<p> In this study, I examine the influence of construals (interpretations) and mindsets on professional skepticism in auditors. Auditors have been criticized lately for not displaying enough professional skepticism, particularly in their audits of complex estimates (PCAOB 2008). Regulators speculate about and academic research shows a correlation between low professional skepticism and both audit failures and audit malpractice claims (Beasley et al. 2001; Anderson and Wolfe 2002). I hypothesize that prolonging the deliberative mindset in the audit judgment and decision-making process can increase professional skepticism in auditors. </p><p> Experienced auditors take part in a 1 x 3 between-participants experiment in which they play the role of a senior auditor charged with evaluating a client's fair value estimate. I manipulate the type of mindset (deliberative or implemental) invoked by the evidence documentation instructions and have a third condition in which participants do not have to document audit evidence. Using multiple measures of professional skepticism, I find that auditors in the deliberative mindset condition display higher professional skepticism than both auditors in the implemental mindset condition and auditors in the no documentation condition. I further analyze the types of textual responses entered by the auditors and offer direction for future research in this area. </p>

<p> The purpose of the quasi-experimental study was to determine the effectiveness of Solution-Focused Brief Coaching as a specific intervention in executive coaching. The study used a pretest-posttest design with an experimental group and a control group. Six executives received six coaching sessions during this study. Twelve executives, serving as control subjects, did not receive coaching by any method. Measurement tools (the Working Alliance Inventory, the Goal Attainment Survey and the Satisfaction With Life Scale) provided quantitative outcome data to determine behavior, performance, and emotional change associated with use of SFBC (the independent variable). These measurement tools (the dependent variables) were administered to both groups before and after the 6-week coaching intervention. The WAI &ndash; C pretest showed significant differences between the groups suggesting that coaches perceived the working alliance of coached participants to increase to a significantly larger degree than the noncoached group. The SWLS pretest showed significant differences between the groups suggesting that the group that sought coaching had a lower satisfaction with life than the control group at the beginning of the coaching engagement. While the GAS did not produce statistically significant results there was a large effect size suggesting that a very clear difference exists between the two groups. The results of the study provided preliminary empirical support for use of SFBC as an executive-coaching intervention. Recommendations based on the study&rsquo;s results include replication of the study with a larger sample, additional studies reflective of more rigorous research designs, and use of professional coaches in research studies.</p>

<p> In the United States, 40% of the contemporary nursing workforce is comprised of women of childbearing age, 65% of whom are employed full-time. Hence, the likelihood of pregnancy occurring for this population at some point in their employment is high. A holistic exploration of how nurses integrate pregnancy and full-time employment has been lacking. The purpose of this research was to explore how primiparous nurses managed pregnancy and full-time employment. Using a grounded theory approach, nurses who were pregnant and delivered their first baby, while employed full-time on 12-hour work shifts, provided a firsthand account of how they incorporated pregnancy with employment. </p><p> Nurses, as social actors, experience many interactions in their workplace environment. The basic social process, <i>becoming someone different </i>, emerged to explain those interactions and allowed a substantive grounded theory to be developed. From that exploration, the researcher will present the basic social process, <i>becoming someone different</i>, and the four core categories that arose from the analysis: 1) <i> looking different, feeling different</i> &ndash; to explain how the physical and emotional changes of pregnancy result in nurses looking and feeling differently about themselves as nurses; 2) <i>expectations while expecting</i> &ndash; where the nurse, with previous experiences and ideas about what is expected of her and what she expects from others, changes how she sees herself, based upon her interactions in the workplace with her peers and coworkers; 3) <i>connecting differently</i> &ndash; explains how the nurse, while pregnant, develops new relationships and interactions with the people in her environment, specifically her peers, coworkers and patients, and 4) <i>transitioning labor</i> &ndash; where, despite challenges from interactions within the workplace from coworkers or tasks, the participant nurses began to focus on their eventual maternity leave and working as long as possible up to the time of delivery in order to prolong that maternity leave.</p>

To explore how CEOs justify organizational performance to shareholders, this study utilized content analysis of 250 CEOs' letters found in annual reports to shareholders. Results suggest that CEOs disclose a higher proportion of negative information and a lower proportion of positive information to the extent that their company performs poorly. CEOs used more total causal attributions and more external attributions to the extent that their company performed poorly. Variables such as CEO turnover and percentage of outside shareholders were found to moderate the relationship between performance of a company and the impression management techniques used in the CEO's letter. CEO turnover and percentage of outside shareholders moderated the relationship between performance and disclosures. A stronger correlation of negative disclosures with company was found when there was high CEO turnover than when turnover was low. Also, a stronger correlation between these two variables was found when there was a higher proportion of outside shareholders. Results additionally indicate that impressions of the company differ depending on the type of language utilized within the report. That is, subjects had more positive impressions of a CEO and company to the extent that the CEO disclosed positive information and utilized visionary language in the CEO's letter. These results provided partial support for the hypotheses that CEOs are influenced by previous corporate performance and the type of constituency in the letter of the annual report and that the wording of the letter influences impressions of the company.

Recent analyses of assessment center ratings have demonstrated that assessors who are trained to make dimension-based assessments may instead base their judgments on information other than dimension performance. This study evaluated the effects of enhanced accountability to make justifiable behavioral recordings and evaluations on assessor accuracy. Specifically, it was predicted that enhanced accountability to justify ratings and behavioral observations would lead assessors to make more accurate ratings and observations, as compared to the ratings and observations made by assessors whose personal accountability was not enhanced. Results showed that when accountability was not enhanced, as predicted, assessors relied on extraneous performance information (exercises, personality evaluations) when making their overall ratings. Assessors whose accountability was enhanced used only dimension information when making overall ratings, made more efficient behavioral observations and classifications, and had higher overall rating accuracy than did assessors whose accountability was not enhanced. However, enhanced accountability did not result in significantly different overall confidence of assessors in their decisions as compared to those whose accountability had not been enhanced.

Consistent with previous findings, interviewers' postinterview evaluations of applicants for correction officer positions were positively related to preinterview information on the applicants. The interviewer's conduct of the interview appeared to mediate this effect in a manner consistent with the behavioral confirmation predictions of a process model of the interview (Dipboye, 1982). Individual differences among interviewers were found in the extent to which they used preinterview information in reaching their decisions. Additionally, the instructions which interviewers were provided with appeared to play a role in the manner in which interviewers rendered their ratings about applicants on ten interview dimensions.

Two laboratory experiments were conducted to examine the effect of interview structure on recruiting outcomes. The first study was a 2 x 2 x 2 between subjects design in which subjects were presented with transcripts of either a structured or unstructured interview and information describing the organization as either affiliative or achievement oriented and the job as either data or socially oriented. Subjects rated numerous recruiting outcomes concerning their perceptions of the interviewer, organization, and job. The results of study 1 supported the hypothesis that structured interviews negatively influenced recruiting outcomes. Subjects given structured interviews rated the interviewer, organization, and job less favorably than subjects given unstructured interviews. The hypothesis that subjects would rate organizations congruent with their personal interests more favorably was not confirmed with examination of the individual difference measures of need for achievement and need for affiliation. However, some support was found for person-organization congruence with individual item measures of self-perceived organization and job fit. Study 2 was a 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 within subjects design in which specific attributes of the interview structure were examined: Job-relevance of questions, question standardization, applicant voice, and interviewer warmth. The findings revealed more favorable reactions to the interview when interviews were high in applicant voice and interviewer warmth, and low in question standardization. When the interview was high in applicant voice and interviewer warmth, and low in question standardization and job relevance, organizational attractiveness was rated more favorably. Of the four factors, applicant voice and interviewer warmth had the largest effects, followed by question standardization and job-relevance.

Interviewers' questioning behavior and predictive validity of applicant ratings varies considerably in unstructured interviews. A model hypothesizing a relationship between these variables is tested in this study. The model proposes that the relationship between interviewer questioning behavior and evaluation validity is mediated by the diagnosticity of applicant information that is collected during the interview. The process and content of three interviewers' questioning of 149 candidates for an entry-level correctional officer position was examined. Although the complete information gathering model was not supported, a robust relationship between questioning behavior and information diagnosticity emerged. Furthermore, the validity of individual interviewers' applicant evaluations varied considerably. These results reinforce the existence of differences in interviewers' questioning behavior and differences in the quality of applicant information they gather. Because differences in questioning behavior correspond to differences in the predictive validity of applicant ratings, both these variables should be monitored at the individual interviewer level.

The present study examines the effect of personal predispositions, including personality and leadership strategy preference, on the enactment of leadership strategies. The extent to which self-monitoring ability moderates the effect of personal predispositions was also examined. Results showed that masculine individuals enacted leadership strategies more effectively than feminine individuals. Results also showed that congruence between the situation and the leadership strategy was related to the effective enactment of a leadership strategy. However, individuals were able to effectively switch leadership strategies when asked to do so, despite the situation. Predispositions had some relationship to the ability to switch leadership strategies from meeting to meeting. Although individuals were able to switch strategies, they tended to enact the strategy congruent with the situation more effectively than they enacted the strategy that was incongruent with the situation. Self-monitoring did not moderate any of the relationships examined.

A synopsis of current management work theory and research is presented, followed by an overview of the current concerns and criticisms. In an effort to move beyond the criticisms, a guide to management work theory is developed and presented. One of the avenues suggested for the advancement of management work theory is the development of a multi-faceted managerial job analysis instrument. The design plans for the development of such a tool, EXCEL - The Executive Checklist, are recorded, and the results of an initial field testing are reported. Based on the current dimensional picture of managerial work, built to avoid the shortcomings of the currently available approaches, and developed to capitalize on recent advances in the field, it is hoped that EXCEL will contribute to the applied task of measuring managerial jobs, as well as participate in the broader quest for an understanding of the nature of managerial work and behavior.