Uncertainty about one's job or work environment is a common and aversive experience that organizational members typically seek to reduce or manage. This study investigates whether different types of uncertainty - informational uncertainty (i.e., not having sufficient information to confidently form social judgments) and standing uncertainty (i.e., instability in one's perception of positive regard from relevant others) - are qualitatively distinct. The study also examines whether both types of uncertainty are heightened by ongoing organizational factors (i.e., organization role and tenure) as well as temporary factors (i.e., affiliation with a division undergoing redesign). Implementing fair processes and procedures may be an effective way for organizational leaders to help organizational members address their uncertainty. Uncertainty has been shown to moderate the "fair process effect," such that the positive effect of higher process fairness (i.e., procedural, informational, and interpersonal fairness) on organizational members' attitudes is stronger when uncertainty is higher. Specifically, people's uncertainty about their standing in an organization has been shown to moderate the "process-outcome interaction effect," such that the positive effect of the interaction between higher process fairness and lower outcome fairness on organizational members' attitudes is stronger when uncertainty is higher. This study investigates whether informational uncertainty, like standing uncertainty, moderates the fair process effect and the process-outcome interaction effect. Study hypotheses were tested through a longitudinal field research design that utilized web-based questionnaires involving responses from 500 students, faculty, and administrators of an urban university undergoing an organization redesign effort. Both ongoing and temporary organizational factors were found to significantly reduce rather than heighten uncertainty, which was the opposite of what was predicted. Higher informational and standing uncertainty were found to enhance the positive effect of process fairness on organizational members' attitudes as predicted. But lower informational and standing uncertainty were also found to enhance the positive effect of process fairness on organizational members' attitudes, which was the opposite of what was predicted. Lower informational uncertainty, but not standing uncertainty, was found to enhance the positive effect of higher process fairness and lower outcome favorability on organizational members' attitudes, which was the opposite of what was predicted.

Adopting a regulatory focus perspective, I study why people repeat a prior behavior that could be unpleasant, ineffective, or unethical. Driven by the concerns to avoid negative deviations from the status quo, the prevention aspect of self-regulation (i.e., prevention focus) is associated with the motivation to maintain the status quo (Higgins, 2005). Previous findings showing a prevention focus motivation to maintain the status quo suggest that sticking with a precedent is a safe choice that fits with prevention focus. Putting this motivation to a more challenging test, nine studies show that maintaining the status quo is a deep motivation for prevention focus that transcends hedonic, utilitarian, and ethical concerns. Specifically, being in a prevention focus, either measured as a chronic disposition or induced as a psychological state, increases the likelihood of 1) copying the managing behaviors of a role model, even when these behaviors are perceived as unpleasant or ineffective (Studies 1-5), and 2) repeating one's own choices regarding ethical behavior, regardless of whether the initial choice was ethical or not (Studies 6-9). Implications of this research and future directions are discussed.

Zou Xi. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-67). / Abstracts in English and Chinese ; questionnaires in Chinese. / TITLE PAGE --- p.I / ABSTRACT --- p.II / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT --- p.IV / TABLE OF CONTENT --- p.V / Chapter CHAPTER ONE: --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter CHAPTER TWO: --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.4 / Review on OCB --- p.4 / Original Conceptualization of OCB --- p.5 / Critiques of OCB conceptualization --- p.6 / Redefining OCB --- p.11 / Dimensions of OCB --- p.12 / Cross-culture generalizbility of the OCB scale --- p.13 / Review on the application of role theory --- p.14 / Functional roles of managers --- p.15 / A role-based performance appraisal --- p.16 / The meaning of role metaphor --- p.17 / Summary --- p.17 / Chapter CHAPTER THREE: --- A ROLE PERSPECTIVE OF OCB --- p.19 / Defining Roles --- p.19 / Identifying Functional Roles --- p.21 / Spatial typology of the role system --- p.22 / Identifying individual roles --- p.25 / Constructing a Role Model of OCB --- p.29 / Chapter CHAPTER FOUR: --- METHODOLOGY --- p.37 / Samples and Data Collection --- p.37 / Measures --- p.40 / Chapter CHAPTER FIVE: --- RESULTS --- p.43 / Analysis --- p.43 / Regression Results --- p.47 / Chapter CHAPTER SIX: --- DISCUSSION --- p.51 / Discussion on Findings --- p.51 / Theoretical Contributions --- p.55 / Practical Contributions --- p.57 / Limitations --- p.58 / Conclusion --- p.59 / REFERENCES --- p.61 / Chapter Appendix A: --- Questionnaire for the Pilot Study --- p.68 / Chapter Appendix B: --- Questionnaire for Subordinates in the Sampling Branch --- p.70 / Chapter Appendix C: --- Questionnaire for Supervisors in the Sampling Branch --- p.77 / Chapter Appendix D: --- On-line questionnaire for Cooperative Climate in the Main Study --- p.83

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, infulfilment of the requirements for the .degree Doctor of Philosophy Johannesburg ' 1989

abstract: Forty-four million U.S. workers hold a flexible work role in the “gig economy” in conjunction with a traditional work role. This supplementary work role is known as a side-hustle, or income-generating work performed on the side of a full-time job. Whereas organizations and scholars have tended to view side-hustles as an activity that diminishes employee performance, employees may enjoy benefits from side-hustles. Indeed, research points to the benefits of accumulating multiple roles outside of work (e.g., volunteering or family roles). I investigate these disparate perspectives about the positive and negative implications of a SHR for performance in full-time work. To do so, I draw on boundary theory, which suggests that the degree of similarity between two roles, whether different from one another or blurring together, shapes how roles affect attitudes and behavior. I tested my predictions about how SHRs influence full-time work performance in a four-wave field study of 276 employees and 170 supervisors. Specifically, I address similarity between a SHR and FWR (SHR-FWR similarity), or the number of similar requirements between a SHR and FWR and extent of those similarities. I argue that SHR-FWR similarity has a negative relationship with boundary negotiation efforts because transitions between similar roles require little psychological effort. This relationship was not supported by my findings. I also assert that SHR-FWR similarity decreases psychological detachment from full-time work as similar roles blur together and limit recovery from full-time work. This relationship was supported by my findings. I further argue that side-hustle meaningfulness moderates the relationship between SHR-FWR similarity and boundary negotiation efforts and psychological detachment from full-time work. This prediction was supported for the effect on psychological detachment from full-time work. Finally, I examined how the effects of SHR-FWR similarity carry through to full-time work performance via exhaustion. These indirect effects were not supported. A supplemental polynomial regression analysis in which I examined status consistency was more fruitful. I found that status inconsistencies between a SHR and FWR led to increased role stress within full-time work. I conclude with a discussion of alternative approaches to understanding the confluence of SHRs and FWRs and practical implications. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Business Administration 2019

The purpose of this dissertation was to extend research that examines the overlap between leadership and human resource management (HRM). Specifically, it sought to understand the leadership factors that would predict HRM system strength. Using a sample of 385 employees nested in 32 restaurant units, a model was examined that explored the relationships between leader political skill, leader communication behaviors, HRM system strength, and the multilevel outcomes of unit-level financial performance, leader likeability, and employee job performance. Through an integration of social/political influence theory and uncertainty reduction theory, it was predicted that leaders’ political skill and communication behaviors would lead to an increase of HRM system strength, which would then increase the three multilevel outcomes. The results of this dissertation suggest that leader communication behaviors relate the strongest to HRM system strength. There is also a modicum of support for political skill and its indirect effect, via leader communication behaviors, to HRM system strength. HRM system strength demonstrated significant effects on unit-level financial performance, albeit it the opposite direction than was hypothesized. Taken together, this dissertation makes a contribution to research related to the antecedents of HRM system strength, the refinement of the social/political influence theory, and in helping further explore the shared space between the leadership and HRM research domains. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2019. / April 12, 2019. / Human resource management, Human resource system strength, Leadership, Social/political influence, Uncertainty reduction / Includes bibliographical references. / Gerald R. Ferris, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Gang Wang, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Deborah J. Armstrong, University Representative; Chad H. Van Iddekinge, Committee Member.

Previous research has indicated that the path-goal theory is an effective way to study leadership behavior; however, a gap exists in the literature with respect to its achievement-oriented and participative leadership dimensions in high-tech organizations. In this quantitative study, the effects of a core values intervention on the four leadership dimensions of House's path-goal theory were evaluated at a semiconductor manufacturer with a focus on the differences between supervisors and non-supervisory personnel. Data were gathered from the validated, company-developed Corporate Culture Survey that was administered pre and post intervention. Data were also gathered from a categorization task that sorted the Corporate Culture Survey items into leadership dimensions to form the dependent measures. ANOVA was used to determine whether significant changes in perceptions of leadership behavior by supervisors and non-supervisory personnel occurred on House's four leadership dimensions as a result of the values intervention. Results of a two-way ANOVA on the directive supervision subscale show an interaction between the pre-post intervention factor and supervisors/non-supervisory factor in addition to a main effect for the pre-post intervention factor. Analysis of the simple effects for directive leadership shows a significant pre-post intervention gain on mean score for non-supervisory personnel. Implications for social change include recognizing perceptions of enhanced directive leadership that can help remove manufacturing interruptions to increase productivity and decrease costs.

acase@tulane.edu / The statistical mechanical theory of hydrophobic interactions was initiated decades ago for purely repulsive hydrophobic species, in fact, originally for hard-sphere solutes in liquid water. Systems which treat only repulsive solute-water interactions obviously differ from the real world situation. The issue of the changes to be expected from inclusion of realistic attractive solute-water interactions has been of specific interest also for decades. We consider the local molecular field (LMF) theory for the effects of solute attractive forces on hydrophobic interactions. The principal result of LMF theory is outlined, then tested by obtaining radial distribution functions (rdfs) for Ar atoms in water, with and without attractive interactions distinguished by the Weeks-Chandler-Andersen (WCA) separation. Change from purely repulsive atomic solute interactions to include realistic attractive interactions substantially diminishes the strength of hydrophobic bonds. Since attractions make a big contribution to hydrophobic interactions, Pratt-Chandler theory, which did not include attractions, should not be naively compared to computer simulation results with general physical interactions, including attractions. Lack of general appreciation of this point has lead to mistaken comparisons throughout the history of this subject. The rdfs permit evaluation of osmotic second virial coefficients B2. Those B2 are consistent with the conclusion that incorporation of attractive interactions leads to more positive (repulsive) values. In all cases here, B2 becomes more attractive with increasing temperature below T = 360K, the so-call inverse temperature behavior. In 2010, the Gulf of Mexico Macondo well (Deepwater Horizon) oil spill focused the attention of the world on water-oil phase equilibrium. In response to the disaster, chemical dispersants were applied to break oil slicks into droplets and thus to avoid large-scale fouling of beaches and to speed up biodegradation. Eventually the dispersant COREXIT 9500 was used predominantly in responding to this accident. The formulation of COREXIT dispersants is somewhat complicated and the various constituents (and their interactions) deserve exhaustive study. Here we focus on sorbitan monooleate (SPAN80), one important component of COREXIT 9500, and we investigate its behavior in oil-water-surfactant systems. Extensive all-atom molecular dynamics calculations on the water-squalane interface for nine different loadings with SPAN80, at T=300K, are analyzed for the surface tension equation of state, desorption free energy profiles as they depend on loading, and to evaluate escape times for absorbed SPAN80 into the bulk phases. These results suggest that loading only weakly affects accommodation of a SPAN80 molecule by this squalane-water interface. Specifically, the surface tension equation of state is simple from conditions of low loading (high tension) to high loading (lower tension) studied, and the desorption free energy profiles are weakly dependent on loading here. The perpendicular motion of the centroid of the SPAN80 head-group ring is well-described by a diffusional model near the minimum of the desorption free energy profile. Lateral diffusional motion is weakly dependent on loading. Escape times evaluated on the basis of a diffusional model and the desorption free energies are 0.07~s (into the squalane) and 300~h (into the water). The latter value is consistent with irreversible absorption observed by related experimental work. / 1 / Liang Tan

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Since economic reforms began in 1978, China has experienced rapid economic growth and is now arguably the world???s largest consumer market. However, despite the size and potential of the Chinese market, there is a serious lack of formal understanding of Chinese buyer behaviour. The broad aim of this research is to understand patterns of buyer behaviour through a systematic analysis of the purchasing of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) by urban Chinese consumers. Several specific research questions are addressed: ??? What patterns of brand purchasing and brand loyalty do urban Chinese consumers exhibit? ??? Do these patterns generalise across content, spatial and temporal dimensions? ??? Are there any systematic significant bases of segmentation within the FMCG markets that are studied? ??? What key implications are to be drawn by academics and practitioners? ??? More generally, what is the value of adopting a systematic approach to research in this area of enquiry? ??? Also, what is the value of applying and extending models developed in the West to the Chinese consumer context? The research is divided into two main studies. The first involves secondary consumer panel data and focuses on brand purchasing and loyalty behaviour. Analysis is conducted using the Dirichlet model, which provides theoretical predictions for a range of brand performance measures. The second study involves primary consumer panel data and examines potential bases of segmentation. Analysis is based on the Generalised Dirichlet Model, which enables the impact of covariates on buyer behaviour to be assessed. It is found that the patterns of Chinese buyer behaviour for FMCGs are generally similar to those in the West. Results unique to the Chinese market are also identified. Importantly, the results and patterns generalise across all dimensions of analysis (that is, for brands within product categories, store types and store chains, and in different regions and cities, and in different time periods). Also, there is a lack of consumer segmentation among directly competing brands within the product categories that are studied. The findings not only make a strong empirical contribution but also have important academic and managerial implications.