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The hospitality industry continuously seeks to recruit available talents from a variety of sources in order to provide uniquely satisfying services to customers. This has become a more challenging task with companies expanding their business into markets where cultures are dissimilar to those of the US, and the customers are more diversified. Although various studies have discussed different aspects of recruitment, they have not examined the relationship between recruitment messages and cultural difference extensively. Additionally, the current understanding with regard to person-organization (PO) fit perception is limited as well. This study aims to investigate the influence of context orientation, which is defined as the level of information explicitness in the transmitted communications (Hall, 1977), on job seekers' preference for recruitment messages, PO fit, and job application intention. Measurement items were developed based on a review of the literature. Using a paper-based questionnaire, a total of 350 college students majoring in hospitality and tourism management from three universities located in US and Taiwan, were sampled. Factor analysis was employed to identify the underlying structure among measurement items. Overall, eleven factors were extracted: six factors measured context orientation, three factors measured recruitment messages preference, and two factors measured PO fit. Structural equation modeling and multiple regression analysis were then incorporated to examine proposed relationships between constructs. Results from the statistical analysis indicated the relationships between context orientation, preferences for recruitment messages, PO fit, and job application intention were all positively related. Additionally, individuals who exhibited the qualities of low-context orientation were found more likely to prefer recruitment messages that incorporated a higher level of detail, precision, and directness. However, the proposed theoretical model was validated with the US group only. This study did not find support with the Taiwan group and with both groups combined. The findings provided some insight into the study of recruitment in the hospitality industry and its relationship with cultural differences. Further, the managerial implications were explored and a discussion of both the limitations of and suggestion for future research were discussed. / Ph. D.

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The purpose of this study is to explore how to make persuasive messages effective to sufficiently motivate individuals to form good security practice through two aspects - affect valence-based message and message framing effect. The two emotional appeals examined in this study include traditional fear appeals and humor appeals. Fear appeals, arousing people's fear to persuade them to take precautionary actions, are predominant in the literature of information security. By contrast, humorous messages have been found to induce positive affect, reduce negativity, and enhance message acceptance. In addition, messages can be illustrated in a broader context or can be presented with particular examples tailored to individuals' decision-making. The effects of these two ways - thematic and episodic frames - are also investigated in the fear and humor appeals. A multi-group experimental design is adopted to examine the hypotheses. 577 valid responses were collected from college students at Mississippi State University via a professional platform. Followed by a number of rigorous analysis, the results indicate that a humor appeal is more effective when framed in a thematic frame. Furthermore, issue relevance and gender difference are salient factors that can influence the interaction between affect valence and message frame. Additionally, both abstract and concrete fear appeals demonstrated a stronger impact than concrete humor appeals on individuals' intent to follow the positive security practice. However, there is no evidence that concrete fear appeals are more superior to abstract ones. It's not found that humor appeals are more effective than traditional fear appeals when promoting cybersecurity threats.

Diabetes is a serious health threat that disproportionately affects Hispanics of Puerto Rican heritage. Current evidence supports diabetes prevention programs to change health behaviors in people who are at risk and thus prevent the development of type 2 diabetes. However, few interventions exist for Hispanics, and even fewer have been designed for Puerto Rican adults. A literature review of community-based diabetes prevention programs involving at-risk Hispanics was conducted using a cultural sensitivity framework to determine the state of the science and identify gaps in knowledge regarding diabetes prevention for Puerto Ricans. An integrated theoretical framework was developed using constructs from the extended parallel process model (perceived severity and susceptibility) and social cognitive theory (self-efficacy) to design program components aimed to educate and motivate positive dietary behavior change in Puerto Rican adults. The two key components were a diabetes health threat message and dietary skill building exercises that incorporated spirituality and relevant faith practices, and were culturally-tailored for Puerto Ricans. A pretest-posttest, concurrent mixed methods design was used to test the impact and evaluate feasibility of a diabetes health threat message and skill-building exercises in a sample of Puerto Rican adults. A total of 24 participants enrolled in the study and attended six-weekly meetings that included baseline data collection, a health threat message, dietary skill building exercises, focus group interviews, posttest data collection, and an end-of-study potluck gathering. All of the study participants were Puerto Rican and a majority were female (70.8%), with a mean age of 55.5 years (SD 13.71). Most had a family history of diabetes (n = 21, 87.5%) and believed they were at-risk for the disease (n = 16, 66.7%). Using Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test, significant increases or improvements were found in perceptions of diabetes severity (p < .01), dietary self-efficacy (p = .002), and dietary patterns (p = .02) at posttest in comparison to baseline. Spearman's rank correlations found moderate to strong relationships between the following variables: perceived severity and weight (rs = -.44, p = .03), dietary self-efficacy and dietary patterns (rs = .43, p = .04), dietary self-efficacy and fasting blood glucose levels (rs = - .45, p = .03), and American acculturation and weight (rs = .51, p = .02). The qualitative themes that emerged contributed to our understanding of participants' perspective relative to the health threat message, dietary skill building exercises, and the importance of cultural relevance and spirituality. The data support feasibility of this faith-based intervention that had an attendance rate of 58% and no loss of sample due to attrition. Diabetes prevention interventions for at-risk Puerto Ricans adults that incorporate a faith-based, culturally-tailored health threat message and dietary skill building exercises may help educate those who are at-risk and motivate lifestyle behavior change to prevent the development of diabetes. Further faith-based, culturally-tailored diabetes prevention research is indicated for Puerto Rican adults.

This study investigates the connection between one's adult attachment style and one's evaluation of verifying or enhancing comforting messages. Drawing from research by Swann (2005) and Katz and Joiner (2002), the hypothesis predicted that an individual would prefer verifying messages over enhancing messages regardless of attachment style. A research question was also posed: Will an individual's adult attachment style moderate the degree to which a person perceives the communication of verifying or enhancing messages as helpful or effective? In an effort to find these answers, a questionnaire was completed by 251 individuals. Results indicate a preference for verifying messages among participants regardless of attachment style. This is consistent with the findings of Katz and Joiner (2002) and Swann (2005). However, results did not indicate a significant difference between attachment style and a preference of enhancing or verifying messages.

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