College of Behavioral & Social Sciences
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
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Item The Role of Accent on East Asians’ Leadership(2022) Lee, Jaeeun; Wessel, Jennifer; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Not only do leaders influence followers, but followers also play a vital role in shaping leadership. Through two studies, I examined whether East Asian leaders with a foreign accent would be less respected by their followers than those without an accent. Additionally, I studied whether receiving respect from followers would affect foreign-accented East Asians’ leadership. In an experimental study (N = 150), I found that a foreign-accented East Asian leader was perceived as less effective and relatively poor at facilitating followers to cooperate toward a group goal than an East Asian leader without an accent. As a result, a foreign-accented East Asian leader was perceived as having less legitimate power to influence others. In Study 2 (N = 181), I surveyed actual leaders and found that foreign-accented East Asian leaders perceived less respect from followers than non-accented East Asian leaders and White leaders with and without a foreign accent. Moreover, foreign-accented East Asian leaders reported significantly more negative leader outcomes (leader identity strength and leadership self-efficacy) than foreign-accented and non-accented White leaders. These findings suggest that difficulties foreign-accented East Asian leaders face in the workplace may not be illuminated if the focus is only on race.Item Follow the Leaders: Policy Presentation in the U.S. Congress(2022) Gaynor, SoRelle Wyckoff; Miler, Kristina; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation presents a theory of policy presentation in the U.S. Congress. I define policy presentation as the strategic development and distribution of partisan information to explain major legislative decisions by congressional leaders. Today, rank-and-file members, increasingly removed from the legislative process, rely on guidance from congressional leaders to discuss major legislative decisions with their constituents. As a result, preparing constituent communication materials has become an institutionalized responsibility for party and committee leaders, particularly for House Republicans. I also argue that policy presentation is an undocumented source of partisan polarization, as it incentivizes a partisan presentation of legislative activity—even in cases of bipartisanship and compromise. Using interviews with members of Congress and staff, computational text analysis, and social network analysis, I demonstrate how congressional leaders develop and distribute partisan messages for constituent use. I also document the conditions under which policy presentation occurs, and the members most likely to rely on party and committee leaders for assistance with constituent communication.Item Factors in the Reporting of Unethical Conduct: The Importance of Trust in Leaders(2017) Norton, Michael Andrew; Lucas, Jeffey W; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)My research investigates factors related to the reporting of unethical conduct. While accounting for known individual, organizational and situational correlates, I focus particularly on leaders and especially on trust in leaders as whistle-blowing research to date has neglected the well-developed sociological literature of trust. Leveraging the benefits of multiple methods, I analyze recent secondary data on federal civilian employees, collect and analyze interview data at four civilian and military sites, and conduct a factorial vignette study to test factors and themes identified in the first two sections of my research. My secondary data analyses support previous whistle-blowing research in relating supervisor status, greater importance placed on anonymity, greater organizational support for anonymous reporting, greater organizational protection for whistle-blowers and greater severity of observed misconduct to increased reporting. Contrary to what previous literature theorizes, I find more observed leader misconduct and in-group location of misconduct relate to increased reporting. With the exception of an expressed in-group preference, my qualitative analyses reinforce these findings and identify a peer-oriented culture and self-preservation as reasons why unethical conduct may go unreported. My interview data also reveal that participants prefer to report unethical conduct to a trusted leader, although the severity of such misconduct may moderate this preference. My vignette analyses find greater trust in leaders is related to increased reporting only for non-supervisors, highlighting the additional importance trust plays for lower-status individuals. Also, good behavior by the leader accepting a report is related to increased reporting for all participants. My vignette data bolster previous findings, including relating a lesser orientation towards Machiavellianism to increased reporting, and find the severity of observed misconduct has the largest relative effect on the reporting outcome. Counter to my prediction, vignette participants are less likely to report unethical conduct perpetrated by a supervisor supporting the notion that fear of retaliation may factor into the reporting decision. By highlighting obstacles to reporting, I assist leaders in addressing such barriers possibly contributing to the identification and correction of unethical conduct. I conclude with implications for federal employees and all leaders seeking to increase the reporting of unethical conduct in their organizations.Item EFFECTS OF SUPERVISORS' UPWARD EXCHANGE RELATIONSHIPS ON EMPLOYEES: TESTING MULTILEVEL MEDIATION ROLE OF EMPOWERMENT(2011) Zhou, Le; Wang, Mo; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study empirically examined the proposition that supervisors' exchange relationships with their own supervisors (i.e., LLX) influence their subordinates' work related outcomes through three mechanisms: (1) motivating the team and its members, captured by team and individual empowerment, (2) providing leader-member relationship norms, and (3) facilitating the relationships between leader-member exchange (i.e., LMX) and individual outcomes. Analyses of multi-source and lagged data from 104 team supervisors and 577 subordinates showed that team and individual empowerment sequentially mediated the positive effect of LLX on subordinates' job satisfaction and job performance. Further, LMX mediated the positive effect of LLX on individual empowerment. It was also found that the indirect relationships of LMX with job satisfaction and job performance via individual empowerment were stronger when LLX was higher. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings were discussed.Item Innovation as Group Process: Hierarchy, Status, and the Dilemma of Participative Leadership(2010) Huey, Wesley Scott; Lucas, Jeffrey W.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Organizations that are characterized by vertical authority structures, where decisions are made and implemented through a clear chain-of-command, are commonly seen as less responsive, less innovative, and less dynamic than organizations that have authority distributed more horizontally. This study takes aim at this presumption by miniaturizing authority structures to the level of the group, where group process theory can be marshaled to predict, measure, and assess outcomes for group innovation in an experimental setting. Using status theory, I propose that hierarchical groups will be more rather than less innovative than egalitarian groups. I conduct an experimental test by manipulating hierarchy in groups instructed to complete a common task, with outcomes mapped to innovative performance. Findings show that hierarchical groups are actually no more, and no less, innovative than egalitarian groups. Irrespective of authority structure, innovation appears to be most likely in groups in which a clear leader emerges who makes others in the group feel like her equal during group interaction. Other findings are presented to explain the apparent no-effect of authority structure on innovation. I will show that status processes advantage each type of group differently with respect to innovation. Hierarchical groups are advantaged by the presence of a clear leader; egalitarian groups are advantaged by the participative interaction that comes naturally to status peers. But the two conditions must occur together to maximize the likelihood for innovation, and this poses a problem for groups who seek to innovate, because status dynamics that promote one of the conditions undercut the status dynamics that promote the other. In egalitarian groups, when authority seekers try to take charge and lead, participative interaction is endangered because members resent the status move. In hierarchical groups, when higher ranking members act participatively, group leadership is contested because others feel empowered to take charge. Each group type therefore faces a dilemma of participative leadership, and because the dilemma is reversed across group types, the net effect of authority structure on innovation is no apparent effect. Implications of the findings for theory and practice are discussed.Item Virtually a Leader: Mitigating Process Losses through Shared Team States(2009) Aiken, Juliet Renee; Hanges, Paul J; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Research on virtual teams reveals that virtual teams do not operate in the same way as non-virtual teams. Despite increasing interest in this field, virtuality's impact on teams through an integrated IPO framework has yet to be assessed. The current study addresses this limitation by examining how virtuality impacts shared team states, and, subsequently, how shared team states impact communication, and how communication impacts outcomes. Further, this study investigated the role leadership plays in reducing process losses encountered by virtual teams. Results indicate that virtuality impacts the formation of shared team states, and leadership moderates this relationship, but in an unexpected direction. Shared team states were not found to contribute to communication, and communication did not predict outcomes. However, virtuality was found to directly affect communication, and the interaction between virtuality and leadership affected outcomes. Implications for research and practice are discussed.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.