Thesis (MA (Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / The recent history of psychology in South Africa has seen a shift amongst clinical/counselling psychologists towards a distinct practice modality. The overarching aim of this study is to explore the shift amongst clinical/counselling psychologists towards the consulting psychology modality, and to investigate the implications of this shift for the training of psychologists in South Africa. The trend towards consulting psychology is investigated through an analysis of the described experiences and perceptions of registered clinical/counselling psychologists working in consulting roles; educators involved in the training of psychologists; and consumers of the services of consulting psychologists. Juxtaposition of the competencies required for success as a consulting psychologist with the competencies acquired in current clinical/counselling training programmes has implications for a potential reconceptualisation of training approaches in the light of this shift. A grounded theory approach is employed to access the perceptions of those most intimately involved in the field without manipulating these through the lens of a pre-defined hypothesis. The perceptions, as accessed via interviews and focus groups, of 9 consulting clinical/counselling psychologists, 10 educators, and 8 consumers form a triangulated depiction of the shift to this practice modality, the competencies it requires, and the efficacy of current clinical/counselling training programmes in equipping psychologists for a consulting role. Analysis of these inputs indicates that clinical/counselling psychologists lack certain competencies vital to successful consulting. They do, however, possess many of the core-competencies required. Hence, while the training of psychologists may require review in order to meet the changing needs of both providers and consumers of consulting psychology services in South Africa, many of the facets of current clinical/counselling programmes are indispensable.

Master of Science / Department of Psychology / Patrick A. Knight / As organizations continue to decentralize, leaders will have to rely upon other forms of communication (e.g., telephone, video conferencing, email) to perform tasks normally done in face-to-face settings. Email is emerging as the most popular form of communication as a replacement for face-to-face communication. However, email is not entirely capable of conveying the same message as face-to-face interaction. Email is considered a lean form of communication due to the loss of non-verbal cues, the distance between the individuals, and time between messages. While email is a satisfactory replacement for some messages, research has yet to investigate its usefulness in providing performance feedback. As leaders begin to use email as a means of providing feedback, it is necessary to investigate the impact this form of communication has on the goals individuals set, self-efficacy, and affect. The study sampled 94 undergraduate students. The participants were randomly assigned to either receive positive or negative feedback via email or face-to-face interaction. Upon completion of the task, participants created goals to help them improve in the task and completed all other measures. Results indicate that it does not matter whether participants receive face-to-face or email feedback in respect to differences in their reported affect, efficacy, or the goals they set.

Studies in the area of social facilitation have attempted to explain the changes in an individual's behavior in an isolated setting compared to when the individual is being observed. This study incorporates social facilitation as a basis for explaining differences in conflict for isolated and colocated groups. Although colocated groups experienced higher levels of objective conflict, isolated groups perceived higher levels of conflict. Gender and group process also had a significant effect upon objective conflict. Groups resolving conflict through open discussion achieved higher levels of post-meeting consensus. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-03, Section: A, page: 1208. / Major Professor: Joey F. George. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1996.

This investigation critically reviews current perspectives in turnover research and suggests attitude change as a better way to measure affective responses to the work situation. A competitive test of attitude change and attitude level was conducted. Results indicate that the attitude change approach predicted both changes in attitudes relevant to the turnover process and subsequent voluntary turnover behavior. Based on the results of this investigation, attitude change is proposed as a valid measure of affective response. Theoretical modifications and implications for further research in employee turnover are discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-12, Section: A, page: 4191. / Major Professor: Lee P. Stepina. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

The purpose of this research was to test whether individual factors (demographic and personality variables) contributed to changes in individual perceptions of organizational politics and subsequent political behaviors. Additionally, this research tested whether the choice of political behaviors used was associated with changes in job satisfaction, job stress, and intentions to turnover. / It was found that the personality variable Machiavellianism was positively related to politics perceptions, and the variables Machiavellianism, Need for Power, and Locus of Control were significantly related to the choice of political (influence) behaviors. None of the demographic variables tested (age, gender, race, and educational level) were found to affect politics perceptions and political influence behavior use. / The choice of political influence behaviors used most often in the workplace, which are purported to constitute the individual's strategy with regard to organizational politics, were found to affect job satisfaction, job stress, and intent to turnover. For those individuals who were more likely to use Proactive influence tactics (intended to capitalize on some opportunity which the individual perceives), it was found that these individuals were more satisfied with their work and less likely to leave the organization. For individuals who were more likely to use Reactive influence tactics (intended to protect the individual from some threat or harm), it was found that these individuals were less satisfied and more likely to leave the organization. With regard to job stress, it was found that the practice of a proactive influence strategy was associated with increased stress, perhaps due to the extra effort and uncertainty involved in the practice of proactive influence. Implications for research and practice are discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-11, Section: A, page: 4468. / Major Professor: Pamela L. Perrewe. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 36-08, Section: A, page: 4957. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1975.

Lam Pik Ki. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-80). / Abstracts in English and Chinese; questionnaire in Chinese.

As organizations continue to experience external pressures and uncertainties regarding their future viability, they are increasingly choosing to engage in some form of inter-organizational restructuring in order to survive (Burke, 2011; Campbell, 2009; Kohm & La Piana, 2003). Mergers, the combination of two separate organizations into a single new entity, are occurring more often, especially in the non-profit sector. A merger represents a radical, transformational change for each of the organizations involved and success requires careful planning and implementation, a significant amount of time and energy, and attention to the profound loss and emotional reactions experienced by organization members. The use of teams within organizations to address these requirements and accomplish the merger implementation has been recommended by organizational scholars (Marks & Mirvis, 2001), but the conditions necessary for teams to be successful in this type of situation are not clear. However, it is expected that the composition of merger teams and the ability of the leader to create conditions that support the team members and their work together are critical to the success of a merger as a radical change strategy. Based on adaption-innovation theory (Kirton, 1976) and the ability- based theory of emotional intelligence (Mayer, Salovey & Caruso, 1991), this study proposed that teams that are heterogeneous and innovative with respect to cognitive style will be most successful in accomplishing a merger implementation and that the emotional intelligence of the team leader has a direct effect on the team's success. Using data collected from 26 parish merger teams in a large Catholic diocese, support was found for hypotheses relating to the composition of the team with respect to cognitive style, but not for hypotheses related to leader emotional intelligence. Results of regression analyses testing the predicted relationships confirmed that teams that were more diverse and innovative were more effective in accomplishing a merger implementation; however, the predictions related to leader emotional intelligence were not supported. In contrast, analysis of qualitative data provided support for the critical influence of the team leader, specifically with respect to relationship-oriented leader behavior and its effect on team work processes and outcomes. Implications for the use of teams to accomplish mergers as well as future research are discussed.

Previous job satisfaction-job performance literature has not systematically attended to key aspects of an integrated individual difference framework for studying relationships between satisfaction and performance variables. Addressing these issues is of primary importance to researchers' abilities to understand and accurately quantify the inferences drawn from measures of satisfaction and performance. The primary purpose of the present study was to delineate a work satisfaction-behavioral performance theoretical framework and evaluate the generalizability of hypothesized relationships within this framework. Meta-analyses involving 231 studies were conducted to test the hypothesized relationships between work satisfaction and behavioral performance constructs. Based on the meta-analytic tests, the present study found support for the proposed theoretical framework as, in general, significant and positive results were found between specific work satisfaction dimensions and behavioral performance dimensions, as well as between composite measures of work satisfaction and job performance. Noteworthy, the mean estimated correlation between composite measures of work satisfaction and composite measures of job performance, based on 69 effects and a total sample size of 13,801, was .26; a practical and statistically meaningful difference from Iaffaldano's and Muchinsky's (1985) reported overall relationship between job satisfaction and job performance of .17. The practical and scientific implications of these findings were discussed / acase@tulane.edu

The current study is based on a proposed conceptual framework of occupational stress which specifies that protective and vulnerability personality traits influence job-related affective strains (JRAS) by means of direct, indirect mediation, and moderating mechanisms. JRAS were conceptualized in terms of a circumplex model including valence and arousal dimensions. Data for the personality, job stressor, and job strain variables were collected at one point time. Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that vulnerability traits operated through the direct, indirect mediation, and moderating pathways, whereas protective traits operated through direct and indirect mediation pathways only. The findings also suggested that all areas of JRAS mediate the effects of job stressor perceptions on the dysfunctional work outcome emotional exhaustion. Practical implications for stress management interventions are discussed / acase@tulane.edu