Industrial and Organizational Psychology Commons^™

Relationships Of Work-Family Conflict With Safety, Performance, Occupational Injuries, And Pain Among Construction Workers, Lori A. Gelinas

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Construction industry is one of the most dangerous work environments and lapses in safe work practices can be hazardous, and jeopardize the safety and well-being of workers. The purpose ot this study was to integrate the work-family conflict (WFC) and occupational safety literatures by investigating the effects of WFC on safety performance, and occupational injuries and pain among construction workers. As a stressor, WFC reflects the conflict individuals experience when trying to juggle the demands of their family and work roles, which arises when demands in one domain (e.g., work) interfere with performance in the other domain (e.g., family) and …

The Impact Of Trainee Characteristics On Transfer Of Training Over Time, Kristina N. Bauer

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Given that organizations invest a considerable amount of time and money into the training and development function, it is imperative that trainees transfer the learned material back to the job and continue to use the knowledge/skills. Yet, most studies have not assessed the transfer process over time (i.e., maintenance). Based on the lack of empirical investigation of maintenance, the current study had two goals: (1) to identify which factors are most important for skill maintenance (2) to identify when factors are most important to skill maintenance. To these ends, a model was developed and tested that examines the trainee characteristics …

Counselor Demographics, Client Aggression, Counselor Job Satisfaction, And Confidence In Coping In Residential Treatment Programs, Erik Braun

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

Counselors at residential agencies are sometimes assaulted by physically aggressive clients (Flannery & Walker, 2001, 2008). As a possible result of this professional hazard, mental health professionals typically resign from residential counseling positions after approximately 14.6 weeks (Connis, 1979). Although job satisfaction and counselor confidence in coping with client aggression have been widely studied individually in the context of residential settings, researchers have examined these variables together. The overarching purpose of this study was to examine the association between counselor demographic characteristics, agency/environmental characteristics, and crisis intervention training and job satisfaction and confidence in coping with client aggression. Data were …

Institutional Variables, Collegial Relationships, And Occupational Satisfaction: Testing The Conceptual Framework Of Faculty Job Satisfaction Among Counselor Educators, Rebecca E. Michel

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

Occupational satisfaction is the extent to which individuals are fulfilled by their employment. The Conceptual Framework of Faculty Job Satisfaction (Hagedorn, 2000) describes how aspects of work impact occupational satisfaction, yet researchers have not previously used this model with counselor educators. This study investigated the applicability of the model, as well as the impact of institutional and interpersonal variables, on a sample of 296 counselor educators (26.86% response rate). Findings suggested the model predicted over half of the variance in occupational satisfaction. Significant predictors of satisfaction included work itself, responsibility, recognition, salary, collegial relationships, administration, and climate. Counselor educator occupational …

An Investigation Into The Relationship Between An Engineering Manager's Purpose-Seeking Beliefs And Behaviors And The Engineering Manager's Perception Of Employee Creativity, Initiative And Purpose-Seeking Behavior, Charles Burton Daniels

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Organizations have placed an overwhelming emphasis on extrinsic motivation of its workforce, normally in the form of financial incentives, in an attempt to assure individual and organizational high performance. While a significant level of financial resources is expended in this attempt to predict and influence employee behavior, no objective evidence exists of a favorable return of investment. In fact, the primary impact of most extrinsic motivation might actually be demotivation – the opposite of the intended use.

In this research the prevailing literature was examined and a conclusion about the power of both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation was synthesized to …

Training Evaluation In Virtual Worlds: Development Of A Model, Richard N. Landers, Rachel C. Callan

Psychology Faculty Publications

Many organizations have adopted virtual worlds (VWs) as a setting for training programs; however, research on appropriate evaluation of training in this new setting is incomplete. In this article, we address this gap by first exploring the unique issues relevant to evaluation faced by training designers working in VWs. At the macro-organizational level, the primary issue faced is an organizational culture unreceptive to or otherwise skeptical of VWs. At the micro-organizational level, two major issues are identified: individual trainees unreceptive to VWs and general lack of experience navigating VWs. All three of these challenges and their interrelationships may lead to …

Stability And Change In Goal Orientation And Their Relationship With Performance: Testing Density Distributions Using Latent Trait-State Models, Michael Charles Mihalecz

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Goal orientation has been proposed to influence a number of training and work outcomes. However, results have been inconsistent and predicted relationships are weaker than anticipated (Payne, Youngcourt & Beaubien, 2007). Weak findings may be due to inconsistencies in how goal orientation is conceptualized and operationalized (DeShon & Gillespie, 2005; Grant & Dweck, 2003; Kaplan & Maehr, 2007). One such inconsistency is the treatment of goal orientation as a stable trait or a malleable state. Issues of state-versus-trait have long fueled the person-situation debate in personality psychology. Fleeson (2001) offered a solution for integrating the two theoretical perspectives called the …

Utilizing A Web-Based Career Development Workshop To Address Career Decision-Making Difficulty Among Community College Distance Learners, Johanna Michele Brown

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

Career decision making difficulty, as it relates to undecided college students and career indecision, has been a concern for counselors and academic advisors for decades (Gordon, 2006; Mau, 2004). Individuals struggling with career indecision often seek assistance via career counseling, self-help tools, and/or computer-assisted career guidance systems (Gati, Gadassi, & Shemesh, 2005). The past decade has brought a large increase in the development of a number of web-based career guidance systems (CGS) (Bobek, Robbins, Gore, Harris-Bowlsbey, Lapan, Dahir, & Jepsen, 2005). Despite the rapid growth in the type and use of computer-assisted CGS, little empirical research has been conducted on …

Coping With Customer Sexual Harassment: Examining Retaliation As A Coping Strategy And Testing A Contextual Model, Valerie J. Morganson

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Research has established that customer sexual harassment (CSH) is a widespread and harmful workplace phenomenon. This dissertation consists of two studies on the topic. The first sought to operationalize a measure of coping with customer sexual harassment. In addition to three traditional factors of sexual harassment coping (i.e., external, internal, and social), Study 1 predicted that worker retaliation toward the customer would constitute an additional form of coping with CSH. The measure of coping was tested using a sample of 200 women customer service workers. Data were analyzed using factor analysis. As expected, retaliation was supported as a coping strategy, …

The Role Of Supervisor-Supervisee Cultural Differences, Supervisor Multicultural Competence, And The Supervisory Working Alliance In Supervision Outcomes: A Moderated Mediation Model, Stephanie A. Crockett

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

As the United States population grows more diverse, many counseling professionals have called for attention to the cultural issues present in clinical supervision. Existing research suggests that the supervisor's level of multicultural competence and the strength of the supervisory working alliance may affect the relationship between supervisor-supervisee cultural differences on supervision outcomes. Accordingly, the study sought to address how cultural differences between the supervisor and supervisee, supervisor multicultural competence, and the supervisory working alliance impact supervisee counseling self-efficacy and satisfaction with supervision.

The study examined the plausibility of a moderated mediation model, derived from the literature, using a sample of …

A Conceptual Model For Employer Training To Manage Employee Counter-Productive Behaviors, Naomi Spickard Rock

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop a model for employer training to manage employees who possess counter-productive behaviors. With the increasing encouragement for employers to hire without discriminating, the number of individuals with disabilities in the workforce will rise. There is limited training in universities and businesses to teach how to deal with difficult individuals.

Qualitative research in the form of focus groups was conducted. The following research objectives were developed: 1) Identify components of counter-productive behaviors that need to be managed in the workplace. 2) Develop behavioral management strategies that need be learned by employers. 3) Integrate …

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 …

Shared Leadership As A Function Of Role Assignment And Task Difficulty In A Distributed Computer Game, Alexandra Proaps

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The use of computer game based architectures may help provide a safe, controlled environment in which geographically dispersed military units can develop leadership skills while rehearsing a specific task such as search and rescue. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among task difficulty, team task performance, role assignment and emergent leadership within a shared leadership model using a modified version of the popular video game, Half Life 2 ™. The researcher assessed leadership emergence through verbal content analysis methods that have only been employed in email and message boards media formats. Across levels of task difficulty …

The Impeding Role Of Initial Unrealistic Goal-Setting On Training Performance: Identifying Underpinning Self-Regulatory Processes And Solutions, Robert C. Brusso

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The importance of goal-setting within training for enhancing performance has been touted in the literature. Goal-setting theory suggests that setting a moderately difficult, specific goal results in a modest goal-performance discrepancy between the trainee's goal and actual performance level. Such a discrepancy has been found to enhance subsequent performance, as the trainee will employ greater effort and task engagement to resolve the discrepancy. However, research has also shown that the motivating effect of a discrepancy will reverse with repeated feedback indicating that one's performance has fallen short of the desired goal. To date, no prior research has examined the effect …

Development And Validation Of A Measure: Preventive Coping With Work-Family Conflict, Meghan P. Jones

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Much research has focused on the concept of work-family conflict. Recent research has called for more studies concerning how individuals cope with work-family conflict (Eby, Casper, Lockwood, Bordeaux, & Brinley, 2005). This research aids in the measurement of coping with work-family conflict by creating a measure of preventive coping with work-family conflict. Items for the new measure are based on results from focus-groups with working adults. The study assessed the dimensionality and validity of the proposed scale. Results indicate that preventive coping with work-family conflict is comprised of five subscales: accumulating resources, strategic planning, cognitive structuring, withdrawal from work, and …

The Relationship Between Leader Behaviors And Subordinate Performance: Examining The Moderating Influence Of Leader-Member Exchange, Kurt L. Oborn

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Subordinates interpret and react to the behaviors of their leaders. Based on a theory of organizational trust, it was argued that greater trust between subordinate and leader is required to respond appropriately to relations-oriented behaviors than task-oriented behaviors due to a higher level of personal risk to the subordinate. As a consequence of responding appropriately to relations-oriented behaviors, a subordinate immediately becomes identified with or connected to a leader. Such identification requires the specific LMX currency of professional respect be present in order for an adequate amount of trust to be developed. In contrast, task-oriented behaviors ally the subordinate with …

American And Chinese Personality Traits And Task Load In Simulated Flight Crews: Individual And Team Level Effects, Matthew Edward Loesch

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Understanding the impact of pilot interpersonal dynamics may be crucial for flight team success as well as the prevention of air crash disasters. Achieving optimum performance from flight teams requires limiting unnecessary pilot task load. This study examined American and Chinese simulated flight crews. Factors believed to affect cockpit interpersonal dynamics and subsequent crew task loads were pilot personality and nationality. Pilot personality, team personality elevation, team personality variability, and team nationality were analyzed for their potential impact on task load perceptions. Twenty-four American, 23 Chinese, and 23 mixed nationality two person teams were created and used for comparisons. Increasing …

Coping With Work-Life Conflict: Antecedents To Seeking Policy-Based And Individually Negotiated Accommodations, Heather M. Lauzun

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Research concerning coping with work-life conflict has been limited (Eby et al., 2005). This thesis suggests that employees can cope by seeking a work-life accommodation. Contextual and individual antecedents of seeking policy-based and individually negotiated accommodations are explored. Hypothetical accommodations and actual accommodations sought were assessed as outcomes. A sample of 148 working adults from a variety of organizations was surveyed online. As hypothesized, for the hypothetical outcome, family supportive organizational perceptions, family supportive supervisor perceptions, and human capital significantly predicted seeking individually negotiated accommodations. Furthermore, as hypothesized, both family supportive organizational perceptions and family supportive supervisor perceptions had significantly …

Individuals And Contex00tual Factors: An Interactionist Approach To Understanding Self-Development, Gregory Paul Letller

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

While the extant research has identified several individual and contextual factors influential on an employee's quantity of self-development participation, no prior research has examined potential multiplicative effects among these factors. The current study investigated person-situation interactions among five individual factors ( e.g., self-efficacy for self-development, learning goal orientation, and openness to experience) and the contextual factors of organizational and supervisor support ( combined to reflect overall work support). This study also sought to investigate the influence of proactive personality on self-development participation, a promising individual difference that has received little attention in the self-development literature. Using data collected from 136 …

Working In Groups And Alone: Effects Of Group Gender Composition On Cognitive Insight Problem Solving Performance, Viktoria Tidikyte

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study examined how working within a group versus working alone affects creative problem solving and what role gender plays in influencing problem solving performance. Previous studies yielded contradictory predictions of whether working in a group improves or impedes creative problem solving performance and whether gender has an effect on problem solving efficiency of a group. I proposed that contradictory results of the previous studies might have been due to the gender by group interaction. Two hundred and six Old Dominion University undergraduate students participated in this study. A 2 (groups vs. individual) X 3 (gender group composition) X 2 …

The Effects Of Automation Expertise, System Confidence, And Image Quality On Trust, Compliance, And Performance, Randall D. Spain

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the effects of automation expertise, system confidence, and image quality on automation trust, compliance, and detection performance. One hundred and fifteen participants completed a simulated military target detection task while receiving advice from an imperfect diagnostic aid that varied in expertise (expert vs. novice) and confidence (75% vs. 50% vs. 25% vs. no aid). The task required participants to detect covert enemy targets in simulated synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. Participants reported whether a target was present or absent, their decision-confidence, and their trust in the diagnostic system's advice. Results indicated that system confidence and automation expertise …

Developing A Philosophical Profile Of The Individual For Complex Problem-Solving Through Agent-Based Modeling, Ipek Bozkurt

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Research that focuses on the emotional, mental, behavioral and cognitive capabilities of individuals has been abundant within disciplines such as psychology, sociology, and anthropology, among others. The main argument made in this dissertation, however, is that a different perspective is necessary in order to gain insight about individuals when facing the complex problems that are presented within engineering and management disciplines. This is done by developing the Philosophical Profile of the Individual (PPI) that uses epistemology, ontology and teleology as underlying dimensions of philosophical predispositions. The epistemology dimension considers whether an individual is an Empiricist or a Rationalist, the ontology …

A Test Of Direct And Partially Mediated Relationships Between Leader Member Exchange, Job Embeddedness, Turnover Intentions, And Job Search Behaviors In A Southern Police Department, Mark D. Bowman

School of Public Service Theses & Dissertations

Job embeddedness has been found to predict turnover intentions, job search behaviors and turnover, and job embeddedness researchers assert, but have not tested, that job embeddedness is a mediator of other organizationally significant factors relative to organizational outcomes. A relationship not previously explored is the role of a supervisor in job embeddedness, which was operationalized in this study as leader-member exchange. A single panel survey was conducted in a police department in the southern United States with 276 current members holding the rank of police officer. Usable surveys were completed by 128 of those police officers, which is a response …

Influences Aided And Unaided Visual Search Performance: Effects Of Secondary Task Modality, Secondary Task Processing Code, And Personal Preferences, Rachel R. Phillips

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The present study examined the impact of secondary task modality and secondary task processing code on aided and unaided performance for a simulated luggage screening task. The interaction between secondary task modality and processing code with automation was examined. Finally, the interaction between processing preferences (as measured by learning styles) and outcome measures was assessed. One hundred sixtyone undergraduate students from Old-Dominion University performed a simulated luggage screening task over the course of two days. Half of the participants (n = 81) had the assistance of an automated aid called DETECTOR, and half did not. Participants also performed one of …

Organizational Justice Perceptions In China: Development Of The Chinese Organizational Justice Scale, Katherine M. Fodchuk

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Research analyzing fairness perceptions within organizations has gained the attention of cross-cultural theorists as the criteria used to judge fairness varies across cultures. Review of the literature indicates that researchers use translated Western measures of organizational justice on Eastern samples despite evidence of cultural variation in justice criteria. This dissertation addresses some of the gaps in the current research by developing and validating an indigenous measure of Chinese organizational justice perceptions. A preliminary qualitative study revealed numerous justice rules used by Chinese employees to determine whether a workplace decision was fair. The qualitative results were used to develop the Chinese …

The Relationship Between Stigma Consciousness And Variables Of Well-Being Among Foreign-Born Faculty Members, Sharnail D. Bazemore

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between stigma consciousness and positive feelings toward the university, feelings of well-being, loneliness, and teaching effectiveness among foreign-born faculty members employed by American institutions of higher education. Participants included 162 foreign born faculty members who represented 12 urban East coast universities. Participants completed a series of online questionnaires that assessed levels of stigma consciousness, feelings toward the university, self-esteem, well-being, loneliness, and self-perceived teaching effectiveness. We hypothesized that stigma consciousness would contribute unique variance to positive feelings toward the university, feelings of well-being, loneliness, and teaching effectiveness. Four hierarchical regression …

The Line In The Sand: Understanding Customer Sexual Harassment Through A Psychological Contract Framework, Valerie J. Morganson

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Research has demonstrated that customer sexual harassment (CSH) is a frequently occurring phenomenon and an apparent barrier to the career development of women (Gettman & Gelfand, 2007; Morganson & Major, 2008). The current study applies psychological contract theory toward understanding how CSH leads to adverse outcomes, which affect individuals and organizations. A sample of 420 working women including both students and full-time non-student workers from various organizations were recruited to participate in this online study. CSH and perceptions of employer obligation did not interact to predict psychological contract breach. As hypothesized, psychological contract breach and CSH interacted to predict affective …

The Relationship Between Valuing Diversity And Implicit Racial Bias: A Construct Validation Study, Rebekka Althouse Gordon

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Two studies examined the construct validity of valuing diversity in relation to both explicit and implicit racial bias. In the first study, participants completed three measures: the Miville-Guzman Universality-Diversity Scale to measure valuing diversity; the Implicit Association Test to assess implicit racial bias; and the Symbolic Racism 2000 Scale to assess explicit racial bias. Results indicated there was a significant relationship between the valuing diversity and implicit racial bias measures as well as between the valuing diversity and explicit racial bias measures. The explicit and implicit racial bias measures accounted for unique variance in the valuing diversity construct. There was …

Effect Of Household Structure On Family-Friendly Benefit Utilization: Implications For Organizational Attraction And Workplace Withdrawal Behaviors Of Federal Government Employees, Sharyn J. Aufenanger

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the effect of household structure on utilization of family-friendly benefits in organizations, as well as the impact that family-friendly benefit utilization has on organizational attraction and workplace withdrawal behaviors among Federal government employees with children. Results showed that alternative work arrangements (e.g., compressed and flexible schedules) were popular among all employees who have children. Family-friendly benefit utilization rates were highest among single parent employees and lowest among traditional family employees. Single parent employees were more likely to use flexible schedules, part-time, compressed schedules, telework, and sick and annual leave. Dual income employees were more likely to use …

Examination Of A Nomological Network Of Team Leadership: A Construct Validation Study, Kari R. Strobel

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the construct-related validity evidence for team leadership measurement within the United States Navy. Drawing on literature from industrial/organizational, sport, and military psychology, the current research specified one nomological network for officer team leadership appraisal. The proposed model tested the idea that Naval team leaders engaging in transformational behaviors would be more likely to use and encourage the use of teamwork processes, increase cohesion among team members, and maintain superior mission readiness. The hypotheses were tested with performance appraisal data from 900 Commanders, Lieutenant Commanders, and Lieutenants from aviation, surface, and subsurface warfare communities. The relationships between the …