Psychology Commons^™

Measuring Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Workforce Analytics Resources

What is Diversity?

Diversity refers to the degree of differences in the composition of the workforce in terms of such constructs as race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, religion, disability, age, national origin, language, or other social identities. Though there are certainly other types of employee differences worth assessing (e.g., acquired diversity characteristics, such as education, skills, personality, preferences, attitudes), the focus here is on inherent social identities, especially those that are related to differences in representation, power, and privilege. Note that diversity is a characteristic of a group, not an individual.

How is Diversity Measured?

To …

Identifying Critical Psychological Characteristics Related To Successful Performance As A Contact Tracer: A Job Analysis, Dev K. Dalal, Jason Randall, Gabrielle C. Danna, Josh Ash

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for a massive workforce of contact tracers to help end the global pandemic. Rapidly accelerating the recruitment, selection, and training of contact tracers proved to be difficult, though, due in part to the lack of a valid, structured, and systematic approach to hiring and training contact tracers. This demonstration presents the results of the first steps in developing a systematic selection and training program: a combined (worker- and task-oriented) job analysis of the contact tracer job. Using archival records and structured interviews with 15 subject matter experts, we identified 25 unique characteristics related to …

"That Is An Interesting Question!" Oddball Interview Questions And Organizational Personality Perceptions, Don C. Zhang, John-Luke Mccord

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

Oddball interview questions have gained both popular and academic traction in recent years. Regardless of the intentions behind these questions, job seekers will form judgments about the employer based on its selection tactics. This paper examined the effect of oddball interview questions on organizational personality perceptions and subsequent attraction to the organization. In a time-lagged online experiment, we found organizations that asked oddball interview questions (vs. traditional interview questions) were perceived as more innovative and stylistic, which had a positive indirect effect on organizational attraction. Despite the positive effect of oddball interview questions on these organizational personality perceptions, oddball interview …

Effects Of Background Cues On Videoconference Interview Ratings, Deborah M. Powell, Maria V. Kavanagh, Bethany E. Wiseman, Audrey Hodgins

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

Interviewers regularly make personality-related attributions in interviews, whether purposefully or not. In this study, we examined whether changing a contextual cue in a videoconference interview (the cleanliness of the room where the interviewee is located) influenced interviewers’ ratings of interviewee conscientiousness and interview performance ratings. We conducted a between-subjects experiment (N = 389) and manipulated three factors: background cleanliness (clean vs. messy) x location (office vs. home) x gender of job candidate (man vs. woman). The dependent variables were conscientiousness ratings and interview performance ratings. There was a main effect of cleanliness on conscientiousness and on interview performance ratings; …

Personnel Selection In Australia: Identifying Research-Practice Gaps And Understanding The Importance Of Culture Fit, Jaymon D. Kirk, Serena Wee, Patrick D. Dunlop

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

This study examined current personnel selection practices in Australia including (a) the types of assessments used, (b) the factors considered when choosing assessments, and (c) the characteristics targeted in successful applicants. Participants from 68 organizations responded to a questionnaire that asked about current selection practices. Several areas where current practice deviated from research-supported best practice were identified. First, psychometric tests were used rarely: Cognitive ability tests were used by 26% of organizations and self-report questionnaires (e.g., personality inventories) by 18% of organizations. Second, when choosing assessments, the three most important considerations (in order) were the candidate experience, reducing bias, and …

Interventions To Improve The Candidate Experience Of Structured Videoconference Interviews, Amanda Deacon, Jordan Moore, Deborah Powell

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

Intense competition for talent has led to increased organizational focus on improving how applicants perceive and respond to selection tools. Because of the recent increased use of technology in selection, we tested whether modifying aspects of videoconference interviews could improve applicant reactions. We tested two interventions—structured rapport building and question provision—with 205 applicants applying for a research assistant position. Applicants were randomly assigned to either an experimental condition (rapport or question provision) or the control condition and participated in a structured videoconference interview, followed by a survey. Structured rapport building had no significant effect on applicant reactions. However, question provision …

An Overview Of Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Searching For Balance Between The Positive And Negative Effects, Courtney K. Fusting

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) is the behavior of taking on extra roles in the workplace outside of one’s explicit duties. There are many reasons why one may be motivated to aid his/her organization in this way. Motivation may come through one’s personal values towards volunteerism, desire to build social capital, increase in self-esteem and flow, or even due to the commonality of organizational citizenship behavior among the workplace culture. Contributing to one’s workplace through OCB has the potential to positively impact an individual. However, taking on too many extra roles in the workplace can become detrimental. Role overload, stress, and …

Professional Shame As Experienced By Pre-Professional Accountants, Grant R. Countess

Honors Theses

While the role of shame in professions is an emerging area of research, it has not been thoroughly studied in accounting’s professional or educational settings. Shame has been explored in engineering and nursing education with powerful implications regarding well-being and learning. This study is primarily driven by the research question, “How do pre-professional accountants experience professional shame?” Using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), I interviewed three pre-professional accountants to further understand the lived experiences of shame as accounting interns. I demonstrate the insights from the analysis of these transcripts, which characterize the experience of locating identity as pre-professionals, navigating expectations, experiencing …

Tied Together, Eiko Nishida

Theses and Dissertations

The paper is about a site-specific installation that questions a viewer’s norms and perspectives, through the use of multilingual newspapers as a sculptural material.

Leaders' Virtual & In-Person Communication: The Impact Of Employee Preference On Job Satisfaction, Adalin Mcdaniel

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Communication between supervisors and subordinates has consistently been viewed as a primary element of leadership, and a factor that is important in the leader-subordinate relationship via Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory. Recently, with the massive shift to virtual working, leadership communication has gained greater prominence in research and practical settings. Therefore, examining the role that virtual leadership communication plays in employee job satisfaction is an important first step in beginning to understand the shift to predominant work settings from home. I examined the influence of employee perceptions and preferences of leadership communication on job satisfaction via a panel design in which …

Job Posting, Megan Paul, Nina Williams-Mbengue, Courtney Harrison

QIC-Tips

A job posting must be informative, clear, transparent, and appealing to potential child welfare job candidates. It should also be candidate-centric and answer questions candidates often ask, especially any key information that has turned out to be a dealbreaker for people later in the process. This QIC-Tip is designed to highlight actionable strategies to create a good job posting. Please note that the information presented is not meant to override or supersede local, state, or federal legal civil service or human resources guidance.

Think of the job posting as a marketing opportunity for your agency and highlight the positive aspects …

Smells Like Team Spirit: How To Foster Psychological Safety And Enhance Team Creativity, Shannon S. Burrows

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Creativity is one of the most sought-after skills of the 21^st century, yet team members may be reticent to contribute to creative problem-solving out of fear of ridicule, retribution, or because of rigid hierarchical team structures. However, psychological safety is the underpinning of creativity; without it a culture of silence prevails, mistakes go unreported, and team creativity languishes. But how do leaders cultivate psychological safety in their teams? This project seeks to answer that question. Although the term “psychological safety” has become common in the corporate lexicon, misconceptions abound. Through the creation of a short, animated video, this project …

Human Psychology Factors Influencing Agile Team Autonomy In Post-Pandemic Remote Software Organizations, Ravikiran Kalluri

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Agile project management methods are gaining in popularity in the software industry as software development teams are being asked to be adaptive to market needs and resilient to change and uncertainty. With increasing market uncertainty, global competition, and time-to-market pressure, it is becoming a challenge to develop an innovative product and deliver it on-time without the opportunity that comes from team autonomy to experiment and learn from failures in a remote workplace. To resolve this challenge, it is critical to understand the myriad human psychological factors in play that influence Agile team autonomy in a remote work environment.

The role …

Towards A Formal Theory Of Humor In Organizations, Richard Joseph Hayes

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Current theories and models of humor conceptualize humor at the individual, dyadic, and organizational level. These theories laid the foundation for research and empirical findings that have established humor’s impact in the workplace. Yet, because these theories are not integrated, they individually do not offer a comprehensive view of humor in the workplace across different levels, hindering the development of multilevel research designs. Additionally, the ambiguity of these narrative theories hampers empirical testing precision. This dissertation expands the literature by introducing a mathematical, multilevel model of humor and tests that theory using computational simulation methods. Synthetic environments reproduced observed correlations …

Trace Dna Detection Using Diamond Dye: A Recovery Technique To Yield More Dna, Leah Davis

Master's Theses

This study aspires to find a new screening approach to trace DNA recovery techniques to yield a higher quantity of trace DNA from larger items of evidence. It takes the path of visualizing trace DNA on items of evidence with potential DNA so analysts can swab a more localized area rather than attempting to recover trace DNA through the general swabbing technique currently used for trace DNA recovery. The first and second parts consisted of observing trace DNA interaction with Diamond Dye on porous and non-porous surfaces.

The third part involved applying the Diamond Dye solution by spraying it onto …

Measuring Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion In The Child Welfare Workforce, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

QIC-Tips

Some child welfare professionals have stated that there is a critical need for systemic changes to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion, but where do child welfare agencies begin? Although change is never easy, the starting place on the journey to have a diverse, equitable, and inclusive (DEI) workforce is relatively simple. It starts with you—a child welfare supervisor, manager, or administrator. Start by considering what you think you know. Is your knowledge based on perception or data? What experiences shape your perceptions? What tools do you have to measure your workforce? Administrative data sets and surveys that gather both qualitative …

The Mutual Constitution Of Culture And Psyche: The Bidirectional Relationship Between Individuals’ Perceived Control And Cultural Tightness-Looseness, Anyi Ma, Krishna Savani, Fangzhou Liu, Kenneth Tai, Aaron C. Kay

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

According to the theory of mutual constitution of culture and psyche, just as culture shapes people, individuals’ psychological states can influence culture. We build on compensatory control theory, which suggests that low personal control can lead people to prefer societal systems that impose order, to examine the mutual constitution of personal control and cultural tightness. Specifically, we tested whether individuals’ lack of personal control increases their preference for tighter cultures as a means of restoring order and predictability, and whether tighter cultures in turn reduce people’s feelings of personal control. Seven studies (five preregistered) with participants from the United States, …

Determining The Degree To Which Ideational Behavior Predicts Occupational Identity Achievement In Emerging Adult College Students Preceding Entry Into The Fourth Industrial Revolution Workforce, Carrington M. Faulk

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

As emerging adults transition into the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) workforce, it is essential to understand the factors that predict successful occupational identity achievement, as automation will impact human occupational identity crises. This descriptive cross-sectional study implemented a correlation design to determine the degree to which ideational behavior predicts occupational identity achievement preceding entry into the 4IR workforce. Using a sample of 166 emerging adult college students from a Mid-Atlantic, diverse, four-year university, data were collected using Runco’s Ideational Behavior Scale (RIBS) and Melgosa’s Occupational Identity Achievement subscale (OIA). Results showed that ideational behavior significantly predicted occupational identity achievement ( …

The Effects Of Organizational Justice, Anneliese Yuenger

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The aim of the present study was to examine the perceptions of organizational justice on employee outcomes of work engagement, burnout, turnover intentions, and presenteeism. The study used survey data from 329 employees who worked over 30 hours per week in the last six months. Data were analyzed using SPSS 28 and Hayes PROCESS Macro to assess descriptive statistics, correlation, simple linear regression, and mediated path analyses. The results of the study found that perceptions of organizational justice (POJ) positively related to engagement. An inverse relationship was found for POJ, burnout, turnover intention, and presenteeism. Overall, engagement and burnout were …

Rattus Norvegicus As A Biological Detector Of Clandestine Remains And The Use Of Ultrasonic Vocalizations As A Locating Mechanism, Gabrielle M. Johnston

Master's Theses

In investigations, locating missing persons and clandestine remains are imperative. One way that first responder and police agencies can search for the remains is by using cadaver dogs as biological detectors. Cadaver dogs are typically used due to their olfactory sensitivity and ability to detect low concentrations of volatile organic compounds produced by biological remains. Cadaver dogs are typically chosen for their stamina, agility, and olfactory sensitivity. However, what is not taken into account often is the size of the animal and the expense of maintaining and training the animal. Cadaver dogs are typically large breeds that cannot fit in …

The Role Of Organizational Support In The Relationship Between Safety Climate And Organizational Outcomes, Lee Chambers

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Organizations employing individuals in high-risk or safety-sensitive occupations (e.g., construction workers, commercial drivers, pilots, and oil rig workers) face the challenge of ensuring their employees’ safety and well-being amidst various hazards and dangerous situations. To address this, cultivating a positive safety climate has been identified as a crucial factor in reducing workplace accidents or injuries. However, despite its importance, the link between safety climate and non-safety outcomes remains underexplored in the literature. In response, this study proposed a model based on social exchange theory, which highlights the crucial role of organizational support in explaining the relationship between safety climate and …

Career Interests, Sarah Stepanek, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

Career interests reflect individuals’ “trait-like preferences for activities, environments, and outcomes that motivate goal strivings and achievement” (Jones et al., 2020). Simply put, interests are a series of likes and dislikes that develop alongside one’s cognitive abilities and personality to shape human behavior (Jones et al., 2020; Low et al., 2005). Interests, thus, drive the amount of time and effort individuals spend acquiring knowledge and abilities within a certain domain and their pursuit of educational and career goals (Jones et al., 2020). According to vocational choice theory, individuals tend to seek work that aligns with their interests, and when this …

Ep And Security Professionals Help In The Fight Against Fraud, Alan Saquella

Publications

Fraud and corruption remain a significant issue for organizations worldwide, with the latest ACFE Report to the Nations indicating that it costs over $300 million, and corruption is one of the most prevalent methods of fraud. The lack of equal application of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in other countries due to cultural differences is one reason fraud and corruption persist. However, there are several ways in which organizations can curb the increase in white-collar crime, including the integration of security and executive protection into their fraud prevention strategies.

The Impact Of Instagram Usage On Body-Esteem In Young Women In College, Kirsten Etzinger

Honors Projects

Instagram as a platform is increasing in popularity, especially among young women. Young women may use Instagram to keep up with their peers, follow trends, or as a way to express themselves. However, it is evident that young women can be negatively affected by the content they are exposed to on Instagram. This study examines the impact that increased Instagram usage can have on body-esteem in young women in college by evaluating their degree of Instagram usage, motivation to use social media for body comparison, and feelings of body-esteem. An online survey was conducted with BGSU college-age female students and …

The Role Of Spiritual Fitness On Burnout And Organizational Commitment In High-Stress Environments, Amy Mcdonald Stevens

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This quantitative study examined the relationships between burnout, spiritual fitness, and organizational commitment in National Guard servicemembers. Recent deployments and chronic stressors have resulted in an emergence of mental health concerns, burnout, and turnover intentions in this population. Research has indicated that elements of spirituality address these concerns and suggest that more spiritual individuals are more resilient, less susceptible to burnout, and find positive meaning in work. This study examined these variables using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach & Jackson, 1981), the Organizational Commitment Scale (Meyer & Allen, 1997), and the SOCOM Spiritual Fitness Scale (Alexander et al., 2020). Correlations …

Community Experiences In The Strategic Human Resource Management Black Box, Richard Harvey Jonsen, Neil M. Boyd, Franklin Oikelome, Douglas Trimble

Rohrer College of Business Departmental Research

Recent research suggests experiencing community at work (i.e., perceiving a sense of community (SOC) and a sense of community responsibility (SOC-R)) is important for employee and organizational outcomes, however, we know very little about how these constructs operate in human resource management contexts. This study peers into the strategic human resource management “black box,” which is an organizational setting where psychological and social variables are believed to influence employee perceptions in ways that impact their individual functioning, and subsequently improve organizational outcomes. Specifically, the study tests hypotheses regarding the relationship between high-involvement work climate (i.e., a human resource context), psychological …

Arousing Motives Or Eliciting Stories? On The Role Of Pictures In A Picture–Story Exercise, Philipp Schäpers, Stefan Krumm, Filip Lievens, Nikola Stenzel

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Picture–story exercises (PSE) form a popular measurement approach that has been widely used for the assessment of implicit motives. However, current theorizing offers two diverging perspectives on the role of pictures in PSEs: either to elicit stories or to arouse motives. In the current study, we tested these perspectives in an experimental design. We administered a PSE either with or without pictures. Results from N = 281 participants revealed that the experimental manipulation had a medium to large effect for the affiliation and power motive domains, but no effect for the achievement motive domain. We conclude that the herein chosen …

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 …

Please Don’T Label Me: An Examination Of Black-Owned Labels And How A Positive Consumer Activism Movement May Have A Negative Outcome, Khalia C. Jenkins

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Covid-19 crisis that began in 2020 brought to light many societal issues as people had time to sit and reflect. One of these issues is the systemic injustices against African Americans, which were highlighted after the death of George Floyd. This event re-ignited the Black Lives Matter movement amongst U.S. citizens of all races and within corporations. While some companies pledged to donate to various Black causes, others opted to empower Black businesses economically by supporting the Buy-Black Movement. One of the ways they are accomplishing this goal is by adding a Black-owned label to products and businesses. While …

“You Need To Allow Yourself To Grieve That Loss And That Identity.” College Athletes’ Transition To Life After College Sport.”, Clare Manthey, Jimmy Smith

Journal of Athlete Development and Experience

Only a small percentage of collegiate athletes compete at the professional level of sport after they graduate, leaving most athletes to transition out of a life involved in sport. Research reviewing life after competitive sport for college athletes and the consequences associated with such a transition is plentiful, however, additional research also argues that life transition research is necessary to maximize the understanding of such a phenomenon. A case study approach used Schlossberg’s Theory of Transition (2011) to research recently retired collegiate college athletes and their time transitioning away from competitive college sports. Several themes emerged from the qualitative results …