Fatigue in healthcare providers has been linked to dangerous outcomes for patients, including medical errors, surgical complications, and accidents. Resident physicians, who traditionally work long hours on minimal sleep, are among the most fatigued. In attempt to mitigate the impact of fatigue on resident physician performance and improve patient safety, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) implemented a fatigue intervention program in 2011 for medical residency programs in the United States. This caused a significant decrease in the number of hours that first-year residents were permitted to work, compared with hours worked by first-year residents in prior years. While studies investigating the impact of the 2011 ACGME fatigue intervention on outcomes are limited thus far, some initial evidence seems to be promising. For instance, Pepper, Schweinfurth, and Herrin (2014) found that the rate of transfers to the intensive care unit after a code blue significantly decreased from pre- to post-intervention. However, it is not currently understood what variables may drive positive changes in patient outcomes, nor how long it may take for these changes to occur. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect that the 2011 ACGME fatigue intervention has had on job performance in healthcare providers in U.S. hospitals. The current study attempted to address this question by taking both a micro perspective, by drawing upon cognitive theories (Kahneman, 1973, 2011) and skill acquisition theory (Fitts, 1964; Fitts & Posner, 1967), as well as a macro perspective, by drawing upon organizational change theories (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983). This study combined public-use databases provided by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Specifically, 1,277 hospitals in the United States were examined over a five year period on job performance behaviors to determine if there was significant change from pre-intervention to post-intervention. Hospitals were categorized as control hospitals (n = 594) and intervention hospitals (n = 683). More specifically, intervention hospitals were analyzed according to their resident-to-patient bed ratio, using guidelines provided by Patel et al. (2014), including very low resident-to-bed ratio hospitals (n = 174), low resident-to-bed ratio hospitals (n = 287), high resident-to-bed ratio hospitals (n = 143), and very high resident-to-bed ratio hospitals (n = 79). Further, organizational size was examined as a moderator. The current study used discontinuous growth modeling (Bliese, 2008; Ployhart, 2014; J. D. Singer & Willett, 2003) to analyze the data, which allowed for investigation into the magnitude and rate of change from pre- to post-intervention. Results show that there was a significant improvement in employee job performance over time across both intervention and control hospitals. In particular, job performance significantly improved abruptly at the transition period (i.e., when the intervention was introduced) and continued to improve gradually throughout the post-intervention period; yet, these results held for both intervention and control hospitals. However, exploratory analyses comparing control hospitals to very high resident-to-bed ratio hospitals found that the latter group improved significantly more at the transition period in comparison to control hospitals. I therefore conclude that there may be some effect of the fatigue intervention on job performance, but this effect may be visible only in very high resident-to-bed ratio hospitals. Further, organizational size was not a significant moderator of the relationship. Future research is needed to confirm these findings.

Since at least the 1950s, researchers interested in studying the dynamics of small groups have struggled with how best to measure interaction processes. Although team process measurement issues are not particularly unique in terms of content, measuring multilevel phenomena presents an interesting problem because structural aspects are integral components of emergence. The elemental content of multilevel phenomena is wholly unique and distinguishable from the elemental content of composite units, and emerges as individual behaviors compile to higher levels of analyses. Analogous to chemical structures, behavioral phenomena manifest at higher levels in different structural patterns as members connect to one another through dynamic interactions. Subsequently, multilevel phenomena are more appropriately characterized in terms of pattern in addition to the traditionally measured intensity. The vast majority of teams research conceptualizes and operationalizes multilevel phenomena based on compositional (i.e., additive) models. This approach impedes the further advancement of the science of team effectiveness by capturing content and intensity, but not structure. This dissertation argues that compilational models better capture content, intensity, and structure, and therefore represent a preferred alternative for conceptualizing and operationalizing team processes. This dissertation details measurement issues associated with compositional models in teams research, and provides concepts helpful for reconceptualizing team processes as compilational forms.

The purpose of this paper was two-fold. The first was to investigate the impact of conflict as a mediator in the relationship between distribution and team performance. The second was to examine how that relationship was affected by virtuality. Four-member teams of different distributions (partially distributed, fully distributed, and fully collocated) and different virtuality conditions (videoconferencing, teleconferencing, and chat) played a team-oriented game. Significant results were found only in the videoconferencing condition, in which both distribution and task conflict had a negative impact on team performance, but task conflict did not mediate the relationship between distribution and team performance. Further research investigating how virtuality impacts distributed teams in needed.

The prevalence and importance of humor in the workplace has been well-documented over the past several decades, with research consistently revealing its significant impact on employee well-being and effectiveness. During this same time period, organizations worldwide have begun embracing team-based work designs as a means for achieving success. As a result, the degree to which employees are engaging in both frequent and intensive interactions with their coworkers is rapidly increasing. Despite these trends, little research has been dedicated to investigating the ways in which employees’ well-being and effectiveness are influenced by the humor of their coworkers or the ways in which employees’ own humor interacts with that of their coworkers to determine these outcomes. The current study answered the need for such research by investigating the impact of coworker-employee humor interactions on employee strain and performance using a sample of undergraduate-level students engaged in a high-fidelity work simulation. In the current study, coworker humor was experimentally manipulated by pairing each participant with a study confederate who was trained to act as either a nonhumorous coworker or a humorous coworker throughout the duration of the work simulation. Results of a pilot study provided empirical evidence supporting the validity of this manipulation; showing that participants’ paired with a humorous confederate coworker rated their coworker significantly higher on positive humor, but no different on negative humor, than participants’ paired with a non-humorous confederate coworker. Based on theory and prior findings drawn from multiple streams of science, it was expected that positive coworker humor would have a significant impact on employees’ strain and performance, but that the nature of its influence on these outcomes would be contingent upon iv employees’ own dispositional humor. Specifically, it was hypothesized that employees paired with humorous coworkers would experience a lesser degree of perceived, affective, cognitive, and physical strain than employees paired with non-humorous coworkers if their own sense of humor was high but a greater degree of perceived, affective, cognitive, and physical strain than employees paired with non-humorous coworkers if their own sense of humor was low. In addition, it was expected that employees paired with humorous coworkers would demonstrate a higher level of interpersonal and task performance than employees paired with non-humorous coworkers if their own sense of humor was high but a lower level of interpersonal and task performance than employees paired with non-humorous coworkers if their own sense of humor was low. Finally, it was hypothesized that employees’ strain would partially mediate the effects of coworker-employee humor interactions on employee performance. In support of these hypotheses, analyses revealed that several indicators of employees’ perceived, affective, cognitive, and physical strain were in fact each significantly influenced by interactions between employees’ own humor and that of their coworkers. Specifically, high sense of humor employees who worked with a humorous coworker experienced a lesser degree of perceived, affective, cognitive, and physical strain than did those who worked with a nonhumorous coworker. This was evidenced by their lower self-reported perceived strain (an indicator of perceived strain), higher state-level positive affect and lower state-level negative affect (indicators of affective strain), higher anagram task performance and lower perceived task difficulty (indicators of cognitive strain), as well as their lower systolic blood pressure and lower state-level somatic anxiety (indicators of physical strain). In contrast, low sense of humor employees who worked with a humorous coworker experienced a greater degree of perceived, affective, cognitive, and physical strain than did those who worked with a non-humorous v coworker. This was evidenced by their higher self-reported perceived strain, lower state-level positive affect and higher state-level negative affect, lower anagram task performance and higher perceived task difficulty, as well as their higher systolic blood pressure and higher state-level somatic anxiety. Consistent with expectations, results revealed that the degree to which employees experienced job strain typically varied based on the degree to which there was a match between employee sense of humor and coworker positive humor levels. Similar levels of coworker and employee humor generally resulted in relatively low levels of employee strain whereas dissimilar levels of coworker and employee humor most often resulted in relatively high levels of employee strain. Contrary to expectations, however, coworkers’ positive humor and employees’ sense of humor did not interact to predict employees’ interpersonal or task performance. Instead, positive coworker humor had a significant positive main effect on both forms of employee performance. Although these findings are consistent with the study hypotheses in that positive coworker humor was expected to enhance high sense of humor employees’ performance, they run counter to the expectation that positive coworker humor would hinder low sense of humor employees’ performance. Because the interaction between coworker humor and employee humor was not a significant predictor of either type of employee performance, analyses were not conducted to test for mediated moderation. Findings from the current study offer a number of contributions to organizational science and, in addition, hold several implications for practice. Specifically, these results have relevance for and greatly expand the workplace humor, individual differences, PE fit, occupational health, and workgroup/team composition literatures. In addition, results contribute to the literature by elucidating the need for future research dedicated to exploring the direct and interactive effects of coworker characteristics, including humor, on employee well-being and effectiveness. Finally, vi results of this study serve to inform researchers and practitioners in matters related to several critical human resource functions, including matters in personnel selection, placement, and training, as well as in workgroup/team composition.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the relationship between personality and performance under changing circumstances. Specifically, this paper analyzes how the personality trait of optimism, and a moderator of ambiguity tolerance, affects performance under changes in an Air-Traffic Control Simulation. Previous studies have not examined the effect that optimism has on performance under change. Results indicated that personality does not correlate significantly with performance. This study was completed due to interest in a positive attitude and how it may relate to performing in the workplace

Recent issues such as global economic crises, terrorism, and conservation efforts are making international collaboration a critical topic. While cultural diversity often brings with it new perspectives and innovative solutions, diversity in collaborative settings can also lead to misunderstandings and interaction problems. Therefore, there is a pressing need to understand the processes and influences of intercultural collaboration and how to manage the collaborative process to result in the most effective outcomes possible. In order to address this need, the current study examines the effect of ethnic diversity, perceived deep-level similarity, trust, and distrust on collaborative behavior and performance in decision-making dyads. Participants were assigned to either same-ethnicity or different-ethnicity dyads and worked together on a political simulation game in which they had to make complex decisions to solve societal problems and increase their popularity. The results of this study indicate that ethnically similar dyads reported higher levels of perceived deep-level similarity than ethnically dissimilar dyads, and that this perceived deep-level similarity served as the mediating mechanism between objective differences in ethnic diversity and trust and distrust, respectively. The findings also suggest that trust and distrust attitudes, when considered together as a multiple mediation model, mediate the positive relationship between perceived deep-level similarity and collaborative behavior. Finally, results show that collaborative behavior significantly predicts objective performance on the political decision-making simulation. The implications of this study for theory and practice are discussed along with the study limitations and several suggestions for future research.

The current study builds on prior research that has identified informal work accommodations to family as a valuable means for balancing competing work and family responsibilities. As organizations increasingly capitalize on team-based work designs, it is important to consider the informal ways in which interdependent coworkers constructively assist one another in the management of work interfering with family (WIF) and family interfering with work (FIW). The intent of this thesis is to develop a better understanding of the effects of the coping mechanisms employees in team-based jobs utilize to reduce work interfering with family. Thus, this thesis examined (a) the relationship between people working in team-based job designs and WIF and FIW (b) the effects of moderating variables, such as job interdependence, specialization, and cohesion on the Coworker Informal Work Accommodations to Family (CIWAF) and work interfering with family and the CIWAF and family interfering with work relationships. Three convenience samples were employed; each completed a survey packet including the CIWAF, WIF, FIW, job interdependence, specialization, and cohesion measures. Hypothesized relationships considering the effects of the composite CIWAF construct on WIF and FIW were not supported. Employees in interdependent job designs experienced more WIF than employees in less interdependent job designs. Follow up analyses considering the 6 CIWAF subdimensions showed consistent results. The three more common CIWAF behavior engaged in by employees in an attempt to reduce WIF were CIWAF - CWM (Continuing Work Modifications), - STM (Short-Term Work Modifications, and - HB (Helping Behavior). Although hypotheses were not supported, results suggest that CIWAF behaviors are an option employees consider to reduce WIF. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Although job boredom is increasingly common in the workplace, little research has examined its’ causes. Reducing job boredom has relevance to companies looking to increase the well-being of their employees in addition to their productivity. This study examined what variables are related to and predict job boredom. The Big Five personality traits and job characteristics as defined by Hackman and Oldham specifically, skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback from the job itself were included. A regression analysis revealed that emotional stability, openness and autonomy were significant predictors of boredom. While those were the only variables predictive of boredom, there were other significant correlations as well. These findings suggest that future research should examine the relationships between the variables in this study and control for factors to further gain insight into possible causes of boredom.

Psychological research has studied the effects of college academic demands on students' wellbeing through the moderating role of coping mechanisms. This study provides further insight by focusing on coping mechanisms among graduate students from different fields, including humanities, STEM, and social sciences. Participants were recruited at the University of Central Florida (n=97). They answered an online survey assessing the prevalence of academic stressors, the use of different coping mechanisms, and strain outcomes, including somatic symptoms, insomnia, and burnout. STEM students reported higher organizational constraints and higher interpersonal conflict compare to students in other fields. Arts and humanities students reported higher use of maladaptive coping mechanisms. The results provide an essential overview of stress patterns among graduate students, an understudy population on academic well-being.

Previous research has shown that teachers are at risk of experiencing significant work-related stress. Recovery is seen as a way to unwind from work stress caused by a myriad of stressors. This study examines the mechanisms of teacher recovery and their relationship to physical stress symptoms. Fifty high school teachers were recruited to participate from schools in South Florida. Physical stress symptoms were measured using a self-report survey called the Physical Symptoms Inventory (PSI) , which took place directly after the open-ended question portion of the survey. A multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to assess any connection between the appearance of barrier and facilitator related words in the open-ended questions to the rating of physical symptoms. The analysis showed that facilitators did not significantly predict PSI scores (β = -.17, ns). However, barriers did significantly predict PSI scores (β = .49, p < .001). Grounded theory was used alongside theoretical sampling to develop themes related to the barriers and facilitators of recovery from participant open-ended question answers. Data was analyzed and coded using constant comparison tactics. After data analysis, data showed that the most prevalent barriers described by teachers were workload, off-job workload, the constant need to plan, and constant rumination. These results can help pave the way for future research in this area, as well as the development of comprehensive intervention programs used to assist in promoting recovery in teachers.