Industrial and Organizational Psychology Commons^™

Overcoming Resistance To Change: An Analysis To The Department Of Defense's Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program, Irene C. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this research was to investigate the impact of change on organizations, in the absence of a preparedness program and to develop strategies for overcoming resistance to change, in the midst of a proposed initiative that has become stalled as a result of mistrust and cynicism. The results of this research suggests a framework of management techniques that will offer leadership approaches to resurrecting a stalled change initiative and overcoming personnel's resistance to a proposed change project, in order for the project to be more widely accepted. A series of personal interviews and focus groups, a qualitative method …

Modeling The Decision Process Of A Joint Task Force Commander, John Anthony Sokolowski

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The U.S. military uses modeling and simulation as a tool to help meet its warfighting needs. A key element within military simulations is the ability to accurately represent human behavior. This is especially true in a simulation's ability to emulate realistic military decisions. However, current decision models fail to provide the variability and flexibility that human decision makers exhibit. Further, most decision models are focused on tactical decisions and ignore the decision process of senior military commanders at the operational level of warfare. In an effort to develop a better decision model that would mimic the decision process of a …

Trends. Group Psychology And War Planning, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses the importance of group dynamics and mood in a war setting.

Personnel Security: Beyond Initial Screening And Selection To Career Aftermath, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes Issues pertaining to personnel security in the aftermath of an individual’s career with an organization.

More Spy Games: A Problem With Credibility Of Sources For Counterintelligence And Personnel Security, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article identifies implications of recent meta-evaluations of psychological assessment methods for attempts at identifying individuals who are committing treason or otherwise violating security policies.

Intergovernmental Mediation : A Technique For Successful Local Government Partnerships, W. Thomas Wiseman

Dissertations

Problem. Statement Local government officials are faced with ever-increasing citizens' demands and unfunded Federal and State mandates while competing with neighboring governments for dwindling federal and state monies. Both of these tend to fuel intergovernmental conflicts. Research is necessary, therefore, to determine the most effective ways of addressing the alarming rate at which intergovernmental conflict is occurring in order to meet the needs of local government officials.

Methodology. This study examined the relationship between local government organizations in terms of intergovernmental mediation, conflict resolution, and the sharing of revenues and resources. Data were collected from county commissioners in Ohio, …

Using Selective Mmpl-2 Clinical Scales To Predict The Severity Of Prison Infractions For First Degree Murderers In A Maximum Security Prison, Margarita Lynn Pauley

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The MMPI-2 was administered to 56 adult male offenders in a maximum-security prison serving a life sentence for first degree murder. This study evaluated the predictive ability of the MMPI-2 scales 4, 6 and 9 to distinguish among groups of inmates with high and low infraction rates. Results indicated that as the weighted infraction rate (WRI) increased above 9, the T score on scale 4 sharply decreased at the same rate of the increase for 0-9 WRI. Results also supported a relationship where as the T score on scale 9 increased the WIR also increased. Inmates who refused to comply …

How Standards And Accountability Lead To Safety And Security Violations At Nuclear Weapons Plants, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes some counterintuitive consequences of instituting safety standards and accountability practices at nuclear weapons plants.

From Realist To Constructivist Theory In Public Administration: Development Of A Quality Perspective, Ernest Edward Sides Iii

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Management

The purpose of this study is to formulate a behavioral theory of public organization development and administration that replaces positivism with constructivism as its underlying paradigm. This study contends that the level of maturity with respect to quality is a function of the degree to which an organization's latent thinking and conceptualization has advanced toward constructivism. The underlying thesis is that public administration and organization behavior stems from multiple realities not possible under positivism. Efficiency is not an appropriate criterion for analysis under the tenants of constructivism and should be replaced with quality as a criterion.

The use of quality …

A Preliminary Study Of A Job Analytic Inventory Derived From A Behavioral Consistency Method For Assessing Intrinsic Motivation, William John Banis

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Management

The research question for this study asked if the Job Specifications Inventory (JSI) had acceptable internal reliability and an ability to differentiate among occupational groups. The JSI was designed to have subject matter experts rate the importance of skill, content, context, relationship and work focus requirements of jobs or occupations. The JSI used a taxonomy of 268 behavioral elements derived from the content analyses of satisfying achievements reported by a large, diverse clientele. A clinical-type behavioral consistency method was used to extract performance dimensions from clients' achievements to build the taxonomy. The achievement-based taxonomy was seen as potentially enhancing productivity …

Training Program Evaluation For A Prototype Command, Control & Communication System: Soldier Requirements, Performance & Feedback, Natalie Dancho

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

An Army training program was evaluated in order to present recommendations for program refinement. The training program, developed as part of two larger Army combat development (CD) studies (DuBois & Smith, 1989a, 1989b), represents an attempt to define program design requirements for training tank commanders to use the Intervehicular Information System (IVIS). IVIS is a computer-based command, control, and communications system proposed for future M1A1 tank upgrades. Twenty-four Army tank commanders (TCs) participated in the research effort. TCs were of various rank and age. Training and testing were conducted over a 4 day period. Training lasted 1-1/2 days followed by …

The Development Of A Knowledge Test For Armor Trainees, Jerry Seibert

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A study was conducted to develop a written tank knowledge test for United States Army armor trainees. Such a test may be employed as a tool for training program evaluation and as a criterion measure for assessing trainees. The Tank Knowledge Test (TKT) was developed from items written by subject matter experts familiar with the armor training program. After pilot testing, a revised version of the TKT had an internal consistency reliability of .79. Item difficulty levels ranged from .16 to .92 with a mean of .57. A factor analysis performed to examine the possibility of deriving subscales from four …

The Behavior Of Coalitions As Interorganizational Structures: An Exploratory Study Using A Grounded Theory Approach, Elaine Marie Rothrock

Dissertations and Theses

This study is one of four exploratory studies concerned with coalitions of organizations that are formed to plan and develop social welfare programs within the local community. Although each study was conducted independently, taken together their major purpose was to develop some insights and knowledge into the behavior of organizations and the ways in which they interact as they work together to develop community programs. They are, then, exploratory studies of inter-organizational behavior.

Each of the studies had a different focus. One study attempted to identify the present areas of agreement and disagreement regarding inter-organization behavior by systematically reviewing the …