-source data were collected from 56 workgroups including 202 group members and 56 group leaders. We found that the mean, maximum, and minimum operationalizations of group optimism composition were positively related to the three group performance variables and that group cohesion mediated the optimism–performance relationships for the mean and minimum operationalizations of group optimism. We recommend that practitioners generally consider selecting optimistic …

From Managing Nurses To Serving Nurses: The Case For Transfusing Nursing Management With Servant Leadership During The Global Covid-19 Pandemic, William P. Jimenez, Seterra D. Burleson, Matthew J. Haugh

Psychology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Thinking About Thinking About Work: A Meta-Analysis Of Off-Job Positive And Negative Work-Related Thoughts, William P. Jimenez, Xiaoxiao Hu, Xiaohong (Violet) Xu

Psychology Faculty Publications

Work is frequently on the minds of employees—even during evenings, weekends, and vacations. The present study is the first comprehensive meta-analysis of off-job work-related thoughts (WRTs; i.e., thoughts employees have about work when they are not at work). We were particularly interested in comparing off-job positive and negative work-related thoughts (PWRTs and NWRTs; i.e., thoughts about positive/negative work experiences or characteristics) to each other and other off-job WRT constructs, which we integrated into a typology. We coded 520 effect sizes from 171 independent samples (N = 58,682) and conducted a random-effects, individual-correction meta-analysis. We found that PWRTs and NWRTs …

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

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

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

Complex System Governance As A Framework For Asset Management, Polinpapilinho F. Katina, James C. Pyne, Charles B. Keating, Dragan Komljenovic

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Complex system governance (CSG) is an emerging field encompassing a framework for system performance improvement through the purposeful design, execution, and evolution of essential metasystem functions. The goal of this study was to understand how the domain of asset management (AsM) can leverage the capabilities of CSG. AsM emerged from engineering as a structured approach to organizing complex organizations to realize the value of assets while balancing performance, risks, costs, and other opportunities. However, there remains a scarcity of literature discussing the potential relationship between AsM and CSG. To initiate the closure of this gap, this research reviews the basics …

Leverage Psychological Factors Associated With Lapses In Cybersecurity In Organizational Management, Chad Holm

Cybersecurity Undergraduate Research Showcase

With computers being a standard part of life now with the evolution of the internet, many aspects of our lives have changed, and new ways of thinking must come. One of the biggest challenges in most cyber security problems is not related to the software or the hardware; it is the people that are using the computers to access the data and communicate with others, where the hackers could simply find a weak entry point that naturally exists and a weak link caused by human hands. The human factor as an “insider threat” will affect unauthorized access, credentials stealing, and …

Noise: A Flaw In Human Judgment. [Book Review], Michael Cohen

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Personal Goal Setting Behavior And Professional Outlooks Of Academic Library Employees, Leo Lo, Amelia Anderson

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Studies indicate correlations between personal goal-setting behaviors, performance and attitude in professional roles. An online study was developed and conducted in 2016 with academic library employees to better understand the goal-setting behavior of library employees in a particular context, via setting New Year’s resolutions, which is defined as "a decision to do something or to behave in a certain manner". Results show that nearly half (49.6 percent) of all respondents set New Year’s resolutions in 2016. Goals related to health and fitness topped the list of goals that were set, followed by occupational goals. Of those who felt unclear about …

Toward A More Perma(Nent) Conceptualization Of Worker Well-Being? A Cross-Cultural Study Of The Workplace Perma Profiler, William P. Jimenez, Xiaoxiao Hu, Rebecca Garden, Xiaofei Xie

Psychology Faculty Publications

We examined the factor structure of the recently developed worker well-being measure the Workplace PERMA Profiler and relationships between PERMA dimensions (i.e., positive emotions, engagement, positive relationships, meaning, accomplishment) and job performance (viz., task performance, organizational citizenship behaviors benefiting individuals and the organization at large). The measure exhibited metric (i.e., weak) invariance across samples of participants from the U.S. (N = 284) and China (N = 420). Additionally, for participants who responded to both the Workplace PERMA Profiler and the performance measures, there was a general pattern of positive PERMA–performance relationships across both …

Fake It Till You Make It With Your Boss? Surface Acting In Interactions With Leaders, Xiaoxiao Hu, Yujie Zhan, William P. Jimenez, Rebecca Garden, Yi Li

Psychology Faculty Publications

Due to its influence on important workplace outcomes, surface acting has drawn increasing attention from researchers in recent years. Most of the research in this area has focused on employees’ interactions with individuals external to the organization, such as customers and clients (Bolton, 2005; Grandey et al., 2013). With the current study, we contribute to and extend the literature by focusing on employees’ leader-directed surface acting and examining how leader-directed surface acting (i.e., faking positive emotions and suppressing negative emotions in interactions with one’s leader) relates to leader ratings of employee task performance. Data collected from 414 employees and 103 …

Disrupting Education: High School Principals’ Efforts To Lead Disruptive Innovation And The Influence Of Isomorphic Mechanisms, Katie Cummings Catania

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

Students today require skills and dispositions different from those of the past. Despite ongoing efforts to initiate change in schools through reform efforts, little has changed within educational institutions. Current reform efforts do, however, create conditions for principals to lead disruptive innovation within their schools. Research is limited on innovation implementation in education and the various ways isomorphic forces may hinder or contribute to the design and adoption of disruptive innovations. The purpose of this study was to examine how high school principals lead disruptive innovation. Additionally, this study sought to understand how the mechanisms of isomorphism influence the adoption …

Trust Issues: A Case Study Of The Relationship Between Trust And Reform Implementation, Courtney R. Wilson

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

Reform creation and implementation tends to focus on the mechanics needed to ensure intended outcomes are achieved. School relationships are affected by the tension caused by reform implementation. Research suggests trust among teachers and between teachers and their administrator affects the way teachers make sense of, implement, and use new reform efforts. Given the demands reforms place on schools, trust has the potential to impact and encourage the implementation of reform and the maintenance of relationships. A qualitative case study method was used to decipher the impact trust plays in the implementation of reform. The concept of trust is used …

Local Workforce Development, Federally Legislated Purposes, And A Systemigram: A Mixed-Methods Study, Tracey A. Regenold

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

The public system of workforce development has existed for over 45 years, yet there are still issues with adequate skill-building, training, and employment for the vulnerable populations the system is mandated to serve. This study first used a modified Delphi method to survey a sample of executive directors and board members of local workforce development areas regarding the proper systems design needed to fulfill the purposes of current federal legislation. Subsequently using a visual representation of an “ideal” local workforce development area, participants were then interviewed and asked about the utility of such a model for strategic planning and systems …

Middle Managers & Leadership Trainings For Effective Senior Leadership Positions In Public Organizations; Applications In Emergency Management, Norah Alshayhan, Juita-Elena Wie Yusuf

College of Business (Strome) Posters

Leaders and training are vital dimensions of organizational development and effectiveness. Availing leadership programs provide continuous learning to the leaders in public sector organizations. However, leaders in senior positions in the public sector organizations have faced struggles and obstacles that inhibit their capacity to drive organizational agenda. Therefore, understanding the relationship between the training programs and the performance of the leaders in the senior positions is vital. The study will discover the struggles and obstacles experienced by the public-service leader and the impact training middle managers the leadership skills. The study hopes to propose a training program for middle managers …

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

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

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

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

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

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

Risk Factors For Workplace Encounters With Weapons By Hospital Employees, James Blando, Chalsie Paul, Mariana Szklo-Coxe

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Objective:The specific aim of this study was to determine which risk factors were associated with frequent weapons confiscation in a healthcare facility. This study investigated the hypothesis that hospital-related factors impact the frequency of weapons confiscation.

Study design:Cross-sectional.

Methods:A cross-sectional survey was administered on-line to hospital security directors and assessed the associations of organizational factors with the frequency of weapons confiscation.

Results:It was found that hospitals with metal detectors were more than 5 times as likely to frequently confiscate weapons, suggesting this intervention is effective. It was also found that hospitals with psychiatric units were more likely to have frequent …

Contextualizing Performance Of Coordinated Care Network Of Veteran Services In Virginia, Marina Saitgalina, Donta Council

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

Coordinated care network is an approach to human service delivery that is recognized to improve client outcomes at a reduced cost. However, general mixed findings on the effectiveness of coordinated care networks warrant research contextualization. This article seeks to discover factors influencing the performance of a coordinated care network delivering social services to veterans and their families. The study provides a contextual analysis of a coordinated care network launched in 2016 in southeastern Virginia for two samples of 1,512 and 375 veterans and their families. Results of the regression analyses indicate that initial progress has been made both in efficiency …

Organizational Determinants Of Political Involvement In Trade And Professional Membership Associations, Marina Saitgalina, Lisa A. Dicke, Patricia Birungi

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

Trade and business associations and professional membership societies like many other political interest groups in the United States advocate and lobby their interests in the policy arena. Yet, we lack the understanding of how organizational capabilities shape different forms of political engagement in trade and professional associations. Research on the political involvement of tax-exempt organizations has been focused on charitable nonprofits. Studying the elements that underlie political action strategies and tactics of trade and professional associations would expand our understanding of political engagement in the nonprofit sector. In our sample of occupational mutual benefit associations, both resource dependence and institutional …

Two Essays On The Effects Of Organization Capital On Firm Behavior, Andrew Root

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

A growing stream of finance literature involves measuring the effects of organization capital (“OC”) on investment decisions, financial policy, and firm value. Li, Qui & Shen (2018) use the exogenous event of a merger or acquisition to determine whether high OC acquirers perform better. We extend the OC literature by considering economic policy uncertainty (“PU”)(Baker, Bloom & Davis, 2016), which is also exogenous to the firm, to determine the effect of OC on firms in the face of PU. Univariate tests show that high OC firms take more investment risk, have lower leverage, higher cash, lower total shareholder payouts, and …

A Delphi Study: Retention Of Women In Leadership Positions In Stem Disciplines, Kimberly T. Luthi

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

This Delphi study explores barriers and support systems that impact women’s professional advancement in STEM disciplines. There were 20 expert panelists who committed to participate in the study and 15 panelists completed the four rounds of the study after attrition. The panelists were selected based on specific criteria including educational background, diversity within STEM disciplines, experience as a former or current female administrator who served at two-year degree offering institutions, leadership and membership within women’s advocacy organizations in STEM and related workforce education fields, and depth of knowledge and understanding of the research questions. Through the four rounds of the …

A Case Study Of Participant Responses To Organizational Change Involving Technology In The National Security Domain: How Informal Processes Iterate Structure And Outcomes, Brian E. Martinez

School of Public Service Theses & Dissertations

Nuanced differences between organizations and the pace of change within the national security domain have routinely produced equivocal results involving information and communication technology (ICT) development. These results are characterized by unpredictable costs, unrealistic delivery schedules, and dubious ICT performance in-use. This research is a case study exploration of organizational change involving technology (also referred to as ICT) in the national security domain of the public sector.

This research used machine learning and manual content analysis to compare the results of three experiments on interview transcripts. The first experiment investigated linkages between empirical and interpretive elements of organizational change. Empirical …

Green Practices Among Fashion Manufacturers: Relationship With Cultural Innovativeness And Perceived Benefits, Dooyoung Choi, Tae-Im Han

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to examine green practices implemented among fashion manufacturers and identify factors that drive the adoption of those practices, specifically focusing on a company’s cultural innovativeness and the perceived benefits of green innovations. An online survey was created containing both open-ended and multiple-choice questions using Likert scales. Data were gathered from 29 fashion manufacturers that were identified by the Google search engine and then approached. Qualitative data were analyzed to obtain insights into fashion manufacturers’ green practices and a cluster analysis was conducted to categorize companies into distinct groups based on their level of green …

Three Essays On Ceo Characteristics And Corporate Decisions, Trung Nguyen

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

Recent studies have stressed the importance of managerial fixed effects on firm investment decisions. Following this stream of research, this dissertation empirically investigates the potential effects of two major Chief Executive Officer (CEO) characteristics, i.e. risk preferences and potential mobility, on corporate decisions such as merger and acquisition (M&A) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) investments.

Essay 1 examines whether the variation of M&A stock returns around the 2008 financial crisis is associated with shareholders’ increased loss aversion as a result of undergoing financial losses. The results show that acquisitions carried out by CEOs with risk-averse inducing compensation (inside debt) before …

Sexual Harassment Prevention After #Metoo: Employers' Need To Reevaluate, Michael T. Zugelder, Darrell M. Crosgrove, Paul J. Champagne

Finance Faculty Publications

The complex problem of workplace sexual harassment has now been put in sharper focus by the publicity of high-profile cases and the advent of the #MeToo movement, both of which have educated victims and motivated them to assert their civil rights. Employers can anticipate an increase in reported incidents and will need to reevaluate the sufficiency of their current anti-harassment policies, reporting procedures and support training to prevent sexual harassment. Employers ' should not stop there but should include efforts to create a culture of respect to prevent incidences of sexual harassment in the first place.

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

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

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

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

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

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

Big Data Techniques And Talent Management: Recommendations For Organizations And A Research Agenda For I-O Psychologists, Michael C. Campion, Michael A. Campion, Emily D. Campion

Management Faculty Publications

Big data and its applicability to talent management (TM) as defined by Rotolo et al. (2018) has already been recognized by many outside the field of I-O psychology. The market is beginning to include offerings from vendors for products that use some combination of big data techniques to process vast amounts of data or previously unanalyzable data, which they claim will improve components of TM for organizations. Unfortunately, as noted in the focal article, this “frontier” issue makes it difficult for organizations to separate the wheat from the chaff. Further, with few exceptions, I-O psychology is just beginning …