Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Developing An Instrument To Measure Group Dynamics Awareness: A Mixed Methods Study, John Weng

Dissertations

In a world that is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, adaptive leaders are needed more than ever. Based on group relations programs developed by the Tavistock Institute, a pedagogy known as case-in-point has recently been brought to prominence and incorporated into leadership development programs. These methods claim to develop systems thinking and individuals’ leadership capacity with little prior empirical research.

This mixed methods exploratory study explored individual awareness of group dynamics, a key outcome in case-in-point programs, and adaptive leadership theory. The goal was to create an instrument to measure awareness of group dynamics: the Group Dynamics Awareness Questionnaire …

Coworkers And Leaders: The Relationship Between Trustworthiness, Trust, And Employee Engagement, Lianne Young

Dissertations

A highly engaged workforce provides numerous organizational and individual benefits (Shuck et al., 2016), the culmination of which leads to a competitive advantage difficult to emulate (Burke et al., 2013). It remains challenging to understand how engagement develops, with little research available explaining the process (Shuck, 2020). High employee engagement levels provide a competitive advantage, but stagnant engagement levels remain a significant obstacle (Shuck, 2020).

Shuck (2020) recommends further research focusing on methods to increase engagement. Trustworthiness and trust are antecedents and drivers of engagement (Chughtai & Buckley, 2008; Federman, 2010; SHRM, 2017). A lack of trust has negative impacts …

With A Little Help At Home: The Impact Of Romantic Partner Support On Daily Burnout And Workplace Incivility, Matthew Aplin-Houtz

Dissertations

With rude and discourteous encounters in the workplace becoming more common, Workplace incivility (WI) is at an all-time high. As such, workers experience levels of burnout from these negative social interactions. The literature concedes that the results of these interactions lead to mounting burnout, causing negative physical and emotional outcomes at the individual and organizational levels. Considering that the literature also supports that employees have the potential to recover from burnout symptoms through rest, obtaining the perception of control of their circumstances, and cognitive reframing, the time and activities a worker spends at home carry the potential for minimizing burnout …

The Relationship Between Transformational Leadership And Attachment Theory Among Field Grade Officers In The U.S. Army, Rebecca Ochs

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to determine what relationship exists between U.S. Army field grade officers’ self-reported scores on the five domains of the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) (Kouzes & Posner, 2002) and their self-reported scores on the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale (ECR) (Brennan et al., 1998). Methodology: This study used a correlational approach to collect quantitative data from U.S. Army field grade officers. Using the LPI, a self-report transformational leadership measurement tool developed by Kouzes and Posner (2002), that measures five domains that include: (a) model the way, (b) inspire a shared vision, (c) …

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 …

The Impact Workplace Microaggressions Have On Those Who Identify As Lesbian, Gay And Bisexual., Andres Medina

Dissertations

Progress has occurred in recent years for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender equal rights. However, there are still areas where discrimination is evident such as the workplace. Some lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender employees may not share their identity at work due to discrimination concerns. Such forms of discrimination may be passive acts such as microaggressions. These microaggressions can make work-life stressful; furthermore, the stress experienced at work may impact other areas such as home life. This study explored two areas. The first area investigated was whether identity disclosure at work affected workplace microaggressions. The sample size was 88 working adults who …

Mental Health Stigma And Law Enforcement Officers, Moses Park

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological research was to describe the perception of law enforcement officers (LEOs) about the stigmatizing behavior they experienced from fellow officers in their organization, after they sought mental health services, following a traumatic event they were involved in.

Methodology: The methodology for this research study will be qualitative from a phenomenological perspective. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 12 active and retired LEOs who served in southern California.

Findings: After the analysis, seven major findings were yielded. The major findings of the study are: (a) Within the law enforcement …

The Role Of Motivation In Employee Disposition And Choosing To Act Among Manufacturing Employees: A Grounded Theory Of Discretionary Effort, Shawn Michael Andrews

Dissertations

Managers are often tasked to accomplish more with the resources at their disposal. Doing more with less is especially associated with the manufacturing industry providing a rich and relevant backdrop for study. Understanding discretionary effort as a resource, how it manifests, and when and how manufacturing employees choose to do more than is required is key to achieving results in an increasingly competitive and evolving industry. This constructive grounded research study investigated how 25 non-salaried manufacturing employees conceptualized how and why they chose to engage in activities that were considered above and beyond job role expectations. Extant literature was considered …

Developing And Maintaining Resilience In Charter School Executive Directors, Erika Vanderspek

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this exploratory phenomenological study was to identify and describe the strategies used by charter school executive directors to develop and maintain personal resiliency based on Everly, Strouse, and McCormack’s (2015) five factors of personal resilience (active optimism, decisive action, moral compass, relentless tenacity, and interpersonal support).

Methodology: This exploratory phenomenological study identified and described the lived experiences of exemplary charter school executive directors in San Diego, Riverside, and Orange counties. Based on recommendations from expert entities who worked with the target population, the researcher used purposeful sampling to select eight exemplary charter school executive directors. The …

Engaging Experts: Overcoming Trust In Risky Environments, Cynthia Goodwin-Sak

Dissertations

In business-to-business sales environments, sellers may choose to bring their go-to expert to a customer meeting, even when there is an expert available who may be more skilled in the product being discussed. The purpose of this study is to identify if an intervention of data, trust transference, ingroup identity, or a combination, influence the choice of expert a salesperson engages for a customer meeting. We tested this question through a series of vignettes and hierarchical linear modeling. The sample came from a US-based technology company, and salespeople in the United States.

We found that trust transference influenced both choice …

An Exploration Of Black Church Leaders' Intentions To Develop Critical Consciousness Among African-American Students, Taheesha Quarells

Dissertations

African-American students experience human capital opportunity and achievement gaps. Researchers have called for culturally relevant strategies to help close the gaps. The historic Black Church, a part of many African-American students’ culture and community, is a historic and current source of social capital for positive human capital development outcomes. Critical consciousness develops positive human capital outcomes, such as academic achievement, in African-American and other minority students. Much of the literature on critical consciousness is quantitative in nature and therefore does not include the intentions or the willingness of organizations to develop critical consciousness. Therefore, there is a need to understand …

The Effects Of Cost, Level Of Safety, And Severity Of Injury On Manager Decisions To Implement A Safety Solution, Jonathan M. Hochmuth

Dissertations

Workplace injuries continue to be a source of substantial human and financial costs each year. Behavioral safety processes have been effective in reducing workplace injuries by increasing safety-related behaviors. In recent years, the focus in behavioral safety has shifted towards the role of managers in establishing and maintaining safe behaviors and conditions in the workplace. Understanding how managers make decisions to allocate resources is critical to improving safety. The field of behavioral economics has developed methods for studying decision-making. While there have been calls to apply these methods to occupational safety, there are only two empirical studies which have done …

Organizational Stressors As Predictors Of Burnout, Kristen Albritton

Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to determine if organizational stress, measured by role conflict and role ambiguity, predicts burnout among employees. A review of the related literature identified variables that demonstrate a relationship with burnout, supported by the Maslach (1998) theory of burnout and Katz and Kahn’s (1966) organizational role theory. The researcher also examined whether organizational level and demographic variables (gender, education level, and job tenure) moderate the relationships between role conflict, role ambiguity, and burnout.

The study follows a non-experimental, cross-sectional design using data collected from a survey. Results of linear regression analyses reveal role conflict and …

Empowering Nurses Of Minority In The Face Of Incivility And Bullying: Through The Lens Of Phenomenology, Corrine Floyd

Dissertations

Abstract

Up to 85% of nurses have reported exposure to incivility in the workplace (Hunt & Marini, 2012). The often-subtle nature of incivility toward nurses in a minority population may partially explain why it remains a problem. Healthcare organizations realize the need for civility to counter the high turnover rate, staff shortages, and low job satisfaction reported by nurses, but lack understanding of how nurses of a minority population perceive incivility and bullying. This study aimed to answer the research question how do nurses with minority representation experience incivility and bullying versus empowerment in the workplace? A descriptive phenomenological design …

Recognition Of Gender Microaggressions In The Workplace: The Case Of Predisposition And Propensity To Recognize, Alicia Ako-Brew

Dissertations

This study examined the individual factors that affect the recognition of gender microaggressions in the workplace. A total of 220 subjects participated in this study. Specifically, this study revealed how social dominance orientation, ambivalent sexism and gender discrimination perceptions toward women affect a third-party observer’s recognition of gender microaggressions perpetrated against women. In addition, this study examined the effect of role congruence on the propensity to recognize gender microaggressions. Role congruence stems from role congruity theory which posits that a woman in a leadership or masculine role will receive positive or negative evaluations based on the degree to which she …

Performance Management Training Evaluation In An Autism Treatment Facility, James D. Morrison

Dissertations

The demand for Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBA) has increased dramatically since 2010 (Burning Glass Technologies, 2019). A core component of a BCBA’s role is to provide supervision to Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analysts (BCaBA) and other paraprofessionals. Currently there is a lack of research on effective supervision training in the ABA literature. This study evaluated a supervision training program based on the Operant Model of Effective Supervision developed by Komaki (1986). The training developed for this study incorporated basic OBM concepts such as behavioral pinpointing, feedback, and goal setting as well as concepts such as work sampling, which the …

A Multilevel Examination Of Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior Decision-Making: The Role Of Citizenship Pressure, Moral Disengagement, And Moral Intensity, William Bryant

Dissertations

Unethical pro-organizational behaviors (UPB) are unethical behaviors that are intended to benefit the organization or its members. Research on this type of behavior typically involves assessing attitudinal and dispositional predictors of UPB but has largely failed to understand the process through which UPB occurs. One potential elicitation process could be through a perceived obligation that an employee has to help their organization, or citizenship pressure. By adapting Rest’s four stage model of ethical decision-making and social exchange theory, the current study aimed to identify how organizational identification might increase perceptions of citizenship pressure, and how citizenship pressure might influence elements …

Can Ratings Of Item Location Enhance Statistical Item Parameter Estimation? Extending The Feasibility Of Unfolding Irt Models, Michael Mckenna

Dissertations

Research and development of modern psychometric methods such as item response theory have drastically changed the way we understand and carry out the measurement of psychological constructs. Despite this, there has been relatively little adoption by psychological researchers to incorporate these methods into their research. While multiple explanations are surely valid, one oft stated reason is the large sample size requirements of these methods. The sample size requirements of item response theory are needed so that effective estimation of item parameters can be carried out. In an attempt to make these modern measurement methods more accessible and feasible to psychological …

Characteristics Of Notes Taken During The Employment Interview And Their Impact On Organizational Outcomes, James T. Mundell

Dissertations

Note-taking during the interview process has been recommended by both academics and practitioners. However, little research on note-taking in employment interviews exists. Although the limited amount of research points to the benefits of note-taking, characteristics of the notes taken have not been studied in detail and in relation to many organizational outcomes. As such, this study examined characteristics of note-taking (including job relatedness, detail, and valence) and their impact on interview question scores, hiring recommendations, hiring decisions, employee performance, and turnover. Archival data from an organization was utilized and the notes taken during employment interviews were coded to better understand …

What Does Time Management Mean To You? Exploring Measures Of Time Management And Group Differences., Allison Burrus

Dissertations

For centuries people have been trying to find ways to effectively manage their time. Meanwhile, research in this area has lagged and provided inconsistent results about the outcomes (i.e., well-being and job performance) of the use of time management behaviors. A potential reason for the inconsistent results is the lack of a universal conceptualization of time management making it difficult to compare results. Further, it may be that certain groups use and/or interpret time management behaviors in different ways. This study investigated three of the most popular measures of time management concurrently. First, the measures were examined for statistical artifacts, …

An Exploration Of Contextual Factors Of Weight-Based Discrimination Against Business Leaders, Ellen Hermann Lynch

Dissertations

Two-thirds of the adult population of the United States are considered overweight (Ogden, Carroll, Kit, & Flegal, 2013) and are susceptible to weight-based discrimination in the workplace (Rudolph, Wells, Weller, & Baltes, 2009). The weight-based discrimination experienced by business leaders is relatively unknown. The present research used Leader Categorization Theory (Lord & Maher, 1991) as a framework to examine the extent to which a business leader’s weight is associated with their perceived leadership qualities and effectiveness in two studies. The first study isolated the relationship between the base rate of weight in an organization and the assumed weight of the …

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 …

Supervisor-Subordinate Conflict Negotiation: Examining The Core Concerns In Light Of Communication Accommodation And Gender Roles, Piyawan Charoensap-Kelly

Dissertations

This quasi-experimental study examined a supervisor-subordinate negotiation of an emotion-laden conflict from the lens of the core concerns framework, communication accommodation theory, and gender roles research. Results empirically support CCF that, by accommodating or attending to the employees’ core concerns, managers can stimulate employees’ positive emotion and integrative intention. However, under- and overaccommodating the core concerns can lead to distributive intention. Additionally, the employees’ perception of manager goodwill can strengthen or attenuate the positive effect of core concerns accommodativeness on outcome variables especially for male managers. Thus, moderate accommodation is recommended for male managers. For female managers, the results show …

You Look Like Me: The Impact Of Demographic Similarity On Picture Primes’ Effectiveness, Jennifer L. Unnerstall

Dissertations

Past research has clearly demonstrated the ability of various primes to influence behavior; however, little is understood about how and why primes work. The present research takes a theory-based approach to begin to understand this further. First, it investigates whether a picture prime has the ability to influence cooperative and competitive concept activation and implicit associations. Then, it examines whether the characteristics of the picture prime, specifically the race of the individuals depicted in the prime and whether it matches the race of the participant (i.e., demographic similarity), moderate these effects. Secondly, the present research investigates whether the same picture …

G.I. Jane Fem Etran Goes Corporate: An Exploration Of Post-9/11 Female Combat Veterans Transitioning To A Civilian Career, Tumona Austin

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this multiple-case study was to explore the experiences of post- 9/11 female combat veterans transitioning from military service to civilian careers, using the Schlossberg transition model factors of situation, self, social support, and strategies.

Methodology: This multiple-case study identified and interviewed post-9/11 female combat veterans transitioning from active-duty to civilian career. Respondents were purposively chosen based on specific criteria and expert panel recommendations.

Findings: Examination of case-study interview data and artifacts from the 3 post-9/11 female combat veterans indicated nine major findings:

1. The factor of situation clearly outweighed the other Schlossberg factors in impact.

2. …

Physician Stress: Is The Electronic Health Record To Blame?, Zack Ward

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the potential relationship between Family Medicine physician burnout and the electronic health record. To do so, this study utilized the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory to assess burnout among physicians, along with specific questions regarding usage of the electronic health record and measurement of physician perceptions of the electronic health record. Members of the Kentucky Academy of Family Physicians were sent two separate invitations to participate in the study twice over a one-month period via email.

The study yielded no significant differences in Family Medicine physician demographics and their degree of burnout, or the …

Redefining Burnout: Exploring Common Conceptualizations And The Neurophysiology Of Chronic Stress To Establish An Integrated Allostatic Model, Danny A. Guzzi

Dissertations

Burnout is a widely researched stress-related phenomenon associated with numerous adverse outcomes for employees and organizations. Unfortunately, burnout is not well understood and research to this point has been flawed due to a lack of consensus on the definition, dimensionality, and context of the construct. Prevalent conceptualizations of burnout have been criticized for being arbitrarily developed without solid theoretical foundation and for failing to clearly distinguish burnout from depression or other work-related conditions such as compassion fatigue, secondary traumatization, and vicarious traumatization. The current project first examines relevant literature to identify commonalities among prevalent burnout conceptualizations. Then relevant stress research …

The Dreaded Performance Appraisal: Can The Process Ever Be Comfortable?, Lauren Labat

Dissertations

Previous research has indicated that individuals dislike and resist the performance appraisal process. Fewer studies have examined reasoning for unintentional rating distortion that may result from a lack of training and clear understanding of how to effectively evaluate behaviors. Researchers have shown that the appraisal process is uncomfortable for raters, but empirical studies have yet to explore how to reduce this discomfort. Rater training research has revealed that trained raters have improved observational skills, a more precise vocabulary to describe behaviors, and improved rating accuracy. This research explored the relationship between performance appraisal discomfort and trait motivational factors (i.e., personality …

Development And Validation Of A Multidimensional Political Behavior Scale, Amanda Thomas

Dissertations

Years of research conducted into organizational politics has resulted in an expanded understanding of what politics “do” through the investigation of antecedents and outcomes (Lepisto & Pratt, 2012). The literature is somewhat deficient, however, in explaining and measuring what politics “are”. While there are numerous existing measures of organizational politics, the measurement and methodology in this area remains complex due to several issues. The existing literature notes design and measurement (Ferris, Adams, Kolodinsky, Hochwarter, & Ammeter, 2002; Nye & Witt, 1993), definitional (Gunn & Chen, 2006; Lepisto & Pratt, 2012), and level of analysis (Dipboye & Foster, 2006; Fedor & …

Intercultural Coworker Relationships (Icors) In The Global Workplace: A Grounded Theory Study, Jennifer L. Morton

Dissertations

Previous research supports what employees intuitively sense: peers make the place (Chiaburu & Harrison, 2008; Schneider, 1987). Extant research suggests coworker relationships have critical influence on outcomes ranging from turnover (Felps, Mitchell, Hekman, Lee, Holtom, & Harman, 2009) to creativity (Homan, Buengeler, Eckhoff, van Ginkel, & Voelpel, 2015) to organizational commitment (Viswesvaran & Ones, 2002) to employee health and well-being (Heaphy & Dutton, 2008). Despite the increase of Intercultural COworker Relationships (ICORs), particularly in multinational firms in the technology industry, research has yet to examine what defines coworker relationship quality in the presence of national cultural differences. In other words, …