Organization Development Commons^™

Neurodiversity In The Workplace: Organizational Approaches To Supporting Neurodiverse Employees, Madison Vasquez

M.S. in Leadership

Despite growing conversation around neurodiversity in the workplace, many organizations lack clear understanding and structured strategies to support neurodivergent employees. This study examines existing research on how organizations can more effectively support neurodiverse employees across the employee lifecycle. Using a qualitative literature review, this study addresses the research question by examining literature on neurodiversity within workplace contexts. This includes investigating common representations of neurodiversity and reviewing the strengths and challenges of neurodiverse individuals, including those who have autism, ADHD, and other forms of neurodivergence. The study also reviews workplace barriers, support strategies, and organizational outcomes identified across the literature. Key …

Beyond Challenging Up: How Organizational Climate Shapes Externally-Oriented Courage In The Workplace, Morgan Chandler

All Dissertations

Employees often face situations that confront them with the decision to do the right thing at work despite risk, which requires courage. This dissertation introduces a new form of workplace courage: challenging-around, which, in the context of the present study, involves pushing back against external stakeholders to uphold issues like ethical standards, organizational integrity, or professional judgement. Guided by Worthwhile Risk Theory, the study examined how organizational climate and moral courage influence this behavior. Results show that supportive, goal-promoting climates increase challenging-around, while moral courage independently predicts challenging-around. Additionally, the study validates a researcher-developed measure of challenging-around. Overall, findings suggest …

The Buffering Effect Of Psychological Capital On Technology Anxiety And Adoption: An Examination Through The Lens Of Artificial Intelligence, Hannah Wagner

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

This study examines how psychological resources moderate the relationship between technology anxiety and technology adoption, using artificial intelligence (AI) as a contemporary exemplar of emerging workplace technologies. Despite significant investments in technological infrastructure, organizations continue to struggle with limited employee adoption—a challenge that extends beyond technical barriers to psychological dimensions. Drawing on Psychological Capital (PsyCap) theory, this research investigates how self-efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience collectively moderate the established negative relationship between technology anxiety and adoption. Through a quantitative approach analyzing survey data from 1,200 employees at a large technology consulting firm, this study provides insights into psychological mechanisms that …

Change Management With Ethical Leadership, Sophia Rudisill Holmes

The Journal of Values-Based Leadership

Ethical leadership ensures organizational environments are created and nurtured to support complex dilemmas that surface during change management. Leaders and followers in particular can navigate change management with intentional advance planning guided by the motives of their heart. The motives of a leader’s heart is observed by the ethical practices of their core values. Morally leaders and followers core values inform their ethical behaviors. Furthermore, Christian leaders have access to biblical scripture which provides a roadmap for leaders and followers in the mastery of adapting and not resisting during change management. Biblical scriptures also provide examples of practices that solve …

Understanding Workplace Psychological Safety Among Latina Professionals: An Exploration Of Intersectional Experiences, Michal Tapia

Theses and Dissertations

Latina professionals represent one of the fastest-growing segments of the U.S. workforce, yet they remain disproportionately underrepresented in executive and C-suite roles. This disparity reflects structural conditions that shape access to voice, support, advancement, and decision-making authority.

This mixed-methods study examined psychological safety among 145 Latina professionals across the United States, defined as the belief that one can speak up, ask for help, disagree, or raise concerns without fear of negative consequences (Edmondson, 1999, 2019). The study explored how identity, relationships, leadership, workplace support, inclusion, mentorship, and structural barriers shape psychological safety at work.

Quantitative analyses showed that workplace support …

From Recruitment To Breach: The Impact Of Employment-At-Will On Psychological Contracts, Krystal N. Porlles

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Employment-at-will is the default legal framework governing most private-sector employment relationships in the United States, yet little research has examined how explicit employment-at-will language influences applicants’ psychological expectations before organizational entry. Drawing on signaling theory and psychological contract theory, the present study investigated whether the inclusion of an employment-at-will statement in a job advertisement affected relational psychological contract development, anticipated job insecurity, organizational attractiveness, perceptions of psychological contract breach, emotional reactions, and withdrawal intentions. Undergraduate students (N = 253) were recruited through the University of Central Florida’s SONA research participation system. After data screening, the final analytic sample consisted of …

Journey Through, Cathan B. Tautfest

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

Journey Through is the Master's Portfolio for the University of Montana for Author Cathan Tautfest. This paper serves as the capstone graduation requirement for students of the School of Social Work. Over the final semester of the Master's program, this Portfolio was created, reviewed by committee, and defended before its publication. This Portfolio is a culmination of three years and thousands of hours to demonstrate mastery of the ten Social Work competencies, the elements of Social Work Practice, and critically reflect on time spent in the School of Social Work's Master's of Social Work (MSW) program. This Portfolio reflects on …

Investigating Workplace Management Conditions Influence On Interpreter Motivation And Interpretive Program Performance, Jessica M. Henry

All Theses

Organizations, including non-profit and government agencies such as the National Park Service and nature centers, that provide informal education (also known as interpretation) seek ways to achieve their mission and enhance their organizational performance (Anderson et al., 2022; Weiler & Ham, 2010). For informal education organizations that provide interpretation to visitors, one measure of organizational performance is the achievement of an organization’s desired visitor outcomes. Theory suggests that positive organizational performance is associated with positive workplace management conditions and high employee motivation. Thus, this study explored the relationships between interpreters’ perceptions of workplace management conditions, motivation, and performance on interpretive …

Making Sense Of Teaming With Ai: Exploring Human-Ai Team Development Through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, Elizabeth A. Johnson

River Cities Industrial and Organizational Psychology Conference

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly embedded in collaborative work environments, Human-AI Teaming (HAIT) is reshaping how employees experience team development and view AI as an active teammate, versus passive tool. This in-progress dissertation study uses Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore how employees make sense of team development within HAIT context. Grounded in Business Psychology and designed for I-O psychology application, the study explores how employees interpret milestones of human-AI team development and navigate emerging socio-technical dynamics. The primary research question guiding this inquiry is: How do employees make sense of their experiences of team development while working on …

Investigating The Relationship Between Noun Classes And Plant Folk Taxonomy In Chasu Language Of Kilimanjaro Region In Tanzania, Peter Rabson Mziray

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The current study investigates the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu (G 22). The study focuses on two objectives: the first objective is to describe the plant folk taxonomy in Chasu and the second objective is to determine the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu. Data were collected from rural villages in Same and Mwanga districts by using free listing, field interviews (jungle-walk-and-identify), and written texts containing Chasu plant names. The findings reveal that Chasu folk taxonomy reflects different ethnobotanical categories; including a unique beginner which is mmea/mimea ‘plant(s)’, and three life …

Flipping The Script?: The Development And Validation Of A Qualitative Framework For Identifying Key Cognitive And Attitudinal Components Of Conflict-Based Problem Representations, Kyle Christenson

All Dissertations

When people work together, disagreements are inevitable. How someone understands a given conflict, specifically whether they see it as a shared problem or not, can shape how they respond and whether they look to resolve it collaboratively. Researchers have studied many aspects of conflict, like what causes it and the strategies people use to manage it. But we know much less about how people think about conflict in the first place and how those thoughts affect efforts to manage conflict. This research developed a tool to study how people describe conflicts in writing. It identifies key ideas and attitudes that …

Exploring A Holistic Conceptualization Of Destructive Leadership: Perspectives From The Lived Experiences Of Latino Law Enforcement Command Staff Officers, Carmelin Rivera

Dissertations

Recently, there has been an increased interest in destructive leadership or what is characterized as the dark side of leadership. There is, in fact, no consensus in the literature about the definition of destructive leadership, and this murkiness has led to two somewhat different approaches to understanding this phenomenon: 1) a leader-centric approach that emphasizes the bad behaviors and traits of so-called toxic leaders and 2) a much broader, holistic approach, often discussed as the toxic triangle (Padilla et al., 2007), that focuses on how destructive leadership is co-created by a toxic system of bad leaders and susceptible followers …

Better Together – Maximising Group Creativity Through Co-Design, Sophie Tversky

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

The complexity and systems-level nature of organisational and societal challenges have called for engaging team creativity, benefiting from differing perspectives and experiences to drive impactful solutions. Surveying the co-design and group creativity literature, it is suggested that creative potential of a group is only realised when several polarities are leveraged by facilitators and orchestrators of the process. This concept was validated and extended through conducting a thematic analysis of a series of exploratory interviews, resulting in the identification of interdependent themes comprising stacks of polarities and a key problem to solve. The themes identified were: Determining Whether Co-Design is Appropriate, …

Felt Obligation, Knowledge Sharing And Innovation Performance: The Role Of Team Performance Goal Orientation, Zenan Wen

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In today’s dynamic work environment, individual innovation is vital for organizational success. While knowledge sharing is a recognized driver of innovation, less is known about the internal motivational forces that compel employees to share knowledge. Drawing on the role identity theory, this research examines how felt obligation—a normative motivation, whereby individuals, based on their perceived role identities, believe they should care about organizational goals and contribute to them—encourages knowledge sharing and subsequently enhances innovation performance. Furthermore, I theorize that this relationship is strengthened in teams with higher performance goal orientation (TPGO), where norms and expectations regarding performance excellence amplify the …

Does Ai Help Or Harm? Why And How Ai Use Influences Workplace Outcomes And Employee Well-Being, Haille Trimboli, Reka Lassu

Education Division Scholarship

Although the recent surge in excitement surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) might suggest it is a new development, AI has been applied in organizations for over forty years (Fanti et al., 2022; Markelius et al., 2024). Indeed, the term "artificial intelligence" itself emerged in the 1950s during a research project at Dartmouth College, where it was used to describe "machines able to simulate human intelligence" (Haenlein & Kaplan, 2019, p. 3). Most recently, in 2022, the landscape of AI use for laypeople greatly changed when OpenAI introduced ChatGPT, a generative AI tool, to the public; ChatGPT is an advanced AI language …

Stop The Brain Drain: A Higher Education Collaborative Autoethnographic Change Study Using A Soft Systems Approach, Danny Darden, Angela Nunez, Stella Shen, Rob E. Carpenter, Ginger Vaughn, Tim Murphy

Student Posters

Knowledge loss is a common challenge within IHEs—highly educated and skilled individuals leave—often taking the knowledge to do their job well with them. Turnover in IHEs is currently at an all-time high. There is a strong correlation between knowledge management practices and organizational performance. This paper (in progress) explores this phenomenon using collaborative institutional ethnography, enabling a critical analysis of how power dynamics and uncertainty shape both individual experiences and broader workplace social structures. Participants include six IHE employees (in various IHE roles) from three separate universities in the eastern region of Texas. We aim to uncover the internal experiences …

Podcasting Towards Togetherness: Utilizing Podcasts To Improve Departmental Camaraderie And Well-Being, Michael Petrauskis, Colleen Gutman, Rosemarie Fernandez

Journal of Wellness

Introduction: Physician burnout is on the rise, and this is of particular concern in emergency medicine. Burnout is associated with medical errors, adverse events, poor professionalism, and litigation. A sense of community can build engagement and mitigate workplace stressors on well-being. Emergency physicians may have trouble connecting due to the nature of shift-work and various practice settings. Communication technology, and particularly podcasting, has the potential to help overcome these barriers and positively impact relatedness and well-being.

Approach: We developed an inward-facing podcast, “The ER Break Room” within the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Florida. Through the …

Examining Antecedents Of Diversity Initiative Fatigue: A Moderatedmediation Model, Anne Simpson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis investigates the relationships between bias awareness, motivation to respond without prejudice, racialized attitudes, and diversity initiative fatigue (DIF) among employees within an academic setting, specifically focusing on faculty and staff at Western Kentucky University. Data were collected through a survey-based approach to measure these constructs and assess their relationships. This study hypothesized that bias awareness negatively correlates with DIF and motivation to respond without prejudice mediating this relationship. Furthermore, the research examines how racialized attitudes moderate the relationship between bias awareness and motivation to respond without prejudice. By examining these relationships using a moderated mediation model, the study …

Expanding On The Relationship Between Incivility And Resource Depletion: Examining Race And Personal Tolerance For Mistreatment As Moderators, Aishwarya Kurmar

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Workplace incivility is ubiquitous, regularly impacting working adults. Through the framework of Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, I examined the relationship between workplace incivility and resource depletion using daily diary methodology. Workplace incivility negatively impacts employee outcomes at the organizational and individual level. As such, it was hypothesized that workplace incivility would have a positive correlation with increased resource depletion, measured as psychological fatigue. Under selective incivility theory, disenfranchised groups face increased instances of incivility. Following this theory, non-whites were hypothesized to experience a greater association between workplace incivility and resource depletion. Additionally, an individual’s personal tolerance of mistreatment for …

Social Comparison And Pressure: Examining The Roles Of Sex And Rank, Ashley East

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Faculty in academia face intense competition and growing expectations, often shaped by perceptions of others’ performance. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these dynamics were magnified, making social comparison a critical factor in understanding academic workplace pressures. The purpose of this study is to examine the changing work pressures and social comparison tendencies among academics during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is hypothesized that social comparison tendencies will be positively related to time pressure (H1a) and telepressure (H1b), with moderation by sex (H2a and H2b) and organizational rank (H3a and H3b). Using a panel survey of 197 tenure-track and tenured faculty members in …

The Moderating Role Of Personality In The Relationship Between Cognitive Ability And Counterproductive Work Behaviors, Sarah Jacobsen

Theses and Dissertations

Counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs) are negative behaviors that detract from an organization’s goals and cause harm to the organization and to those involved. The current study investigated cognitive ability and personality as predictors of CWB and explored a moderating role of personality on the cognitive ability-CWB relationship. The results found no significant relationships for cognitive ability and personality with self-reported CWBs. Additionally, personality did not moderate the cognitive ability-CWB relationship. An exploratory analysis revealed significant relationships between personality and supervisor-rated CWBs, but no significant relationship for cognitive ability nor significant cognitive ability-personality interactions were found. The current study challenged previous …

Exploring Neurodiversity & The Role Of Flexible Workplaces For Organizational Neuroinclusion, Miranda Chen

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis conducted a thorough literature review on the experiences and outcomes of neurodiverse individuals in the workplace and found consistently lower outcomes in well-being, work performance, intention to leave, and job satisfaction compared to neurotypical workers. It examined how the emergence of remote work presents new opportunities for mitigating some workplace challenges around stress and sensory overload, while recognizing that remote work alone falls short as being a definitive solution for the unique challenges faced by neurodiverse people. Instead, it argued for Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA’s) as a comprehensive and systemic strategy to address individual needs and organizational inclusion, …

Beyond Technical Skills: The Impact Of Emotional Intelligence On Project Management In Turkey, Dilsa Dogan

Harrisburg University Dissertations and Theses

This study was conducted to examine the effects of emotional intelligence (EI) on project management in Turkey. It analyzed the impact of EI on communication skills and project outcomes. The analysis included project managers, team members, stakeholders, and faculty members from various sectors, reflecting their perspectives on EI.

The results demonstrated that EI plays a significant role in project management in Turkey, positively influencing communication skills and project outcomes. Additionally, the study statistically supported the effects of EI on project success criteria, including scope, time, cost, and quality.

The study emphasized that on-the-job training and mentoring programs are effective methods …

Examining The Impact Of Workplace Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion Programs On Marginalized Groups: A Focus On Lgbtqia Employees, Lisa Garcia Rodriguez

Theses & Dissertations

Research Focus. The research aims to understand the experience of LGBTQIA individuals in the workplace and identify strategies for promoting their inclusion. The study will draw on prior research and best practices for promoting the inclusion of individuals in the workplace to contribute to the development of more inclusive work environments that benefit both employees and organizations. Examining the impact of workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) on marginalized groups, the question to be answered is: What are the impacts of diversity, equity, and inclusion DEI initiatives in the workplace, and how can organizations create more equitable and inclusive environments? …

The Changing Nature Of Work And Its Effects On Employee Well-Being, Lauren O'Connell

Student Publications

The nature of work is constantly evolving, shaped by societal shifts and the absence of a universal standard for organizations. Remote work, initially a temporary solution during the COVID-19 pandemic, has emerged as a lasting norm, with flexible work-from-home (WFH) arrangements becoming a defining feature of the modern workplace. Despite the growing prevalence of WFH, limited research remains on its effects on employee well-being. This paper examines the benefits of WFH, like flexibility and autonomy, alongside challenges, such as longer hours, reduced supervisor support, and weakened employee connections. These trade-offs impact roles that depend on a positive and cohesive team …

Investigating The Leaky Pipeline: Gendered Effects Of Caregiving Policies On Academics, Molly Simmons

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Despite implementation of caregiving policies in universities, women remain underrepresented in high faculty ranks in academia, particularly in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields. This study investigates the gendered effects of caregiving policies at regional comprehensive universities by integrating the Work-Home Resources (W-HR) Model and feminist economics. Using survey data and interviews, the research examines how caregiving responsibilities relate to work-life conflict and academic responsibilities, revealing nuanced influences on career trajectories. Hypotheses tested include the negative relationship between caregiving demands and research, the moderating effect of institutional support, the association of work-family guilt with research, and variations across faculty …

The Game Is The Game: Othermothering And Hbcu Student Affairs Job Burnout: A Quantitative Study, Adolphus A. Mcdonald Iii

All Dissertations

This study investigated the use of othermothering as a relationship building approach in student affairs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and its association with job burnout outcomes in HBCU student affairs professionals. Job burnout outcomes affect job turnover intention decisions (Michaels & Spector, 1982); therefore, this quantitative study investigated whether othermothering and additional demographic factors were a root cause to job burnout and job turnover intention among HBCU SAPs. The review of literature provides knowledge on the foundation of othermothering which began as a term to describe Black slave women caring for children displaced and separated due to …

Organizational Challenges: The Impact Of Role Clarity On Burnout In A Technology Division, Jessica Arriaza

The Scholarship Without Borders Journal

Organizations grapple with significant challenges such as burnout, turnover, and low job satisfaction. Studies indicate that emotional exhaustion, influenced by job demands and available resources, significantly impacts job performance positively or negatively. This quantitative study uses secondary data from the Work, Family, and Health Study to investigate the relationship between role clarity and burnout within Tomo, the technology division of a Fortune 500 company in the United States. The findings reveal a significant inverse correlation between role clarity and burnout, with participants reporting "Never" experiencing burnout more likely to have well-defined roles. Supported by chi-square and linear regression analyses, these …

A Multi-Wave Study Of Factors Associated With Resident Engagement, Depression, Burnout, And Stay Intent, Anne M. Brafford, Brendon Ellis, Greg Guldner, Gabrielle Riazi, Xitao Liu, Jessica C. Wells, Jason T. Siegel

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

Background

Many studies have documented the epidemic of mental ill-being among resident physicians, but fewer have focused on mental well-being or on guiding intervention design to make progress toward positive change in residency programs to support resident thriving. Informed by the job demands-resources model (JD-R) and positive psychology, the current study examines 4 potential predictors of residents’ ill-being (burnout, depression) and well-being (engagement, stay intent) that are malleable and thus capable of change through intervention: psychological capital (PsyCap), supervising physicians’ autonomy-supportive leadership style (ASL), social support, and meaningful work.

Methods

Three waves of data were collected between November 2017 and …

"Me? Be A Coach?" A Grounded Theory Investigation Of Coach Identity Among Managers Who Coach, Sara Mary Cannon

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

In the 21st century, organizational expectations of managers have shifted away from traditional command-and-control toward a model of facilitating employee development (Ibarra & Scoular, 2019). Modern managers are expected to be good coaches, even though the coaching discipline is growing faster than it can be regulated (Garvin, 2013; Sherman & Freas, 2004). This research investigated the lived experiences of managers who coach and their emergent concept of identity through the lens of manager as instrument. I utilized a constructivist grounded theory approach to generate insights about coach identity experiences of managers who coach. This perspective and methodology provided an opportunity …