In this dissertation, I explore women's non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Pakistan. NGOs in Pakistan offer an opportunity to study activism in action and analyze the various strategies and modes of argumentation used by women's NGOs to advance women's rights in a conservative environment. This study is an attempt to break down some of the dichotomies that often characterize the debate on NGOs---civil society vs. the state, democratic vs. non-democratic, feminist vs. non-feminist---and instead place the activities, visions and agendas of women's NGOs in their historical, political, cultural, and social contexts. Between January and June 2004, I collected data in Pakistan by (1) engaging in participant observation with three NGOs ranging along a continuum of advocacy and feminist agendas, (2) personal interviews with NGO employees all over Pakistan, government officials and some senior officials at international donor agencies, and (3) analyzing published materials produced by NGOs such as mission statements, reports, strategy papers, posters and calendars as well as newspaper articles and reports on NGOs. I address the following questions through my research: What factors influence whether NGOs follow feminist agendas or more conservative ones? What kinds of strategies do they employ to ensure their survival in a conservative environment? Do these strategies involve compromises that undermine a feminist agenda? At the core of this study are some lingering questions about feminism and activism. How do we and should we define feminism? What are the consequences for NGOs, and activism in general, of compromising on feminist ideals? How should we understand these compromises given the "ground realities" of activism in a country like Pakistan? How does the position of NGOs within a larger social, cultural, and political context shape and/or constrain their visions and activities? I argue that the ground realities (which differ from place to place) often dictate to a large extent the scope, nature, and strength of activism and feminism in a given context. This is an important step in furthering the debate and filling some of the theoretical gaps in the scholarship on the role and nature of activism, NGOs, and feminism.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not there is a significant relationship between job satisfaction, job involvement, perceived organizational support, and organizational commitment among educators. A review of the literature revealed there is limited research that examined organizational behaviors among educators. Organizational commitment has been identified as a leading factor impacting an employee's level of success in various organizations. There remains a gap in the current literature regarding specific attitudinal behaviors influencing organizational commitment across various levels of education. Organizational commitment among educators employed at the primary, secondary, and postsecondary levels was examined. The sample for this study included 900 educators in a southern U.S. state. Based on the social exchange and leader member Exchange theories, this study used a nonexperimental quantitative design. The data were analyzed using three hierarchical multiple regressions. The findings of this study revealed a significant relationship between job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment. Given the significance of these findings, promotion of dialogue within education could enhance social exchange relations, employee involvement, and educator commitment. Social change implications include the improvement of the educational services and student success outcomes and promotion of the importance of quality workplace exchanges, personal growth, leadership, scholarship, collaboration, and the benefits of a highly committed workforce.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has experienced decreased return on investment caused by hiring too many air traffic controller specialists (ATCSs) who performed poorly in field training, thus failing to become certified professional controllers (CPCs). Based on Schmidt and Hunter's theory of job performance and biodata theory, this quantitative, archival study examined whether factors of cognitive ability and biodata could predict job performance status of 2 generations of ATCSs, poststrike (PS) and next generation (NG) controllers. For each generation of controllers, binary logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine if any of the independent variables---transmuted composite (TMC) score for PS controllers, Air Traffic and Selection and Training (AT-SAT) test score for NG controllers, average of high school arithmetic/math letter grade, overall high school average letter grade, self-estimation of time to become fully effective in the ATCS role, self-estimation of percentile ranking in the FAA program relative to the class, size of neighborhood raised, or socioeconomic status---are significant predictors of job performance status for controllers as measured by whether they pass the field OJT (i.e., certified or still in training, or failed certification or left training). The regression results for the PS and NG controllers were found to be statistically significant (chi2 (23) = 68.377, p < .001) and (chi 2 (17) = 99.496, p < .001), respectively. Findings that overall high school grade point average and socioeconomic status significantly predicted ATCS job performance for both PS and NG controllers could influence the FAA's use of revised biodata to better predict ATCS job performance. Further research should include studies of socioeconomic status, gender, and race to address new evidence that the AT-SAT has adverse impact.

Hierarchies within organizations like the military have often contributed to feelings of subordination and have contributed to lower employee autonomy and a decrease in job satisfaction, motivation, and performance. Other constructs, such as those relating to personality, have been eluded to explain the variance in the poor outcomes. However, despite the research on dominance, autonomy, and personality constructs, there has been little investigation to bridge together the structure and dynamics of personality and autonomy. By applying interpersonal, boundary, control, and contingency theories, this quantitative study bridged the gap between hierarchical levels of military rank, the personality construct of relative dominance, and perceived autonomy in a convenience sample of United States Air Force pararescuemen ( N = 72). Based on a multiple linear regression and post hoc logistic regressions, results indicated that relative dominance and military rank equally and significantly explained the variance in total perceived autonomy for pararescuemen. These findings question the current rank-centric military hierarchy and highlight the importance of personality and qualitative factors that influence perceived autonomy in pararescue, a critical variable throughout organizational psychology. These findings have positive social change implications by encouraging a paradigm shift from a rank-centric to position-centric structure for pararescuemen, a shift that may improve personnel/resource management; reduce organizational costs for military personnel; and increase overall job satisfaction, motivation, performance, recruitment, and retention.

<p>The study of character strengths is a promising new approach available to positive psychology in its campaign to focus on the positive aspects of people, work and society, and encourage individuals to thrive in all aspects of their lives. Character strengths have been linked to satisfaction with life, but no previous work has investigated <em>how</em> these positive aspects of individuals lead to greater life satisfaction. The current work investigates how different combinations of character strengths, termed strength profiles, predict the use of two emotion regulation strategies, cognitive reappraisal and emotional suppression. Also investigated was the ability of these strength profiles to predict associative creativity, positive and negative affect, and life satisfaction.</p> <p>A sample of 205 students was used. Participants completed the Virtues in Action survey of character strengths, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, Satisfaction with Life Scale and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. An experimental design was employed to investigate the effects of positive and negative emotions on performance on a task requiring associative creativity, the Remote Associates Test. Furthermore, the relationship between character strengths and emotion regulation strategy was investigated.</p> <p>Character strengths predicted cognitive reappraisal as a preferred method of emotion regulation. Character strengths also positively predicted positive affect, negatively predicted negative affect, and were positively associated with satisfaction with life. Additionally, cognitive reappraisal mediated the relationship between a profile designed to up-regulate positive emotions and self-reports of positive emotions.</p> <p>Results were compared for the proposed strength profiles and Peterson and Seligman's (2004) original six virtues. Differences in predictive ability between the strength profiles and virtues are highlighted. Finally, theoretical and practical implications and future research directions are suggested.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>The Stereotype Content Model was used to challenge the untested assertion of the social identity/self-categorization perspective that different others will be seen as untrustworthy. Results from a sample of 29 student teams showed that trustworthiness perceptions were positively related to cognitive and bio-demographic diversity. Member satisfaction was also positively related to cognitive diversity. Trustworthiness perceptions mediated the relationship between team diversity and members’ satisfaction. First round satisfaction predicted second round team performance. The results suggest that outgroup bias is not automatic; teams can be successful if members see each other as trustworthy, regardless of cognitive or bio-demographic diversity.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Community college student support services are an important aspect of success among community college students. Theoretical and empirical models of organizational politics and withdrawal guided the expectation that community college employees who perceive their organizations as political may withdrawal from their organization, diminishing the services delivered to students at the institution. A multisite cross-sectional survey design was utilized to gather quantitative data via Survey Monkey from national professional organizations. Two-hundred seventeen usable surveys from community college administrators (executive, mid-level managers, and administrators) were gathered. Data were analyzed via correlation and regression models to examine if political skill reduced or moderated the relationship between perception of organizational politics and work withdrawal behaviors. Employee political skill was a partial antidote, reducing the effect of organizational politics on withdrawal behaviors, but there was not a significant interaction moderating effect. Recommendations include political skill training for community college administrators as part of their professional development program, as well as including graduate education components and new employee orientation programs. Such training could lead to positive social change in community college settings by increasing levels of service and job satisfaction and reducing attrition among community college administrators, leading to higher levels of community college student satisfaction and graduation rates.

Organizational learning is a topic that has been widely studied under a number of different approaches. The common, essential themes that are present in any theory of organizational leaning reflect the necessity of balancing explorative and exploitative tendencies within organizations. Organizational learning is the key to organizational effectiveness and development, and involves a collective action and mindset that allows for the reflection of current processes and the reevaluation of the efficiency of these processes within organizational structures. In this way, knowledge is embedded into organizational systems so that continuous learning can be implemented on an organizational scale. As a result, a culture of continually restructuring the organization will be established, resulting in the maximizing of organizational growth and efficiency. Although the topic has been proven to be heavily theory-based, there have been numerous cases in which organizational learning was successfully implemented, resulting in organizational flourishing. All organizations are capable of becoming learning organizations, and should seek to practice organizational learning for the purpose of growth in both individuals and organizations.

Employees in many occupations deplete cognitive resources of attention and energy (Dodge, 1913; Kahneman, 1973), impacting performance on subsequent work tasks (Dalal, Bhave, & Fiset, 2014). Individuals spend upwards of 10% of formal work time taking a break completing non-work tasks (Esteves, 2013; McGehee & Owen, 1940) in an effort to replenish these resources (Fritz, Lam, & Spritzer, 2011; Kim et al., 2014). This study used a randomized controlled experiment to answer three questions that are new contributions to the literature. First, I explored if engaging in a specific activity (watching a funny video, meditating, or completing a different work task) during the microbreak helped induce recovery processes. Second, I questioned if an individual’s appraisal (psychological detachment, relaxation, and enjoyment) of the break impacted outcomes in addition to, or potentially more than, engaging in a break activity. Third, I investigated if the time duration (1-minute, 5-minute, or 9-minute) of the microbreak impacted outcomes. Results show that taking any break between work tasks allowed individuals to feel less fatigued, more energized, and more attentive. Surprisingly, in many instances a 1-minute break was just as effective as taking a longer break of 5 or 9 minutes, and for these shorter break periods, engaging in a different work task for a short period rather than disengaging from work was the best at improving attention. In addition, to increase feeling energized at work, appraising the break as being enjoyable was more important than the actual break activity. Combined, this study has both an academic and practical impact, finding that just like with work that depletes physical resources, short breaks also benefit employees engaging in work that depleted cognitive resources.