Industrial and Organizational Psychology Commons^™

The Kaleidoscope At Work: Examining Women’S Employee Engagement Through The Kaleidoscope Career Model, Alyssa Hope Lopez

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Employee engagement among women has historically been subsumed within general employee engagement research. Additionally, employee engagement is often conceptualized as independent from one’s career stage. The present study explored these assumptions by examining employee engagement among women and how organizational factors may differentially promote engagement across career stages. The Kaleidoscope Career Model served as the theoretical foundation, proposing that authenticity, balance, and challenge are particularly salient for women in early-, mid-, and late-career stages, respectively. The current study evaluated how career stage moderated the relationship between these three factors and employee engagement. A sample of women (N = 360) …

Behind The Bar: Empathy Burnout's Impact On Lawyers' Job Competency, Eva L. Newkirk

Honors Projects

It is well established within psychological literature how burnout develops among human service professionals including nurses, therapists, police officers, and first responders. Despite facing the same kinds of risks for burnout development by helping professions, especially trauma and stressful client relationships, the development and consequences empathy burnout have been under-researched in lawyers. This project aims to explore existing literature around burnout and empathy as related to job competency in legal professionals and develop a survey that explores empathy as a potential indirect mediating variable from burnout to employee engagement. The article additionally discusses the pathway from second-hand trauma to empathy …

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 …

Effects Of Ai Transparency On Perceived Fairness In Ai-Driven Selection Tools: The Mediating Roles Of Ai Literacy And Attitudes Towards Ai, Tony Mellek

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Artificial intelligence is becoming an increasingly prominent feature of modern hiring, creating opportunities to enhance efficiency and consistency in selection. This study examined how AI transparency, AI literacy, and attitudes toward AI shape applicants’ perceptions of fairness when engaging with AI-scored pre-hire assessments. A sample of 290 U.S. adults were randomly assigned to either a high- or low-transparency hiring scenario and then completed measures of AI literacy, attitudes toward AI, and procedural fairness. Results indicated that both AI literacy and attitudes toward AI were strong and significant predictors of perceived procedural fairness, suggesting that applicants who feel knowledgeable about AI …

‘If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It:’ Bridging Creative Ideas & Beliefs In A Neurodiverse Workforce Through Autonomy & Social Support, Mesaley A. Alemseged

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Reports from the business world highlight the competitive advantage that neurodiversity can provide for workplace creativity and innovation through the inclusion of workers who represent a broad range of perspectives and abilities. However, while neurodivergent individuals have naturally divergent ways of thinking, producing creative works might not come as easily in workplaces designed for neurotypical forms of thinking and working. Drawing from the componential theory of creativity, this study sought to explore how neurodivergence, as it relates to creativity-relevant processes, and work characteristics related to the social environment can influence creativity across the various stages of the creative process. While …

The Power Of Disconnecting: The Moderating Effect Of Decompression On Safety Culture And Organizational Commitment In Nurses, Mackenzie Zimmerman

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

This dissertation examines the role of decompression in moderating and mediating the relationship between safety culture and affective organizational commitment among nurses in a pediatric healthcare organization. Data from 908 nurses were analyzed to test two primary hypotheses. The first hypothesis proposed that safety culture would positively predict organizational commitment, and the results supported this, showing that stronger safety cultures were associated with greater organizational commitment (b = 0.55, p < .001). The second hypothesis suggested that decompression would moderate the relationship between safety culture and organizational commitment. However, decompression did not significantly moderate this relationship across the overall sample (b = 0.03, p = .258). Post hoc mediation analysis, however, revealed that decompression acted as a significant mediator (b = 0.071, p = .05), highlighting that decompression enhances the effect of safety culture on organizational commitment. These findings underscore the importance of fostering a strong safety culture and implementing decompression strategies, such as mindfulness practices and structured breaks, to improve nurse well-being and retention. Implications for healthcare organizations aiming to enhance workforce resilience and commitment are discussed, alongside suggestions for future research exploring departmental variations in decompression's effectiveness.

The Effects Of An Organizational Shift To Pay Transparency On Employees’ Justified Under-Met Pay Standing Expectations And Turnover Intentions, Heather Godsey

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Pay transparency is becoming more commonplace within U.S. organizations, due to the enactment of state pay transparency laws attempting to reduce the gender wage gap and broader calls for greater transparency in organizations. While transparency may be ideal, its effects on employee attitudes and behaviors are unclear. This study explored a potential unintended outcome of pay transparency, employee turnover, by examining how fairness perceptions mediate the justified under-met pay standing expectations and employees’ turnover intentions relationship, while investigating gender and justice sensitivity as moderators. A sample of 426 participants experienced an organizational shift from pay secrecy to pay transparency and …

A Change In Climate: Inclusion And Menopause Experience At Work, Janie D. Stuart

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Inclusion within workplace environments is increasingly important as workforce diversity continues to expand. Despite anti-discrimination laws, women and other underrepresented groups often face exclusion in the workplace, which negatively affects their professional growth, health, and well-being. This research focused on how menopause, a natural biological transition, compounds workplace exclusion for women. Specifically, the study investigated the relationship between Menopause Experience and two workplace outcomes, Organizational Commitment and Turnover Intention, and assessed the moderating effects of Inclusion in organizations, teams, and non-gendered workplace cultures. There were strong positive relationships between all three dimensions of Inclusion with both Organizational Commitment and Turnover …

Social Support Networks’ Influence On First-Generation Professionals’ Career Success, Melissa-Ann M. Lagunas

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

This dissertation examines how perceived social support influences career success among first-generation professionals (FGPs)—individuals who are first in their families to pursue white- collar careers. Drawing on Seibert et al.'s (2001) Social Capital Theory of Career Success, I investigate direct and indirect pathways through which social support affects three dimensions of career success: sense of belonging, professional flourishing, and career satisfaction, while exploring mediating roles of perceived support network quality and resilience. A sample of 230 FGPs (Mage = 31.9 years, SD = 5.32) completed a 62-item online survey hosted on Qualtrics. Participants represented diverse professional disciplines classified into five …

Forgiveness In The Workplace: Exploring Prosocial Effects On Psychological Safety, Trust, And Interpersonal Citizenship Behaviors, William Thai

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the intricate relationships between racial microaggressions, unforgiveness, decisional forgiveness, and workplace outcomes (i.e., psychological safety, trust, and interpersonal citizenship behaviors). Despite organizations' efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), racial microaggressions persist, leading to feelings of injustice and unforgiveness among affected employees. This research posits that forgiveness, particularly through a modified REACH intervention (Worthington, 2001), serves as a vital coping strategy for managing the emotional distress associated with microaggressions, facilitating personal and relational healing.

Using a sample of 238 participants who identified as racial or ethnic minorities, I employed a moderated mediation analysis to assess the …

Workplace Psychological Well-Being: An Extension And Validation, Lauren E. Piroutek

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Psychological well-being (PWB), positive human functioning, and flourishing, have primarily been studied in the context of the full life span with limited research within the context of the workplace. The well-being research conducted in the workplace is often limited to constructs such as work engagement, job satisfaction and subjective well-being. Furthermore, the research on PWB that has recently been performed tends to overlook existence needs (e.g., adequate pay and benefits, safety) which play a critical role in the tangible and psychological needs of the modern-day worker. This paper adds to the growing workplace psychological need fulfillment literature by extending 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 …

Exploring The Effects Of Autotelic Personality, Proactive Personality, And Positive Affectivity On Dispositional Employee Engagement, Stormy Soldonia

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

The increasing focus on employee well-being and its organizational implications has shifted scholarly attention towards the dynamics of employee engagement. Prevailing research largely concentrates on the influence of the work environment in fostering engagement. However, the role of individual predispositions remains insufficiently explored. This study seeks to address this gap by evaluating the predictive capacity of specific individual traits – autotelic personality, proactive personality, and positive affectivity – on the innate tendency towards employee engagement. It also examines the extent to which an organization’s climate for engagement can enhance these individual characteristics’ impact. A survey was conducted with 403 adult …

Effects Of Advertising Employee Resource Groups (Ergs) On Female Applicants’ Intentions To Pursue Employment Through Perceived Organizational Support, Jamie Crites

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Employee resource groups (ERGs) have existed since the 1960’s to provide additional support for a group of employees within an organization that share a common identity (e.g., gender, race, sexual orientation, veteran status). Gaining in popularity over the past 25 years, they are utilized to drive change and foster diversity management (Welbourne et al., 2017). Organizations have also realized the potential for demonstrating a commitment to diversity to external stakeholders, future applicants, and current employees (Biscoe & Safford, 2010; Friedman & Holtom, 2002). ERGs are unique, thus are difficult to quantify and study empirically. However, given the prevalence of ERGs, …

To Make Or Buy: How Does Strategic Team Selection And Shared Leadership Strategy Interact To Impact Nba Team Effectiveness?, Brandon Purvis

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

The study of shared leadership is growing to address the challenges faced in an increasingly dynamic and interdependent workplace. Shared leadership under the right conditions has been found to be related to team adaptability, creativity, and effectiveness. However, there is growing research on the conditions that limit or enhance the effectiveness of shared leadership. Specifically, it was proposed that teams which are more made than bought (internally developed) should adopt a shared leadership model. In contrast, teams that are more bought than made (developed externally) should use a traditional hierarchical team leadership model. Using data from the National Basketball Association …

An Investigation Of The Impact Of Prosocial Action On Psychological Resilience In Female Volunteer Maskmakers During Covid-19, Linda D. Montano

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Building and maintaining psychological resilience is important because it mediates the impact of stress on life outcomes such as depression, life satisfaction, and well-being. The purpose of this dissertation was to assess the impact of prosocial action as a way to enhance resilience and reduce the impact of adversity. Using 12 waves of longitudinal data collected from 86 female volunteer maskmakers in the U.S. between April and July 2020, this study assessed the hypothesis that the prosocial action of maskmaking will moderate the impact of the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic such that at higher levels of maskmaking, the volunteer’s …

Implicit Trait Policies And Situational Judgment Tests: How Personality Shapes Judgments Of Effective Behavior, Alexander Edward Johnson

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

The Situational Judgment Test (SJT) is a popular selection tool used by employers to

make hiring decisions due to their strong predictive validity. SJTs present job candidates with

hypothetical scenarios, asking them to choose the responses that best fit those situations. SJTs

have been used to measure a range of knowledge, skills, and abilities, but what they measure and

why they predict performance remains unclear. Lievens and Motowidlo (2016) called for a

reframing of the SJT as a measure of general domain knowledge. According to their theory, SJTs

measure procedural knowledge, which is composed of general domain knowledge—

operationalized as …

Recentering Psych Stats, Lynette Bikos

Faculty Open Access Books

To center a variable in regression means to set its value at zero and interpret all other values in relation to this reference point. Regarding race and gender, researchers often center male and White at zero. Further, it is typical that research vignettes in statistics textbooks are similarly seated in a White, Western (frequently U.S.), heteronormative, framework. ReCentering Psych Stats seeks to provide statistics training for psychology students (undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral) in a socially and culturally responsive way. All lessons use the open-source statistics program, R (and its associated packages). Each chapter includes a screencast lesson, features a workflow …

The Psychometric Evaluation Of Decent Work In India, Jadvir K. Gill

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Work has a high impact on an individual’s well-being, health, and the lives of their loved ones who depend on them (Ford et al., 2013). The Decent Work Scale, constructed by Duffy et. al. (2017), measures what it means to have access to decent work (safe conditions, time for leisure and rest, support for family and social values, adequate compensation, and access to adequate health care) in the United States. However, a gap in the social sciences is the lack of external validity. Psychological research has mainly focused its attention on western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic nations and then …

Effects Of Pay Transparency On Application Intentions Through Fairness Perceptions And Organizational Attractiveness: Diversifying The Workforce By Effectively Recruiting Younger Women, Phi Phan-Armaneous

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

In the wake of the Great Resignation, employers are desperate to recruit and attract employees (Fanning, 2021). Women employees tend to enhance organizational performance, and as younger employees make up a substantial portion of the workforce, organizations should position themselves to attract younger women employees (McKinsey & LeanIn, 2021; 2022). I suggest pay transparency (PT) as one strategy to attract and trigger application intentions through increased fairness. In the study, I conducted an experimental study on 301 women of ages 18 to 45 where one company promoted PT, and another did not promote PT to better understand applicant attitudes. Serial …

The Space Between Stress And Reaction: A Three-Way Interaction Of Active Coping, Psychological Stress, And Applied Mindfulness In The Prediction Of Sustainable Resilience, Kait M. Rohlfing Phd

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Amid a global pandemic, data was collected to explore the extent to which resilience practices (active coping and applied mindfulness) under varying degrees of stress levels can promote sustainable resilience, defined as the ability to move through challenges in a way that leads to increased positive adaptation to meet present and future challenges. Results did not support the proposed three-way interaction; however, post-hoc analyses indicated that active coping (r = .316) and applied mindfulness (r = .250) were independently predictive of sustained resilience and, when combined, predicted approximately 20 percent (R² = .203) of sustained resilience …

Managing One’S Anxiety When Work Narratives Misalign, Shannon Eric Ford, Shannon Ford

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Humans use personal narratives to bring a sense of order and stability to life situations; especially when events are experienced as negative or threatening. As an employee encounters a workplace event that does not align with their understanding of the organization, termed a metaleptic moment, typical emotional reactions can include disengagement, tolerance, or resistance, or a non-emotional response of engagement. Family systems theory proposes that individuals who possess higher levels of differentiation have the ability to better manage the narrative crash. In this study, participants in the experimental group were given a 10-minute differentiation induction that would, when compared with …

Coachmotivation: Leveraging Motivational Interviewing Methodology To Increase Emotion Regulation Ability In The Workplace, Michael R. Nelson

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Emotions are complex, powerful states that both positively and negatively impact personal and professional human experiences. One’s ability to regulate their emotions has been related to desirable organizational outcomes such as (a) decreased counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs), stress, and negative emotions and (b) increased well-being, coping abilities, and job satisfaction. However, appropriate workplace interventions that increase perceived emotion regulation (PER) abilities continue to be limited. Stemming from Motivational Interviewing (MI), CoachMotivation (CM) is a modified form of organizational coaching that translates core practices of clinical MI interventions (i.e., OARS: open questions, affirmations, reflections, summary statements) into coaching conversations in the …

The Hero In You: The Impact Of Psychological Capital Training And Perceived Leadership On Follower Psychological Capital Development And Burnout, Alifiya Khericha

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Psychological capital has become a popular construct in the workplace, relating to important organizational outcomes such as job performance and organizational commitment. It is a higher-order construct comprised of hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism. A key characteristic of PsyCap is “state-like” and open to development. Studies show that interventions and leadership play a key role in individuals' ability to develop their PsyCap. In the study, I examined whether an online, self-study training could help increase individual PsyCap and decrease burnout. Results indicated that the 40 minute training led to increases in psychological capital (N = 128; t[127] = …

Adverse Work Experiences And The Impact On Workplace Psychological Well Being, Workplace Psychological Distress, Employee Engagement, Turnover Intention, And Work State Conscientiousness, Nicole J. Dekay

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Workplaces work to reduce severe safety issues and highly stressful events, yet limited focus has been put on the chronic traumatic experiences and everyday psychological stressors that people experience in workplaces. This dissertation will add to existing work design literature by studying how the presence of Adverse Work Experiences, both acute and chronic, at a variety of workplaces, impact mental health both in terms of Workplace Psychological Distress and Workplace Psychological Wellbeing which in turn can affect turnover, engagement, and work conscientiousness. Results indicated adverse work experiences were significantly related to higher psychological distress, lower psychological wellbeing, higher turnover intention, …

A Quantitative Comparison Of Employee Engagement Antecedents, Kirby White

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Practitioners and academics are keenly interested in employee engagement due to its relationship to beneficial outcomes such as employee health, tenure, job performance, company profit, and more. However, most engagement research is siloed into one of three theoretical frameworks, leading to conflicting evidence and strategic implications for effectively fostering more engagement. This study investigated the redundancy and incremental validity of each theory by analyzing multiple responses from a robust sample of working adults. The sample includes more than 160,000 participants who are performing any job function at one of more than 60 global enterprise companies and across over 20 industries. …

“Intended Between A Man And A Woman”: Examining The Lgbtq Campus Climate Of A Non-Affirming Free Methodist University, Justin Cospito

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Objective: The purpose of this is research is to further LGBTQ-related research in the education space by examining the LGBTQ college campus climate of Seattle Pacific University (SPU), a non-affirming religiously affiliated university and Denominational Institution of the Free Methodist Church. SPU has recently come into the national spotlight for its non-affirming stance on LGBTQ issues, specifically its controversial hiring policy banning employees from having sexual intercourse with the same gender. This study hypothesizes that perceptions of the LGBTQ climate at SPU will be related to campus satisfaction for students who identify as sexual minorities as well as sexual majorities. …

Rad Managers: Strategic Coaching For Managers And Leaders, Audrey Mika Kinase Kolb

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Objective: Managerial coaching is a nascent area of research; as such there are few models supported by independent inquiry endorsing their effectiveness in impacting employee outcomes. The purpose of the current investigation was to present a concise, practical model of managerial coaching (RAD: relationships, accountability, development) that can be used for teaching and evaluating coaching behaviors. The model was hypothesized to predict ratings of coaching effectiveness (CE), perceptions of supervisor support (PSS), occupational self-efficacy (OSE), and work engagement (WE). Further, each factor of the model was tested in a series of secondary hypotheses to determine which factors were …

Can Gender Pronouns In Interview Questions Work As Nudges?, Fei Lu

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Organizations that are historically male-dominated have struggled to attract and retain an equitable representation of women (Debs et al., 2021; Germain et al., 2012; Hall et al., 2018) Using the two systems processing model from Cognitive Psychology, this study assessed whether gender pronouns can function as environmental cues (“nudges”) to disrupt the patterns of mental models on biases and stereotypes. It was proposed that participants can be “nudged” to decrease the impact of gender stereotype biases in the interview process in male-dominated professions (e.g., Information Technology) such that pronouns used in the interview questions will interact with the interviewee’s gender. …

Creative Occupations And The Precipitating Factors Of Burnout, Natasha E. Koval

Honors Projects

Creativity is an intrinsic part of the human life; however, it is one of the most challenging concepts to be understood. In this paper, I am examining occupations driven by creativity, their economic significance, and how sustainable these occupations are for the creative employees. I will be particularly looking at burnout and its precipitating factors as a way to understand the wellness of the creative workforce. Creative occupations, if fostered properly, can lead to job growth, increased income, and potential for investment in vulnerable communities. This makes them valuable resources for urban economic development goals. Literature suggests that there is …