<p> Previous scholars have found that organizational members use various tactics to encourage their peer coworkers to voluntarily exit their organizations. These tactics are known as peer-influence exit tactics. What has been missing from the literature is clarity about the factors that influence organizational members' use of peer-influence exit tactics. This dissertation explored the construct of peer-influenced exit to develop greater clarity about the motives for encouraging peer coworkers to leave, the characteristics of the peer-influence exit tactic source and receiver, and the organizational influences on peer-influenced exit. Study 1 used an open-ended survey design to explore the motives, process, and means through which peer-influenced exit occurs and the success of using peer-influence exit tactics. Results indicated that organizational members use eight peer-influence exit tactics and have four overarching motives for using them. Organizational members also reported that they consciously planned their tactics and the tactics were used with some success. Study 2 used an experimental design to explore how certain tactic source and receiver characteristics and organizational characteristics affect the use of peer-influence exit tactics. Results of an exploratory factor analysis revealed that organizational members use affirmation, unprofessional, depersonalization, and professional peer-influence exit tactics. Results of the experiment indicated that organizational members use affirmation, unprofessional, depersonalization tactics more frequently with low performing peer coworkers than with high performing peer coworkers. No differences emerged regarding the use of peer-influence exit tactics based on the cohesiveness of the organizational culture. The results also revealed relationships between competitiveness, agreeableness, and self-esteem of the source and peer-influence exit tactics. Study 3 incorporated a correlational design in which working adults were surveyed about their personal experiences with peer-influenced exit. Results revealed that personal gain, altruistic, organizational enhancement, and climate improvement motives predicted the use of peer-influence exit tactics, as did the competitiveness, agreeableness, and self-esteem of the source, perceived similarity, work performance, liking, and organizational influence of the target, and the organizational climate, supervisor complicity, and coworker regard. The results provide greater insight into the antecedents and outcomes of organizational exit that are valuable for both organizational communication scholars and organizational practitioners. </p>

<p>Many people, organizations, institutions, and governments want and need to generate creative breakthroughs and foster creativity, but are not aware of what conversational conditions make their occurrence more likely. The creative collaborative process is dependent upon communication. There have been few studies that have analyzed in situ group creativity with a robust communication theory capable of showing what actual kinds of conversations create new and useful meaning. The purpose of this research was to identify conversational conditions that facilitate creative breakthroughs in collaborative workgroups. </p><p> A case study is presented of a 4-month creative collaboration between members of a design consultancy and a senior university design class tasked with designing 21^st century communication products for a well-known greeting-card company client. The research design utilized a social constructionist communication theory, the coordinated management of meaning, (CMM). Creative breakthrough moments were identified in three different interactions from questionnaires and videotaped data. Reflective interviews of all the participants also enabled insight into the creative breakthrough moments and the narrative process that developed new meaning. The videotaped conversational patterns that produced those creative breakthrough moments were then recursively examined and analyzed with conversational analysis, CMM research methodology, and figurative language. Six specific conversational conditions were discerned as present in creative breakthrough emergence. </p><p> A reflexive pattern of critique, relationship, responsibility, idea generation, and reframing authorship enabled participants to co-evolve design narratives that made new meaning. Creative breakthroughs and new creative meaning emerged from an improvisational structure of six specific conversational conditions. By participating within this improvisational structure, group members utilized critique as a creative springboard for innovation and took fresh perspectives. These findings are counter to the dominant themes in design and sociocultural literature that nonjudgmental conditions, brainstorming, and individuals building on input are the main pathways for creativity. </p><p> <i>Key Words</i>: Creative breakthrough, conversational conditions, facilitate, in vivo collaborative workgroups, relational responsibility moves, new meaning-making, improvisational language structure, figurative language, CMM, social constructionist communication theory, creative and generous listening, creative collaboration </p>

<p> There are currently 4 different generations in the workplace, and the newest generation, Generation Y, has caused leaders within organizations to rethink their management and workplace cultural approach to leading this emerging generation. This qualitative phenomenological dissertation examines the work environment preferences of Generation Y contract managers who work in the Los Angeles area in the defense and aerospace industry by interviewing 11 participants from both the public and private sectors. The research indicates that this new generation, Generation Y or Millennials, prefer to have autonomy over their workload and schedule, but prefer to have their direct manager active in a mentoring and coaching role, rather than acting as a task-master. In addition, the participants in this study preferred a healthy amount of pressure, but not too much of a workload that would cause them to fail. Lastly, this dissertation found that Millennials have a high preference for innovation and using innovative technology in the workplace to increase efficiency.</p>

<p> This exploratory study examined the relationship between communities of practice and professional identity. The purpose of the study was to quantitatively examine the extent to which there were relationships between Wenger's dimensions of community of practice (domain, community, and practice) and professional identity among veterinarians. This was accomplished by conducting a survey study using correlation analysis. The research question was as follows: To what extent are there relationships between Wenger's dimensions of community of practice (domain, community, and practice) and professional identity among veterinarians? </p><p> A combined survey consisting of items from the Community of Practice Measure and the Professional Identity Survey was used to collect data. Snowball sampling techniques were used to recruit 125 veterinarians to participate in the study. To explore the research question, three sets of null and alternative hypotheses were developed and tested. Overall, the results showed that the dimensions of communities of practice had positive statistically significant relationships with the professional identity. Domain, community and practice all had moderate to low positive relationships with professional identity. </p><p> The significance of this study is that it expanded Brown's (1997; 2007) conceptual framework of professional identity development. It also contributed to the body of knowledge on social science research conducted on veterinarians. Finally, it offered quantitative findings to the existing literature on communities of practice and professional identity&mdash;that is, as domain, community, and practice are enhanced, so is professional identity.</p>

<p> This study represented an initial effort to systematically examine the effects of the perception of servant-leadership attributes in union leaders on the commitment and participation levels of union members. Using Barbuto and Wheeler's (2006) Servant Leadership Questionnaire, and Gordon, Philpot, Burt, Thompson and Spiller's (1980) Commitment to the Union Scale, 535 members of a U.S.-based, national healthcare union rated their union leaders on servant-leadership attributes, and answered a series of questions designed to assess their level of union commitment. Additionally, demographic and participation information was collected. A combination of descriptive statistics, and Baron and Kenny's (1986) mediation methodology was used to determine the relationship between servant-leadership attributes, union commitment attributes, and an overall participation score. Demographic information was used to determine generalizability. The results of this study indicate that each attribute of servant-leadership showed a relationship with overall union member participation and with each attribute of union commitment. The only instance in which an attribute of union commitment consistently mediated the relationship between servant-leadership and overall union member participation was union loyalty. While the respondents in this study reported lower scores on those attributes of servant-leadership and union commitment that emphasize the personal over the collective, this does not negate the statistical significance of the impact on servant-leadership on union commitment. The results of this study confirms that, in the case of the sponsoring organization, servant-leadership is a viable leadership paradigm with the potential to increase both commitment to the union-as-organization, as well as increasing overall union member participation.</p>

<p> This study examined the relationship of sales employees' emotional intelligence (EI) to their organizational justice (OJ) perceptions, and examined if sales employees' job satisfaction (JS) moderated the strength of the relationship between their EI and OJ perceptions. Three assessments were administered electronically and completed by 135 participants. The Job In General (JIG) assessment measured overall JS of employees. The assessment used to measure employee EI was the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i 2.0). The assessment used to measure employee justice perceptions was the Perceived Overall Justice scale. Hierarchical moderated multiple regression analysis (MRA) was used to identify any relationships. No statistically significant finding between EI, JS, and OJ were found when using hierarchical moderated MRA. Because of the violations of assumptions for MRA, it was determined that follow-up non-parametric testing was required. Non-parametric testing found a significant relationship between employees' EI and their OJ perceptions. The non-parametric testing confirmed previous findings of significant relationship between EI and OJ. Recommendations for future research include examining individual facets of EI and OJ, using different assessment to measure EI and OJ, and using a controlled environment to recruit participants.</p>

<p>The success rate of information technology projects is on a downward trend, with reported losses in the billions of dollars. Recent studies indicate a 50&ndash;56% project success rate based on quality, budget, and on-time criteria. Building upon the conceptual framework of the emotional intelligence and knowledge management theories, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how project management practitioners apply self- and cultural-awareness competencies to affect project outcomes. Using a purposeful sampling method, 24 experienced U.S.-based project management practitioners participated in a web-based questionnaire. Following Giorgi&rsquo;s data reduction process resulted in numeric data coding. Thematic analysis revealed themes of (a) awareness and redirection of negative emotions, (b) cultural intelligence, and (c) balanced diverse teamwork. The findings from this research study support increasing awareness, training, and application of emotional and cultural intelligence competencies within the multidimensional knowledge-centric global business environment. Increased awareness and ability to use emotional and cultural competencies can lead to enhanced business outcomes. Improved people-based business practices may increase the economic stability for the organization, employees, and specifically the project management practitioner as a knowledge manager. Implications of social change from this study include increasing success of knowledge-based information technology solutions, expanding employment opportunities, and supporting socially-responsible integrated change. </p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-02, Section: A, page: 0407. Adviser: Andrea B. Hollingshead. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 75-87) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Kungliga Tekniska högskolan, 2007. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Thesis (doctoral)--Uppsala University, 1984. / Summary in English. Includes bibliographical references (p. 164-166).