Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Patient Handling Safety For Nursing Staff, Don Nielsen

Dissertations

The effectiveness of video scoring and feedback about the scoring of the components of safe patient transfers was observed among eight nursing staff members in a skilled nursing department within an acute care hospital.

An ABCA (and sometimes ABCDA), multiple baseline across individuals design was utilized in the study. The dependent variable under investigation was the percentage of safe lifting components. Following baseline measures, nursing staff participated in an information phase during which they reviewed and discussed components of safe patient transfers. A video scoring phase was introduced, during which, participants viewed and scored a model video of a patienttransfer. …

Reverse Decision Making And Goal Attainment A Proof Of Concept As A New Approach To The Decision Making Process Under Uncertainty, Shitalkumar S. Sabne

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Decision making occurs when one must choose among alternatives. However, in uncertain environments where problems are complex and decision makers lack complete knowledge of the situation as well as decision alternatives, it's not possible for them to select an optimal decision outcome by 'Traditional Decision Approaches'. At present Reverse Decision Making is the central, although new and unproved, approach of Old Dominion University's Engineering Management and Systems Engineering research on decision making process for uncertain and complex situations. Even though research in decision making spans over one hundred years, there are still important problems which remain to be addressed.

There …

The Prediction Of Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy From Black And White Racial Identity Attitudes, Jennifer K. Montgomery

Doctoral Dissertations

Racial identity has been related to a variety of interpersonal, psychological, behavioral, environmental, and cognitive factors. Although Black racial identity is often researched in relation to career development, there are few studies examining the relationship between career development and White racial identity. Additionally, review of the career development studies that focused on Black racial identity reveals that they have failed to consider the role of social cognitive factors, instead using traditional career models that were created from the standpoint of middleclass non-minorities. The focus of this study was to examine the distinct relationship between Black and White racial identity and …

Teamwork In Chinese Organizations: A New Concept And Framework, Ying Liu

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Teamwork has always been a challenge in China, and the importance of teamwork has not been well recognized. This study was designed to explore the underlying definition of teamwork that Chinese people use to describe their teams, to identify variables related to teamwork, to develop a new framework and measure of teamwork in Chinese organizations, and to test the psychometric properties of the measure as well as the structural relationships of the new framework of teamwork in Chinese teams. This study also examines the influence of guanxi---an important Chinese cultural value that emphasizes exchange and reciprocity in relationships---on teamwork in …

Teacher Factors That Influence Student Achievement: A Study Of Third And Fifth Grade Teachers, Jewelle L. Harmon

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Student achievement is of the highest concern for the government, educational administrators and parents. Researchers have looked at several possible student factors that affect student achievement. However, very little research has been done on teacher factors and their relationship with student achievement. The current study looked at the relationships among teacher absence, teacher job satisfaction, work-family conflict, family/work conflict, teachers' attitudes towards achievement measures, and their correlation with Virginia's standardized measure of student achievement; the Standards of Learning (SOLs). District differences in student achievement were also examined. Three school districts in southeastern Virginia accepted the invitation to participate. …

Identifying The Underpinnings Of Compulsive Behavior: A New Measure Of Addiction Proneness, Jennifer Lynn Bowler

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation describes the development and initial validation of an indirect measure of addiction proneness. This new measurement system is based on the concept of differential framing, that is, the idea that individuals with different personalities tend to frame the same situations and stimuli in qualitatively different ways. This new measure (called the Conditional Reasoning Test of Addiction Proneness, or CRT-AP) consisted of 23 items that were designed to assess framing proclivities associated with addiction proneness. These items used Conditional Reasoning methodology to assess the extent to which implicit biases are used to justify the perpetuation of chemical dependency. Data …

Assessing Reliability Of Expert Ratings Among Judges Responding To A Survey Instrument Developed To Study The Long Term Efficacy Of The Abet Engineering Criteria, Ec2000, Tracy L. Litzinger

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

In today’s assessment processes, especially those evaluations that rely on humans to make subjective judgements, it is necessary to analyze the quality of their ratings. The psychometric issues associated with assessment provide the lens through which researchers interpret results and important decisions are made. Therefore, inter-rater agreement (IRA) and inter-rater reliability (IRR) are pre-requisites for rater-dependent data analysis. A survey instrument cannot provide “good” information if it is not reliable; in other words, reliability is central to the validation of an instrument. When judges cannot be shown to reliably rate a performance, item, or target, the question becomes why the …

Differential Attributions Of The Causes Of Subordinate Success And Failure By Aggressive And Non-Aggressive Individuals, Mark Connor Bowler

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examined the differential causal attributions of non-aggressive and aggressive individuals responding to incidents of subordinate success and failure. Participants (N = 407) were presented with 16 vignettes (eight describing subordinate success and eight describing subordinate failure) that utilized unique combinations of consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency information. Participants made attributions regarding the cause of the subordinate’s behavior (i.e., person, task, circumstances, or any combination of the three) and indicated their preferred behavioral response (i.e., praise/reward, reprimand/punish, coach/train, redesign the task, or do nothing). When responding to incidents of subordinate success, the causal attributions of aggressive individuals were similar to …

Reducing Wait Times In A Hospital Pharmacy To Promote Customer Service, Julie M. Slowiak

Masters Theses

The quality of service received by a customer affects their satisfaction with the organization. To increase the probability that customers will return to an organization, it is critical that customers are satisfied with the organization's services. The amount of time customers spend waiting in line can affect their satisfaction with an organization's services (Gail & Lucey, 1997). This study examined the effects of a single intervention versus a combined intervention package to reduce wait times in a hospital's outpatient pharmacy. Customer satisfaction ratings were collected to determine the effect of a reduction in wait time on customer service satisfaction with …

The Effects Of Self-Monitoring On Safe Postural Performance, Nicole Gravina

Masters Theses

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of self-monitoring on safe positioning of individuals performing a typing task and an assembly task using a multiple baseline design across behaviors and tasks. The study took place in an analogue office setting with seven college student participants. The dependent variable was the percentage of observations scored as safe and each session was recorded via a hidden camera.. During baseline, participants received information regarding safe positions and then completed a typing task and an assembly task during nine-minute sessions. In the self-monitoring phase, participants recorded whether a targeted posture …

Investigating The Effects Of Real-Time Visual Feedback On Computer Workstation Posture, Sigurdur Oli Sigurdsson

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a package intervention that included discrimination training, real-time visual feedback, and self-monitoring on postural behavior at a computer workstation in a simulated office environment. A total of 21 participants were screened for participation, and eight of those participated throughout the study. A non-concurrent multiple baseline design across participants was used to assess the effects of the interventions across three postural variables. Following an information-only phase, participants were exposed to the intervention for the lowest stable postural variable. For most targeted postural variables, the intervention implemented in this study led …

The Effect Of Major Organizational Policy On Employee Attitudes Toward Graduate Degrees, Frank R. Hughes

Theses and Dissertations

Leaders initiate policies not only to improve the success of their organizations, but to influence employee performance, whereby employee attitudes toward a policy objective can influence their resulting behaviors. One group of employees, Air Force officers, experienced a policy change in 2005 that discontinued the use of academic degrees as criteria for officer promotions. With this change, there is a concern that the number of Air Force officers with graduate degrees might decrease. In particular, senior leaders in the Civil Engineer (CE) officer career field are concerned that this policy change might reduce the number of officers available to fill …

An Evaluation Of How Organizational Culture Can Perpetuate A Formal Mentoring Relationship, Daniel J. Rieker

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to investigate how an organization's culture can have an effect on formal mentoring. Specifically, this thesis sought to determine if perceptions among gender, ethnicity, and organizational position differ for mentoring and organizational culture. Additionally, this thesis sought to determine if any correlations may exist between organizational culture and formal mentoring overall.

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 …

Influence Of Organizational Culture On The Relationship Between Psychological Contracts And Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Jennifer M. Carbajal

Theses and Dissertations

The issue of what antecedents of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and psychological contracts (PC) employees form with their organization has also been of interest as they have many implications on an employee's extra-role behavior, specifically OCBs. This research investigates the relationship between types of PCs (a) relational and (b) transactional and the propensity to perform (a) altruism and (b) compliance OCB. Furthermore, the influence of organizational culture (OC) dimensions (a) internal orientation and (b) external orientation on this relationship was explored. The results show that transactional PCs were negatively related to both dimensions of OCB. Relational PCs were positively related …

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. …

The Effects Of Varying Types Of Voice On Organizational Justice And Motivation Perceptions, Scott Bradford Pilch

Theses Digitization Project

The present study was designed to answer two questions. First, how do different forms of voice influence perceptions of organizational justice? Second, do organizational justice perceptions affect an individual's motivation to improve their job performance?

The Effects Of Participative Safety And Support For Innovation On Group Creativity, Toshio Murase

Theses Digitization Project

This study examined the effects of Participative Safety (PS) and Support for Innovation (SI) on team creativity. It has been proposed that PS helps develop teamwork processes where members feel comfortable expressing and exchanging their ideas freely and SI makes a team perceive that creativity is valued. The study hypothesized that groups trained on PS score higher on creativity, feel less anxiety, have more cohesiveness, and have higher satisfaction than groups without PS training. The study also hypothesized that groups in the SI condition score higher on originality than groups in the non-SI condition. These climate conditions were created by …

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 …

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.

The Sales Managers' Implicit Personality Theory And Leadership Variables, Gordon Gunn Mosley

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship of sales managers' implicit personality theory and various leadership variables provided to salespeople by their sales managers. Several bodies of literature were reviewed for this study from the educational psychology, management, leadership, and marketing/sales disciplines. More specifically, this study addressed the following research questions: (1) What effect does sales managers' implicit personality theory have on the nature of the feedback they provide to their salespeople? (2) What effect does sales managers' implicit personality theory have of the transformational leadership they provide to their salespeople? (3) What effect does sales managers' …

An Exploratory Study Of The Influence Of Life Management Strategies On Job Satisfaction And Job Performance In A Personal Selling Context, Dheeraj Sharma

Doctoral Dissertations

Extant literature on goal oriented behaviors suggests that individual goal orientation is an important determinant of a salesperson's job satisfaction and job performance. However, the present conceptualization of goal orientation suffers from flawed paradigmatic structure. There are two major disparate paradigms of goal orientation in the extant literature. The first paradigm views goal orientation as a stable personality trait and the second paradigm views it as contextually driven phenomenon. The present study proffers a new approach of conceptualizing individual goal orientation, by introducing the meta-model of Life Management Strategies (Baltes and Baltes, 1998; Freund and Baltes, 1998) in the personal …

Implicit Theories Go Applied: Conception Of Ability At Work, Charles N. Thompson

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Implicit theories have been extensively studied in educational psychology (e.g. Dweck, 1999; Dweck & Leggett, 1988). Implicit theories have been related to goal orientation, response to failure, attributional style and perception of effort. With a few exceptions (e.g. Heslin, Latham, & VandeWalle, 2005; Martocchio, 1994) the potential applicability of this research to industrial/organizational psychology has been largely ignored. The current study proposed a measure specifically designed to measure implicit theories about work, assessed its relationship to other implicit theory measures, and explored potential relationships with work domain antecedents. Scales assessing conception of ability at work, goal focus, perception of effort, …

A Mixed-Methods And Multi-Level Investigation Of The Effects Of A Crew Chief Intervention On Job Attitudes, Occupational Stress, And Organizational Commitment, Michael Charles Leo

Dissertations and Theses

High-profile instances of workplace violence and increased pressure from competitors have threatened the viability of one of the nation's largest employers, the United States Postal Service (USPS). As a result, the USPS began a massive change effort in the early 1990's. One of the initiatives implemented to improve labor-management relations was a derivative of the self-managed work team known as the crew chief program. This study provides a mixed-methods and multi-level approach to understand the impact this unique program had on organizational attitudes.

The first aim of this study was to investigate whether the crew chief program reduced employees' stress …

A Structural Model Of Relationships Between Employee Characteristics, Supervisory Mentoring Behaviors And Job Satisfaction, Florence R. Jinadu

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Organizational researchers have consistently found that developmental mentoring has a positive effect on employees professional and career success. Some of the benefits that have been cited include increased job satisfaction, increased organizational commitment, and increased self-esteem among mentored employees. In addition to these short-term benefits, developmental mentoring has also been found to positively impact long-term career outcomes in the form of increased compensation and career mobility for mentored employees as compared to non-mentored employees. Traditionally, mentors have been described as influential senior members of an organization who provide career support and developmental opportunities to less experienced employees, who are referred …

Understanding The Nature Of Surgical Excellence Using A Competency Modeling Approach, Hope S. Hanner-Bailey

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Currently, a thorough description of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other personal characteristics (KSAOs) that distinguish an exceptional surgeon does not exist. This knowledge is pertinent to the development of selection, training, and performance assessment methods that can be used to develop high performing surgeons. Expert surgeons from around the country were recruited to participate in an interview to discuss the KSAOs (i.e., the competencies) needed to be exceptional in the field. A smaller number of novice surgeons were also interviewed. The expert interview data were distilled into a competency model that consists of ten competencies and patterns within the …

Active Regulation Of Speed During A Simulated Low-Altitude Flight Task: Altitude Matters!, April M. Bennett

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

This study examined active regulation of speed during a low-altitude flight task as a function of global optical flow rate, speed, and the presence or absence of a concurrent altitude disturbance. The results showed that altitude clearly had an impact on speed control; specifically, control of speed was much more difficult when altitude disturbances were present. Even in the no altitude disturbance conditions, performance tended to be best at lower altitudes. Consistent with previous research, the results suggest that speed and altitude changes have additive effects on speed judgments. This is inconsistent with the simple global optical flow rate hypothesis …

Interactive Effects Of Feedback Type And Feedback Propensities On Task Performance, Kristin M. Delgado

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of feedback types (i.e., outcome, process, and task feedback), feedback propensities, and their interactions on task performance in an attempt to determine, first, which types of feedback produced better task performance and, second, how feedback propensities influenced relationships between feedback type and performance. Process feedback and task feedback were expected to interact in their effects on task performance. In addition, I predicted that external feedback propensity would moderate the effects of process feedback on performance and initial task performance would moderate the effects of internal feedback propensity on task …

Diabetes Self-Management: Patient Cognition And The Development Of Expertise, Katherine D. Lippa

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Expert decision making has been widely researched among professionals, but non-professionals make many equally complex decisions. This study uses the case of type II diabetes to explore complex decision making among non-professionals. It was hypothesized that three cognitive aspects of expertise, problem detection, functional relationships, and problem solving, would be linked with higher levels of self-management (higher adherence and lower glucose). Twenty participants with diabetes were interviewed concerning their knowledge and experiences with diabetes. Participants also completed a questionnaire concerning their self-management practices. Interviews were transcribed and thematically coded. Participants who displayed characteristics of expert cognition reported higher levels of …