Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2021, Industrial/Organizational Psychology (Arts and Sciences)

While there is a substantial body of literature investigating personal experiences of sexism at work, less research has been dedicated to investigating witnessed sexism and how third parties respond to these occurrences at work. However, given the increased organizational reliance on third party intervention as a way to combat workplace sexism, it is important to understand how third parties appraise and react to sexism when they witness it. Further, the absence of research is even more pronounced for subtle forms of sexism, such as benevolent sexism, which contributes to an incomplete understanding of how third party responses may vary following different forms of sexism. Thus, this study explored differences between witnessed hostile sexism and witnessed benevolent sexism for three important third party responses: perceptions that the sexist event is a moral violation, moral anger, and reported intervention intentions. Results showed that hostile sexism was associated with higher mean levels of perceived moral violation and moral anger when compared to benevolent sexism. Additionally, the results supported a mediated model in which witnessed hostile sexism was associated with higher levels of perceived moral violation, which was then positively associated with moral anger, leading to greater reported intervention intentions than instances of witnessed benevolent sexism. These results contribute to the literature by highlighting how the subtlety of the sexism employees are exposed to impacts third party reactions. Current third party intervention trainings can also be improved through understanding how subtle discrimination differs from overt discrimination.

Committee: Lindsay Dhanani PhD (Advisor); Ryan Johnson PhD (Committee Member); Jeffrey Vancouver PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2015, Educational Leadership

Skillful teachers are key to developing good schools. Because of this, understanding the school as a workplace is necessary to investigate why teachers leave and what encourages them to stay. The relationship between the principal, as the boss, and the teacher, as the employee, is one under-researched component of the school workplace which is important for developing a broad understanding of teacher turnover. This cross-sectional study uses a definition of principal mistreatment behaviors from the literature in the development of an original mixed method survey and a random sample of teachers from public schools in the State of Ohio to investigate how often principal mistreatment behaviors are experienced by a random sample of teachers in K-12 public schools. Mistreatment behaviors were paired with an opposite principal support behavior using Likert-style response options and were specifically focused on the 2012-2013 school year. Open-ended questions were included which asked for more general experience with principal mistreatment behaviors, effects on the teachers health, opinions about school culture and student bullying, and the effects of principal treatment behaviors on the teachers sense of efficacy and job satisfaction. The result of the study suggests that principal mistreatment and lack of support behaviors are widely experienced by teachers in the sample; however, these behaviors occur at a low frequency. Almost half of the teacher experienced severe level principal mistreatment behaviors, as defined by past research, during the school year. Mistreatment behaviors experienced by teachers resulted in a variety of teacher's health concerns. A majority of teachers considered the principal-teacher relationship as an important factor in their sense of efficacy and job satisfaction. It is recommended that the education of future teachers and principals include a model of administration leadership which is developed by actual teacher experience. Further researc (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Thomas Poetter (Committee Chair); William Boone (Committee Member); Kathleen Knight Abowitz (Committee Member); Andrew Saultz (Committee Member) Subjects: Educational Leadership; School Administration