Volunteer service accounts for a substantial percentage of America’s workforce and GDP. Numerous organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and the American Red Cross have come to rely heavily on volunteer service. Due to the recent economic downturn and resulting budgetary cuts in the government sector, non-profit organizations have had to assume greater responsibility for providing services such as health care and education. Considering the importance of volunteer service to society, this literature review seeks to identify the key functional motives for volunteers. With a particular focus on the functional motivation theory and the six most prominent motives – values, enhancement, understanding, career, social, and protective – this paper explores the general trends, gender difference, and age differences in volunteer motivation. In addition, it discusses the practical implications of knowledge about volunteer motivation on recruiting and retaining volunteers.

Every year, the Chief Executive Group compiles a list of "Best Companies for Leadership Development" that measures corporations against a variety of leadership criteria. Though some organizations move on or off the list from year to year, a handful has consistently ranked in the top 10 for several consecutive years. Coincidentally, these companies also happen to be among the most respected and most profitable. Research has shown that workforce commitment, innovation, and engagement are driving factors in productivity and profitability. More recent research has shown that effective management and strong leaders are the driving factors in an engaged and productive workforce. In light of this, the purpose of this literature review is to draw connections between leadership, an effective workforce, and profitability. General Electric and Procter & Gamble are two organizations that have consistently ranked in the top of a wide variety of lists. As giants of leadership development, these two corporations are analyzed in order to better understand the specific, innovative practices employed to foster a strong leadership pool. Furthermore, this review investigates how the effective leaders build a culture of worker engagement and commitment.

The current study assessed the convergent validity of the Situational Assessment of Leadership – Student Assessment (SALSA©) and multi-source ratings in Division I intercollegiate athletic teams. Identified student-athlete team leaders were asked to complete the SALSA©, which assesses eight dimensions of leadership. By assessing the relationship between SALSA© scores and multi-source ratings (i.e., self, teammate, and coach), of the same eight leadership dimensions, a unique multi-dimensional perspective of leadership is revealed. Results indicated a significant positive relationship between overall SALSA© scores and overall self and coach performance ratings. Overall SALSA© scores also were significantly correlated with Overall Leadership Effectiveness peer-ratings. The dimension of Problem Solving/Innovation was significantly correlated with self-, peer-, and coach-ratings. Influencing Others and Communication SALSA© scores were significantly correlated with the self rating for their respective dimension. Self-ratings were significantly higher than any other source of rating. This study further validates the effectiveness of the SALSA© to identify and predict leadership behavior.

This study explored the effect of directions on the Least Preferred Coworker (LPC) scale; specifically, this study tested whether thinking of a generalized least preferred coworker (General LPC) would yield lower scores compared to thinking of a specific least preferred coworker (Specific LPC). The data supported this hypothesis as responses to the General LPC yielded more critical LPC scores than did responses to the Specific LPC. The hypothesis that thinking of a generalized least preferred coworker would yield more stable result than would thinking of a specific least preferred coworker was not supported. Finally, the hypothesis that LPC scores would shift categories (e.g., shifting from task-oriented to relations-oriented) more when thinking of a specific least preferred coworker than when thinking of a general least preferred coworker was not supported. This study provides supportive evidence of the importance of using the original test directions during test administrations.

Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) is considered behavior that benefits others, but is not a part of the employee’s job description. Research has indicated that OCB can be divided into two categories, behavior that is directed towards other individuals (OCBI) and behavior that is directed towards the organization (OCBO). Research has also suggested that there are three different motives behind OCB, impression management, prosocial values, and organizational concern. This study examines the relationship between the motives and the type of OCB that is performed. The results failed to indicate that motives matter in determining which type of OCB is performed. Additionally, participants in all three motives were more likely to engage in OCBO behavior than in OCBI behavior.

A 12-month longitudinal study assessed the emotional reactions of an intercollegiate athletic team to a near fatal bus incident. PANAS-X and the Brief COPE, administered on five occasions, indicated NA declined over time. Most coping strategies showed significant changes in trajectory. Acceptance and Positive Reframing were high across waves. In October 2010, an intercollegiate athletic team and coaching staff were traveling by sleeper bus to an out-of-state match. The team members and coaches were in the back of the bus when they felt the bus swaying and heard the tires hit the rumble strips. The head coach went forward to find the bus driver unconscious and slumped over the steering wheel. Although the bus swerved into the oncoming lane of interstate traffic and back onto the other shoulder, the coach was able to steer the bus and stop it safely on the side of the road. The bus driver had suffered a fatal heart attack; fortunately, the coaches and players survived with only minor injuries. This study is a longitudinal follow up assessing the emotional reactions of the coaches and team to the bus incident across a twelve-month time frame. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule - Expanded (PANAS-X; Watson & Clark, 1994) and the Brief COPE (Carver, 1997) were administered on five occasions. Negative affect declined over time, with a larger drop in waves more proximal to the incident. Positive affect demonstrated a curvilinear pattern showing increases on the second and third wave but dropped off at the end of the spring semester 2011 and the beginning of the fall semester 2011. There were significant changes in the coping trajectories for 10 of the 14 coping strategies from the Brief COPE. These data are of particular interest as we could locate no other studies in the published literature of individual athlete or team reactions to traumatic travel incidents, although ESPN (Lavigne, 2010) noted that bus safety should be a concern for team travel.

The purpose of the current study is to determine whether eliciting the need for assimilation or the need for differentiation influences individuals’ identification with a given team. Team identification is defined as a fan’s psychological connection to a team; that is, the extent to which the fan views the team as an extension of him or herself (Wann, Melnick, Russell, & Pease, 2001). It is important to understand potential factors that may motivate and potentially increase one’s identification with a particular team. The sample consisted of 106 participants attending Western Kentucky University. The participants completed the Sport Fandom Questionnaire (SFQ) and the Need for Affiliation (nAff) scale. Participants were presented with one of three randomly assigned scenarios, and were asked to transcribe two memories, dependent upon the previously assigned scenario. Following this, the gambling scenario was described. Participants rated how identified they were with both the underdog and favored team, regardless of their choice. It was hypothesized that those who are primed to experience the feelings of assimilation will wager more money on and be more highly identified with a team that is a prohibitive favorite. Also, it was hypothesized that those who are primed to experience the feelings of differentiation will wager more money on and be more highly identified with a team that is a large underdog. Results indicated that the hypotheses were not supported; however, significance was approached, as participants who were primed for feelings of differentiation tended to choose the underdog football team. Regardless of condition, participants tended to wager more money on the favorite football team, as opposed to the underdog football team.

The current study is a significant portion of a content validation study conducted to evaluate new selection tools developed by an organization. In it I assessed the content validity of a structured interview through the following steps: conducting a literature review to establish best practices, reviewing the data gathering process, conducting data analyses, recommending item weights, evaluating the validity of the interview, suggesting standardized materials, creating a plan for training for interview use, and ensuring documentation is kept as required by law. The data were collected internally by the organization and were provided for analyses. Analyses included one-way ANOVAs, and the calculation of r*wg for the Subject Matter Expert (SME) importance ratings. Results indicated that the SME ratings exhibited acceptable interrater agreement and that all competencies were important. Therefore, the interview based on these ratings has acceptable content validity. Recommendations were provided to the organization regarding possible alternatives and the impact that the decisions made would have on the resulting validity.

The profession of nursing is experiencing a shortage of qualified nursing professionals. Hospitals understaffed with nurses are likely to experience several negative consequences including low quality care, which places the health and safety of patients at risk. In order to ensure an effective selection process for hospital nurses, a structured situational interview, developed using a content validation approach, was validated using a criterion-related approach. Interviews that have a high degree of structure consistently demonstrate higher predictive validities with job performance than do interviews with less structure. The structured situational interview in this study had a high degree of structure and was developed after a job analysis was completed. Interviewee responses were evaluated using a behavioral summation scale. The results of the current study confirmed the hypothesis that there would be a positive relationship between nursing student interview scores and Grade Point Average, thus indicating that the structured interview should be useful in the selection of professionals in the field of nursing. However, the observed validity coefficient (r = .29) was lower than expected based on a review of previous research on the criterion-related validity of structured situational interviews. It is recommended that future research with this instrument use a larger sample of nurse incumbents as participants and nurse managers as interviewers. Additional interview items, developed following a content validity approach, would likely increase the reliability and the validity of the interview

What motivates one to write a thesis? This study assessed whether presenting one’s master’s thesis proposal at a thesis colloquium increased the probability of Industrial/Organizational I/O) Psychology graduate students completing their thesis on time (i.e., finishing their thesis as they finished their graduate coursework). This study also examined the relationship between presenting one’s thesis proposal at a thesis colloquium and different forms of motivated regulation and three basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness). Participants included 94 master’s level I/O Psychology alumni from four universities. As expected, students who presented at a thesis colloquium had a higher rate of on-time thesis completion. Students who presented at a thesis colloquium also reported a higher level of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation toward their thesis, and a lower level of amotivation toward their thesis compared to students who did not present at a colloquium. Reported level of relatedness toward individuals who helped work on the thesis was higher for those who presented at a thesis colloquium than for those who did not present. However, there were no differences between those who did or did not present at a colloquium in terms of reported competence and autonomy.