Industrial and Organizational Psychology Commons^™

Games For Organizational Training: Gamer Motivation Profile And Organizational Training Climate Effect Of Trainee Preference For Gamified Training, Brooke-Nicole Woods Ruffin

Masters Theses

“Gamified training is often utilized in organizations as a way to revamp their training and gain the attention of their employees. However, this training is expensive, and research is needed to help ensure that this training delivery is successful. In this study, first an individual’s gamer motivation profile is compared with learning outcomes that share the same elements. This was completed to determine if the elements that they looked for in playing video games were in alignment with those same elements in training In addition, it was explored whether the preference for participating in video games based on an individual’s …

The Effect Of Emotional Competencies On Team Functioning, Morgan R. Borders

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Collaboration, cohesion, and trust within teams can lead to beneficial outcomes such as innovation, speed of innovation delivery, enhanced creativity, and improved performance. Because of the prevalence of teams in the workforce, it is important that teams function at their highest capacity. One way to enhance team functioning may be to improve emotional intelligence (EI) in team members. Research has shown that higher EI is related to individual benefits such as stress resilience, better communication, relationship satisfaction, and improved performance. Team benefits of higher EI include greater cohesion, cooperation, trust, and performance. This study examined whether an emotional competency training …

A Human-Systems Approach To Proactively Managing Risk Through Training In An Evolving Aviation Industry, Michael W. Sawyer, Katherine A. Berry, Jason P. Kring, Edward M. Austrian

National Training Aircraft Symposium (NTAS)

The Aviation industry is rapidly evolving through increased automation on the flight deck, new air traffic control tools and procedures, and expanded applications of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). The majority of these enhancements will rely on human operators (pilots, air traffic controllers, dispatchers, etc.) in order to be safely integrated into the National Airspace System. The staggered development cycle of these technological changes, coupled with independent development teams and relatively limited operational testing opportunities, can create significant challenges. These technological enhancements must be met with similarly rapid advancements in risk mitigation and training.

In this presentation we describe a standardized …

The Effects Of Rating Source, Rating Target, And Job Position On Ratings Of Perceived Training Needs, Phillip Joseph Dillulio

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Organizational investments in employee training and development have steadily increased over the past decade, with a recent estimate of $160 billion dollars annually. An important component of any training program is the subsequent training needs assessment (TNA), which provides critical information regarding who and what needs trained. Unfortunately, TNA research is severely limited compared to other aspects of the training process. The primary aim of the current study was to examine two important variables that can potentially influence TNA ratings beyond an actual need for training, the source and target of TNA ratings. Based on the assumptions of attribution theory, …

Job Analysis Report For Actors Including Selection Procedures And Training Recommendations, Catherine M. Pagliaro

Psychology Graduate Publications

This Job Analysis Report for Actors summarizes the results and recommendations (i.e., selection requirements and training opportunities) for summer positions in a local community theater acting company. The actors selected for this company will perform in a minimum of three shows from June through August. Each actor will work for different directors depending on which shows they are cast in. Successful candidates will be required to collaborate with and take direction from a variety of artistic directors, work with diverse professionals and cooperate with multiple technical crews. The successful candidates will also demonstrate previous acting experience through formal degree programs …

Effects Of Pedagogical Agent Design On Training Evaluation Measures: A Meta-Analysis, Timothy J. Quesnell

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Pedagogical agents are, "conversational virtual characters employed in electronic learning environments to serve various instructional functions" (Veletsianos & Miller, 2008). They can take a variety of forms, and have been designed to serve various instructional roles, such as mentors, experts, motivators, and others. Given the increased availability and sophistication of technology in recent decades, these agents have become increasingly common as facilitators to training in educational settings, private institutions, and the military. Software to aid in the creation of pedagogical agents is widely available. Additionally, software use and agent creation often requires little formal training, affording nearly anyone the opportunity …

Individual And Contextual Factors And The Efficacy Of An Experiential Sexism Intervention, Samantha M. Smith

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of a sexism-focused diversity training program. More specifically, this study examined the direct and indirect relationships between individual characteristics (i.e., gender, self-efficacy, and reactance), contextual factors (i.e., organizational diversity climate) and diversity training outcomes and training transfer. To test hypotheses, graduate and undergraduate students participated in a two-stage study (baseline and intervention stages), with the intervention consisting of a 90-minute sexism-focused diversity training workshop. Data from one hundred and forty participants were retained for regression analyses. Results suggest the workshop was generally effective at reducing endorsement of sexist attitudes, improving …

The Hogan Development Survey: Personality In Selecting And Training Aviation Pilots, Jenna Mcchesney

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Data from approximately 24 students enrolled in the aviation programs at two medium sized Midwestern universities were analyzed as part of this study. Students were asked to take a personality test, the Hogan Development Survey, and share their cumulative GPA. Using multiple regression to analyze the information, we investigated if the Hogan Development Survey can be used to predict student’s performance in collegiate aviation programs (student GPA). A better understanding of how to train and select pilots has the potential to reduce the costs and time spent educating students who are likely to drop out or perform poorly in aviation …

Personality And Longevity In The Profession Of Athletic Training, Tyler Harris

All NMU Master's Theses

A survey was sent to 10,000 certified athletic trainers in various settings to examine personality characteristics and their relationship with satisfaction, intent to leave, and years practiced in the profession. The Employee Personality Inventory, included in the survey, separated respondents into five personality categories: communicators, directors, organizers, soothers and thinkers. Of the 1102 analyzed respondents, 216 were communicators, 51 were directors, 427 were organizers, 331 were soothers, and 77 were thinkers. The distribution of athletic training setting were as follows: academic instruction, 67; administration, 16; clinical medical, 53; clinical rehabilitation, 52; collegiate athletics, 331; high school athletics, 378; other, 65; …

Spiritual Formation As A Method Of Leadership Training: A Case Study At Pepperdine University, Steven Zhou

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Dallas Willard, Professor of Philosophy and Christian spiritual formation at USC, was known to define spiritual formation not as the summation of one’s good works and talents, but rather as a continual pursuit in modeling the character of Jesus Christ. This understanding of spiritual formation was applied to a group of first year students at Pepperdine University who were selected as students with high potential of becoming future leaders at Pepperdine. Most training programs on campus, such as Resident Life Formation and Volunteer Center training, currently focus on teaching students lessons of what to do in their job. In Spring …

Transformational Leadership In The World Of Sales, Dalton R. Barnes

CMC Senior Theses

It takes a very specific type of person to be successful in sales; this makes recruiting and retaining effective employees a difficult task for companies in this field. Because finding and training these people is such a challenging task, it is in the best interest of companies to invest in training and developing their employees to be successful and avoid burning out. Bass and Riggio (2006) would note that in a field with such a high burnout rate, a transformational sales leader is important because they are generally able to build stronger follower loyalty, commitment, and satisfaction than their non-transformational …

Identification And Examination Of Key Components Of Active Learning, Darrell Scott Kelly

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine key components of active learning. I hypothesized that feedback, accountability, and guided exploration were key components of active learning. I collected survey data from second year medical students (N = 103) in three different active learning interventions: peer instruction (PI), team-based learning (TBL), and problem-based learning (PBL), at six time points. My results did not consistently support my hypotheses. However, I observed a pattern of differences concerning feedback and accountability in the predicted direction in all three interventions. Feedback had a positive effect on professionalism in both PI and PBL, and accountability …

An Evaluation Of Game Fiction-Enhanced Training: Using Narrative To Improve Trainee Reactions And Learning, Michael Beaumont Armstrong

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Gamification is growing in popularity in instructional contexts like education and workplace training, but it is unclear which game elements are specifically conducive to improve learning outcomes. Narratives, which represent one way the game element “game fiction” is commonly implemented, have been used to improve learning outcomes over expository texts in the context of psycholinguistics, whereas the Technology-Enhanced Training Effectiveness Model (TETEM) proposes that certain individual differences impact the relationships between technology-enhanced training and learning outcomes. From this theoretical basis, this study gamified a training session with game fiction in order to improve reactions to training and learning over the …

Using Critical Incidents: The Development Of A Behaviorally Based Training Program For Supervisor Citizenship Behavior And Feedback Skills, Jody J. Lecheler

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

It has been argued (Greer, 2013) that supervisors are a critical component in organizational effectiveness. Supervisors are required to hold many roles within the organization (Evans, 1965). Specifically, employees often see supervisors as representatives of the organization, while the organization depends on supervisors to maintain production (Greer, 2013). Many supervisors also fill a variety of other organizational roles such as mentor, trainer, motivator, disciplinarian, evaluator, and leader (Evans, 1965). For these reasons, effective supervisors are crucial to organizational success. The present study developed a behaviorally based training program for supervisors for a poultry processing organization. The training program content included …

The Effect Of Online Training On Teams, Ariel Becker

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Many organizations recognize the importance of utilizing teams to accomplish work (Chuboda et al., 2005; Devine et al., 1999; Ilgen, 1999; Martins et al., 2004). As technology has advanced, many of these organizations have recently become more reliant on virtual project work, which allows work teams to communicate across geographical distances (Driskell et al., 2003). Considering the growing prevalence of virtual teams in organizations, more needs to be known about how to facilitate virtual team effectiveness. In addition, the increased use of teams in organizations has identified and created the need for team training (Ilgen, 1999). Creating a training environment …

The Mediating Effect Of General Organizational Means-Efficacy In The Relationships Between Organizational Context And Employee Attitudes, Kevin Cobb

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The current study examines the mediating role of General Organizational Means‑efficacy (GOME) in the relationships between organizational context and employee attitudes. The organizational context consists of leadership support, centralization, and emphasis on training and development; and employee attitudes consist of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and career outcomes. The purpose of this study is to reveal what contextual factors in an organization may affect employees’ perceptions of resources available and in turn affects employee attitudes. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze these relationships, and it was found that leadership support and an emphasis on training and development were positively related …

Video Game Self-Efficacy And Its Effect On Training Performance, Skilan Ortiz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the effects of using serious games for training on task performance and declarative knowledge outcomes. The purpose was to determine if serious games are more effective training tools than traditional methods. Self-efficacy, expectations for training, and engagement were considered as moderators of the relationship between type of training and task performance as well as type of training and declarative knowledge. Results of the study offered support for the potential of serious games to be more effective than traditional methods of training when it comes to task performance.

Effects Of Practice With Imposed Communication Delay On The Coordination And Effectiveness Of Distributed Teams, Megan L. Dove-Steinkamp

Master's Theses

The current study tested whether introduction of audio transmission delays during skill acquisition would benefit the performance effectiveness of distributed teams in a novel transfer context. Two-person university student teams (N=40) performed a simulated firefighting task in 4 practice trials and a novel transfer condition. Intra-team communications were systematically perturbed with closed-loop transmission delays ranging from 2 to 6 seconds. On average, teams were able to improve performance over time despite transmission delay, with significant differences in performance observed between certain groups both over the course and at the end of the experiment: Short (2s blocked) practice delay was associated …

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 …

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 …

Supervisors’ Perspectives: Variables Influencing The Quality Of Supervision, Terra L. Rose

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

A number of studies have sought to examine clinical supervision from the perspective of the supervisee; however, fewer studies have investigated the practice of supervision from the supervisor’s perspective. Using a survey approach, supervisors at all levels of expertise reported their experiences surrounding the applied and administrative aspects of supervision. Data examined training in supervision, typical supervision activities with supervisees, the value placed on supervision at work settings, and how administrative influences impact supervisory practice. Results indicated that supervisory practices were not consistent with empirically identified “best practices” of clinical supervision, with supervisors reporting not being provided the time, resources, …

Error Management Training: Further Tests Of Mediation And Moderation, Zachary T. Kalinoski

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This study investigated an alternative training approach that would improve transfer performance scores above traditional training approaches. Specifically, error-management training was proposed to help trainees learn complex tasks, as opposed to error-avoidant training approaches, which sought to give trainees step-by-step protocols for learning that would minimize the occurrence of errors during training. This study was designed to examine the effects of training type on transfer performance and transfer errors, as well as the effects of meta-cognition, emotion control and cognitive appraisals as mediators of the training type-performance relationship. A third issue of this study investigated the personality-training type interactions from …

Effects Of Big 5 Personality Traits On Outcomes For Error Encouragement And Error Avoidant Training, Keith Alan Leas

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the type of training used (error avoidant or error encouragement) as a moderator of the relationship between personality variables and training outcomes. Specifically, we hypothesized that we would observe stronger effects of personality (i.e., conscientiousness and openness) on performance (Hypothesis 1) and affectivity (Hypothesis 2) for individuals in the error encouragement condition than for individuals in the error avoidant condition. Further, we hypothesized that we would see stronger moderating effects for training type for the above personality variables than for extraversion or agreeableness (Hypothesis 3). We recruited 257 participants …

The Effects Of Training And Feedback Format On Reactions To In-Basket Feedback And On In-Basket Performance, Michael G. Fedorko

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of training and feedback format on reactions to in-basket feedback and on in-basket performance. Performance was evaluated with a 2 (Training) x 3 (Feedback) x 2 (In-Basket) x 5 (Dimension) repeated measures factorial design. Reactions were evaluated with a 2 (Training) x 3 (Feedback) x 2 (Questionnaire) repeated measures factorial design. The Training factor was comprised of frame-of-reference training (designed to prepare the recipient to receive the feedback) and a control condition (a lecture on Mintzberg's managerial role classification system). The Feedback factor was comprised of written feedback, oral feedback, …

The Development Of A Paper-And-Pencil Measure Of Complex Cognitive-Perceptual Aptitude, Don Michael Mcanulty

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The primary purpose of the present research was a develop a complex aptitude test to assess individual differences in multiple cognitive and perceptual abilities that are required for helicopter pilot training. The paper-and-pencil test was designed to provide measures of both static and dynamic (i.e., learning) ability under different levels of complexity. The secondary research purpose was to develop a battery of eight psychometric tests to assess other abilities that are required for helicopter pilot training. Test prototypes were produced and administered to small samples of subjects. The tests were then revised into an experimental battery that required approximately 7 …

Improving The Accuracy Of Performance Evaluations: A Comparison Of Three Methods Of Performance Appraiser Training, Jerry Willard Hedge

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Researchers in the area of rater training have relied almost exclusively on rater error measures to assess training effectiveness. A reduction in rater tendency to commit these errors subsequent to training is viewed as evidence that these raters have become more accurate in rating their employees. This assumed relationship between rater errors and rating accuracy has recently been questioned. This uncertain relationship between psychometric errors and accuracy was the focus of the current research effort. Supervisory personnel were trained under one of three training programs (psychometric error training, observation training, or decision-making training). Halo, leniency, range restriction and accuracy measures …