Reengineering and work redesign have become the buzzwords of the healthcare industry giving rise to the unprecedented growth of reengineering / work redesign consultants who offer cookbook methods to make the organization efficient and reduce costs. The unfortunate consequence of this rush to redesign is that the employer accepts recommendations to change the organization without knowing the state of the workforce. The purpose of this research is to test the effects of work redesign as implemented at two for-profit hospitals using a measurement tool developed specifically for work redesign. The intent is to compare the hospitals separately as each work redesign initiative is unique to each entity. Observations and analysis are made based upon each hospital's experience from both a pretest and posttest measure. It is believed that each hospital will provide unique information regarding their initiative regardless of success or failure. According to the Job Diagnostics Survey (JDS), the measurement tool used both pretest and posttest, Hospital A required a work redesign initiative. Several variables indicated that the hospital's employees were not satisfied with their job, were in need of internal motivation, and were identified as responsive to job growth. The results from Hospital B however, suggested that a work redesign initiative was not required, but rather a change in organizational culture was needed. Posttest results indicated that there was adequate veracity to the assumptions made regarding the two initiatives as Hospital A's posttests results showed overall improvement in JDS scores while Hospital B's posttest results were similar to their pretest results. Statistically, the results did not show any significance pretest to posttest. The need for valued research cannot be emphasized enough, especially in a healthcare organization. The Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations places great emphasis on a hospital's performance improvement initiative - its plan, the plan's implementation and the measurement of outcomes. Hospitals therefore, should also measure the outcomes of work redesign initiatives and these outcomes should be measured in both human terms and in economic terms.

Success is ultimately a story about human behavior. Regardless of the specific domain of the endeavor, the outcome is a product of the individuals involved. Businesses are a function of their employees and customers, just as societies are a function of their citizens and institutions. The ability to create a system that promotes human flourishing is one of the most vital tasks for any leader pursuing success. Yet the ability to break down a goal and engineer the proper procedure to achieve success has always been a somewhat daunting task. While many prosperous individuals have attempted to delineate their winning ways, the philosophies they preach sound more like encouraging poetry than a practical guide. Hard-work, ambition, and discipline - these are just some of the banalities used when trying to describe what it takes to win. However, the story behind greatness is more complex than that, and we are finally beginning to understand how and why. Recent scientific discoveries have a sparked an evolution of sorts; one that breaks down success and helps illuminate the conditions that encourage innovation, maximize potential, and drive mankind’s progress.

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For the mental and physical wellbeing of nuclear power plant (NPP) reactor operators (ROs) it is pertinent these work environments take advantage of automation, to an appropriate extent, to reduce workload and increase performance. With automation, RO resources can be better distributed to make sure NPP operations are running smoothly and efficiently. However, inappropriate automation may put ROs at risk of becoming complacent and slow to react, thus unable to perform their job in emergency situations. In this study students acted as NPP ROs and interacted with different tasks and levels of automation. Since NPPs are becoming more digitalized it is important to understand how these changes are going to affect operators' performance and perceived mental workload (MW). Individual differences are also considered, as not everyone is going to have the same reaction to these changes. Results of this study indicate that an increase in automation decreases time to react to the automation requesting input. However, there were significant differences between perceived MW such that higher MW was reported in the higher level of automation for checking and responding tasks. Personality traits can play a large role in how ROs respond to and work with automation. In this study, personality (i.e., Big 5) was not correlated to any MW measures but was positively correlated with perception of automation competence and usefulness in the lower automation condition. When compared with previous iterations of this study that had no automation, both low and high LOA significantly reduced perceived workload. This study's findings enhance awareness of individual differences and their implications on ROs' perceived MW and automation adoption and the importance of upcoming changes in NPPs to ensure optimized RO vigilance and performance.

Teachers are experiencing heightened levels of stress throughout the school day the impact of which may be seen in increased absenteeism, turnover, poor performance and waste. This study taught classroom teachers cognitive-behavioral methods to reduce and manage their professional stress comparing a Group Counseling (GC) approach with a Cooperative Professional Development (CPD) approach.;Participating classroom teachers were randomly selected for each treatment condition. The participants in the GC approach met for ten 2-hour consecutive weekly sessions. The CPD treatment initially met as a group for a {dollar}6{lcub}1\over2{rcub}{dollar} hour inservice. at the end of the inservice, the participants formed dyads which met for nine 90 minute consecutive weekly sessions. Both treatment conditions received the same information, strategies, and activities. A follow-up session was held for each treatment condition one month after the conclusion of the program.;All participants, including those in the Waiting-List Control Group, completed two self-report inventories (Teacher Stress Index and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) three times during the course of the study (pretest, post-test, and one-month follow-up). Additionally, a demographical questionnaire was completed at the beginning of the study and a Course Evaluation Form was completed at the end of the study.;It was predicted that both treatment groups would demonstrate significantly less of an increase in their measured stress and anxiety levels compared to the control group. It was also predicted that there would be no significant difference between the three conditions in their measured levels of "Trait" anxiety.;A MANOVA design was employed to analyze whether significant differences existed for each dependent variable. When analyzed, none of the hypotheses were supported. However, the data were suggestive of a number of trends.;This study re-affirmed the efficacy of delivering stress management techniques to teachers through a "traditional" counseling group method. The efficacy of the Cooperative Professional Development model was also demonstrated. This study also found that teachers valued the flexibility, independence and enhanced feelings of professionalism the latter model offered, suggesting that staff development programs capitalizing on these components may have a greater positive impact on participants and may present a cost-effective way to increase a participant's level of motivation and willingness to implement new techniques.

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The major purpose of this study was to assess the relationships between the perceptions of self-efficacy of a school's teachers, the job satisfaction of a school's teachers, the academic achievement of a school's students, and a school's socioeconomic status.;The theoretical base for this study centers around the work of Bandura (1982, 1995) in the area of teacher self efficacy. Additionally, Herzberg, Mausner, and Snyderman's (1959) Motivation/Hygiene Theory and Maslow's (1968) Motivation Theory provide the theoretical base for the area of teacher job satisfaction.;Teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction data were collected through teacher completion of paper/pencil questionnaires. Student academic achievement was measured using schools' scores on the May 2000 5th grade Virginia Standards of Learning assessments in the areas of math, science, social studies, and English (reading/literature/writing). A school's socioeconomic status was measured by the number of students receiving free or reduced lunch. Data on student academic success on the 5th grade Standards of Learning tests and the schools' socioeconomic status were gathered from the Director of Research and Planning of the targeted county and from the Virginia Department of Education's website. Analysis was made by computing correlation coefficients using the Pearson r, computing several t-tests, and by comparing the means of the subscales on the Teacher Job Satisfaction.;The relationships between teacher efficacy and all other variables were found to be not significant, and there was not a significant difference between at-risk and non at-risk schools in the area of teacher efficacy. Student achievement and socioeconomic status were significantly related. A curvilinear relationship was observed between teacher job satisfaction and socioeconomic status with the subscales of "supervision" and "pay" accounting for this relationship. Further, at-risk and non at-risk schools differed significantly in the area of job satisfaction.

The development of major organizations has led to an increase in the use of different psychological principles. Organizational psychology has many different applications within sports organizations and, if used correctly, these applications can improve overall performance. When the principles of Organizational psychology are implemented properly, the attitude, motivation, and leadership qualities of individual members within the organization are enhanced. This improvement of individual members will have an impact on the performance of the entire organization. A successful organization should be adaptable, committed, goal-orientated, and synchronized. To apply these principles and concepts, the organization needs good leaders who can manage the entire group and make sure that all levels of the organization are working in unison. The results of analysis research suggest that organizational psychology has a major role to play within the sports world. However, it is less clear whether or not these principles can translate in to College organizations as effectively.