Although previous research has examined ?bright? personality characteristics that impact leadership effectiveness through their presence, there is a growing recognition of the importance of factors that promote leadership effectiveness through their absence (e.g., Hogan & Hogan, 2001; McCall & Lombardo, 1983). These ?dark? or maladaptive personality characteristics have been hypothesized to interact with the length of time that an observer has been exposed to a given manager (Hogan & Hogan, 1997, 2001). In the current study, the relative and incremental validity of the Big Five and maladaptive personality characteristics in predicting leadership effectiveness was examined, as well as the moderating effect of leader-subordinate relationship length. Although previous research has examined ?bright? and ?dark? personality characteristics in the prediction of leadership effectiveness (e.g., Facteau & Van Landuyt, 2005; Judge, Bono, Illies, & Gerhardt, 2003), this study was the first attempt to examine both types of personality characteristics in the prediction of leadership effectiveness, in addition to the moderating role of relationship length. Personality data were collected from a sample of supervisors (N = 134), and their direct reports (N = 330) provided concurrent ratings of their supervisors? effectiveness. The multiple regression analyses revealed that the Big Five and maladaptive personality characteristics did not predict leadership effectiveness. In addition, the Big Five personality dimensions did not demonstrate incremental validity over and above the maladaptive characteristics, nor did the maladaptive characteristics demonstrate incremental validity over and above the Big Five personality dimensions in the prediction of leadership effectiveness. Finally, the relation between the maladaptive personality characteristics and leadership effectiveness did not vary as a function of leader-subordinate relationship length, contrary to the predictions of previous theoretical work (Hogan & Hogan, 2001).

The present study sought integration of two well-documented relationships: the relationship between general mental ability and performance of complex tasks, and between goal characteristics and level of work performance. Goal-setting theory states that the impact of goal level (difficulty and specificity) on performance depends on the task?s complexity level. Past versions of the theory have also specified ability as a moderator of the goal-performance relationship. This study tested an alternative model of ability and task complexity as goal-performance moderators: a 3-way interaction among general mental ability (GMA), goal level, and task complexity. Undergraduate psychology students completed a class-scheduling task, which manipulated task complexity and goal difficulty at two levels each. Whereas main effects of task complexity and GMA were found, the 3-way interaction was not supported. Statistical and design limitations, including the absence of control for goal commitment, are discussed.

Multilevel linear modeling was used to evaluate the effects of situation- and individual-level variables on participants? appraisals of event outcomes. Situation vignettes were manipulated to have positive or negative and expected or unexpected outcomes; 180 undergraduate participants rated the valence and expectedness of these outcomes and completed Carver & White?s (1994) BIS/BAS scales. BIS/BAS scores accounted for significant variability in individuals? ratings of outcome valence and expectedness, beyond the significant main effects of the situational manipulations, and despite strong consensus on the direction of the manipulations. Results suggest that individuals vary in their appraisals of relatively unambiguous situations, and that individual differences in dispositional behavioral inhibition and activation systematically explain a meaningful component of this variation. These results suggest that further studies are warranted, to assess whether BIS and BAS are predictive of participants? propensities to engage in causal thinking in response to the same vignette manipulations, and whether BIS and BAS exert effects on causal thinking other than as a function of differences in appraisal.

Verbal communication allows individuals to share information during consultation. Although there have been several studies investigating verbal communication patterns in traditional behavioral consultation, there have been very few investigating verbal behavior in its newer variants. Thus, the purpose of this study was to document and compare consultantsâ message control and relevant content used in two types of school-based behavioral consultation. The first type of consultation was considered a traditional behavioral/ âconsultation as usualâ model. The second type was behavioral consultation with an added functional behavioral assessment (FBA) component, which involves a comprehensive method of assessing a clientâs behavior through closely examining antecedents and consequences of the behavior (DuPaul et al., 2006; Jitendra et al., 2007). Verbal communication patterns in 16 Problem Identification Interviews were coded using the Consultation Analysis Record (Bergan & Tombari, 1975). Two hypotheses were posed: (a) consultants in the consultation condition with FBA would use greater message control than those consultants in the traditional behavioral consultation condition, and (b) consultants in the FBA condition would discuss more behaviorally-related topics than consultants in the traditional condition. Findings revealed that consultants did not use more message control in the FBA condition than in the traditional consultation condition. In fact, there was an indication that more control was used in the âconsultation as usualâ condition. Thus, the first hypothesis was not supported. However, as expected, findings indicated that consultants do cover more behavioral-related topics in the consultation condition with FBA. Future research considerations and limitations were discussed. Implications were provided, but are limited due to the small n, exploratory nature of the study.

This study examined the relationships between teachers? perceptions of current school practices and their support for moving toward more inclusive practices at their school. An inclusion support scale was used to determine teachers? support for inclusion. It was predicted that teachers? perceptions of their school staff?s training would moderate the relationship between teachers? perceptions of staff?s available time and their support for moving toward more inclusive practices at their school. Although teachers? perceptions of their school staff?s available time were related to their perceptions of inclusion, the relationship was not moderated by teachers? perceptions of their school staff?s training. The current study also examined teachers? ratings of the helpfulness of 21 inclusion strategies. A reduction of class size based on the needs of the classroom was rated most often as a helpful inclusion strategy, and an exploratory factor analysis revealed support for a three-factor model. Results are discussed in terms of implications for effective strategies to support teachers in inclusive classrooms and future research on teachers? perceptions of inclusion.

This study explored the implications a diversifying workforce may have on employee attitudes, perceptions, and intention to leave the organization. Employee responses to an annual company survey (N=2838) were analyzed to determine whether demographic groups differed in perceptions of organizational support and supervisory communication, organizational commitment, and intention to leave. Demographic groups of interest included gender, job classification, and race. Age and tenure differences were also studied. The study also examined the relationship between perceived organizational support, affective commitment, perceived supervisory communication, and intention to leave. The predictive relationship between perceived organizational support, affective commitment, perceived supervisory communication, and employee demographics with intention to leave was also explored. Results of this study suggest that gender differences are diminishing in the current workforce. Further, it suggests that meaningful group differences are not prevalent in the sample analyzed. Affective commitment, perceived organizational support, and supervisory communication were shown to be positively related. Employees who intended to leave could not be consistently identified by their attitudes, perceptions, and demographic information using discriminant function analysis.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether childrenâs internal working models predict their social information processing with their peers. Specifically, the study examined if the self representations, parent representations, and attachment themes of maltreated children predicted their attributions of intent or response generation. Participants were a sample of 65 maltreated children who were in preschool, kindergarten, or first grade at the time of the assessment. The MacArthur Story Stem Battery was used to assess childrenâs internal working models and the Home Interview with Children was used to assess social information processing. A number of significant correlations were found between childrenâs representations of themselves, their parents and their expressed attachment themes. Findings also indicated that only childrenâs positive self representations predicted their response generation, in that children who represented themselves positively had fewer aggressive responses. However, negative self representations, parent representations and attachment themes did not significantly predict attributions of intent or response generation.

A critical component of the nation?s innovation explosion has been collaborative partnerships between industry and universities. More so than relations between multiple industry members (industry-industry) or government agencies (industry-government), industry-university relationships are focused on research and development. The number of industry-university research centers (IUC) in the United States has increased dramatically over the last two decades (National Science Board, 2002). However, organizations vary tremendously in terms of the benefits they report from participation in an IUC (NSF- IUCRC Process/ Outcome Survey Results, 2003). The underlying cause of the variation in benefits is yet unknown (Ailes, Roessner & Feller, 1997). Different roles played by the boundary role incumbents who represent the organization to the center, known as the Industrial Advisory Board (IAB), may affect firm benefits which in turn affect center outcomes. The purpose of the current study is to examine the tasks and characteristics of boundary spanning IAB representatives and their impact on vital outcomes associated with IUC research including R&D, commercialization, and professional networking. The current study utilized a cross sectional survey design and examined (n=220) IAB representatives from 35 national and state level IUCs. Results from OLS and logistic regression analyses suggest that IAB representatives play not one but four distinct roles (representative, internal boundary-spanner, external boundary-spanner, and technology champion). External boundary-spanning was found to be the strongest predictor of increased firm benefits. Guidance for firms seeking to maximize benefits from participation in an IUC, and best practices for personnel selection and training of an IAB representative are discussed.

Braille is the alphabet predominantly used today for total communication by blind persons; yet, its difficulty to learn prevents some from using it. This experiment compared learning of three alphabets used by blind persons, Braille, Moon and Fishburne. The effects of study modality (visual, haptic) and study order (random, alphabetical) were also investigated. Participants were given four study-test sequences to learn the names for each of the 26 symbols of one of the three alphabets. On test trials, all participants were tested haptically in different random orders. Results showed main effects for alphabet, study modality, trials and an interaction between trials and alphabet. Moon was easier to learn than Braille, which was easier to learn than the Fishburne alphabet. Visual study facilitated learning only with the Moon alphabet. Results are interpreted in terms of McGuire?s (1961) three proposed processes involved in paired-associate learning: stimulus discrimination, associative learning, and response learning. Some implications for training are also discussed.

<p>ABSTRACTRADZIEWICZ, ALISA. Ability-Requirements of Task Dimensions. (Under the direction of J. W. Cunningham.) This effort describes an analytic approach to exploring ability-requirement estimates for positions using the job-component approach. The first part of this study explored the underlying dimensionality of tasks. A job-task inventory was used to derive attribute-requirement weights for job components enabling the derivation of attribute-requirement estimates for any position that has been scored on the weighted components. Currently, little research has been conducted to examine different computational methods of deriving ability-requirements estimates outside of the work of Sparrow, Spurgeon, & Barwell (1982) and more recently the work of Cunningham, Powell, Wimpee, & Wilson (1996). The later research found that the use of minimum weight values with the cross-product method produced a more differentiated factor structure. Consequently, the second part of this study explored two different job-component methods for computing ability-requirement estimates using minimum values with the cross-product method. One method involved the combination of task ratings with factor ability weights, applying job-component procedures to the position rating matrix and ability weight matrix. The second method combined task cluster scores with factor ability weights. Job-component procedures were applied to a position matrix and an ability weight matrix. Each method yielded an ability-by-position matrix containing ability-requirement estimates. Correlations between the positions' ability-requirement estimates from the two job-component methods were compared via Monte Carlo procedures. The results demonstrated that although there was some convergence between the two methods there was also a lack of discrimination and differentiation within methods. Finally, the third part of this study used Monte Carlo procedures to compare two job-component derived ability-requirement estimates with direct ability dimension ratings made by incumbents. The underlying structure of each ability-requirement matrix was also examined. Results indicated that there was a lack of correspondence between the job-component derived ability-requirement estimates and those derived from incumbent judgments. It is likely that these results relate to the difficulty encountered by incumbents in rating the ability dimensions. The reliability of the incumbent ratings confirms this premise and likely influences the congruence between the data sets. These results suggest that caution should be taken when using dimensions in research, due to the cognitive challenge of rating broad constructs. In sum, this research demonstrates the need for further evaluation of the computational methods of the job-component approach.<P>