College of Behavioral & Social Sciences

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/8

The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..

Browse

Subject: search.filters.subject.Business Administration, Management

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    On the (Un)intended Consequences of Forgiveness: Creativity After Conflict
    (2010) Fehr, Ryan; Gelfand, Michele J; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Within the psychological and organizational sciences, research on forgiveness as an offender-directed motivational response to victimization is flourishing. Scholars have drawn from a wide range of theoretical perspectives to better understand the meaning of forgiveness and the antecedents of victims' forgiving motivations. Underlying this research is a near-unanimous assumption that forgiveness leads to beneficial outcomes, which has paradoxically hampered scholars' understanding of the precise nature of those benefits. The purpose of the current research is to consider a previously unforeseen yet broadly significant potential consequence of forgiveness - creativity. Drawing from evolutionary process models of creative performance (Simonton, 1999; 2003), forgiveness is theorized to impact creativity by broadening the set of ideas, concepts, and knowledge structures utilized during the creative process, referred to collectively as the participant's "domain set". Specifically, forgiveness and creativity are theoretically linked via three distinct mechanisms: mood, motivation, and cognitive resources. Two pilot studies were conducted to ensure the efficacy of a forgiveness priming procedure and explore a theoretically consistent set of lab-based creative performance measures. Three primary studies were subsequently conducted to fully test the effect of forgiveness on creative performance and the theorized mediating mechanisms. In Study 1, a brainstorming task was utilized to provide initial support for the forgiveness-creativity link and the role of domain set over simple task persistence. Mood was furthermore measured as a mediating mechanism. Study 2 replicated and extended the Study 1 findings via a different creativity task (creative drawing) and tests of both mood and motivation as potential mediators. In Study 3, further evidence for a forgiveness-creativity effect was sought via a creative problem solving exercise (the Duncker candle task). Mood and motivation were again measured as mediators. In addition, the cognitive resource theory was explored via the addition of a cognitive load manipulation. Results cumulatively supported the cognitive resource perspective. In all three studies, forgiveness predicted creative performance. The forgiveness-creativity link disappeared under cognitive load (Study 3), but was unrelated to victim mood (Studies 1-3) or motivation (Studies 2 and 3). In the discussion section, theoretical and practical implications are reviewed along with limitations and potential future directions.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Executive Coaching as a Developmental Experience: A Framework and Measure of Coaching Dimensions
    (2008-09-10) Gettman, Hilary J; Stevens, Cynthia; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The widespread and rapidly growing practice of executive coaching (Berglas, 2002) has evolved as a practice outside of the context of any academic discipline. While the literature on executive coaching is voluminous, there has been no attempt to systematically outline and operationalize the important dimensions of coaching practice. This lack of empirical foundation has made it difficult assess coaching in any meaningful way, for example, to determine what aspects of coaching are critical to effectiveness, or if it is even effective at all. In order to begin to fill this gap in the research, I sought to understand the important dimensions of executive coaching. To this end I reviewed the literature on coaching, and relevant research literatures, to get a better understanding of what coaches likely do to promote development, to develop a more grounded conceptualization of the dimensions of executive coaching, and to begin exploring the theoretical bases for these dimensions. I proposed six dimensions of coaching activities: assessment, challenge, emotional support, tactical support, motivational reinforcement and promoting a learning orientation. Second, I operationalized these dimensions by creating items based on the literatures reviewed, as well as input from subject matter experts, and based upon my own expertise. Finally, I administered the scales to 188 coaches and 32 executives, and evaluated the scales for their structure, reliability and validity. In the resulting factor structure, four of the dimensions were found as proposed, but challenge split into three factors and tactical support into two factors, resulting in nine dimensions of coaching activities, with reliabilities ranging from .75 to .91, averaging .84. Finally, some analyses of convergent, divergent and criterion-related validity of the dimensions were conducted, resulting in some preliminary indications of the construct validity of three of the scales, and providing information of where future validation work should be done. Interestingly, levels of engagement in seven of the dimensions varied meaningfully and predictably amongst coaches according to their education and training, which could have widespread implications for coaching selection and training. The resulting dimensions and measures open the door to further study of coaching, advancing both research and practice.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Development and Validation of the Toxic Leadership Scale
    (2008-06-11) Schmidt, Andrew A.; Hanges, Paul J; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    While many publications focus on traits and behaviors that make leaders effective, some leaders engage in dysfunctional and destructive behaviors. These "toxic leadership" styles have been largely unexplored. The goals of this study were to empirically derive the dimensions of toxic leadership, to create a reliable and valid survey that measures the construct, to explore convergent and discriminant construct validity, and to perform a preliminary examination of subordinate outcomes that may result from working under a toxic leader. Using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies across military and civilian sectors, this study suggests that toxic leadership is composed of the following five dimensions: abusive supervision, authoritarian leadership, narcissism, self-promotion, and unpredictability. Toxic leadership is differentiable from other leadership constructs (e.g., transformational, LMX) and its dimensions significantly predict employee outcomes such as turnover intentions, job satisfaction, and satisfaction with the supervisor. Implications for future research are discussed.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Individual and Unit Level Goal Orientation as Predictors of Employee Development
    (2007-05-17) Spara, Ellen Godfrey; Hanges, Paul; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    In recent years, goal orientation has gained interest among academics and practitioners alike. This paper examines several variables related to goal orientation that have not been thoroughly investigated in the past. I hypothesized that both team- and individual-level learning orientation would have a direct effect on the decision to pursue development opportunities. I also hypothesized that the previously-mentioned notion of team goal orientation would affect the belief that increased performance leads to certain consequences (instrumentality), which are either deemed as positive enough to desire or negative enough to avoid (valences). Key findings include positive relationships between team learning orientation climate and individual contextualized and non-contextualized learning orientation, as well as a direct relationship between contextualized learning orientation and development. Additional findings indicate that valence and instrumentality mediate the relationship between contextualized learning orientation and development. Hypothesis testing for performance-prove and performance-avoid orientation models was not as successful, but the study does give some support to a two- (as opposed to three-) factor model of goal orientation. Limitations and directions for future research are also presented.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Essays on Employer-Employee Relationships and Firm Performance
    (2005-07-29) Chiang, Hyowook; Haltiwanger, John C; Economics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Recently, the heterogeneity of workers has been documented and emphasized as a very important feature of labor in various economics fields. Labor is one of the key inputs in the production process, and it is quite different from other inputs in that no single worker can be treated the same as any other worker given their unique characteristics. Research on business performance has only recently begun to pay attention to worker heterogeneity. The most important reason for this is a lack of data that incorporate both business level information about production processes, and rich information about the individuals that work in each business. Many studies of productivity have treated all workers as homogeneous and use the total number of workers (or hours worked) as a single variable representing labor input. Studies using micro level databases could only differentiate labor input into production workers and non-production workers or skilled labor and unskilled labor. This dissertation exploits the heterogeneity of labor and variation in human resource management systems, and tries to understand their impact on firm performance and various outcomes. I use a newly developed employer-employee matched database to examine the impacts of human resource practices on firm outcomes. First, I show that firms with lower rates of worker turnover have higher productivity and ``learn'' faster than those with higher worker turnover. Moreover, I develop new instruments to show that learning by doing and turnover have causal effects on productivity. Second, I show that firm performance is tightly linked with workforce quality and worker turnover. Strikingly, workforce quality and worker turnover independently contribute to firm survival even after taking productivity into account. Lastly, I assess the fit between firm-level internal labor markets and firm diversification in the U.S. financial services sector. Drawing on the ``resource-based view'' of firm strategy, I hypothesize that firms with stronger ILMs are more likely to diversify. I find that firms with lower churn, lower wage dispersion, and greater opportunities for workers inside the firm tend to be those that diversify more subsequently.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Behavioral Outcomes of Interpersonal Aggression at Work: A Mediated and Moderated Model
    (2004-08-06) Raver, Jana; Gelfand, Michele J; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Interpersonal aggression at work is abundant, yet despite the importance of this topic for employees' well being, systematic research on aggression in organizational settings is only beginning to accumulate, and research on outcomes experienced by targets of aggression is limited. The purpose of this dissertation was to extend the workplace aggression literature by proposing and testing a more comprehensive model of behavioral outcomes associated with interpersonal aggression i.e., counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs), organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs), job search behaviors, and work-family conflict. Furthermore, I examined two cognitive and emotional mediators of the relationship between experiencing interpersonal aggression and behavioral outcomes (i.e., interpersonal justice and negative affect at work), as well as several moderators including job characteristics (i.e., job autonomy, job mobility), target characteristics (i.e., dispositional hostility, neuroticism), and perpetrator characteristics (i.e., perpetrator status). The hypotheses were tested through established survey measures administered to a representative sample of 728 working adults who were diverse with regard to their jobs, occupations, and industries among other factors. The results revealed that the frequency of interpersonal aggression experiences was significantly related to enacting high levels of CWBs aimed at both the organization and at other individuals, and also related to high levels of job search behaviors. Interpersonal aggression experiences were also associated with perceptions of interpersonal injustice and negative affect at work, but there was no evidence for these psychological processes mediating interpersonal aggression's relationships with the behavioral outcomes. The results also revealed moderation effects for job autonomy, job mobility, dispositional hostility and neuroticism, yet moderated SEM results failed to provide evidence for differential relationships in the model based upon whether the perpetrator of the aggression was one's supervisor or a coworker. Implications for research and theory, future directions, and implications for organizations are provided.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Measuring Collective Mindfulness and Exploring Its Nomological Network
    (2004-04-29) Knight, Andrew Pierce; Klein, Katherine J; Gelfand, Michele J; Hanges, Paul J; Psychology
    Collective mindfulness was conceptualized as a prerequisite to achieving organizational reliability in the face of complexity and tight coupling. However, researchers have yet to measure collective mindfulness, precluding an assessment of its construct validity. In the current study I attempted to fill this gap by quantitatively measuring collective mindfulness and relating it to a number of characteristics and outcomes. I hypothesized that collective mindfulness can predict organizational reliability, with respect to safety and customer service quality. I also investigated the relationship between collective mindfulness and a number of constructs to begin assessing construct validity. The results of survey data collected from 182 employees, 570 customers, and 330 supervisor reports of 51 community swimming pools suggested that collective mindfulness can be measured in an organizational context and used to predict safety and customer service quality. Further, I found collective mindfulness to be related in expected ways with a number of constructs.