Structural equation modeling procedures were used to further the current understanding of the construct “personal responsibility.” Broadly defined, personal responsibility is a state in which an individual feels a sense of obligation to a situation or event (Cummings & Anton, 1990; Dose & Klimoski, 1995). Behaviors performed due to personal responsibility are performed for internal as opposed to external reasons. It was hypothesized that feelings of personal responsibility could be influenced by both individual (interdependent self-construal, group cohesion, and trust) and organizational (personal control) variables. More so, it was proposed that employees’ feelings of personal responsibility would be significantly associated with participation in an organization's safety process. Participants were 219 employees of a bearings plant located in southwest Virginia. Only one variable, trust in management, predicted employee feelings of personal responsibility to participate in a behavior-based safety (BBS) process. Contrary to expectations, in the structural model there was no significant relationship between feelings of personal responsibility to be involved in the process and levels of involvement (b = .24). Involvement in the current investigation was assessed with two self-report survey items and by tracking employee observations performed with a critical behavior checklist (CBC). Interestingly, feelings of personal responsibility was predictive of safety observations performed, as well as self reported involvement in the process, when these two involvement variables were looked at in separate regression equations. Furthermore, personal responsibility was predictive of these variables over and above the similar variable conscientiousness. The current study also investigated the impact of voluntary participation in a behavior-based safety process on frequency of safe behavior performance, both on the job and while driving. Unfortunately, the number of employees participating in the process was minimal (n = 7). A visual inspection of the data did not indicate any apparent changes in self-reports of safe behavior for either work-related or driving behaviors as a function of participation in the safety process. In conclusion, the current investigation can be considered an initial step in the empirical study of the personal responsibility construct. It is suggested that a number of relationships may not have been found because of the short-term nature of the current project. Future research is needed that is more longitudinal in nature. / Ph. D.

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Gender differences in salaries are prominent in most fields. Several laws exist to decrease the amount of pay discrimination and provide remedies for discriminatory organizational behaviors, yet these laws have proven insufficient to eradicate pay inequities. One source for such discrimination in pay stems from the evaluation of employee performance. Performance appraisal systems can be biased in very small ways that yield larger negative effects on later employment-related decisions, such as compensation. The goal of this study was to examine decision-making processes and conclusions raters make during the evaluation of employees. It was expected that the type of presentation and the content of the ratings of performance sub-dimensions would affect gender differences in composite ratings, salary increases, and merit bonuses. Specifically, women were expected to be rated lower when employee performance information was presented sequentially, where it would be harder to directly compare one employee with another and thus not mitigate sex bias. Comparatively, when employee performance information was presented in aggregate form, where comparisons among employees would be easier, no sex bias was expected. It was also hypothesized that in the sequential condition, participants would provide casuistry-based reasoning for their decisions such that explanations for men's better performance would be justified by their performance on the sub-dimension on which the male candidate was rated highly. No effect was found for target gender on any of the outcomes. There was a significant difference for participant gender in the amount of salary increases and merit bonuses assigned. Male participants assigned significantly higher raises and bonuses than female participants to employees. There was also a strong main effect for task-related skills across all outcomes. Employees who were higher in the task dimension were rated higher, awarded higher pay, and given larger bonuses. There were no gender differences in the task ratings. Qualitative data analyses support these conclusions. Although participants provided lengthy reasons for their decisions, none showed or explained a gender difference. Limitations and recommendations for future studies are discussed.

Globalization requires that organizations in a broad variety of sectors collaborate with individuals from different ethnic groups around the world (Harrison, Price, & Bell, 1998). Cross-cultural collaboration involves various processes including information sharing that are critical to tasks such as decision making, innovating, and problem solving (Homan, van Knippenberg, van Kleef, & De Dreu, 2007). This research examines the role of openness to diversity and perceived similarity on the relationship between surface-level ethnic diversity and information sharing. Results suggest that participants in the homogeneous ethnic condition shared more information than those in the heterogeneous condition. Findings also indicate that openness to diversity mediates the relationship between surface-level ethnic differences and information sharing across condition when individuals do not perceive other team members to be very similar. Implications from this research suggest that attitudes about diversity matter and can potentially help ethnically diverse teams to share information and overcome challenges to collaboration.

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This review is an extension of a study by Shoenfelt and Pedigo (2005). The purpose of this review is to help form an understanding of how the courts handle cases where an organization has used a cognitive ability test to select employees and consequently faced charges. Cognitive ability testing is the best known predictor of job performance for a wide range of jobs. However, cognitive ability testing also is known to lead organizations to select fewer members of protected groups, such as African Americans, Hispanics, and women. The cases that were reviewed were identified in the LexisNexis database. In order to review the cases, pertinent information was coded by four Industrial-Organizational Psychology graduate students then used the information as categorical data to make comparisons based on the outcome of each case and the conditions that may have led to the outcome. Findings were similar to the Shoenfelt and Pedigo (2005), which is likely due to the low number of new cases that were added to the review. Cases in which the defendant had used a validated test often ruled in favor of the defendant. However, in the six new cases that were discovered, issues such as arbitrary cutoff scores and the presentation of equally valid alternatives played a role in rulings in favor of the plaintiff even in cases with a validated test. The case claims were all race based and all involved tests that were professionally developed.

This study examined the relationship between several individual differences (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, creative self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation, and polychronicity) and creativity. It also examined how the organizational climate (support for creativity) moderated the relationship between the individual differences and creativity. All the individual differences except for polychronicity were positively correlated with creativity as well as support for creativity. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) found that the individual differences explained 58% of the variance in creativity and that support for creativity moderated the relationship between conscientiousness and creativity and between extraversion and creativity. Because of noticed similarity between creativity and creative self-efficacy items, a factor analysis was done which confirmed some overlap. Implications of the findings of this paper are discussed.

This research study is focused on understanding the phenomenology of happiness of High Performing Teachers (HPT) working in an elementary school located in a Midwest City. The purpose of the study was to understand positive and negative emotions of HPT, through their experiences at work and home. Qualitative methodology through in-depth interviews was employed for this study. Tomkins' affect theory of happiness (ATH), was used to assess and explore positive and negative emotions of participants of the study. In this study a purposeful sample of 11 participants that work in elementary school located in a Midwest City, participated in in-depth, face-to face interviews. Results of this study based on experiences of HPT show that positive experiences such as relaxing time at home, spending time with family members they felt make them happy. To understand negative emotions, most of participants indicated that anxiety; inappropriate interactions with others at work site, and financial issues are the main negative experiences that impact their performance. Overall, most of HPT felt happy in life; however, results show that they are happier at home. This study brought new knowledge about positive and negative emotions and the importance for public organizations about improving staff interactions that may impact the contribution to performing better as teachers.