This dissertation examines what happens when employees witness supervisory abuse in the workplace. In particular, it explores whether-and when-employees will respond to witnessing supervisory abuse of a coworker by engaging in prosocial actions aimed at benefitting the target of abuse. In doing so, it extends work on abusive supervision. Traditionally, abusive supervision research has focused on the impact of abuse on the victim him/herself. However, this work explores the impact of abusive supervision on third party observers. In addition, because abusive supervision represents a form of organizational injustice, this dissertation extends both work on abusive supervision and third party reactions to injustice by considering the positive, prosocial reactions abuse might trigger in employees.

In the hospitality industry, the role of the frontline employee is integral. These employees are the face of the organization and have a strong role in shaping and forming the opinions of consumers by way of their product and service delivery. Therefore, the decisions an employee makes during the product or service delivery is critical in maintaining the relationship with the customer. Employees may be faced with opportunities to better service a customer at the cost of breaking an organizational rule or procedure. When an employee is faced with this dilemma and decides to break the rule on the behalf of the customer knowing the risks involved, this is called prosocial rule breaking. One distinct difference between this concept and general rule breaking is that this is performed as a nonselfish gesture; the employee does not receive any personal benefit. To examine this further, this study investigated the overall propensity to participate in prosocial rule breaking and the impact of the Big Five personality dimensions on prosocial rule breaking. To gain a better understanding of these constructs, a review of literature related to ethical decision making, prosocial behavior, and the five factor theory of personality was conducted. To investigate the research objectives, a purposive sample of frontline employees from a nationally branded restaurant chain completed a four part self-administered questionnaire by answering questions on the five factor personality dimensions through the Big Five Inventory (BFI), a restaurant based scenario followed by Morrison's (2006) prosocial rule breaking scale, a section on demographic information, and an open ended section for qualitative comments. Overall, three-hundred and five (305) usable questionnaires were completed and interpreted. The results demonstrated that this sample of restaurant employees revealed a moderate propensity for prosocial rule breaking. Moreover, the results revealed that the Agreeableness dimension is the most common personality dimension for this group of restaurant employees, but the Conscientiousness domain was the best predictor of one's propensity not to participate in prosocial rule breaking. The implications for managers from this study indicate a need for managers to recognize and encourage prosocial behaviors from their employees. They also need to understand which personality domains contribute to prosocial behavior, which can ultimately have implications for hiring, selection, and training.

Volunteering has been demonstrated to increase various outcomes of health and well-being. However, it has not been utilized as a therapeutic tool for transitional aged youth (TAY), who demonstrate disparate outcomes in various areas of health and well-being. The author hypothesizes that engaging in volunteering with application of the “8 C’s” framework will lead to improved well-being and empowerment. The author designed We Rise by Lifting Others (WRBLO), a nine-week program to engage TAY in volunteering while incorporating opportunities to experience the “8 C’s”: Control, Choice, Confidence, feeling Capable, Connection, Community, being Cared for by others, and Caring for others. In addition to the “8 C’s”, key components of WRBLO include participating in a weekly volunteer project, virtual group meetings, peer and mentor support from others with lived experience in the foster care system, and opportunities for skill building. This innovative program aims to increase well-being and empowerment outcomes for TAY and provide evidence that volunteering can be an effective tool for marginalized communities.

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Numerous researchers have argued early adolescent behavior patterns are among the best predictors of later achievement and social-psychological adjustment outcomes. In the current study, a secondary data analysis was conducted to determine the extent to which four prosocial behaviors (cooperation, assertiveness, self-control and prosocial behaviors toward peers) and two forms of aggression (overt and relational) influence academic performance (as indexed by GPA and standardized achievement scores). Additionally, the potential moderating role of two school environment variables (perception of school climate and teacher bonding) were also considered in order to further examine the social-emotional environment of middle schools. Examining concurrent relations between grade 5 social behaviors and academic performance revealed all four forms of prosocial behavior were positively related to higher academic performance. Predictive relations between grade 6 social behaviors and academic outcomes at grade 9 indicated that of the four prosocial behaviors and two forms of aggression, cooperation alone predicted the likelihood of later academic achievement. Finally, it was hypothesized that prosocial behaviors, perception of school climate and teacher bonding would serve as moderators between aggression and academic performance; however, this prediction was unsupported. By drawing attention to the limited typology employed in studying prosocial behavior, as well as the methodological challenges that arise when examining these behaviors during adolescence, the hope is to spur research geared towards a more comprehensive understanding of prosocial development. / Master of Science

The most common school-based interventions to prevent victimization from bullying use disciplinary methods and increase playground supervision. While enforcement approaches can prevent bullying, the effects are often short term and may lead to undesirable side effects. Thus, it seems a positive approach to increase prosocial behavior and prevent victimization is needed. This study evaluated the Actively Caring for People (AC4P) approach in four Southwest Virginia middle schools. Sixth and seventh grade students from two schools (n=209) participated in a five-week prosocial-focused curriculum, while 194 students served in the control group. All participants completed pre and post-test measures on their prosocial behavior performed and received, aggressive victimization and aggression performed, as well as bullying victimization and bullying performed to others. Linear regression and binary logistic regression were used to assess the impact of the Intervention. Follow-up moderator analyses were performed to assess the impact of Intervention Fidelity, Classroom Climate, Coaches' Entity Prosocial Mindset, and Role Model Perceptions. No intervention effects were observed and no moderators of the intervention were significant. Implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed. / Master of Science

Kindness movements toward a kinder more compassionate world are proliferating worldwide. One of the key challenges facing these movements is attracting and sustaining members. This research identified a range of dispositional, motivational, and contextual factors significantly related to participation in a kindness movement initiated on the Virginia Tech campus after the tragic shootings on April 16, 2007: the AC4P Movement. Strongly resembling existing research on motivational functions served by volunteerism, the present research identified five motives for participation in kindness movements: social action, gratitude expression, social enhancement, impression management, and protective. Additionally, regression analysis identified a model with five significant predictors of participation: required participation, history of traumatic experience, belief that society is in danger, extroversion, and social action motivation. Findings are integrated within the context of Geller's (2016) model of empowerment. / Ph. D. / Kindness movements to inspire a kinder more compassionate culture are proliferating worldwide. These movements reflect a novel and potentially effective means for promote acts of kindness within and between individuals. To date, however, the factors that influence participation in kindness movements have not been systematically investigated. The present research aimed to determine whether key motivational, dispositional, and contextual factors influence participation in a worldwide kindness movement initiated at Virginia Tech: the Actively Caring for People (AC4P) Movement. Participation was defined as having passed an AC4P wristband on to another person as a reward for performing an act of kindness. Related to prior research on motivation and volunteerism, the present research identified five motives for participating in kindness movements: social action, gratitude expression, social, impression management, and protective. Both social action and gratitude expression related significantly to whether an individual passed on a wristband to reward another person for an act of kindness. How these motives were derived and their defining features are described in the following pages. A number of dispositional factors (i.e., extroversion, exposure to traumatic experience, religiosity, spirituality, and beliefs regarding the state of the world and the importance of recognizing others for acts of kindness) and contextual factors (i.e., the context in which the AC4P wristband was received and passed on) were also assessed. Extroversion, exposure to traumatic experience, beliefs about the state of the world and the importance of recognizing others, receiving a wristband one-on-one for an act of kindness as opposed to receiving a wristband in a group setting, and being assigned the task of passing on a wristband to another person were all significantly correlated with passing on an AC4P wristband. Once the motivational, dispositional, and contextual variables that significantly correlated with having passed on a wristband were determined, the relative influence of each variable was assessed. A model was revealed in which five of the included variables, when considered within the context of one another, predicted whether an individual would or would not pass on a wristband with a reasonably high degree of reliability. The five variables were: a group assignment to participate, history of a traumatic experience, belief that society is in danger, extroversion, and social action motivation. These findings were integrated within the context of Geller’s (2016) model of empowerment and their implications for developing intervention strategies to attract and sustain participation are discussed.