Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Building And Sustaining Hope In The Face Of Failure: Understanding The Role Of Strategic Social Support, Kira K. Wenzel Phd

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

The research on hope has focused on how individuals build and maintain hopeful emotions through their own successful attempts of achieving their goals using personal agency and pathways. Success in meeting the goal leads to higher levels of hope within an individual and an increased belief that they can achieve more difficult tasks, while failure leads to a decrease in levels of hope (Helland & Winston, 2005; Snyder, Rand, & Sigmon, 2002; Snyder, Shorey, Cheavens, Pulvers, Adams, & Wiklund, 2002; Snyder, Irving, & Anderson, 1991). The purpose of this study was to explore the moderating relationship of strategic social support …

Employee Engagement Around The World: Predictors, Cultural Differences, And Business Outcomes, Amanda Munsterteiger

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Employee engagement, the level of connection and enthusiasm an employee has with their organization, is a widely studied variable both empirically and practically within organizations. Despite the variable’s popularity, across the world employee engagement is moderately low. This may partially be due to the fact that a large majority of the research on employee engagement includes only Western samples, therefore limiting the external validity of the findings. The current study aimed to extend the cross cultural employee engagement literature by using a robust sample that is composed of client-facing consultants at a tech company across 22 countries (N = 5,579). …

Vulnerability In Leadership: The Power Of The Courage To Descend, Stephanie O. Lopez

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

As authenticity and trust continue to be recognized as key pillars of effective leadership in today’s world (Avolio et al., 2004; Mayer et al., 1995; Peus et al., 2012), organizations need leaders who are willing to be vulnerable with those they lead. The purpose of current study was to explore the relationship between courage, other-centered calling, vulnerability, and leadership differentiation. The sample for the current study included 296 self-identified leaders who report being responsible for the work and development of others. Leaders were primarily Caucasian (83.7%), male (55.9%), and from a church/ministry setting (41.2%). The study occurred over a year …

Approaching Stressful Situations With Purpose: Strategies For Emotional Regulation In Sensitive People, Amy D. Nagley

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to evaluate strategies for emotional self-regulation (EMSR) in highly sensitive people (HSPs) under pressure. Specifically, a model of EMSR was evaluated through a moderated-mediation design with two manipulations across two experiments. A total of 445 individuals participated in the current study (52% female), all of which were US citizens. Results suggested that the relationship between sense of purpose (SoP) and EMSR was moderated by focus on potential (FoP). Specifically, SoP significantly impacted FoP, b = .89, t = 5.23, p < .01, FoP significantly impacted EMSR, b = 1.11, t = 5.88, p < .01, and the Sobel test suggested a significant indirect effect, z = 3.91, p < .01.

The hypothesis that …

Does Sacrificial Leadership Have To Hurt? The Realities Of Putting Others First, Rob Mckenna, Terran Brown

SPU Works

Sacrificial leadership has generally been associated with positive outcomes for organizations and employees. While it is often desired by organizations, we suggest that current organizational systems often fail to promote sacrificial behaviors. We present a new perspective sacrificial leadership that includes character-based elements such as humility, a willingness to calculate the cost of leading and the courage to be irrelevant in the presence of systems that pressure leaders to behave otherwise. We discuss how these elements are often not encouraged in current selection, employee development, and succession planning processes.