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Both leader-member exchange (LMX) and organizational justice have commanded a great deal of attention in organizational research. Despite this attention, these two research areas are seldom integrated for examination. This dissertation aimed at helping to integrate these two areas and extend them to a higher level of analysis. Two models were developed at the individual- and group-levels of analysis. In the individual-level model, LMX quality was hypothesized to interact with role breadth self-efficacy (RBSE) and two group characteristics — LMX differentiation and intra-group communication — to impact justice perceptions. It was further hypothesized that justice perceptions would mediate the association between LMX quality and various individual outcomes. In the group-level model, it was hypothesized that LMX differentiation would impact justice climate strength in groups which in turn would affect group-level outcomes. Moreover, justice climate strength was hypothesized to impact these group-level outcomes through two group processes — relationship conflict and team-member exchange (TMX). Data collected from 413 members constituting 87 groups in a corps of cadets revealed that LMX quality interacted with RBSE, LMX differentiation, and intra-group communication to affect procedural and interactional justice perceptions. In addition, distributive, procedural, and interactional justice perceptions partially mediated the impact of LMX quality on group members' commitment to the leader, satisfaction with the leader, job performance, and citizenship behaviors to different degrees. When extended to the group-level of analysis, LMX differentiation in groups was found to lower the strength of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice climates in the groups. These weak justice climates promoted more relationship conflict and hindered social exchange among group members. They also dampened group members' commitment to the group, satisfaction with the group, group performance, and citizenship behaviors in the group. Contributions, practical implications, and future directions for research on LMX and organizational justice are discussed. / Ph. D.

Elementary students continue to read below proficiency levels. Principals play a key role in the reading programs at their school. The purpose of this study was to identify perceptions of selected elementary principals and teachers regarding the principal's role in the development, implementation, and continuation of an effective series reading program. Through this study, factors contributing to the success or failure of the principal's role in a series reading program were suggested. A qualitative research design was used with semi-structured interviews to determine the perceptions of principals and teachers regarding the role of the principal in the development, implementation, and continuation of a series reading program. Principals and teachers were interviewed from elementary schools in Alabama and Nevada. The findings from the research provide principals and division leaders a compendium of strategies and themes to be used to implement and continue a successful series reading program. The findings suggest that principals empower and motivate teachers and staff to implement new and continue existing reading programs by modeling it themselves, that principals allocate funding for series reading books to add to the collection of books at the school, and that a principal's literacy background and personal experiences influence the effectiveness of a series reading program. Principals and teachers that indicated reading books in a series was beneficial to struggling readers and students new to learning English (L2), and that the series reading program promoted adult-student relationships supportive of increased reading volume. Implications for school leaders and principals are shared as well as suggestions for future research. / Doctor of Education / The purpose of the study was to identify perceptions of selected elementary principals and teachers regarding the role of the principal in the development, implementation, and continuation of an effective series reading program. Through this study, factors contributing to the success or failure of the principal's role in a series reading program were suggested. Principals and teachers were interviewed from elementary schools in Alabama and Nevada. The findings suggest that principals empower and motivate teachers and staff to implement new and continue existing reading programs by modeling it themselves, that principals allocate funding for series reading books to add to the collection of books at the school, and that a principal's literacy background and personal experiences influence a series reading program. Principals and teachers indicated that reading books in a series was beneficial to struggling readers and students new to learning English (L2), and that the series reading program promoted adult-student relationships supportive of increased reading volume. Implications for school leaders and principals are shared as well as suggestions for future research.

Leader prototypes are our expectations for attributes a leader should possess, and these prototypes guide our perceptions and judgments of others with regard to leadership. This dissertation uses a connectionist perspective of leadership to investigate differences in perceptions and judgments of male and female leaders, and provides the first empirical test of Hogue and Lord's (2007) model for gender bias in leadership. In Study 1, leader prototypes are investigated as the mediating process through which perceptions of male and female leaders differ. Furthermore, leader and perceiver gender as investigated as contextual and person factors which impact the accessibility of leader prototypes, thus consequently impacting perceptions and judgments of leaders. The use of leader prototypes in remembering a leader's past behaviors reflects the use of a semantic memory system, where the leader behaviors recalled are influenced by our expectations of the leader, rather than whether the leader actually demonstrated those behaviors. Thus, masculine leadership behaviors demonstrated by a female leader may be discounted, and the leader behaviors recalled may be influenced by gender roles. Study 2 investigates an episodic memory intervention to increase the memory accuracy of leader behaviors as a means to reduce biases in judgments of female leaders. Overall, Study 1 results suggest that activation of agentic attributes; specifically tyranny and masculinity are impacted by leader gender, such that the accessibility of those attributes was higher for male leaders. Contrary to predictions, female leaders did not result in greater accessibility of communal attributes in the leader prototype. No impact of perceiver gender was seen on this mediation process. Subsequently, accessibility of these attributes impacts participants' perceptions and judgments of leadership. Study 2 results indicate behavior recognition accuracy of communal behaviors drives participants' negative perceptions and judgments of the female leader. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed. / Ph. D. / Gender bias in leadership perceptions and judgments of leaders is pervasive, and the reasons for this gender bias have been studied from a variety of perspectives. Hogue and Lord (2007) propose that this gender bias can be explained through our leader prototypes, which are our expectations for attributes a leader should have. Various situational and person factors differentially impact the accessibility of attributes in the leader prototype, consequently impacting our perceptions and judgments of leaders. In Study 1, I investigate leader and perceiver gender as factors that impact accessibility of leader prototype attributes. In Study 2, I investigate a memory system intervention targeting the use of episodic memory instead of the default semantic memory, in an attempt to increase the recognition accuracy of a leader‟s behavior, and thus reduce biases in judgments of the leader. Results, limitations, and avenues for future research are discussed.