UMD Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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    Too Busy to Be Fair? The Effect of Managers’ Perceived Workload on Their Core Technical Performance and Justice Rule Adherence
    (2016) Sherf, Elad Netanel; Venkataramani, Vijaya; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Despite the organizational benefits of treating employees fairly, both anecdotal and empirical evidence suggest that managers do not behave fairly towards their employees in a consistent manner. As treating employees fairly takes up personal resources such as time, effort, and attention, I argue that when managers face high workloads (i.e., high amounts of work and time pressure), they are unable to devote such personal resources to effectively meet both core technical task requirements and treat employees fairly. I propose that in general, managers tend to view their core technical task performance as more important than being fair in their dealings with employees; as a result, when faced with high workloads, they tend to prioritize the former at the expense of the latter. I also propose that managerial fairness will suffer more as a result of heightened workloads than will core technical task performance, unless managers perceive their organization to explicitly reward fair treatment of employees. I find support for my hypotheses across three studies: two experimental studies (with online participants and students respectively) and one field study of managers from a variety of organizations. I discuss the implications of studying fairness in the wider context of managers’ complex role in organizations to the fairness and managerial work demands literatures.
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    Invoking Justice
    (2016) Stedge, Curtis; Phillips, Miriam; Dance; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Invoking Justice, a performative work of dance-theater, is a social commentary, both on the failure of the American justice system to balance the scales, and on our individual and collective failings to balance our communities, and ourselves, while recognizing our inherent unity and interconnectedness. The show was performed on March 10th and 11th, 2016 in the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, at the University of Maryland, College Park. This document is a survey of the creative process through which this project was realized and serves as a record of the many obstacles and successes that one might encounter in directing a work of dance-theater.
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    ARE YOU IN OR OUT? A GROUP-LEVEL EXAMINATION OF THE EFFECTS OF LMX ON JUSTICE AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
    (2005-01-03) Mayer, David M.; Schneider, Benjamin; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Early work on leader-member exchange (LMX) theory suggested that leaders differentiating followers into in-groups and out-groups leads to superior group performance. However, research on LMX has almost exclusively studied individual outcomes as opposed to group outcomes. In addition, the notion of differentiation suggests that not all group members have high quality relationships with their leaders thereby violating rules surrounding experienced organizational justice. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation is to conceptualize and study LMX at the level of analysis at which it was initially conceptualized (i.e., the work group level), and to examine the effects of LMX level (i.e., mean in group members' LMX scores) and LMX strength (i.e., variance in group members' LMX scores, i.e., differentiation) on group performance (i.e., unit-level customer satisfaction) and group-level fairness perceptions (i.e., justice climates). Drawing on LMX, organizational justice, social comparison theory, and multilevel theory and research, I derived a number of testable hypotheses involving the relationship between LMX level and LMX strength on justice climates and group performance. There were three major sets of findings regarding (1): the effects of LMX level, (2) the effects of LMX differentiation (later called LMX strength), (3) and the moderating roles of task interdependence and group size on the LMX strength to justice climates relationships. First, LMX level was positively related to justice climates; however, the relationship between LMX level and customer satisfaction was not significant. Second, as predicted, LMX strength was negatively related to justice climates, but, incongruent with the differentiation (strength) hypothesis of LMX theory, there was not a significant relationship between LMX strength and customer satisfaction. Third, consistent with the hypothesis, task interdependence moderated the relationship between LMX strength and justice climates such that justice climates were more favorable when strength was high and task interdependence was high. Collectively, these results suggest that having variability (i.e., differentiation) in the quality of relationships in a work group may have negative effects on justice climates, particularly when individuals must work interdependently; but a negligible direct effect on group performance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.