The following essays explore ways in which the environment affects and is affected by organizations. The first essay, “Trust and the Division of Labor” considers that the trust environment of a firm helps determine its structure. Jointly with Stephan Meier and Patryk Perkowski, I show that exogenously imposed culture leads to variation in organizational form. An experiment primes trust using past performance from a pilot study and demonstrate that the level of trust within an organization affects division of labor and consequently organizational productivity. This evidence is consistent with a cross-country link between trust and the division of labor that we observe in data from the European Social Survey. A simple evolutionary game theoretic model is provided to illustrate the results. The second essay, Nobody Likes a Rat”, considers the impact of norms against certain types of behavior (in this case dishonesty) on behavior and organizational composition. Jointly with Ernesto Reuben, I investigate the intrinsic motivation of individuals to report, and thereby sanction, fellow group members who lie for personal gain. We find that when groups can select their members, individuals who report lies are generally shunned, even by groups where lying is absent. This facilitates the formation of dishonest groups where lying is prevalent and reporting is nonexistent. Finally, "NFTs, Volume, and Social Influence" observes how organizations and individuals use environmental cues like rankings and volume for sensemaking in a market with high quality uncertainty. Using observational data scraped from the top 1000 NFT collections I find a significant positive relationship between volume and price. Then, using plausibly exogneous variation in blockchain-level transaction fees, I fit an instrumental variable model which helps validate the causal interpretation that changes in volume lead to changes in price. I further add an experiment on NFTs to tease out two plausible channels through which volume could affect prices: user attention and normative social influence. The experiment finds strong evidence that being told an NFT is higher volume leads subjects to pay more attention to that NFT, whereas this has no significant effect on a subject's reported preference for the NFT. A second experimental treatment, in which subjects were told the NFTs were ordered by volume transaction costs, does observe a significant positive affect on reported preferences (as well as attention).

Syftet med denna rapport är att ta reda på hur företag arbetar med arbetsmiljö och vad de gör för att förebygga psykisk ohälsa. Det har utförts både en litteraturstudie och intervjuer för att få så bra och tydlig information som möjligt över hur företaget arbetar med arbetsmiljö, samt vilka lagar och regler som måste följas.Vid genomförandet av resultatet beaktades två AFS:ar, Arbetsmiljöverkets författningssamling, som skribenterna ansåg var bäst lämpade till psykisk ohälsa och företaget. AFS:arna heter “Systematiskt arbetsmiljöarbete” (SAM) och “Organisatorisk och social arbetsmiljö”. Företaget har åtta relevanta dokumentationer om psykisk ohälsa. Resultatet visar en granskning mellan företagets dokumentation och arbetsmiljöverkets krav samt en överblick på respondenternas svar från intervjuerna.Slutsatsen med rapporten efter granskning med företagets dokumentation, arbetsmiljöverkets krav och intervjuerna är att verksamheten uppfyller villkoren och arbetar med arbetsmiljö och psykisk ohälsa på ett bra sätt. Företagets vision om arbetet kring arbetsmiljö och ohälsa skulle kunna framföras tydligare för konsulterna men är i övrigt tydlig och bra. / The purpose of this report is to find out how companies work with the working environment and what they do to prevent mental illnesses. Both a literature study and interviews have been conducted to get as good and clear information as possible about how the company works with the work environment, as well as which laws and regulations that must be followed.In implementing the results, two AFSs were taken into account, the Swedish Work Environment Authority's statute book, which the writers considered to be best suited for mental illness and the company. The AFSs are called “Work with the systematic work environment” (SAM) and “Organizational and social work environment”. The company has eight relevant documentation on mental illness. The results show a review between the company's documentation and the Swedish Work Environment Authority's requirements, as well as an overview of the respondents' answers from the interviews.The conclusion with the report after review with the company's documentation, the Swedish Work Environment Authority's requirements and the interviews is that the business meets the conditions and works with the work environment and mental illness in a good way. The company's vision of the work around the work environment and ill health could be presented more clearly to the consultants but is otherwise clear and good.

This dissertation chronicles the plight of the lower status professional group member and their attempts to get recognition by using insider language or jargon. Specifically, it explores jargon within the broader context of status signaling, language, and hierarchical relationships. It seeks to understand how language is used as a way to both gain and infer status. Chapter 1 accomplishes two goals. First, it discusses features of human status systems and status signaling processes. Second, it defines jargon and identifies its functions. In doing so, I incorporate linguistic and social psychological theories to argue that jargon is a marker of status or a status symbol. I differentiate jargon from related linguistic concepts of slang and technical language, and I differentiate jargon from other status signals due to the social costs incurred through its use. Chapter 2 focuses on one social motivation for using jargon, arguing that status threat increases jargon use. It proposes that because jargon is a status marker, it is strategically used by those experiencing low status. Across 10 studies, using both archival and experimental methods, I link low status to jargon use because lower status motivates impression management goals. Chapter 3 explores how the effects of both local and global sources of status threat independently contribute to compensatory and performative jargon use. It replicates findings from chapter 2 while highlighting how multiple sources of status threat combine to provoke status signaling behaviors. Chapter 4 explores the consequences of jargon use, drawing on prior theory in linguistics and social psychology. It begins by showing that high jargon use imposes a cognitive cost upon an audience, which then may then disengage from the speaker’s message as a result. It then shows how high jargon may increase audience appraisals of speaker competence but reduce interpersonal closeness and ratings of warmth. The chapter argues that that high jargon use is particularly interpersonally costly for low-status speakers because they are seen as annoyingly reaching above their station. I also show that extremely low levels of jargon, i.e., flamboyantly colloquial language, also hurt evaluations of a speaker. These results suggest a goldilocks phenomenon, whereby there is a ‘just right” amount of jargon necessary to optimize audience evaluations across warmth, competence, and status. The final chapter five of this dissertation highlights a number of interesting patterns and unanswered questions, paving the way for further studies and lines of inquiry. Overall this dissertation takes a deep dive into the antecedents and consequences of hyperbolic circumluoquationaness, sesquipedalianistic poeanoisms, and professional jive talk, to expand our understanding of how language functions in performing, negotiating, and affecting social relationships with others in everyday life.

This study examines the levels and drivers of employee engagement in a South African organisation that distributes personal protection equipment. The organisation relies on its human resources to retain a competitive advantage in the industry. An understanding of employee engagement is essential for the attraction of new talent and the retention of existing employees. The researcher employed a mixed method design, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative methods. A survey was sent to all employees to determine levels of engagement. It was followed by focus groups to probe deeper into the survey results. The findings of the survey and the focus groups are contradictory. The survey results indicate that respondents are engaged within the workwear distribution company, whilst the findings of the focus groups depict a different narrative. The researcher believes that participant responses to the different methodologies explains this contradiction. The survey contained a number of closed-ended statements, where participants were required to tick a particular box, indicating their responses. The researcher believes that this approach was very clinical and elicited certain responses. Furthermore, participants might not have felt comfortable sharing their true feelings in writing. The approach to the focus group was very interactive and the researcher posed open-ended questions to the participants. This approach was organic and participants might have felt more comfortable sharing their feelings and views in this forum. The study revealed that a work environment characterised by poor communication and conflict impacted negatively on employee engagement. It also revealed that the organisation is characterised by an autocratic leadership style whereby top management make the decisions and are not open to suggestions from employees. While support between co-workers was acknowledged, relationships were also described as strained and that there is no synergy between departments. Maintaining positive relationships with management and co-workers are vital drivers to achieving increased employee engagement. Although these findings are particular to one organisation, they will hopefully assist other organisations to expand their understanding of employee engagement and thus refine their employee engagement strategies.

The literature claims that workplace violence (WPV) in the health care setting is among the highest, with the majority of that violence taking place in the Emergency Department (ED). The significance of WPV in reference to nursing is that it leads to burnout, absenteeism, and the risk of nurses leaving their job all together. Leaving the nursing profession intensifies the present critical shortage. With the success of an evidence-based WPV prevention program (WPVPP), hospitals could improve the quality of work for nurses, which consequently will improve retention rates, as well as provide an environment that will be more conducive to patient care. In the evaluation of the ED at the practicum site, it was found that there was an absence regarding de-escalation education, hazard assessment, and incident reporting. To address those problems, the current project examined the extent to which implementing a WPVPP would provide a safer environment as perceived by the nurses who work in the ED. Ten health care professionals with experience and knowledge related to WPV were given an evaluation tool to measure the content validity of the survey instrument and WPVPP. The evaluation tool was comprised of 12 close- and open-ended questions. The information gained from the evaluation provided the necessary support to implement the WPVPP and evaluate the nurses' perception of safety in the ED. The implementation of a WPVPP would affect social change by improving the nurses' perception of safety, hence creating a healthy work environment that includes safety, respect, and trust.

Work environment influences the effectiveness of care for patients in any healthcare setting. It is even more important in settings such as the neonatal ICU (NICU) where this project took place. When the environment is not healthy, communication may suffer and result in poor patient outcomes and, family, patient, and staff dissatisfaction. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to understand how the implementation of the TeamSTEPPS program, for nurses in the NICU, could impact the safety culture as measured by the AACN Healthy Work Environment (HWE) tool. Lewin's professional practice change theory and the AHRQ change model were used to guide the project. The previously validated HWE survey, made up of 6 standards including communication, and leadership was provided to 71 NICU nurses with only 41 completing the baseline survey and 4 weeks later, 31 completing the post intervention survey after the TeamSTEPPS training. An independent t test was used to examine baseline and post TeamSTEPPS intervention HWE results against the HWE benchmark. Results indicated that post intervention scores met the benchmark although scores did not meet the benchmark prior to the intervention. Data were also analyzed with a paired t test to determine the significance of the improvement in the pre to post intervention results. Three of the 6 HWE standards, skilled communication (p = .004), adequate staffing (p = .002), and authentic leadership (p < .001) reached significant levels post TeamSTEPPS training compared to the pre TeamSTEPPS scores. Through the use of TeamSTEPPS training communication improved and the potential for improvement in patient safety promotes positive social change.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The presence of narcissism in the workplace is well established. Some have even gone so far as to extol the virtues of the narcissistic personality and the effect that it has on the leadership roles in organizations. Still, research suggests that there are more narcissists than there are leadership positions that might be filled. It is well established that the presence of those with strong narcissistic tendencies at the lower levels of organizations are disruptive to the productivity and the morale of the organization as a whole. This paper found that five coping method categories existed: non-responding, quitting one’s job, befriending the narcissist, confronting the narcissist, and going to management. Contrary to existing literature, only quitting one’s job or going to management were perceived by respondents as effective methods.

A research project submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of MA by coursework and research report in the field of Organisational Psychology in the Faculty of Humanities, University of Witwatersrand,Johannesburg 2018 / With the change in nature of work, the spaces in which work is done has also changed, prompting research into the effects of the work environment on employees. The purpose of this study is to investigate how different types of workplace office spaces will have different impacts on aspects of wellbeing in employees. The facets explored are how employees perceive their satisfaction of Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) attributes, how they perceive their performance and health within these IEQ conditions, how they perceive their current workspace affecting their physical and psychological discomfort, and how they perceived their own psychological wellbeing. A quantitative survey was compiled from previous literature, appropriate to exploring these variables. The questionnaire was piloted at a company that owns, develops, and manages property before being conducted over a two-week period at a large health insurance company in Johannesburg, Gauteng. The final survey consisted of three subscales of the Green Building Survey (Hedge & Dorsey, 2012) measuring perceived satisfaction of indoor environmental quality and its impact on health and performance; the GABO questionnaire (Pierrette et al., 2015) assessed six aspects of perceived noise; the extended Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire assessed physical discomfort in nine body regions; perceived psychological comfort; and perceived psychological wellbeing using the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale. Data were collected using an online survey platform. The final sample consisted of 1853 participants of different genders, races, ages, and organisational levels of a prominent South African organisation. The results of this study are beneficial to the field as literature pertaining to workspace layout is outdated and new research is needed as innovative trends in layout types are emerging. Most previous research on employee perceptions addresses productivity but not necessarily different aspects of perceived health, wellbeing, and comfort. It is expected that this study will contribute to finding clarity in a still-ambiguous field and will add to the present-day change in how and where work is done. / TL2019

Efforts to maintain a sufficient nurse workforce are hampered by dissatisfaction with the work environment. Incivility in the work environment is a major source of dissatisfaction. A healthy work environment is associated with higher levels of job satisfaction and improved retention. New graduate transition programs have been recommended as a deterrent to high levels of turnover associated within the first two years of employment, some of which is related to incivility. The purpose of this thesis was to examine the influence of incivility in the nursing workplace on new graduate job satisfaction and determine if there is an association between participation in new graduate nurse transition programs and satisfaction with the work environment. A systematic review of the literature was performed using MEDLINE- EBSCOhost, PsycInfo, and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) databases. Sixteen studies, which met search criteria, were reviewed. Themes that emerged included workplace incivility, nurse residency programs, mentoring through preceptors, and empowerment. Findings indicated that incivility in the workplace was a significant predictor of low job satisfaction in new graduate nurses. While graduate nurse transition programs are associated with improved satisfaction and retention rates for these nurses, nothing in the literature indicated that graduate nurse transition programs had a direct impact on empowerment and job satisfaction related to the incivility these nurses experience.

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