Whereas the superior reliability and validity of structured interviews over unstructured interviews has been consistently indicated (e.g., Wright, Lichtenfels, & Pursell, 1989), the semi-structured interview has not been formally examined. Depending on its structure, the semi-structured interview's reliability and validity will vary. Defined dimensions should enhance validity, whereas standard questions and benchmark responses should increase reliability. The semi-structured interview could be equally reliable or valid as the structured interview and with its optimal structure, the most practical. The interrater reliability, predictive validity, and practicality of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured interviews were examined in a medical school setting involving assessing non-cognitive and cognitive skills of medical school students Three interview formats were developed to predict performance of 93 medical students during their clinical clerkship year. Staff, residents, and advanced students acted as interviewers. Structured interviewers used defined dimensions, standard and situational questions, and benchmark responses. Semi-structured interviewers used defined dimensions only. Unstructured interviewers received only the dimensional titles. Each student was assigned to one of the formats and interviewed twice. Also, students and interviewers evaluated the practicality of the interviews. Criteria were constructed using evaluations of the students' clerkship performance and written exams The structured interview had the best interrater reliability over six scales (for a composite of two interviewers, mean BARS $r\sb{tt}$ =.61; mean graphic scale $r\sb{tt}$ =.54), compared to the semi-structured (mean $r\sb{tt}$ =.27) and unstructured (mean $r\sb{tt}$ =.09) interviews. However, the structured and semi-structured interviews had nearly equal significant mean predictive validities over six scales for various criteria: an academic composite, a non-academic composite, and a summary clerkship rating (coefficients ranged from.40s to low.50s). The unstructured interview had little predictive validity. Hypotheses regarding the interrelationships among cognitive and non-cognitive predictor variables and academic and non-academic criterion variables, respectively, were not supported. Various theories were discussed as accounting for the results, including common method variance, multi-factored variables, and hidden biases of interviewers and raters toward knowledge measures. The structured interview was perceived as the most practical by interviewers and students. Implications for the use of different interview formats in medical school settings were discussed / acase@tulane.edu

Career plateauing is fast becoming an issue in organizations due to the influx of the baby boom generation into middle-management ranks, combined with the widespread downsizing and restructuring of organizations. Previous literature on career plateaus has not examined which employees respond positively or negatively to a plateau. Instead the focus has been on managing an employee in a plateau or on differences between plateaued and nonplateaued managers. / This research is based on the premise that a response to a career plateau is a coping response initiated by the employee to manage career development stress. A model which details career plateau response was developed and tested in this research. / Results of an analysis of plateaued employees showed the model to be a reasonable representation of the process by which employees respond to a plateau. Several coping strategies demonstrated predicted effects with 3 response outcome variables: current career development stress, commitment, and performance. Other strategies demonstrated effects opposite those which were predicted. The perception of positive alternatives to promotion offered by the organization did not demonstrate the predicted effect of positively influencing the plateau process. A negative coping style was associated with a negative career plateau response. / Negative affectivity, a personality moderator included in the model, was found to increase the stress associated with a career plateau. Need for advancement, another moderator, did not demonstrate a significant relationship. Practical implications and conclusions are given. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-06, Section: B, page: 3489. / Major Professor: Pamela L. Perrewe. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

Thesis (M.A.)--Bowling Green State University, 2007. / Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 57 p. Includes bibliographical references.

This study links industry and firm context to the CEO psychological-to-performance relationship. This research is based on the view of managers as a locus of firm performance. Industry environments present firms with constraints and opportunities to which a firm must deploy its capabilities to create value. Managers influence the process of matching the firm to the environment, or the process of changing the environment by making decisions and/or not making strategic decisions (i.e., major administrative, domain and competitive choices). Environmental cues which managers identify as important, the way they interpret these cues, and the choices they make from these cues are shaped by cognitive and personality factors. While the effect of such factors has developed into an important research stream in strategy literature, examinations of boundary conditions for these factors are rare. / This research examined and evaluated the impacts of important industry-level facets on the cognition-to-performance relationship by comparing CEO communications across industries. Industry turbulence and munificence are prominent industry factors in strategy literature. Their effect on the performance relationship of the psychological construct of optimism was studied. Cognition factors of ambivalence, passivity, and propensity to change were also examined. The CEO communications of 169 single-business publicly traded corporations were analyzed. Munificence was observed to lead to a positive moderation effect for the optimism-to-performance relationship, while leading to negative moderation for the propensity-to-change-to-performance relationship. Industry turbulence was observed to yield a negative effect on the passivity-to-performance relationship, while affecting a positive effect on the-propensity-to-change-to-performance relationship. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Saint Mary's University, 2009. / Includes abstract and appendix. Advisor: Albert J. Mills. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 218-231).

Thesis (M.A. (Psychology))--Rhodes University, 2003.

Thesis (M.A. (Research Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leave 128-133).

In this cross-sectional field study of a fast-food organization, self-report data provided by workers and interview data from managers were used to assess the effects of the work environment on fast-food worker attitudes and behavior. Job demands, worker control and management support (Karasek & Theorell, 1990) were the predictor variables in this research. Additional job demands of emotional labor and customer behavior were measured and tested. Results indicated that control, emotional labor and management support were negatively associated with reported stress and positively associated with reported satisfaction and commitment. Additionally, customer behavior and demands were positively associated with reported stress and customer behavior was negatively associated with reported satisfaction and commitment.

The purpose of this two-group, cross-sectional descriptive study was to compare self-reported professional practice indices and work satisfaction of hospital staff nurses who remained continuously employed within the institution ("stayers"; n = 127) and staff nurses who voluntarily terminated employment ("leavers"; n = 44). The data used for this secondary analysis were collected for the Differentiated Group Professional Practice in Nursing project (#U01-NR02153). Stayers reported significantly (p ≤ 0.05) higher organizational commitment, control over nursing practice, satisfaction with nurse-to-nurse interactions, satisfaction with professional status, and autonomy. Significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) in age, intent to remain within the community, employment status, and length of organizational tenure were also found. Discriminant analysis using indices of professional practice and work satisfaction was utilized to differentiate between stayers and leavers. Stayers were predicted with 92% accuracy and leavers with 33% accuracy. Investigation of misclassified leavers (n = 29) revealed no identifiable common personal or employment characteristics.

The research questions for this study focus on the stress level reported by new faculty, the causes of stress, and the coping strategies used to deal with stress. Data from the New Faculty Project of the National Center for Postsecondary Teaching, Learning, and Assessment, were analyzed to understand the experiences of newly hired faculty at Research-I, Comprehensive-I, Liberal Arts-I, and Two-Year Institutions. Newly hired non-tenured, and below associate professor rank faculty were selected from the initial sample of 177 newly hired faculty; 136 faculty completed surveys, and 95 faculty completed interviews for each of the first three years of their employment. A moderate level of stress was reported and remained relatively stable over time. The causes of faculty stress were of three types: those innate to the position, those due to being new, and those due to life stressors. Three types of coping strategies were employed: those providing a solution, those allowing faculty to maintain, and those in which faculty "gave up".