<p> <b>Scope of Study:</b> This study was designed to investigate the lived experiences of middle to executive level leaders who participated in positive psychology coaching during midlife. Through personal interviews, participants shared comprehensive descriptions of their experiences in an effort to provide a deep understanding of the ways in which they benefited both personally and professionally while facing challenges typically associated with middle age. </p><p> <b>Findings and Conclusions:</b> This study generated three major findings that support this effort (1) participating in positive psychology executive coaching provides focus and confidence that facilitates personal and professional growth during midlife by helping clients identify and overcome real life and work challenges while pursuing their over-arching goals; (2) the coaching experience and associated results largely vary from participant to participant based on their wants, goals and aspirations for the future; and (3) the client&rsquo;s perception of coaching impact was tied, at least in part to the length of coaching, the quality of their relationship with the coach and a perceived positive experience. These results support the employment of positive psychology interventions as part of an executive coaching engagement, showing that to do so with midlife clients not only supports their goal achievement, but also facilitates resolution of other work and life challenges over time and within a quality client-coach relationship. </p><p>

<p> The real estate industry is facing several challenges, including the need for real estate agents to experience success within their profession. The goal of this study was to fill the gap in the literature in determining if, and to what degree, experiential and strategic emotional intelligence, gender, and full-time/part-time work status predicted successfulness among real estate agents in central and northern Arizona. This study was based on the ability-based emotional intelligence model. The study utilized the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Tests (MSCEIT) to measure REALTORS&rsquo;^&reg; emotional intelligence level, as well as SurveyMonkey to collect demographic data on the participants. Data analysis was conducted using a single binary logistic regression. Results indicated that experiential emotional intelligence and strategic emotional intelligence are not significant predictors of REALTOR^&reg; success. However, gender and the full-time/part-time work status were found to be significant predictors of REALTOR^&reg; success (<i>OR</i> = 0.307, <i>p</i> = .017 and <i> OR</i> = 3.936, <i>p</i> = .014, respectively). Findings suggest that male real estate agents have a higher likelihood of success than female real estate agents. Additionally, full-time real estate agents have a higher likelihood of success than part-time real estate agents. </p><p>

In this dissertation, I present and test a theory of corporate responsibility. The theory predicts that corporations with “social and economic” ideologies (as opposed to “economic” ideologies) and “people-centered” human resource practices should behave more responsibly toward the outside world. I assessed ideology from annual reports and human resource practices from a survey mailed to the top human resource executive at 651 large, publicly traded corporations. Independent ratings of the social records of corporations provided measures of company behavior. The study controlled for industry, financial status, and size of company. Results provide some support for the theory. Above and beyond control variables, the additive effects of ideology and human resource practices predicted corporate responsibility. Ideology independently predicted company behavior.

In-depth interviews were conducted with twenty police officers. The interviewing process used a phenomenological approach which focused on the meaning that police officers made of their work. "Meaning" relates to the personal interpretations and evaluations that officers make of their work experiences. The interview process consisted of three ninety-minute interviews with each participant. The first interview centered around the question, "How did you come to work as a police officer?" The second interview focused upon the question, "What is it like for you to work as a police officer?" And the third interview asked, "What does it mean to you to work as a police officer?" The interview were audio-recorded and later transcribed. After significant transcript material had been identified, it was then synthesized in two ways: first, as profiles of the participants; and second, as excerpts from the interviews which were woven together with emergent themes that connected the stressful experiences of the participants. Eighteen themes relative to occupational stress emerged from the data. Themes associated with autocratic management practices of police organizations were the most frequently perceived occupational stressors by the participants of this study. The author suggests that police work is no more stressful than other high-stress occupations, though police work seems to be very stressful because autocratic management practices intensify other stressors. Management reform seems to be an important task for the future well being of police officers. If police management styles become more democratic and supportive, there could be an across the board reduction in the negative affects of many occupational stressors. Officer health and job performance could subsequently improve. The author suggests that stress plays a critical role in the meaning that police officers make of their work. Stress has become the currency through which officers exchange meaning. Stress is the psychic Purple Heart of policing and validates an officer's experience.

<p> The purpose of this quantitative research study is to analyze the relationship between individual cognitive, behavioral, and motivational characteristics and sales quota attainment for three industrial sales organizations in West Virginia. The intent of the study is to learn more about organizational efforts to implement an effective system for hiring to identify top performing talent in order to accomplish sales goals. From a human performance improvement perspective, this research study applies both the Behavior Engineering Model (Gilbert, 1978) and the Human Performance Improvement / HPT Model (Van Tiem, Moseley, &amp; Dessinger, 2012). The Behavior Engineering Model allowed the researcher to determine which individual characteristics are relevant for the purpose of this study. The Human Performance Improvement/HPT Model further allowed the researcher to define the issue of the recruiting approach of sales as a performance gap. Individual cognitive, behavioral, and motivational characteristics of 238 sales representatives were assessed using a psychometric assessment tool, the ProfileXT&copy; (Profiles International, I, 2007). A stepwise multiple regression was conducted to evaluate which ProfileXT&copy; scale scores were most effective at predicting sales performance. The only factor significantly related to sales performance was Independence, F (1,236) = 18.286, p &lt; .001, with a multiple correlation coefficient of .268, indicating that approximately 7.18% of the variance in sales performance could be accounted for by independence alone. Further analysis indicated no other significant predictor variables from the ProfileXT&copy; scales. The researcher concluded with recommendations for future research.</p>

<p> PURPOSE. The purpose of this study was to identify the career benefits and calculate the return on investment (ROI) of unpaid volunteer leadership as perceived by chapter leaders in a professional talent development industry association. The definition of career benefits was adapted from Hirschi&rsquo;s Career Resources Model, which includes: social capital, human capital, career identity and psychological resources (2012). Additionally, this study used the ROI Institute&rsquo;s ROI MethodologyTM to identify and calculate the costs and benefits of volunteer leadership to determine the ROI of time served as an unpaid volunteer leader (2013).</p><p> METHODS. This descriptive mixed-method study gathered quantitative and qualitative data via an online survey and semi-structured telephone interviews from 40 volunteer chapter leaders of the Association for Talent Development (ATD). </p><p> FINDINGS. There were multiple positive findings and several levels of ROI data documenting the strong value of volunteer leadership in a professional talent development association, and also demonstrating that there is very positive return from giving back to the profession. By giving their time and sometimes their money, volunteer leaders reaped multiple career benefits such as skill development, deeper relationships, publishing, contracts, speaking opportunities, new jobs and promotions. These specific career benefits resulted in a very significant positive financial ROI of 246%. </p><p> CONCLUSIONS. This study proved the paradox of volunteer leadership &mdash; often the main motivator is to give back, however what volunteer leaders receive is so much more. There is a strong tangible return on investment, as well as numerous intangible career benefits for serving as a volunteer leader in a professional talent development association. RECOMMENDATIONS. This study provides ideas for leveraging the value of volunteer leadership for individuals, associations and organizations. Individuals can improve or enhance their social capital, human capital, psychological resources and career identity. Associations can use this data to provide clear evidence of the value of volunteer leadership. Finally, corporations can encourage volunteer leadership as a tool to enhance or accelerate the leadership development of employees while also supporting professional industry associations.</p>

<p> While there is a great deal of research on attorneys and law firms, the majority of it has focused solely on the attorney &ndash; very little exists regarding legal secretaries and other support staff, or the relationship between attorneys with legal secretaries and other support staff. The current research aimed to address this gap in the literature by examining the antecedents of high-quality attorney-secretary relationships through the framework of Leader-Member Exchange (LMX). Relationship quality was evaluated against values, cognitive styles, and self-identity. Legal assistants were asked to provide ratings for themselves and ratings for how they believed their attorneys would respond and similarity between the attorney and secretary ratings was calculated. Then, the moderating effects of core self-evaluations and emotional intelligence were analyzed. Although the results of this study did not support any of the hypotheses, there are several considerations which might have prevented significant relationships from emerging. Exploratory analyses were also conducted and benevolence was found to be a significant moderator. Implications and future research directions are discussed.</p>

<p> Leadership inequity and gender inequality continue to be a concern in society. While women move forward to achieve greater gender equality, a particular group of women, African Americans and Caribbeans, continue to experience significant challenges in the areas of leadership and gender equality in an organizational setting. For this dissertation research, the focus is on Caribbean women. The purpose of the study is to examine the lived experiences of Caribbean women in senior-level leadership positions. This researcher used Husserl&rsquo;s transcendental phenomenology approach to gain an understanding of each woman&rsquo;s individual experience as a Caribbean woman in her leadership position. The participants in the study were 10 Caribbean women in senior level leadership positions. The data were gathered using a conversational format and open-ended questions to help participants express their feelings on a deeper level. To analyze the data, a line-by-line approach was implemented to determine themes within the collected data. The results were that some of the Caribbean women faced challenges when making attempts to climb the leadership ladder. Those who faced challenges blamed the challenges they faced on the lack of support from family members, management, and their inability to find mentoring and networking services. They became frustrated with these challenges. Leadership theories&mdash;charismatic leadership theory, transformational leadership theory, transactional leadership theory and social identity theory&mdash;were used to guide the data analysis and findings of the study. Each participant reflected on an aspect of leadership and its application to themselves. The participants gained insight into how their social identities may have had an impact on their understanding of themselves in their leadership positions. </p>

<p> As bullying was eventually labeled an adult problem, research refocused from the child&rsquo;s playground to the adult playground&mdash;the workplace. Schoolyard bullies likely grow into workplace bullies when actions are encouraged or ignored. Though workplace bullying (WPB) research has been conducted in the field of general academia little has been done to study bullying in higher education. In addition to the lack of literature, bullying behaviors have been difficult to define and measure. As a result, narrow operational definitions of WPB have been commonplace. Therefore, WPB has gone largely underreported and targets have been fundamentally underrepresented.</p><p> The purpose of this convergent parallel mixed methods study focused on two areas. One focus was to determine whether faculty to faculty WPB across disciplines in higher education impacted organizational trust and commitment in one private, faith-based university in the southeastern United States. The second focus was on the faculty&rsquo;s perceptions of bullying behaviors.</p><p> From the findings it was concluded: (a) targets of WPB exhibited lower organizational trust following the bullying incident, (b) targets of WPB committed to the organization the same following the bullying incident, (c) targets of WPB exhibited lower job satisfaction, (d) targets of WPB perceived bullying behaviors that were grouped into five themes, and (e) targets experienced effects of WPB that were grouped into four themes.</p><p> Implications for practice include recommendations for researchers, leaders and faculty members in higher education, and policy-makers. The study concludes with specific recommendations for further research.</p>

<p> Women are still vastly underrepresented in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, and compared to men, are entering these STEM fields at lower rates and leaving them in higher numbers. The disparity of women in STEM careers damages the diversity of thought essential to innovation and creates an environment encouraging of gender inequality and discrimination. The current study sought to understand the discrimination women perceive in STEM careers, the negative effects these biases may have on job attitudes, and the role coping self-efficacy plays in mitigating these harmful results. Participants were surveyed through MechanicalTurk and responded to questions regarding their experiences of gender discrimination, level of coping self-efficacy, job satisfaction, and intention to quit. Results indicated that greater perceptions of gender discrimination resulted in lower levels of job satisfaction. Coping self-efficacy proved to be a significant moderator of the relationship between gender discrimination and job satisfaction, such that higher levels of coping self-efficacy resulted in greater job satisfaction despite perceptions of discrimination. Training for coping self-efficacy may serve as an effective tool to competently navigate the obstacles to career success that women face in today&rsquo;s workplace.</p>