Industrial and Organizational Psychology Commons^™

Word Counts In Response To Cognitively Demanding Essay Prompts As Reflections Of General Cognitive Ability And Broad Cognitive Abilities, Michael Beaumont Armstrong

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Natural language processing techniques can be used to analyze text and speech data. These techniques have been applied within many domains to date but have only recently been examined in the domain of personnel assessment. By linking workplace-relevant constructs such as general cognitive ability (GCA) to natural language processing outcomes such as word counts, a foundation for language-based psychological assessment of those abilities can be laid. Over 400 participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk to write cognitively demanding essays and complete a battery of cognitive tests. Essays were analyzed using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC). Structural equation modeling …

Distinguishing Adaptation And Adjustment: Effects On Communication And Safety Performance In Dynamic Work Environments, Kayla Lynne Hoelzel

Theses and Dissertations

People are different in their capacities in adapting and adjusting to dynamic workplaces. Previous literature lacks the distinction between the two constructs, which results in a lack of understanding in how adaptation and adjustment influence other organizational variables such as performance. In the current study, I first summarize the current literature on these two constructs from a few different fields in psychology, discuss the theoretical distinctions of these two constructs, and propose that they should be defined as separate constructs. Then, I establish construct validities for both concepts by developing nomological networks for both adaptation and adjustment based on the …

Detecting Deceptive Impression Management Behaviors In Interviews Using Natural Language Processing, Elena Margaret Lawrence Auer

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Deceptive impression management (IM) is often used by applicants in employment interviews to improve their chances of receiving a job offer. Self-report measures of deceptive IM are typically used to evaluate interview faking in a lab setting but are limited when used in practice due to social desirability concerns. Given this limitation, natural language processing (NLP) has potential as a tool to unobtrusively assess raw interview content and measure deceptive IM. This study examined the use of open and closed-vocabulary NLP approaches for the detection of deceptive IM in mock employment interviews. In general, neither of these approaches successfully predicted …

Illegitimate Tasks And Employee Silence: A Moderated Mediation Model, Timothy A. Davis

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the relationship between illegitimate tasks and employee silence and examined the mediating role of job engagement and the moderating effect of agreeableness and conscientiousness. Grounded in justice theory, stress research, and the engagement literature, this study found illegitimate tasks to positively predict employee silence and negatively predict job engagement. Significant results were not found for the moderation and mediation analysis of personality traits and job engagement, respectively.

Job Search: From Setting The Goal To Obtaining The Job, Nicholas Aaron Moon

Theses and Dissertations

Job searching is a nearly universal experience with important consequences. Although research on the job search process is extensive, few studies have examined the goals that individuals have during their job search (i.e., employment and job search goals) and the factors that influence these goals over time. However, these goal-related processes are likely to be key in this area given that job searching fundamentally involves goal pursuit and how these processes unfold may have important implications for job seekers. This research begins to fill this gap by examining self-efficacy as an antecedent of job search and employment goals; perceived progress …

Identifying As Lesbian, Gay, Or Bisexual At Work: Implications Of Disclosure Within Work Teams, Jesse R. Caylor

Theses and Dissertations

As is the case for members of any stigmatized minority group, lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals face heightened adversity within the workplace (Herek, 2009). However, unlike employees with stigmatized identities that are readily apparent (e.g., race, gender), employees who identify as LGB are afforded a unique opportunity to avoid the adversity associated with their stigma altogether by choosing not to identify themselves (e.g., maintain the appearance of being heterosexual). However, despite the potential negative consequences, many LGB employees choose to disclose their sexual orientation to their coworkers and supervisors. Research on the impact of disclosure behaviors on subsequent job …

Giving To Get Ahead: How To Be Generous Without Being A Doormat, Kiyomi D. Deards, Leo S. Lo

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Presentations

Being a giver will help you succeed. This interactive presentation will focus on the practical application of Adam Grant’s theories about give and take. We will identify the different types of Givers, Matchers and Takers. Grant argues that the most effective organizations and teams have a culture of giving. Interestingly, the best and worst performing people in any organization are both Givers. Why does giving propel some people to the top and drag others down? Don’t be a victim of your own success! Giving strategically can increase your impact and prevent burnout. We will define effective giving and demonstrate how …

Toward Pay Equity: A Motivational Intervention To Reduce Gender Differences In Salary Negotiations, Mary Margaret Keegin

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

A persistent wage gap exists between women and men in the United States (Catalyst, 2015; Hegewisch, Ellis, & Hartmann, 2015). Although the reasons behind the wage gap are extremely complex, one of the methods through which pay equity may be reached could involve altering the way people approach their goals at the bargaining table, especially since women tend to underperform relative to men in salary negotiations (Mazei, Hüffmeier, Freund, Stuhlmacher, Bilke, & Hertel, 2015). Salary negotiations represent a critical piece of the pay equity puzzle, particularly when individuals are starting their careers. If equally qualified men and women begin their …

Big Data Techniques And Talent Management: Recommendations For Organizations And A Research Agenda For I-O Psychologists, Michael C. Campion, Michael A. Campion, Emily D. Campion

Management Faculty Publications

Big data and its applicability to talent management (TM) as defined by Rotolo et al. (2018) has already been recognized by many outside the field of I-O psychology. The market is beginning to include offerings from vendors for products that use some combination of big data techniques to process vast amounts of data or previously unanalyzable data, which they claim will improve components of TM for organizations. Unfortunately, as noted in the focal article, this “frontier” issue makes it difficult for organizations to separate the wheat from the chaff. Further, with few exceptions, I-O psychology is just beginning …

Development And Evaluation Of The Havuc (Hostility, Ambiguity, Volatility, Uncertainty, & Complexity) Environment Fitness Scale (Hefs), Phillip Thomas

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the psychometric properties of a newly developed scale to measure individuals’ attitudes toward hostile, ambiguous, volatile, uncertain, and complex (HAVUC) environments—the HAVUC Environment Fitness Scale (HEFS). The 30-item summated scale consists of five 6-item subscales representing each element of HAVUC, utilizing a 7-point Likert scale ranging from one (1-strongly disagree) to seven (7-strongly agree). This study serves a need to better understand antecedents of individuals’ intentions and behavior (e.g., attitudes toward the environment) when operating in turbulent environments, aside from individual traits and the general notion of personenvironment (PE) fit. The study follows Spector’s (1992) recommendations for …

The Effects Of A Blind Selection Process On Gender Discrimination In Applicant Selection, Stephanie Ann Ingalls

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to examine the effect of a blind selection process on gender discrimination. Due to persistent gender discrimination in selection processes, the intention of the current study was to investigate a blind selection process as a means to decrease gender discrimination against women. A total of 391 individuals were recruited through SONA and convenience sampling to participate in the current study. Materials included a selection scenario, three applicant résumés with applicant names and three with applicant ID numbers, a rank order form, and measures for procedural justice and fairness, modern sexism inventory, and the …

The Role Of Mentoring And Ethnicity On Career Advancement And Leadership Aspirations: Looking At Hispanic Women, Arlette Osorno

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Hispanic women in leadership are vastly understudied and little is known as to what factors influence their leadership aspirations and ultimately their career advancement. Mentoring has been found to have a positive influence on women’s perceptions of career advancement and the gender of the mentor plays a role (Tharenou, 2005). The purpose of this study was to examine how career-related mentoring influences the protegee’s career advancement and how the gender of the mentor may change that relationship. Furthermore, the relationship between psychosocial (emotional) support and the protegee’s leadership aspirations were examined, as well as the role of the mentor’s gender …

A New Approach To Explain Applicant Faking Behaviors: A Model Based On Trait Contract Classification Theory, Yadi Yang

Theses and Dissertations

Applicant faking behavior (AFB) on personality measures is a problematic phenomenon in selection context. It is important to address applicant faking behaviors because it will result in hiring unqualified people and lead to fairness issues. Researchers have developed many theoretical frameworks to understand applicant faking behaviors, and it is commonly accepted that applicant faking behaviors is an interaction effect of the both situational factors and individual factors. In this study, we examined applicant faking behaviors based on one of the interactional framework, the Trait Contract Classification (TCC) theory (Griffith, Lee, Peterson & Zickar, 2011) which took one step further to …

Negative Mind Wandering As A Symptom Of Incivility: What It Means For Important Workplace Outcomes, Anthony Belluccia

Theses and Dissertations

The effects of experienced incivility have been explained by a variety of cognitive and emotional mechanisms, but mind wandering may also be responsible for many processes and behaviors associated with incivility due to its ability to make room for resources (ego depletion theory) and remedy attentional conflicts generated by incivility (attentional-conflict theory). This study proposed that three negative dimensions of mind wandering (distressed, ruminating and irrelevant) would mediate the relationship between experienced incivility and various workplace outcomes, including instigated incivility, task performance, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and creative problem solving. As part of the study, we also developed and validated …

Personality, Perceived Benefits, And Willingness To Mentor In Formal Programs, Kristen Voetmann, Dana Kendall, Scott Campanario, Vatia Caldwell, Mathea Krogstad

School of Psychology, Family, and Community Research Conference

We examined the relationship between perceived benefits and willingness to mentor in a formal program with personality as a moderator. Findings indicated that the relationship was more strongly positive for individuals who demonstrated high levels of conscientiousness and openness than for those with low levels.

We Are Amta: Evidence-Based Strategies For Volunteer Leadership, Sara Cannon

School of Psychology, Family, and Community Research Conference

The purpose of this study is to provide information and insight about volunteer leadership experiences in the American Music Therapy Association through qualitative data gathered from 35 music therapist volunteer leaders nationwide. Appreciative inquiry, an approach that focuses on what is working well within a system, was utilized to discover (a) what experiences have been meaningful and impactful for music therapist volunteer leaders, (b) how these practices can be enhanced and applied to increase the pipeline of volunteer leaders, and (c) increase positive outcomes for the organization, the field of music therapy, and music therapists seeking leadership skills and experiences.

Beyond The Bench And The Bedside: Examining Women’S Success In Stem Via Active Learning Projects, Sarah E. Thoman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Gender inequality is a persistent challenge in fields related to science, engineering, technology, and math (STEM) in the U.S. The current study aims to advance the literature in a burgeoning area of inquiry by identifying factors that may help to account for women’s success in STEM. To evaluate STEM success, I used a mixed methods design to investigate STEM identity, career identity status, career commitment, and both individual and situational resilience among women undergraduates. Students were engaged in two project-based STEM programs organized at a large, diverse, research intensive university in the Southwest U.S. Associations between resilience and career commitment, …

A Computational Model Of Team-Based Dynamics In The Workplace: Assessing The Impact Of Incentive-Based Motivation On Productivity, Josef Di Pietrantonio

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Large organizations often divide workers into small teams for the completion of essential tasks. In an effort to maximize the number of tasks completed over time, it is common practice for organizations to hire workers with the highest level of education and experience. However, despite capable workers being hired, the ability of teams to complete tasks may suffer if the workers' individual motivational needs are not satisfied.

To explore the impact of incentive-based motivation on the success of team-based organizations, we developed an agent-based model that stochastically simulates the proficiency of 100 workers with varying abilities and motive profiles to …

Sustaining A Career In Community And Technical College Leadership By Coping With Job Stress Through Emotional Intelligence, Claire Korschinowski

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe and explore the use of emotional intelligence for coping with organizational role stress as perceived by senior-level leaders serving as college presidents, vice presidents and deans in the Washington State community and technical college system. A second purpose of this study was to describe the differences in perceptions amongst senior-level leader’s use of emotional intelligence as a stress coping strategy.

Methodology: For this qualitative phenomenological study, data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews from 15 senior-level leaders. Participants identified a variety of ways emotional intelligence factors into coping with organizational …

Surprisingly Open Or Openly Surprised? That Is The Question; Using Surprise Experiences To Increase Openness To Experience And Tolerance Of Ambiguity, Anneke Veenendaal-De Kort

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Using Surprise Experiences to Increase Openness to Experience and Tolerance of Ambiguity

In the fast-changing world in which we are currently living, we constantly come across situations and problems that we have not encountered before. An open mind and the ability to tolerate ambiguity are important skills in uncertain times. People who embrace the unpredictable can develop their resilience and flexibility. Surprisologists Luna and Renninger (2015) have discovered that a great way of dipping into unpredictability is through surprise. For my Master’s Project, I designed experiences that transform people’s openness and tolerance for ambiguity through surprise. This paper begins with …

Effects Of Goal Training On Goal Structures, Charlotte S. Redhead

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

In this study, a goal training intervention was developed and evaluated. The main purpose of this investigation was to provide evidence that training, constructed according to implications drawn from goal theory, can affect student goal setting and achievement. Unique to this investigation was that training targeted both short- and long-term goal setting processes linked to career goal pursuits. Findings indicated that goal training resulted in students’ productions of career goal hierarchies consistent with theoretical prescriptions of quality goal structures. This study has implications for those in positions to develop and mentor individuals’ pursuit of long-term meaningful goals across settings.

Expressing Pride: The Effects Skin Tone Has On Perceptions Of Agency, Communality, And Interpersonal Hostility For Black Women, Jessica Aikens

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This study is a replication and extension of Brosi, Welpe, Sporrle, and Heilman’s (2016) study that investigates the effects skin tone and emotional expression has on ratings of agency, communality, and interpersonal hostility. A picture of an African American female target was manipulated to depict three skin tones (light, brown, and dark) and expressed either pride or happiness. Data were collected from 399 participants via Amazon Mechanical Turk. Although explicit and implicit measures were used, the implicit measures were unreliable therefore, only the explicit measures were analyzed. Results revealed the brown target rated as more agentic and interpersonally hostile when …

The Development And Validation Of Implicit Measures Of Emotional Intelligence, Ricardo R. Brooks

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Emotional intelligence (EI) has attracted much attention in the decades since Goleman’s (1995) claim that EI is important for success in a wide range of social and professional roles. With this interest has come much debate about whether EI should be defined and measured as a set of abilities or as a set of dispositional self-perceptions. The latter is typically assessed with self-report measures that are susceptible to contamination related to inaccurate self-knowledge and impression management artifacts – problems that may be mitigated by implicit measures. This research used Implicit Association Test (IAT) procedures to develop implicit measures of EI …

The Operationalization Of Task Goal Difficulty: An Exploration Of Qualitative And Quantitative Methods, Sidonia Christine Grozav

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This study contributed to an understanding of the goal setting process by investigating a variety of ways to evaluate the difficulty of short-term goals, including requested quantitative goals, different methods to rate the difficulty of self-defined goals, and the difficulty perceptions of the goal-setters themselves. To examine the validity of different goal-difficulty assessment strategies, I collected short-term academic goals from 116 freshman college students at the beginning of their first semester in college. I also collected antecedents of goal difficulty, such as prior performance and self-efficacy, and collected academic achievement at the conclusion of that semester. The validity of eight …

A Noble Task: Testing An Operational Model Of Clergy Occupational Health, Drake Terry

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

In many ways, clergy and religious leaders are an ignored yet high-risk population. A clergy member unable to cope with challenges in his or her own life may be ineffective at helping church members to cope with their stress. The purpose of the present study was to develop and test an operational model of clergy holistic health, including occupational demands, and personal and job-related resources. Data were collected from clergy (N = 418) and analyzed using correlational and regression based techniques. Results from the present study provided support for the demands-control-support model (Johnson & Hall, 1988). Specifically, clergy mental health …

The Complex Effects Of Equity Sensitivity On Job Commitment And Satisfaction: A Pilot Study, West Phifer

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

According to equity theory (Adams, 1963, 1965), employees determine whether they are being treated fairly by comparing what they give to and receive from their organization to that of other employees. However, individual perceptions of equity differ in the workplace, a phenomenon Huseman, Hatfield and Miles, (1987) labeled equity sensitivity, which ranges from benevolents, those who accept low levels of equity, to entitleds, who desire more favorable outcomes for themselves. Davison and Bing (2008) split the Huseman et al. continuum into its two components, benevolence and entitlement, and those are the focus of the present study. These dimensions were tested …

Quantifying And Qualifying The Links That Bind, Jared Dirghalli

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Employees’ links to organizations and coworkers represent an important factor related to many work-related constructs in the Industrial-Organizational (I-O) Psychology literature. Often, I-O researchers conceptualize these employee links through either the number of workplace links or an employee’s perceived social support. However, these conceptualizations are potentially limited. Research into Social Network Analysis has investigated different quality dimensions in links (e.g., link strength and valence) which can significantly influence outcomes in social, workplace, and general well-being contexts. Thus, the present thesis project was undertaken to explore whether incorporating these quality dimensions of link strength and link valence adds any incremental utility …

Response Distortion On Personality Tests In Applicants: Comparing High-Stakes To Low-Stakes Medical Settings, Jeromy Anglim, Stefan Bozic, Jonathon Little, Filip Lievens

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The current study examined the degree to which applicants applying for medical internships distort their responses to personality tests and assessed whether this response distortion led to reduced predictive validity. The applicant sample (n = 530) completed the NEO Personality Inventory whilst applying for one of 60 positions as first-year post-graduate medical interns. Predictive validity was assessed using university grades, averaged over the entire medical degree. Applicant responses for the Big Five (i.e., neuroticism, extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness) and 30 facets of personality were compared to a range of normative samples where personality was measured in standard research settings …

The Impact Of Music On Task Performance At Work, Courtney Wilson

Accounting Undergraduate Honors Theses

Music plays a big role in the daily life of an average person. Humans are almost constantly exposed to music in some form whether it is through commercials, movies, telephone music, or a variety of other sources. The centrality of music to life can be observed across cultures because music appeals to people’s “emotions and contributes to [an individual’s] ability to learn and remember information” (Brown and Brown, 1997, p. 349).

Music’s centrality to everyday life has inspired researchers to study the influence and impact that music has on individuals. Research that has been conducted over the past century has …

Effects Of Group-Discussion Integrative Complexity On Intergroup Relations In A Social Dilemma, Guihyun Park, Richard P. Deshon

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Organizations increasingly rely on team-based work systems-yet intergroup behavior is predisposed toward competition, which can render conflict management in organizations especially difficult. Based on the integrative complexity model of group decision-making and the literature on intergroup social dilemmas, we argue that a lack of quality group discussion (i.e., low integrative complexity) can heighten group members' sense of greed toward and fear of other groups-and, by doing so, increase the likelihood that a group will decide to compete. Accordingly, we propose and evaluate two interventions that target group-discussion dynamics to promote the integrative complexity of group discussion and intergroup cooperation: structured …