Industrial and Organizational Psychology Commons^™

Using Biodata To Predict Alternative Measures Of Training Period Turnover, Ronald Pankratz

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Logistic Regression was utilized to add to what is known about biodata and turnover. Biodata items from 958 former and current employees in a manufacturing environment were used to develop models to predict a) which employees will turnover prior to completion of a ninety-day training period, b) who will leave voluntarily versus involuntarily, and of those who leave voluntarily c) which leavers are functional versus dysfunctional. A significant relationship was found between biodata items and completion of the ninety-day training period. The resulting model indicated that those who completed training were employed at time of hire, had higher aptitude scores, …

Work Redesign And Its Influence On Employee Motivation And Job Satisfaction, John Koscielniak

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Reengineering and work redesign have become the buzzwords of the healthcare industry giving rise to the unprecedented growth of reengineering / work redesign consultants who offer cookbook methods to make the organization efficient and reduce costs. The unfortunate consequence of this rush to redesign is that the employer accepts recommendations to change the organization without knowing the state of the workforce. The purpose of this research is to test the effects of work redesign as implemented at two for-profit hospitals using a measurement tool developed specifically for work redesign. The intent is to compare the hospitals separately as each work …

Worker Productivity As A Function Of The Percentage Of Monetary Incentives To Base Pay, Carol J. Frisch

Dissertations

Several studies have shown that individuals working under pay conditions with monetary incentives have higher levels of productivity than individuals working for non-incentive pay, such as hourly wages (Abernathy, Duffy, & O’Brien, 1982; Dierks & McNally, 1987; Farr, 1976; Gaetani, Hoxeng, & Austin, 1986; George & Hopkins, 1989; London & Oldham, 1977; Orpen, 1982; Nebeker & Neuberger, 1985; Terborg & Miller, 1978; Yukl, Wexley, & Seymore, 1972). It has also been noted that a minimum of 30% incentive is generally accepted as necessary to affect (employee) motivation (Fein, 1970), and increasing incentives above this level will not result in appreciable …

Environmental Attitudes And Behaviors: An Examination Of The Antecedents Of Behavior Among Air Force Members At Work, Mark S. Laudenslager

Theses and Dissertations

A questionnaire was randomly distributed to members of the United States Air Force at Wright Patterson AFB, OH, with 307 returned. The survey was designed to test the theory of planned behavior (TPB) model developed by Icek Ajzen, and the organizational theory of planned behavior (OTPB) model explored in this research effort. Validation and measurement of the TPB in relation to an organizational setting was accomplished, with the organizational theory of planned behavior (OTPB) developed. The behaviors and intentions individuals have towards recycling, energy conservation, and carpooling were examined, with the demographic variables of gender, age, and education also investigated. …

Measuring Organizational Climate For Diversity, Amy L. Vick

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The Climate for Diversity Index measures three dimensions associated with the ability of organizations or units to create an environment that allows members of all sociocultural backgrounds to participate and fully develop. The climate for diversity impacts individual outcomes such as general job satisfaction, affective commitment, identification with a psychological group/department, organizational citizenship behavior, and the intent to turnover. Several structural models depicting the relationship between the climate for diversity and the individual outcome variables were examined. Significant differences in perceptions of the climate for diversity are predicted by ethnicity, disability, and position. Data were provided by 319 members of …

A Structural Model Of Antecedents And Consequences Of Satisfaction With Growth And Development, Greg E. Loviscky

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Because downsizing and re-organizing have altered the social contract between employers and employees, employees have found additional incentive to grow and develop by adding to their portfolio of skills. In order to establish the validity of satisfaction with growth and development, an hypothesized model is tested and compared with competing models. 'our hundred and sixty three employees from a large southeastern city completed a questionnaire that examined attitudes regarding satisfaction with growth and development, general job satisfaction, and hypothesized antecedents (i.e., context and individual variables) and consequences (i.e., organizational commitment) of satisfaction with growth and development. LISREL VIII (Joreskog & …

Construct Validation Of The Small Unit Equal Opportunity Climate Survey, Arlene L. Pace

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to continue in the development of an equal opportunity climate survey, suitable for small groups, by establishing the construct validity of this newly developed measure. Four-hundred and twenty-nine members of 7 United States Coast Guard Units were administered the Small Unit Equal Opportunity Climate Survey (SUEOCS), an attitudinal instrument suitable for small groups. Conceptual analyses, item and scale analyses, and a confirmatory factor analysis via LISREL VIlI (Joreskog & Sorbom, 1989), were used to establish the factor structure of the SUEOCS. The results of these analyses indicated that the hypothesized factor structure was …

Procedural Implications Of Affirmative Action: Perceptions And Attitudes Toward The Policy And Its Beneficiaries, Nicole A. Windfelder

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The present study examined the effects of race, sex, role, and policy type on the attitudes toward affirmative action and its beneficiaries. Specifically, this study investigated attitudes toward the fairness of affirmative action policies and the perceptions of competence of the beneficiaries. Participants included 394 African American and Caucasian American men and women undergraduate students from Old Dominion University and Hampton University. Participation involved reading a vignette in which they would imagine themselves in the role of either a beneficiary of an affirmative action program or a coworker of an affirmative action beneficiary. Furthermore, participants in both roles would read …

Personality Characteristics Of Successful Applicants To The Priesthood, Thomas G. Plante, Gerdenio Manuel, Jeannette Tandez

Psychology

This study investigated personality characteristics of successful pastoral candidates to a major Catholic religious order. Personality measures (i.e., MMPI-2 and 16PF) were administered to 21 male applicants between 1990 and 1994 who subsequently entered into religious life. Results suggest that these clergy applicants were generally well-adjusted, socially responsible, and interpersonally sensitive. However, results also suggest a tendency for defensiveness. Coping with perceived negative impulses (i.e., anger and hostility) may also be an issue for many. Implications for future research are offered.

Examination Of Perceptions Of Procedural Justice When Establishing A Maternity Leave Policy In A University Setting, Sarah Leider

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Procedural justice in organizations has received increasing attention from researchers in recent years. Part of the reason for the increase in attention is that today's workforce must satisfy inner needs through aspects of the job that are not related directly to pay and promotion due to the current trend in downsizing organizations. As more women enter the workforce, the issue of maternity leave is also becoming more prevalent. More and more women are working in professional fields and don't want to end their careers in order to have and raise children. In this current study the researcher has combined the …

An Artificial Life Model Of Engineering Attrition Contemplation: Why Do Federally Employed Civilian Engineers Think Of Quitting?, John William Herweg

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The research objective is, using engineer turnover, to develop an Artificial Life (A-Life) model and simulation methodology useful for studying behavioral variables of individuals in an organization.

One consequence of work stress is burnout, and its extreme expression is quitting or turnover. Various models have been used to explain and predict this behavior. Behavior models are useful tools to explore the ability of organizational policies to reduce stress levels and turnover. Advancing the usefulness of models is a goal which assists all research on human behavior. A-Life offers a new and different methodology for this purpose. It provides an ability …

The Influence Of Time Pressure And Information Load On Rule-Based Decision-Making Performance, Brooke Browne Schaab

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Performance was evaluated under varying levels of time pressure and information load to determine their influence on simple rule-based decision-making. Consistent errors, biases, and heuristics found in human decision-making have been attributed to attempts to reduce attentional demands and to the limitations of working memory. Do these same mistakes occur when little or no demand is placed on working memory and the decision is made by following a set of simple rules? Using a simulation of a radar operator's task, 96 participants monitored a display for 24 min. Time pressure was manipulated by increasing or decreasing the number of aircraft …

Cross-Cultural Differences And Intercultural Cooperation In The Context Of Change And Uncertainty: Americans And Finns In The Workplace, Maija Llisa Herweg

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

American and Finnish workers in financial institutions in the United States and in Finland were interviewed in their respective languages to explore cross-cultural differences in response to change and uncertainty in the work place. Changes were explored in the domains of organizational, process, procedure and work content, and technological changes in the work place. As a point of departure for this study, Hofstede's IBM study, as it pertains to Uncertainty Avoidance--a measure he used to evaluate culture-based resistance to change--was used for this study.

Differences in the kinds of change considered difficult to adjust to were found in the cross-cultural …

The Effects Of Feedback Seeking Performance And Tenure On Perceived Organizational Commitment Self-Promotion Attributions And Allocation Of Organizational Rewards, Bryan C. Hayes

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Few studies have addressed the performance feedback seeking process from the perspective of the source of the feedback. Investigators generally focus on the behavior of the feedback seeker, either ignoring or only speculating about reactions by the target of the feedback request. The objective of this study was to empirically investigate the target's reaction to requests for performance feedback. Extensive efforts have been made to demonstrate that people often constrain their feedback seeking behavior because of perceived risks, however, research has not examined to what extent the perceived costs are real. A hypothetical scenario was used to elicit reactions to …

Work Interference With Family (W→F) And Family Interference With Work (F→W): Antecedents And Mediators, Karyn Hofler

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The present study was designed to assess the antecedents of two forms of work-family conflict (WFC). The separation of two types of WFC is represented by work interference with family (W→F) and family interference with work (F→W). Several variables were hypothesized to be directly and indirectly related to the two forms of work-family conflict. Because of the individualistic nature of WFC. the participants for the present study were all female. LISREL VIII was used to test the proposed model and to develop an alternative model. Job stress was found to be directly and indirectly related to W→F. Family stress was …

Task Interdependence And Teamwork Processes, Kristin Krahl

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

In today's continually expanding and global marketplace, organizations are increasingly relying on teams. The tasks that are performed by these teams are requiring greater interdependency among members as technology becomes more complex. Therefore, there is a need for a valid measure to study the task interdependence among team members. This study developed a measure of task interdependence and provided evidence for the construct validity of the measure using LISREL (Joreskog & Sorbom, 1993). In particular, the task interdependence measure was shown to be distinct from teamwork measures developed in previous research (Rosenstein, 1994). A structural model of relationships among teamwork …

Toward Understanding Team Leadership: The Empirical Development Of A Team Leadership Classification System, Brian J. Ruggeberg

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to develop a classification system of team leadership through the empirical process of numerical classification. Although the value and importance of leadership have been recognized in the team literature, few empirical studies have been conducted to understand the phenomenon of team leadership. A thorough review of the relevant literature was conducted to identify the various behaviors, functions, traits, and KSAOs associated with team leadership. This information was then used to select and construct data collection instruments for the classification process.

Two separate studies were conducted to achieve the overall goal of developing a team …

Causal Models Of Work-Family Conflict From Family And Organizational Perspectives, Lyse Guttau Wells

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

More women are entering the workforce and the number of dual career couples has increased and will probably continue to do so. As women's tasks and responsibilities outside of the home have increased, those within the home have not diminished resulting in higher work-family conflict (Greenglass, Pantony, & Burke, 1988). This research examined a woman's work-family conflict from both work and family perspectives. Two models were described and tested. One model included individual and family antecedents and consequences of work-family conflict. The antecedents included sex-role attitudes, role salience, and perfectionism in the wife. The consequences were quality of family life …

"Managing” Stress: Emotion And Power At Work By Tim Newton With Jocelyn Handy And Stephen Fineman Sage Publication, 1995., R Ravi Kumar

IIMB Management Review

The book under review makes a concerted effort to explain the genesis and growth of interest in stress and also to provide direction in managing new sources of stress.

Stress At Work, Coping, And Workers' Health Of An Acquired Firm In Hong Kong, Oi Ling Siu

Centre for Public Policy Studies : CPPS Working Paper Series

The structure of the Occupational Stress Indicator (OSI) was adopted as the model to investigate the impact of acquisition stress on workers' health effects. Data were obtained from 101 employees of an acquired firm in Hong Kong. Workers' perceived work pressure was negatively related to job satisfaction, and positively related to mental ill-health, and physical ill-health. Hierarchical moderated regression analyses were employed to study the stressor-strain relationship, and the extent coping strategies moderate this relationship. The results showed that a combination of stressors related significantly to the strain effects, but only a few individual stressors were strong predictors. Coping strategies …

Survivors Of Downsized Organizations: An Analysis Of Organizational Variables Before And After Downsizing, Roger Scott Young

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

Managers' And Non-Managers' Conflict Resolution Styles: The Effect Of Gender Role, Cheryl Lynn Simmons

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Expertise And Gender On Job Analysis Ratings For A Physically Demanding Job, Andrew Edward Ansoorian

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Perceived Control On Intention To Quit: Does It Generalize To The Chinese Sample?, Ming-Feng Michelle Yu

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

Multiple Perspective Tasking As A Managerial Skill, Rudolph Joseph Sanchez

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

Intuition And The Decision Making Process Of Expert Critical Care Nurses, Kelley A. Hempsall

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of intuition and the decision making process of expert critical care nurses in providing health care for hospitalized patients. A descriptive correlational design was employed using a non-probability convenience sample of 172 registered nurses working in critical care areas. Data were obtained by a questionnaire developed by the researcher. Ninety five nurses (55.2%) responded. Data analysis included a comparison of the relationship of expert nurses' (n = 49) total scores and the total scores of the non-expert nurses (n = 46). No statistically significant difference was found in either the …

An Interventional Approach To Managing Psychological Stress In The American Workplace, Shirley A. White

Theses

This thesis will focus primarily on occupational stress management. The information contained therein advocates that the responsibility to relieve stress both in the workplace and in the home fall in either of two categories; one is the corporate or managerial responsibility to ameliorate occupational stress, while the other is the individual responsibility to self-manage stress. One's reaction to stress has a defining influence on whether a stressful event is either good ( eustress) or bad (distress).

The purpose of this study is to explore a task-oriented • multidisciplinary approach (a combination of perspectives) to occupational stress management which will serve …

The Tacit Dimension Of Organizational Learning, Thomas Reeder Robinson

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This research was conducted to observe the self-reflections of an organizational participant group to further understand the organizational learning phenomenon. The participant group consisted of the 15 managers, spanning three levels of management, of a large engineering group in the southeastern United States.

The intent of the research was to generate theory, rather than to test theory. To accomplish this objective, a qualitative research methodology in a participatory action framework was modeled from Keating's (1993) Organizational Learning Process (OLP) to co-construct participants' organizational reflections. The methodology included individual interviews designed to elicit spontaneity that co-generated organizational perspectives. These perspectives were …

Empowerment In The Workplace: A Qualitative Study, Dale Burt

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Sexual assault, sexual abuse, wife assault, andl sexual harassment are perpetrated, most often by male acquaintances, on an overwhelming proportion of women. many analyses of male violence propose that gender inequality and gender role socialization maintain abusive attitudes and behaviours within our culture. Adolescents comprise an important audience for violence prevention efforts. However, a review of high school programmes focused on prevention of sexual assault raises questions about the effectiveness of traditional lecture formats. Peer-based drama interventions provide an active, experiential form of learning which may be especially effective with adolescents. I used a qualitative, emergent design to investigate nine …