Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Effect Of Personality On Performance Under Change, Sydney Mazur

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the relationship between personality and performance under changing circumstances. Specifically, this paper analyzes how the personality trait of optimism, and a moderator of ambiguity tolerance, affects performance under changes in an Air-Traffic Control Simulation. Previous studies have not examined the effect that optimism has on performance under change. Results indicated that personality does not correlate significantly with performance. This study was completed due to interest in a positive attitude and how it may relate to performing in the workplace

The Effects Of Transformational Leadership On Sales Performance In A Multilevel Marketing Organization, Alexander Techy

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Despite the rapid growth of multilevel marketing (MLM), there is little research that examines distributor performance in this unique organizational setting. The present study focused on the relationships between individual distributors and the people who recruited them into the organization (i.e., their sponsors). Given the unique structure of MLM organizations and the importance of sponsor-recruit relationships, it has previously been proposed that sponsors should employ a transformational leadership style. This study investigated transformational leadership as a predictor of performance, which was defined using both objective and subjective measures. Participants were 479 distributors at an MLM organization who were instructed to …

Stress And Its Interventions In Undergraduate College Students During Covid-19, Katie A. Jones

MSU Graduate Theses

Though stress in postsecondary education is a highly researched topic, the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has created many new questions that require answers. It is important to connect total perceived stress in undergraduate students with academic, COVID-19, and distance-learning factors and examine the effectiveness of interventions on stress and anxiety during the pandemic. This research determines the efficacy of mindfulness stress interventions (cognitive-behavioral, guided meditation, and music) for individual differences in stress, self- efficacy, and anxiety and links these variables to performance. This study measures levels of different types of stress (total perceived, distance-learning, academic, and COVID-19) for undergraduate …

Profiles And Culture: Multi-Level Latent Profiles Based On Personality Traits And Facets And Profile Influences On Performance Outcomes Across Cultures, Weiwei Liu

Theses and Dissertations

Personality research has traditionally adopted a variable-centric approach but recently more studies have adopted a person-centric approach. A person-centric approach can provide additional insights in that it explores for multiple unobserved subgroups within a population and examines the extent to which relationships may differ across subgroups. The current study adds to this growing area in four ways. First, studies have attempted to identify common personality profiles, but results have been inconsistent and very few studies have examined work-relevant samples. The current study addresses this issue based on a large sample that is diverse in terms of industries, occupations, and countries. …

Finding Teams That Fight Fair: Exploring Trajectories Of Team Conflict Over Time, Natasha E. Ouslis

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Disagreements are a reality for teams. Yet how and when teams experience conflict may impact their chances of success. We know relatively little about how team conflict emerges over time, especially for project-based teams. Disagreements over personal topics, logistics, and contributions have been consistently damaging to team performance (De Dreu & Weingart, 2003; O’Neill, Allen, & Hastings, 2013). The implications of task-based conflict over time, however, are inconsistent and poorly understood. To resolve these questions, I conducted three studies examining how conflict developed over the lifetimes of 272 engineering design project teams. Study 1 explored the measurement and patterns of …

Developing Adaptive Performance: The Power Of Experiences And A Strategic Network Of Support, Joseph D. Landers Jr.

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

In today’s dynamic work environment, the ability to adapt is becoming less of a luxury and more of a necessity. In order to contribute to the growing body of research surrounding adaptive performance, this study will seek to examine the power of a leader’s breadth and depth of experience on his or her adaptive performance. It is predicted that the more breadth and depth of experience that a leader has, the higher the leader’s adaptive performance will be. Additionally, in assessing the power of a leader’s breadth and depth of experience on adaptive performance, it is also predicted that the …

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 …

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 Effect Of Perceived Role Suitability On Prestige, Dominance, Performance, And Communication., Lynden Jensen

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The pursuit of social rank is pervasive across societies and cultures. Previous studies have identified two distinct avenues for attaining social rank: prestige and dominance. While prestige (communication of skill/ability) and dominance (communication of superiority) are crucial to interpersonal interactions, it is unclear how people communicate prestige or dominance and how such communication affects team performance. To investigate these ideas, 206 individuals participated in a cooperative dyadic building task. A computer randomly assigned dyad members to one of two roles—builder (who handled and placed model pieces) and instructor (who directed the builder's actions). Additionally, using a false feedback paradigm, a …

A Meta-Analysis Of Information Processing Measures Of Intelligence, Performance, And Group Score Differences, Elliott C. Larson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Intelligence is one of the most studied constructs in industrial-organizational (I-O) and educational psychology. Findings from numerous studies and meta-analyses have consistently demonstrated the power of intelligence measures to predict performance across a wide range of domains. This research has been fruitful and provides strong evidence for the utility of intelligence measures in organizations and schools. However, while intelligence measures have been developed and applied for over a century, most research in I-O psychology has relied on operationalizations of intelligence that focus on a person’s knowledge. Meta-theories of intelligence propose that intelligence can simultaneously be conceptualized as a person’s ability …

Testing A New Model Of Team Interdependence, Natasha E. Ouslis

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Companies rely on teams to combine their different skills and solve multidisciplinary problems (Engestrom, 2008; Schrage, 1995). One crucial characteristic of teams is their interdependent nature (Sundstrom, de Meuse, & Futrell, 1990). However, interdependence as a construct is not well understood and its role in dynamic team processes is not clear. Recent theoretical advances have proposed a new model of interdependence – one that places two forms of interdependence at the beginning of a path that leads through task and social constructs to team effectiveness (Courtright, Thurgood, Stewart, & Pierotti, 2015). This new model was tested in two data sets …

Negative Mind Wandering As A Symptom Of Incivility: What It Means For Important Workplace Outcomes, Anthony Belluccia

Theses and Dissertations

The effects of experienced incivility have been explained by a variety of cognitive and emotional mechanisms, but mind wandering may also be responsible for many processes and behaviors associated with incivility due to its ability to make room for resources (ego depletion theory) and remedy attentional conflicts generated by incivility (attentional-conflict theory). This study proposed that three negative dimensions of mind wandering (distressed, ruminating and irrelevant) would mediate the relationship between experienced incivility and various workplace outcomes, including instigated incivility, task performance, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and creative problem solving. As part of the study, we also developed and validated …

Mindfulness As A Vigilance Intervention: Examining Its Impact On Stress And Mental Demand, Kelli Huber

Dissertations

Occupations involving vigilance performance (i.e., sustained attention in monitoring for rare environmental threats) are known to experience vigilance decrement, a decline in performance over time. These occupations are known to be cognitively and emotionally challenging, giving rise to harmful effects for employees in them and presenting safety implications for the welfare of others. The current study investigated mindfulness as a potentially viable intervention to alleviate outcomes of vigilance demands: stress and mental demand. A mindfulness induction was compared to an unfocused control condition in which both were administered during a break from a vigilance task, specifically, a baggage screening task. …

Validation Of The Transformative Work In Society Index: Christianity, Work, And Economics Integration, John R. Terrill

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

In recent years, concern for faith-work integration has evolved from a special interest to a sustained movement within workplace and ecclesiastical communities. This study’s purpose is to validate the Transformative Work in Society Index (TWSI) exploring Christian faith, work, and economics integration within the larger nomological net of workplace spirituality, organizational outcomes, and faith maturity measures. The TWSI incorporates the full affective, behavioral, and cognitive dimensions of what it means to be agentic human beings at work. A total of 405 participants who self-identified as Christians took part in this study (40.2% female; mean age = 46 years; mean as …

The Effects Of Feedback Modality On Performance, Garrett D. Warrilow

Masters Theses

Giving employees information about their performance is a common method for employers seeking to improve or change performance. With the popularity of the internet and computers feedback today is often provided through emails, text messages, and video meetings. While feedback has continued to evolve within and across organizations little has been done to assess the impact its delivery through various modalities has. This study explored and evaluated the relationship between the modality which objective feedback is delivered, and the differential effects it produced on performance of a check entering task. This experiment was a laboratory study employing a between-group repeated …

That's Not Fair! Examining Individual Differences In Perceptions Of Fairness, Hayden Jerney Randolph Woodley

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Within organizations, fairness is an important concept and has received considerable research attention. Some research, interestingly, suggests that individuals differ in their perceptions of equity. Building on this research, four empirical studies were conducted to develop a measure of a new construct (i.e., equity orientation) and examine its predictive validity. In Study 1 (N = 836) and Study 2 (N = 600), the Equity Orientation Scale (EOS) was created and its relations with two popular personality models – the HEXACO and the Dark Tetrad – were examined across self- and peer-ratings. In Study 3 (N = 433) and Study 4 …

Role Of Self-Efficacy And Anxiety In Resilience Effects On Performance And Well-Being, Kathleen Renee Wylds

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The current study examined the role of motivational and affective factors in resilience effects on the outcomes performance and well-being. Prior research has examined the direct relationships between resilience and outcomes but not the variables through which resilience has beneficial effects on outcomes. The current study examined a path model that addresses the underlying mechanisms (e.g., motivational and affective variables) that explain the beneficial effects of resilience on performance and well-being. Results provided support for a revised path model and evidence of a motivational pathway, an affective pathway, and a more complex pathway that explain how resilience has beneficial effects …

Computer Monitoring In The Workplace: Performance Effects And Perceptions, Kimberly S. Rubenstein

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Computer performance monitoring (CPM) has become prevalent in modern day as several work functions are now completed on the computer. Under the framework of social facilitation effect (Zajonc, 1965), it is possible that CPM may affect performance because of the feeling of being evaluated. In addition to its effects on performance, employees’ perceptions of CPM are important to consider when employers are deciding whether or not to implement its use in the workplace. Employees may feel apprehensive about being electronically observed, however CPM can be used to employees’ benefit through its ability to provide accurate and detailed information about their …

Leader-Member Exchange As A Predictor Of Leaders’ Positive Work Outcomes: A Field Study, Matthew Jason Shaffer

Doctoral Dissertations

Prior research found that the quality of the working relationships between leaders and their followers, or Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) quality in leader-member dyads, predicts positive work outcomes for followers, including job satisfaction, engagement, and performance. Though leaders might be expected to receive similar benefits from high quality LMX with their followers, almost no published, empirical research to-date has reported benefits of LMX for leaders. The current study tested the relationships of LMX and positive work outcomes for leaders among middle managers and their direct supervisees in a large manufacturing company. Hypotheses predicted that average leader-rated LMX and average follower-rated LMX …

The Benefits Of Lunch Breaks, Joseph Dipilato Iv

Honors Theses

The question as to whether or not taking breaks from work is beneficial for improving employee productivity has not been thoroughly examined, as it is still a fairly new topic of discussion. This thesis project sought to compile evidence to support the claim that breaks are indeed useful for this purpose. A review of the literature found not only information that directly supports this assertion, but also information that shows the numerous negative side-effects of not taking breaks from work. Certain workplace factors that influence break-taking behaviors were also discussed. For the purpose of providing modern-day companies several means by …

The Effects Of Tiered Goals And Bonus Pay On Performance, Jessica L. Urschel

Dissertations

This study examined the relative effects of tiered goals, difficult goals, and moderate goals on performance when individuals earned bonus pay for goal achievement. The experimental design was a 3 x 2 mixed factorial design. Participants were 44 undergraduate students performing a computerized data entry task that simulated the job of a medical data entry clerk. For each session, participants were paid a $4 base salary plus bonus pay contingent on goal achievement. Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups: a) a multiple, tiered goal level condition, in which participants earned $1 in bonus pay for achieving an …

The Influence Of Flow On Standard And Adaptive Performance In Teams, Jennifer N. Baumgartner

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine flow as it relates to different types of performance in teams. Participants (N = 165) in teams of five engaged in an airport simulation that included an unforeseen change during the second session. Flow was expected to be positively correlated with standard and adaptive performance and predict performance along with cognitive ability and personality. Positive affect was expected to mediate the relationship between flow and performance. Flow was positively correlated with the number of aircraft departed under standard conditions, negatively correlated with aircraft departed under adaptive conditions, and positively correlated with subjective …

The Influence Of Perceived Similarity, Affect And Trust On The Performance Of Student Learning Groups, Jennifer Louise Lacewell

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This study examined trust as one of the ways to improve satisfaction and performance in face-to-face student learning groups. A model was developed where trust mediates the relationship between perceived similarity, affect, and individual outcomes of satisfaction and performance (grades). Perceived similarity is positively related to trust, meaning that when students perceive themselves as similar to their group members they will be more likely to trust those group members. Negative affect was also negatively related to trust, but only in the beginning of the semester the group project/discussion. Positive affect was not related to trust. This suggests negative affect is …

Challenge Accepted: Self-Enhancement Through The Pursuit Of Difficulty, Julie Anne Steinke

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Individual resilience is popular topic whereby researchers attempt to identify characteristics of individuals who react positively to stress. However, such research uses a reactionary approach, attempting to characterize successful individuals after they experience adversity and does not explain why some individuals proactively seek out challenging circumstances. Pursuing challenge is a new construct that explains why individuals proactively increase stress as a strategic mechanism for developmental purposes. I developed and validated a measurement tool for pursuing challenge in multiple studies. Additionally, I explored relationships between pursuing challenge and similar constructs (e.g., grit, proactive personality, and self-efficacy), as well as the extent …

Same Fight, Different Player: An Insight Into Culture, Information Sharing, And Team Performance, Cecily Mccoy-Fisher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations among culture, information sharing, and performance among culturally-homogeneous NATO Officer teams. Forty-eight teams participated from five countries, namely, Bulgaria, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and USA. Teams of four participants were randomly assigned to a role and the task was an interdependent computer-based mission using an adapted version of Neverwinter Nights™ (Bioware, 2003), where they had to communicate among teammates and with non-human players to find weapons caches and other mission objectives. Not one individual had all of the information needed to perform the tasks; thus, they needed to share information with …

Employee Engagement, Job Attitudes, And Work Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Test Of The Incremental Validity Of Employee Engagement, Nick Koenig

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although the commercially-popular construct of employee engagement has gained attention in scholarly work in recent years, several questions about the construct remain unresolved. In the current paper, I addressed several issues with previous engagement research by (a) meta-analyzing the relationship between employee engagement, task performance, contextual performance, absenteeism, and turnover, (b) using these meta-analytic estimates to fit a series of models in which engagement predicts both specific and broadly-defined work behaviors, and (c) estimating the unique predictive validity of engagement above and beyond job attitudes. Several regression equations and structural equation models were tested using a combination of previous meta-analytic …

Will Lil_Spoiled_Brat42@Mail.Com Get The Job Done? An Analysis Of Employees' Email Usernames, Turnover, And Job Performance, Jessica Marie Lillegaard

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The job application process is changing, so personal identifiers, such as email usernames are becoming a potential source of information on job applicants. Previous research presented in this paper shows people do not randomly choose their email, but it is a reflection of their personality. Blackhurst, Congemi, Meyer, and Sachau (2011) found email usernames could also explain some differences in pre-employment assessment measures. The present study coded 16,258 email usernames using the coding scheme developed by Blackhurst et al. (2011). Using tenure, termination, and job performance data provided by a large multinational customer service organization, the present study would examine …

The Effects Of The Proportion Of Women In A Work Role And Tenure On Performance, Kathryn Gabrielle Van Dixhorn

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Token theory (Kanter, 1977) suggests that being a token individual in an organization can cause that individual to experience discrimination, increased pressure to perform, isolation from the majority group, negative stereotyping, and can interfere with performance. The purpose of this research was to determine if varying percentages of females in a work role do indeed influence the likelihood that these negative outcomes will occur by using performance data from an applied sample. By using both supervisor ratings and objective sales figures from a sales organization, this research filled a gap in the current research, in which token theory is often …

Social Networking And Individual Performance: Examining Predictors Of Participation, Michael Anthony Brown Sr.

School of Public Service Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation addresses relationships between social networking and individual performance. The "act" of social networking is a process and practice by which people and organizations are drawn together by family, work or hobby to interact via websites. The explosion of these new network connections in the workplace suggests the need for an exploration of the various ways organizations can affect and improve performance and productivity.

This dissertation suggests a social networking participation model that may help organizations predict and understand the value proposition that affects acceptance or rejection of participation. Innovation adoption, governing by network and social capital are important …

The Effects Of Ethnic Diversity, Perceived Similarity, And Trust On Collaborative Behavior And Performance, Jessica Wildman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent issues such as global economic crises, terrorism, and conservation efforts are making international collaboration a critical topic. While cultural diversity often brings with it new perspectives and innovative solutions, diversity in collaborative settings can also lead to misunderstandings and interaction problems. Therefore, there is a pressing need to understand the processes and influences of intercultural collaboration and how to manage the collaborative process to result in the most effective outcomes possible. In order to address this need, the current study examines the effect of ethnic diversity, perceived deep-level similarity, trust, and distrust on collaborative behavior and performance in decision-making …