<p> Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) has been studied extensively in a variety of settings for the last thirty years. There has been no research, however, on OCB in the public library environment. OCB is grounded on the premise that helping others in the organization, even when such behavior is unrewarded, has a cumulative effect that is beneficial both for individual staff members and for the organization as a whole. This focus on &ldquo;helpful&rdquo; behaviors is especially relevant for a field such as public librarianship, given its foundation on altruistic ideals.</p><p> This dissertation begins to address the lack of research on organizational citizenship behaviors in public libraries by examining the relationship among OCB and two of its correlates: Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) and perceived supervisor support. Analysis of data reveals that OCB shows a statistically significant correlation with both LMX and perceived supervisor support, but that perceived supervisor support is a more powerful predictor of OCB in the workplace studied. One of the primary findings of this research is that institutions wishing to encourage OCB must focus not only on the citizenship behaviors of front-line staff, but also on the skills of the middle managers and other managerial leaders who directly oversee them. Immediate supervisors play a critical role in facilitating OCB by maintaining high quality exchange relationships with, and demonstrating consistent support for, their supervisees. This finding has practical importance not only for how managerial leaders should be expected to perform, but also for their hiring, training, and development.</p><p> Organizational citizenship behavior has been shown to impact positively traditional work outcomes such as effectiveness and productivity, as well as attitudinal and behavioral outcomes such as organizational commitment and engagement. This research affirms the importance of OCB as an organizational construct and highlights its potential for the public library environment. Further, it provides practical methods for fostering and maintaining a workplace culture that values and encourages citizenship behaviors. This study will be of particular interest to library administrators, human resource managers, and those in managerial leadership positions as they seek to hire for, train, develop, and retain both managerial and front-line staff who demonstrate behaviors that improve interpersonal relationships and organizational effectiveness. </p>

<p> Workplace bullying has affected almost half (47%) of American working adults corresponding to approximately 71.5 million workers who either experienced bullying directly or witnessed it. This resulted in an alarming turnover of 21 to 28 million workers. This qualitative historical study explored, identified, and documented through historical records and documents, the patterns and trends of workplace bullying in organizations, characteristics and types of bullies, and types of mistreatment workplace bullies direct toward intended targets over the past 30 years. The data analysis yielded eight major themes of bullying styles and traits. These consisted of the four bully styles reinforced from the literature review of the snake, gatekeeper, screamer, and nitpicker. Additionally, the three new bully styles of the tyrant, joker, and discriminator, and one outlier bully style of the reverse bully. Themes of leadership skills associated with reducing or eliminating workplace bullying were also identified and analyzed. These themes coincided with the successful leadership traits and attributes of ethical leadership, social responsibility, and encouraging the heart, which led to the development of the GUARDIAN model. The GUARDIAN model presented recommendations to leaders of organization that would limit or prevent workplace bullying, which would provide significant financial savings for organizations because of less human resource issues.</p>

<p> This qualitative, phenomenological study examined the psychological success factors of the executive woman as well as the use of psychological capital. Open-ended, semi-structured interviews were conducted to determine what these women considered success strategies and to determine the extent these executives used the tenants of hope, optimism, resilience, and self-efficacy as psychological strategies for success. Twenty female executives with the titles of Vice-President, Senior Vice-President, President, CEO, COO, CNO, Dean, Assistant Dean, and General Counsel were interviewed. The results indicate that determination in hard work, attitude, and risk taking were the most common strategies women listed as contributors to their success. Additionally, all women reported using optimism, resilience, and self-efficacy as means to succeed. Hope was used as a strategy in eighteen of the twenty females, with two females indicating that hope is not a resource they used at all.</p>

<p> The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has experienced decreased return on investment caused by hiring too many air traffic controller specialists (ATCSs) who performed poorly in field training, thus failing to become certified professional controllers (CPCs). Based on Schmidt and Hunter's theory of job performance and biodata theory, this quantitative, archival study examined whether factors of cognitive ability and biodata could predict job performance status of 2 generations of ATCSs, poststrike (PS) and next generation (NG) controllers. For each generation of controllers, binary logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine if any of the independent variables&mdash;transmuted composite (TMC) score for PS controllers, Air Traffic and Selection and Training (AT-SAT) test score for NG controllers, average of high school arithmetic/math letter grade, overall high school average letter grade, self-estimation of time to become fully effective in the ATCS role, self-estimation of percentile ranking in the FAA program relative to the class, size of neighborhood raised, or socioeconomic status&mdash;are significant predictors of job performance status for controllers as measured by whether they pass the field OJT (i.e., certified or still in training, or failed certification or left training). The regression results for the PS and NG controllers were found to be statistically significant (&chi;² (23) = 68.377, p &lt; .001) and (&chi;² (17) = 99.496, p &lt; .001), respectively. Findings that overall high school grade point average and socioeconomic status significantly predicted ATCS job performance for both PS and NG controllers could influence the FAA's use of revised biodata to better predict ATCS job performance. Further research should include studies of socioeconomic status, gender, and race to address new evidence that the AT-SAT has adverse impact.</p>

<p> We are facing an unprecedented level of interconnectedness that has engendered a level of complexity that defies our historical reasoning capacity. Building off of the literature on sensemaking, this action research study proposed and investigated a new concept in leadership to respond to the growing complexity: sensecrafting. Sensecrafting refers to deliberate, collective sensemaking, while sensemaking refers to "how [people] construct what they construct, why, and with what effects . . . " (Weick, 1995, p. 4). The study answered the research question: How can individuals develop their capacity for sensecrafting in order to cultivate a more generative relationship with the organizations to which they belong? Employing Herda's hermeneutic participatory research, the study consisted of three, 1-hour conversations with six research participants which were recorded via Skype and transcribed. The purpose of the study was to see how participants employed nine traits of sensecrafting (learning, tolerating ambiguity, discernment, openness, framing, mindfulness, envisioning, action and reflection) in the workplace. Additionally, the study investigated how participants worked with stories to create a generative working environment. In the study, participants worked with a set of 18 cards that presented techniques for enhancing their sensecrafting skills. A thematic analysis of the study found that participants made frequent use of the sensecrafting traits at a personal level, and less frequent use of the traits at a collective level. The findings suggest that participants' possessed a high degree of potential to further develop their skills. Participants' exhibition of the sensecrafting traits generated value both for the individuals in the study and for their organizations. Benefits that accrued to individuals included improved relationships with key personnel and insights into how to cope with changes in the workplace. Implications from the study included the observation that a useful way to work with the sensecrafting traits would be through an instrument that measures participants on each of the dimensions of sensecrafting and that provides feedback to individuals about how they can capitalize on strengths and develop areas of opportunity.</p>

<p> As we continue to work towards a better understanding of intercultural competence, leaders must identify areas where they can facilitate change in themselves and in the organizations they lead. This quantitative study incorporates the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) to measure orientations towards cultural differences of leaders in substance abuse treatment facilities. This study also incorporates the Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) to measure how the followers' perceive the organizational culture. Data was analyzed using statistical software program (SPSS) and statistical correlations and multivariate analysis of variance were computed. This study is unique in that it breaks new ground in the measurement of the level of intercultural competence of leaders in substance abuse treatment facilities and how their followers' perceive the organizational culture according to the OCI scores. </p><p> Results revealed a statistical significance with leaders that scored in the denial orientation of the IDI and their followers that scored the organizational culture as passive/defensive on the OCI. This study points to recommendations for change, from a developmental training perspective and to encourage leaders to become aware of their intercultural competence orientation. Use of the IDI, OCI and interventions to assist in finding ways to increase awareness will strengthen leaders and organizations.</p>

<p> The present study investigated the employment experiences of adults with mild developmental disabilities. The study's sample consisted of 45 participants with developmental disabilities who were over the age of 18. Participants were recruited from two Regional Centers in Southern California and either phone interviews or in-person interviews were conducted. </p><p> A structured interview protocol examined each participant's current work experience, along with several items exploring facilitators and obstacles to employment. Data from this qualitative investigation were organized into categories using inductive content analysis. Descriptive statistics were computed for quantitative items. Overall, it was discovered that: participants found money as the most rewarding aspect of employment, relied on outside support in obtaining and maintaining employment and found few obstacles of which to overcome, worked with others with developmental disabilities, and utilized workplace supports in entry level positions making an average wage of $8.92 a hour during a 20.72 hour work week.</p>

<p> The purpose of this mixed Delphi study was to add to the body of knowledge by providing human resource professionals and organizational leaders with clearer definitions of workplace bullying that can be used to develop and enforce more effectively written workplace bullying policies regardless of industry. This mixed Delphi study examined how workplace bullying is defined in organizations and how human resource professionals interpret the existing policies to address claims of workplace bullying. The lack of a clear term results in inconsistent anti-bullying practices that impede organizations from addressing bullying in a manner that minimizes costs, reduces attrition, improves employee morale, and creates a safe workplace for employees. The sample population consisted of 20 human resource managers and directors and 131 nonhuman resource managers and frontline employees. The data analysis revealed that organizations do not have policies that clearly identify workplace bullying. The data analysis also revealed there was consensus among the sample participants relative to the development of three new definitions that improved the definition of the term workplace bullying.</p>

<p> A considerable deficit of Licensed Mental Health Professionals (LMHPs) is expected in the United States because of the rapid professional burnout and turnover. Research has related various leadership styles to job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and retention. This study focused on authentic leadership theory and the relationship between authentic leadership and burnout. The researcher conducted a causal-comparative study with a convenience sample of 116 licensed mental health professionals to assess the relationship between authentic leadership and LMHP leader burnout in an attempt to identify a solution to the systemic burnout and turnover problems in community mental health centers. The results indicated that authentic leadership was a statistically significant predictor of all three subscales of the MBI. The multiple linear regression analysis indicated that the subcomponents of authentic leadership had a relationship with the three subscales of the MBI. The transparency sub-component of authentic leadership was particularly important because it was a statistically significant predictor of the emotional exhaustion subscale, while the balanced processing and self-awareness subcomponents were also statistically significant predictors of the depersonalization subscale. The moral sub-component of authentic leadership was a statistically significant predictor of the personal accomplishment subscale, which makes this study useful for development of leadership trainings designed to promote work environments that are able to minimize burnout and turnover in LMHPs.</p>

<p> Especially since the "new social movements" of the 1960s and 1970s, the complexities of group status difference and oppression have posed major challenges to social movements aimed at justice and equality. This paper explores the potential for social movement organizations to approach race, class, gender, and sexuality in ways that resist essentialized identities and expose and challenge the dynamics of power by which structural oppression operates. Focusing on the Washington Peace Center&ndash;a social movement organization in the District of Columbia&ndash;as a case study, I utilize qualitative, oral history interviews to illuminate the process of group difference interrogation and anti-oppression activism over time. I find that justice-seeking social movements&ndash; through an attention to standpoint, openness to the claims of other social movements, and proper consideration of the connection between local, national, and global issues&ndash;are capable of meaningful engagement across group difference that undermines complex and interrelated oppressions.</p>