Emoticons have been shown to be the nonverbal cues of computer-mediated communication and could therefore be a rich source of information, but they are not used in the workplace because they are considered unprofessional. This study aimed to look at the effects of emoticons on relationships, specifically between a leader and member. Participants were asked to read a fake email from a fake boss and answer several questions in regard to leader-member exchange, affective presence, perceived message positivity, perceived masculinity/femininity of the fake boss, and perceived professionalism. This study found that the use of a positive emoticon in an email message increased leader-member exchange, mediated by positive affective presence (though the use of the emoticon and positive affective presence were not linked). This study also found that when participants received a message with an emoticon, they found the sender to be both more feminine and less professional.

Although the commercially-popular construct of employee engagement has gained attention in scholarly work in recent years, several questions about the construct remain unresolved. In the current paper, I addressed several issues with previous engagement research by (a) meta-analyzing the relationship between employee engagement, task performance, contextual performance, absenteeism, and turnover, (b) using these meta-analytic estimates to fit a series of models in which engagement predicts both specific and broadly-defined work behaviors, and (c) estimating the unique predictive validity of engagement above and beyond job attitudes. Several regression equations and structural equation models were tested using a combination of previous meta-analytic correlations (k = 95) and original meta-analytic correlations (k = 12). Results of the study found that engagement does offer unique incremental validity over several work-related behaviors (task performance, ∆R2 = .037; contextual performance, ∆R2 = .025; turnover, ∆R2 = .083), however this incremental validity has been over-stated in previous research. Results also found that the A-factor (higher order attitudinal construct) is strongly related to behavioral engagement (higher order behavioral construct) (Γ = .62) suggesting that when attitudes and behaviors are examined on the same level of specificity there is a strong predictive relationship between the two. These results suggest that although engagement may not be as unique as previous research has implied it does offer utility in the sense that it acts as a proxy for the A-factor

The current study examines the effects of the five core job characteristics (skill variety, task significance, task identity, autonomy, and feedback) proposed by Hackman-Oldham (1974) at the team level by investigating whether the model variables are related to the effectiveness of a motivationally-based team-level productivity enhancement intervention. Previous literature has almost exclusively focused on the effects of these job characteristics at the individual level and their direct relationships with employee attitudes and subjective measures of performance. This thesis aims to further the job characteristics literature by exploring the effects of the characteristics at the team level, as well as the moderating effect of the team construct of value congruence, while simultaneously exploring boundary conditions of the Productivity Measurement and Enhancement System (ProMES) developed by Pritchard (1990). Hypotheses postulated a negative relationship between the characteristics and intervention effectiveness; such that effectiveness is negatively impacted when the characteristics already exist at high levels. Results, though non-significant, are tenatively suggestive of this counter-intuitive negative relationship between four of the characteristics and intervention effectiveness. Value congruence between team leaders and members was not a significant moderator of the relationship between the characteristics and effectiveness. Results suggest that a more powerful study to further parse out these relationships would be valuable. iii

Although ample research has been conducted to explore employee emotional labor and customer incivility at the workplace, there is limited literature examining the role of surface acting in the stressor-strain relationships associated with customer incivility. The current study focuses on the mediating effect of surface acting between customer mistreatment-emotional exhaustion and customer mistreatment-service sabotage relationships. Based on several theoretical models regarding mental and emotional resources, including the Conservation of Resources Theory and Ego Depletion Theory, it is hypothesized that a significant mediating effect of surface acting can be identified in the customer mistreatment-emotional exhaustion and customer mistreatment-service sabotage relationships. A total of 173 UCF-affiliated participants with at least a month of service working experience were recruited from the UCF SONA system and surveyed their emotional stress and interaction with customers at work to test the hypotheses. The concept of service sabotage was studied at both the individual and environmental levels to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the relationships. Deep acting as a different type of emotional labor was also inspected in the current study. Results revealed the significant relationships between surface acting and customer mistreatment, emotional exhaustion, as well as individual-level service sabotage. Results also supported the hypotheses regarding the mediating effect of surface acting on customer mistreatment predicting emotional exhaustion and individual-level service sabotage, but not environmental-level service sabotage. Theoretical and practical implications, limitations, future research directions are discussed.

This research used quantitative and qualitative methodologies to investigate how working professionals are impacted and account for workplace cultural differences. This paper also sought to make a case for additional quantitative and qualitative research into what shapes and maintains culture by looking at leadership's knowledge of their organization's way of doing things and the impact these multiple knowledge areas have on performance. The literature review section analyzed performance improvement models, the effect of leadership, the behavior engineering model (BEM) and related models, organization culture, and performance. This work also outlined the methodology utilized in studying and reviewing culture and performance. This research aimed to determine a better understanding and increase the use of performance improvement and cultural models to aid organizations in achieving their missions.

The Editorial on the Research Topic. Advances in Research on Age in theWorkplace and Retirement.

Over the past three decades, the workforce has become more age-diverse, leading organizations to recognize the importance of supporting the well-being, motivation, health, and productivity of older workers. Previous research has highlighted the challenges faced by older workers, including ageism, health declines, financial constraints on retirement, and caregiving responsibilities. However, the literature often treats older workers as a homogeneous group, neglecting the significant heterogeneity within this population. This study addressed this gap by adopting a person-centered approach to investigate the diverse experiences of older workers. By leveraging the Psychology of Working Theory (PWT) as a conceptual framework, this study examined how different combinations of working conditions (i.e., job insecurity, income inadequacy, lack of work protections, and vulnerability to mistreatment) relate to psychological constructs and work-related outcomes among older workers. Data were collected from 549 workers over the age of 50 (M=59.24, SD=5.85) within the United States and analyzed using latent profile analysis. The results identified four distinct profiles of older workers: Unprecarious, Bridge Workers, Detached, and Precarious. The profiles were qualitatively and quantitatively different, with the Unprecarious profile characterized by low levels of all indicator variables, and the Precarious profile characterized by high levels of all indicator variables. Detached participants reported feeling stuck in their jobs, and Bridge Workers reported high income inadequacy and feeling unprotected at work, but low job insecurity and vulnerability to mistreatment. Unprecarious participants reported the highest levels of need satisfaction, well- being, and life satisfaction, and the Precarious participants reported the lowest levels on all outcomes, with the Bridge Workers and Detached participants in between. Overall, this study sheds light on the heterogeneity within the older worker population and highlights the importance of considering various combinations of working conditions in understanding their experiences, thus advancing our understanding of this diverse segment of the workforce. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The current body of individual risk behavior research has been mainly driven by two streams of literature. Stable risk researchers propose individuals tend to display similar risk behaviors across time and situations due to individuals' underlying propensity to either engage in risk averse or risk seeking behaviors. Changeable risk researchers have sought out to examine variability in risk behaviors due to factors such as personality and contextual characteristics. However, might it be the case that there are subgroups of individuals who may be more prone to display static risk behaviors and other subgroup whose risk behaviors are more amendable? To better address this question, the current study integrates literature on risk behavior, psychological safety, and personality to investigate the existence of these potential risk behavior classes. Furthermore, supervisor rated performance is captured in order to better understand the potential organizational value of these various risk behavioral classes. Latent class growth modeling revealed five different risk classes: stable risk seeking, stable risk averse, highly adaptive, moderately adaptive, and mixed risk behaviors. Individual personality traits were shown to be significant predictors of class membership, although the pattern of results was somewhat in contrast to predicted relationships. Furthermore, in support of proposed hypothesis, individuals in the highly adaptive risk behavior class received the highest ratings of supervisor rated performance. I discuss results in terms of risk research and organizational practice, and specifically advocate for the increased examination of risk behavior within organizational research.

Distributed teams continue to emerge in response to the complex organizational environments brought about by globalization, technological advancements, and the shift toward a knowledge-based economy. These teams are comprised of members who hold the disparate knowledge necessary to take on cognitively demanding tasks. However, knowledge coordination between team members who are not co-located is a significant challenge, often resulting in process loss and decrements to the effectiveness of team level knowledge structures. The current effort explores the configuration dimension of distributed teams, and specifically how subgroup formation based on geographic location, may impact the effectiveness of a team's transactive memory system and subsequent team process. In addition, the role of task cohesion as a buffer to negative intergroup interaction is explored.

Coaching (professional, business, executive, leadership) has been shown to be effective generally speaking, but questions remain regarding the explanatory mechanisms underlying coaching. I first propose a context-general model that unpacks the sociocognitive dynamics within coaching. The model explains the emergence of different types of coaching relationships, and how the nature of these relationships differentially determine coaching outcomes. Research and theory on social identity construction and information processing in dyads provides the foundation upon which I outline a model describing the process and dynamics of coaching identity emergence. Beyond this emergence, my proposed model states that the coachee's understanding of appropriate interpersonal relations and division of labor between coach and coachee (i.e., his/her situated coaching identity or coaching structure schema) should partially dictate the focus and depth of the coachee's information processing during a coaching engagement. Past research has shown information processing to be a key determinant of decision-making and goal commitment, both of which are desirable outcomes within the coaching domain. To explore these issues, I developed a coaching exercise which simulated some of the early aspects of business, leadership, or executive coaching. During this simulation, participants were guided through a process which enabled them to think and talk about their strengths and weaknesses when using different conflict management behaviors. In discussing these aspects of conflict management, participants and coaches (i.e., trained research associates) walked through a supplementary process to facilitate the development of a series of goals (an "action plan") that would enable the participant to improve his or her conflict management behaviors. At the end of the coaching session, participants were asked to what extent they felt committed to the goals they had developed and whether or not they expected them to be efficacious. Throughout the coaching session, participants were also asked at designated break points to report their levels of information processing and their understanding of the coaching structure schema for that particular coaching relationship. The experimental manipulation was presented at the beginning of the session, wherein the coach would explain to the coachee what the ideal nature of coaching should be. These explanations varied in terms of ascribing responsibility and division of labor - either to a generic coaching process, to the skill and ability of the coach, to the creativity of the participant, or to the joint interaction between coach and participant. Among other things, I hypothesized that coaching structure schemas that emphasized the participant's role in the coaching process would encourage more information processing, and consequently higher levels of goal commitment. Hypotheses were largely confirmed, showing that information processing and coaching structure schemas are important predictors of goal commitment at the end of one coaching session. The effects of the manipulation were mixed. Claiming behaviors - that is, the coach ascribing responsibility for coaching effectiveness to him/herself - were only marginally effective in shaping participants' coaching structure schemas. Granting behaviors - communicating to the participant that they are responsible for coaching effectiveness - were much more effective in facilitating helpful information processing and driving higher levels of goal commitment. One possible explanation for the relative effectiveness of granting over claiming may be that claiming requires a degree of credibility which the coach (again, a trained research associate) had not attained with the participants. Other findings pertain to: (1) the unique variance that independent measures of coach- and coachee-relevant structure schemas contribute to models predicting information processing and goal commitment, (2) the importance of identifying the type or focus of coachee information processing, and (3) the role that psychological mindedness may play in characterizing a more "coachable" coachee. Implications include: (1) measuring coachees' coaching structure schemas, (2) intentionally encouraging a more appropriate schema, (3) measuring coachees' psychological mindedness prior to coaching, and (4) dynamically monitoring coachees' schema and their information processing in order to assure better coaching effectiveness. Future researchers should explore ways to enact these implications and also to further explore the theoretical components of these practical implications, such as: (1) measurement methods for better assessing coaching schemas and information processing, (2) what the ideal timings are for different kinds of coaching schemas, and (3) different ways to encourage maximally adaptive and appropriate coaching structure schemas.