Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2020, Psychology-Industrial/Organizational

Researchers and practitioners have a shared interest in better understanding the ways in which job demands ultimately contribute to employee burnout and intentions to turnover. A significant portion of extant research examining these relationships have looked at possible environmental and individual factors that act as buffers, weakening the relationship between demands at work and subsequent negative outcomes. Many of these studies have focused on the personal and contextual variables that minimize the negative impact of job demands on employee psychological need satisfaction specifically. While the feedback environment provided by supervisors has been extensively tied to positive organizational and individual outcomes, to date the supervisor feedback environment has not been examined as a possible buffer between job demands and subsequent negative organizational and individual outcomes. Importantly, the majority of extant feedback environment literature has looked at the ways in which the feedback environment directly reduces or prevents job demands rather than how the feedback environment may be altering existing relationships between job demands and psychological need satisfaction, burnout, or turnover intentions. The current study seeks to explore, for the first time, the ways in which the feedback environment and an individual's receptivity to it may change the negative relationship between job demands and these outcomes. Respondents to an online survey from across industries and job types were used to investigate hypotheses in the present study at multiple time points. Ultimately, results suggest that while the supervisor feedback environment is not lessening or negating the impact of job demands on psychological need satisfaction (and subsequently burnout and turnover intentions), supervisors can still impact employee well-being through the maintenance of a high-quality feedback environment, as employees with strong supervisor feedback environments ar (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Joelle Elicker (Advisor); Paul Levy (Committee Member); James Diefendorff (Committee Member); Andee Snell (Committee Member); Erin Makarius (Committee Member) Subjects: Organizational Behavior; Psychology

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2012, Industrial/Organizational Psychology (Arts and Sciences)

Turnover is a costly problem for organizations, with severe consequences for individuals (Hom & Griffeth, 1995). Because turnover intentions are the best predictor of turnover (Griffeth, Hom, & Gaertner, 2000), our ability to explain and predict individual voluntary turnover decisions depends upon our understanding of the intentions-turnover relationship. Allen, Weeks, and Moffitt (2005) suggested that dispositional affectivity moderates this relationship. Using a sample of 443 U.S. insurance company employees and hierarchical moderator logistic regression, I found that dispositional affectivity (i.e., positive affectivity [PA] and negative affectivity [NA]) jointly moderated the turnover intentions-turnover relationship. As hypothesized, the positive relationship was strong when employees are high in PA and low in NA, signifying the presence of an approach system and the dormancy of an inhibition system (Watson, Wiese, Vaidya, & Tellegen, 1999), and weak for the other combinations. This study contributes to the turnover field by helping to explain the moderate strength and wide variance of the intentions-turnover relationship, and by suggesting a role for dispositional affectivity. Inclusion of the three-way interaction improved the substantive significance of a model with established turnover variables. This extends the traditional role of dispositional affectivity beyond a direct effects predictor, encouraging the field to pay greater attention to personality.

Committee: Rodger Griffeth PhD (Advisor) Subjects: Organizational Behavior; Personality; Psychology

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Psychology/Industrial-Organizational

This study critically assesses and extends Seckin's (2018) research on work boredom in public organizations. While Seckin (2018) identified a partial mediation of turnover intentions between work boredom and life satisfaction, with organizational support moderating the relationship, this study only partially replicated those findings. A full mediation of turnover intentions between work boredom and life satisfaction and a non-significant moderation effect by organizational support was revealed. Plausible explanations include perceiving work boredom as a hinderance stressor, cultural and political distinctions between regions influencing responses, and linguistic variations affecting boredom appraisal. Despite the absence of significant moderation, the study introduces valuable insights, demonstrating an improved model fit by substituting variables and advocating for job satisfaction and boredom proneness as superior measures, enriching our understanding of the complexities in work-related psychological phenomena.

Committee: Clare Barratt Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Scott Highhouse Ph.D. (Committee Member); Anne Gordon Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Doctor of Business Administration, Cleveland State University, 2023, Monte Ahuja College of Business

Considered typical in the workplace, Organizational Politics (OP) is a well-known workplace stressor that causes harmful consequences. Researchers pay attention to how individuals respond to OP based on their perception of organizational politics (POPS). Drawing on the Transactional Theory of Stress and Coping, POPS triggers a primary appraisal that a work context is threatening and puts pressure on employees to engage or disengage in politicking to meet their goals resulting in emotional strain. However, OP are not always perceived as a threat. Some individuals can perceive them as an opportunity. This dissertation investigates cultural orientation as the lens that affects how individuals perceive POPS and, in turn, how cultural orientation affects variations in the amount of emotional felt strain. Specifically, this research focuses on Vertical and Horizontal Individualism and Collectivism as dimensions of cultural orientation. As our workplace increases in global diversity, these differences become even more relevant (Mackay, 2004). Drawing on Conservation of Resource Theory (COR), emotional strain caused by POPS often requires additional coping efforts which are taken away from resources that could otherwise be devoted to job performance. Perceiving high social support availability encourages confident self-mastery of problems and enhances their ability to cope with situational stress. However, in the political environment, support at work may be limited or competitive in nature. This research investigates how social support from outside the employee's work domain (e.g., friends, families, or significant others) can buffer the negative effect of job strain on employee attitudes (job satisfaction and turnover intention). Data were collected from a Vietnamese education company. There were significant relationships between POPS, Job Strain, Job Satisfaction, and Turnover Intentions. Culture and Social Support were not significant moderators; however, thi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Vickie Gallagher (Committee Chair); Liam Maher (Committee Member); Sorin Valcea (Committee Member); Ping Deng (Committee Member) Subjects: Management

Master of Arts (M.A.), Xavier University, 2020, Psychology

This study examined the relationship between other-oriented perfectionism, when applied to organizations, and self-reported likelihood of engagement in prosocial behaviors, counterproductive work behaviors, and turnover intentions within an organization. It was proposed that there would be a negative relationship between other-oriented perfectionism and likelihood of prosocial behaviors, and a positive relationship between turnover intentions and likelihood of counterproductive work behaviors. A sample of 95 MTurk workers participated in this study. First, participants were given a vignette describing an organization that experienced a loss of reputation. Then the participants were given measures of prosocial behaviors, counterproductive work behaviors, and turnover intentions, and the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale. Contrary to the hypotheses, results indicated no significant correlation between other-oriented perfectionism and counterproductive work behaviors or turnover intentions. There was a significant positive relationship between other-oriented perfectionism and prosocial behaviors, which was also contrary to hypotheses. Future research should attempt to replicate these findings and focus on more positive aspects of perfectionism.

Committee: Morrie Mullins Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Mark Nagy Ph.D. (Committee Member); Dalia Diab Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Occupational Psychology; Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2020, Psychology-Industrial/Organizational

Organizational dehumanization refers to worker perceptions of being treated as less than human by the organization that employs them. Current events suggest that this phenomenon is pervasive in modern organizations. Several accounts of workers feeling treated like robots, tools, or numbers on a spreadsheet have been featured in recent news reports in the popular media. Despite the apparent prevalence of organizational dehumanization in workplaces today, there is a paucity of scientific research on the phenomenon. In particular, potential antecedents of this distinctive adverse experience have not been investigated extensively by empirical research to date. To address this gap in the academic literature, the present research examined two nascent constructs, human resource attributions and supervisor bottom-line mentality, as antecedents to organizational dehumanization. In addition, the present research also examined established and novel consequences as well as individual and organizational demographic correlates of organizational dehumanization. Results from an online survey of a sample of 401 employed adults recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk largely supported the theoretical framework proposed in the present research. Broadly, results of this study suggest that beliefs about the HR process and supervisor concern with meeting the bottom line impact the extent to which employees feel dehumanized by their organization and that organizational dehumanization predicts deleterious attitudinal and behavioral consequences.

Committee: Paul Levy (Advisor); James Diefendorff (Committee Member); Joelle Elicker (Committee Member); Andrea Snell (Committee Member); Erin Makarius (Committee Member) Subjects: Organizational Behavior; Psychology

Master of Arts (M.A.), Xavier University, 2019, Psychology

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether bringing one's dog to work was associated with positive social, emotional, and physical benefits to employees. This study also explored whether a dog owner's level of pet attachment moderated the strength of these associations. Participants (N = 544) were employed dog owners recruited from online dog interest groups. This study showed that those that bring their dog to work have significantly more positive benefits in the areas of the social environment at work, overall stress, turnover intentions, and job satisfaction. No support was found for beneficial outcomes in the areas of schedule satisfaction, ability to control stress, or perception of overall health. Also, no support was found for Exploratory Hypotheses predicting that pet attachment, measured by the Monash Dog Owner Relationship Scale (MDORS), moderated the relationship between bringing one's dog to work and these outcomes. However, exploratory analyses revealed that the Perceived Costs subscale of the MDORS had a significant moderating relationship between bringing one's dog to work and the outcomes of ability to control stress, overall stress, and turnover intentions. These findings suggest that allowing employees to bring their dog to work provides several positive outcomes, especially in improving the social environment at work and reducing stress levels, which has implications for reducing turnover and increasing job satisfaction. Future research should examine in more detail which facets of pet attachment are related to which outcomes for employees who bring their dog to work.

Committee: Morell Mullins Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Dalia Diab Ph.D. (Committee Member); Mark Nagy Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Animals; Behavioral Psychology; Behavioral Sciences; Management; Occupational Psychology; Organizational Behavior; Psychology

Master of Arts (M.A.), Xavier University, 2018, Psychology

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of heterosexual interracial workplace romances on co-worker perceptions of an organization and job performance of romance participants. Previous research (Barratt & Nordstrom, 2011; Brown & Allgeier, 1996; Golebiowska, 2007; Herman & Campbell, 2012) has examined attitudes toward interracial romances and perceptions of workplace romances separately. As a result, research on perceptions of and attitudes toward interracial workplace romances was missing in the literature. The hypotheses of the study predicted power dynamics and race combinations to have a significant main effect on co-worker perceptions of the organization (i.e., work environment, social climate, and overall worker morale) and mean aggregate job performance of romance participants. Participants were 244 users of Amazon's Mechanical Turk, an online crowdsourcing site that allows for quick recruitment of participants who provide relatively high-quality data. The results indicated hierarchical workplace romances have a negative effect on the work environment, social climate, and overall worker morale. Exploratory analyses revealed hierarchical workplace romances have a significant negative effect on perceived job satisfaction. The analyses also showed a significant interaction between power dynamics and race combinations on turnover intentions. Follow-up tests revealed that hierarchical workplace romances with a Black male supervisor led to higher turnover intentions compared to hierarchical workplace romances with a White male supervisor, regardless of the race of the supervisee. Future research should examine the effect of other workplace romance combinations on key workplace-related outcomes, including rating fairness of job performance.

Committee: Morrie Mullins Dr. (Committee Chair); Dalia Diab Dr. (Committee Member); Mark Nagy Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Organizational Behavior; Psychology; Social Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2018, Psychology/Industrial-Organizational

Organizations are increasingly administering upward feedback instruments to develop managerial capabilities because managers play a substantial role in affecting important employee attitudes and outcomes such as their job satisfaction, turnover, and performance (e.g., Agarwal, Datta, Blake-Beard, Bhargava, 2012; Bracken, Timmreck, & Church, 2001; Hogan & Kaiser, 2005). The objectives of this research were to (a) test the assumption that better people managers have subordinates who report more positive attitudes and outcomes, (b) examine the role of self-other agreement (SOA) on ratings of people-managing behaviors on subordinate attitudes and outcomes, given its established role in the leadership literature for affecting subordinate job satisfaction, trust, turnover intentions, and performance (e.g., Amundsen & Martinsen, 2014; Atwater, Waldman, Ostroff, Robie, & Johnson, 2005; Sosik, 2011), and (c) examine culture (individualistic vs. collectivistic) and subordinate tenure (shorter vs. longer) as two potential moderators for the relationship between SOA and subordinate outcomes. Consistent with expectations, this study found that managers who had higher average subordinate-reported scores on the upward feedback survey (measuring people managing behaviors consisting of coaching for subordinates' work and career, and demonstrating respect and care for subordinates interpersonally) had subordinates who reported higher engagement (r = .24, p < .001), intentions to stay (r = .19, p < .001), and manager-rated performance (r = .10, p < .001). The overall association of SOA with self- and subordinate-rated people managing behaviors was found only for subordinate-rated intentions to stay. Contrary to hypotheses that underraters would have subordinates with the most positive attitudes and outcomes (e.g., Amundsen & Martinsen, 2014; Van Velsor, Taylor, & Leslie, 1993), the current study found greater support for a congruency effect. Specifically, subordinates reported the hig (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Margaret Brooks Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Scott Highhouse Ph.D. (Committee Member); William O'Brien Ph.D. (Committee Member); Deborah Wooldridge Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2008, Nursing

Multigenerational Nursing Workforce Value Differences and Work Environment: Impact on RNs' Turnover Intentions Abstract by AMANY FARAG Despite ongoing nursing retention efforts, the national turnover rate continues to climb as high as 21% annually. Creating a climate that supports retention is among the many responsibilities of first line nurse manager. This task is challenged by the presence of multigenerational nursing workforce. Nurses from different age cohorts come to the work environment with different set of professional and generational (terminal and instrumental) values. Values are enduring beliefs about what constitutes desirable and acceptable behavior; values play a fundamental role in both decision making and meaning formation processes. Nursing literature suggested that nurses from different age cohorts may perceive aspects of their unit environment (e.g. nurse managers' leadership style and climate) differently. However, the current literature lacks of empirical data to support this assumption, as well as the proposed influence of values on nurses' behaviors (e.g. turnover intentions). Therefore, the main purposes for the study were to describe and compare values (professional and generational) among nurses from different age cohorts, and to examine the direct, indirect, and total effects of nurses' work environment and values on nurses' turnover intentions. Maehr and Breskamp's Personal Investment Theory (PIT) guided the study. To answer the study research questions a cross sectional descriptive correlational study was conducted in three non-magnet community hospitals. The study sample comprised of 429 conveniently selected RNs, who met the study inclusion criteria and voluntarily completed the study survey. The data collection period lasted from March 15, 2007 to June 15, 2007. To answer the study research questions descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test, and path analyses were conducted. In contrary to what was assumed, with the excepti (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Susan Tullai-McGuinness (Advisor) Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2007, Psychology-Industrial/Organizational

The current study sought to examine a neglected form of emotional labor, suppressing positive emotional displays. Drawing from the work of Gross (2002) on emotional regulation and Fredrickson (2006) on her broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, I developed a conceptual model linking suppressed positive emotional displays to lower resilience through changes in positive affect. Further, I explored role identification as an important moderator of this relationship. Because nursing is an occupation increasingly burdened with demands to suppress positive emotions, I tied resilience to several organizational and individual outcomes that have lately been problematic for nurses, including burnout, work-family interference, health, and turnover intentions. Tests of structural regression models indicated support for most hypothesized relationships. Suppressed positive emotional displays had a small, but statistically significant, negative, indirect effect on resilience through positive affect. No support was found for role identification as a moderator, although some main effects on other variables in the model were discovered through subsequent exploratory analyses. Resilience was found to have both direct effects on all three terminal outcomes (work-family interference, general health, and turnover intentions), as well as indirect effects through burnout. Implications, future research directions, and limitations to be addressed in future research are discussed.

Committee: Robert Lord (Advisor) Subjects: Psychology, Industrial