Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 148-168). Also available on the Internet.

New mothers struggle to combine breastfeeding and employment. Employers may not realize the benefits of breastfeeding for mothers, their infants, or the businesses themselves. A cross-sectional, descriptive design was used to investigate the characteristics of Central Texas small business employers, their attitude toward supporting breastfeeding in the workplace and explored factors that may mediate or moderate employers' support of breastfeeding in the workplace. Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation theory guided the study. Data were collected using a Business Characteristics Survey and the Employer Intention to Support Breastfeeding Questionnaire (ESBQ). The final response rate was 148 complete surveys out of the 3817 sent, resulting in a 3.8% response rate. Descriptive statistics showed that 65.5% had some type of lactation support (n = 97) in place for their breastfeeding employees; however only 34.5% provided a designated, private room/place to pump breast milk. Logistic regression of the independent variables attitude (b = .034, p = .535), centralization (b = .045, p = .222), and interconnectedness (b = .002, p = .695) did not predict the presence of lactation support. Business size was not a significant predictor of the presence of lactation support (b = .001, p = .921). The moderator of intent was added to the model and interaction terms created by multiplying intent with each of the following variables: business size, attitude, centralization, and interconnectedness. These results did not support the presence of a moderating effect. Finally, mediator effects were only tested with the independent variable attitude. A significant direct association between attitude and the presences of lactation support was found (p = .045). Attitude appears to be a significant predictor of relative advantage (b = 4.583, p <.001). Relative advantage, while controlling for attitude, was not a significant predictor of presence of lactation support (b = .013, p = .220); however, the direct relationship of attitude to the presence of lactation support was less significant than before (b = .029, p = .655). Attitude appears to be a significant predictor of complexity (b = .407, p <.001). Complexity, while controlling for attitude, was not a significant predictor of presence of lactation support (b = .059, p = .285); however, the direct relationship of attitude to the presence of lactation support was less significant than before (b = .065, p = .181). Attitude appears to be a significant predictor of observability (b = .916, p = .003). Observability, while controlling for attitude, was not a significant predictor of presence of lactation support (b = -.003, p = .834); however, the direct relationship of attitude to the presence of lactation support was less significant than before (b = .091, p = .047). The implications and recommendations based on these findings can help to guide future studies and the planning and implementation of workplace lactation programs. / text

Introduction: Smoking has been considered as one of the leading preventable cause of lung disease, cardiovascular disease and cancer. China, has 20% of the population in the world, but consumes 30% of the world’s cigarette and has suffered 1 million deaths per year from tobacco use. The workplace is an important field for smoking control, but there are relatively few reports on the current situation of workplace smoking control with the exception of reports from North American countries. Objectives: This project aims to investigate the effectiveness of workplace smoking control policy on smokers’ behavior in Asian population, mainly the comparison of smoke free policy, smoke restriction ban with no smoking ban, and to identify the potential factors that associated with the compliance of smoking policy. Methods：Articles that are relevant to workplace smoking policy were searched and identified through PubMed and CNKI by using a combination of keywords. Articles that studied the effects of workplace smoking control policy on smoking behavior and the factors that associated the compliance of smoke control policy were included. All studies were conducted in the Asian countries and the outcome measures were current smoking prevalence, daily cigarette consumption, and willingness to quit smoking. Results: Of the 541 studies identified, 11 articles were identified to be relevant and included in this systematic review. Smoking-free policy was showed to be the most effective strategy to enhance the changes in smokers’ behavior. Eight of nine studies that compared smoke free with no smoke ban gave consistent conclusion that smoking free policy could reduce the prevalence of smoking dramatically. It was associated with higher willingness to quit smoking among smokers and could reduce the smokers’ daily cigarettes consumption by 3 to 4 cigarettes per day. There was limited evidence that smoke restriction policy could reduce the prevalence of smokers. Even though smoke restriction policy could reduce daily cigarettes consumption and increased the smokers’ willingness to quit smoking, but the effect was much lower than those in the workplace with smoke free policy. In addition, occupation, such as salesmen and marketing employee, the reason of implementing the smoke control policy(e.g. ‘workplace safety’, ‘maintain good air quality’, ‘reduce ETS in non-smokers’), and lack of knowledge of hazard in cigarettes were the factors contributed to the low compliance of smoke control policy. Conclusion: Overall, workplace smoke-free policy is the most effective way in changing smoking behavior. Workplace smoke-free should be implemented as a public health priority and accompanied with health education and smoking cessation service to assure the compliance. / published_or_final_version / Medicine / Master / Master of Public Health

Not available / text

Health personnel, especially nurses, are often victims of workplace violence. Unfortunately, little is known about the nurses' experience of violence. A research study was initiated to further explore the nurses' accounts of workplace violence so as to make dimensions of the nurses' experience visible and more fully understood. Interpretive description was the research methodology adopted for this study. Using theoretical sampling, ten Registered Nurses from the lower mainland and Vancouver Island, British Columbia participated in semi structured, audiotaped interviews. In this research, the nurses' experience of workplace violence emerged as a highly complex entity, deeply embedded in relationships and context. How nurses perceive the contextual factors of the organization, their immediate work environment and their individual attributes were found to play a significant role in how they respond to the phenomenon. The findings of this study suggest that organizational culture is an important determinant in managing workplace violence and that policy and administrative personnel play a pivotal role in influencing the problem. Nursing culture also influences the nurses' expectations, assumptions and actions towards violence. Participants voiced that role conflict often challenged their ability to enact acquired professional ideals and that that they routinely undertake roles in dealing with violence that are not appropriate to their level of knowledge or skill. Within the nurses' immediate work environment, bullying as well as physical and verbal abuse was commonplace. Overcrowding, long waits for service, poor environmental design and inadequate staff to patient ratios were seen as factors that increased nurses' risk. Individual factors were associated with emotional and psychological harms that nurses endured. Workplace violence affected self-concept, self-esteem, self-efficacy and the nurses' sense of control. Moral distress, self-blame, feelings of failure, loss of motivation and leaving the nursing profession were significant findings. The results of this study demonstrate a need to re-think how we can address workplace violence in nursing. Research and intervention is needed to further explore organizational policy and governing structures, the culture and climate of practice environments, and the fundamental role nursing education programs have in preparing nurses to manage workplace violence.

Drawing on the labelling process in reactions to deviance, a model of the interplay of a coworker’s extra-organizational deviance and an individual’s reactions to that coworker has been developed. Three studies were conducted to further explore the model in order to more fully understand the phenomenon of extra-organizational deviance. The first study (n=12) was exploratory in nature. It established the relevance of extra-organizational deviance in individuals’ work lives and highlighted the detrimental effect that behaviours outside of work could have at work. It also highlighted the potential for beneficial outcomes in situations of positive extra-organizational deviance. The second study (n=120) was a vignette study that demonstrated significant differences when looking at positive and negative extra-organizational deviance for both attitudinal and behavioural reactions. In this study, when individuals learned of their coworker’s negative extra-organizational deviance, perceptions of trust, trustworthiness, and liking all decreased, as did helping. There were no corresponding significant results when individuals learned of their coworker’s positive extra-organizational deviance. The second study also demonstrated the moderating effects of high initial levels of liking and competence under different circumstances. The third study (n=21) provided a more detailed look at the variables in the second study by concentrating on actual situations of extra-organizational deviance that participants had experienced. This study highlighted the complexities in reactions to extra-organizational deviance, particularly as it relates to competence and liking.

Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2001.

Thesis (MPsych(Org))--University of South Australia, 1999

University of Technology, Sydney.Faculty of Business. / Organisations depend on teams to implement its strategies and enables organisations to be flexible and responsive in the competitive global environment. Teams contribute to the organisation while at the same time providing opportunities to team members to develop relationships within team. Teams are viewed as a major source of ‘environmental forces’ that help shape team members (McGrath and Kravitz, 1982). Previous research by Taggard and Brown (2001) shows that there is a statistically significant relationship between team members’ behaviour and team performance (e.g., participation and involving others, goal setting, feedback, team commitment, reaction to conflict, addressing conflict, averting conflict and communication). There is noticeably a lack of research on team behaviours in Malaysia. The first objective of this thesis is to explore the relationships between team performance and ‘behavioural’ characteristics in the Manufacturing and Telecommunication industries in Malaysia. Past findings suggest that ‘behavioural’ characteristics of well developed team tend to possess certain ‘behavioural’ characteristics (e.g., Wheelan and Hochberger, 1996; Woodcock and Francis, 1996). The literature (e.g., Hoigaard, et. al., 2006; Stevens and Champion, 1994) has shown that that ‘behavioural’ characteristics such as role clarity, role satisfaction, liking, goal agreement, openness to change and differences, participative leadership style, division of task into sub-teams, informal leadership role, effective handling of intra-team conflict and inter-team conflict are critical in team performance. The second objective seeks to investigate the relationship between team ‘structural’ factors (such as team size, team types, organisation size) and team behaviours. Team structure is viewed as ‘inputs’ to team behaviour (Gist et al., 1987). Goal contribution by teams (e.g., Hoegl and Parboteeah, 2003), customers (e.g., Kaczynski and Ott, 2004) and management (e.g., Samson and Daft (2003) were also included in the study. The third objective seeks to investigate the relationship between team members’ demographic variables (such as gender, ethnicity, age and education) and team behaviour and team performance. Scholars suggest that there is a link between team’s demography and team performance (e.g., Eisenhardt and Schoonhoven, 1990; Michael and Hambrick, 1992). Questionnaire data were collected from 59 work teams comprising of 137 individual team members) from both small and large organisations located in four regions in Malaysia (Penang, Kuala Lumpur Seremban and Malacca). The respondents were mainly Malay (52.9 percent), followed by Chinese (31.4 percent), and Indian (15.7 percent). Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlations and one way analysis of variance. The findings suggest that ‘behavioural’ characteristics such as role clarity, role satisfaction and division of task into sub-teams are critical for all aspects of team performance. Goal agreement, role clarity, role satisfaction and division of task into sub-teams and participative leadership style correlate with the team performance indicator of downtime reduction. Role satisfaction and division of tasks into sub-teams correlates positively with waste reduction. The findings indicate that team type and organisation size correlates with team performance. The findings suggest that involvement from team members drawn from cross-functional areas complement each other and these teams tend to have less conflict in task performance. Team members from large organisations seem to have a majority of effective team behaviours such as cohesiveness, liking for each other, goal agreement, role clarity, and openness to differences. These teams also have a preference for structured activities such as division of tasks into sub-teams, participative leadership style and are motivated to achieve team goals. Goal contribution by teams and customers are critical for team performance. Celebrations of team success provide opportunities for reinforcing team values and bonding team members to one another, thus creating a cohesive team. However, team size does not impact team performance. The findings show that teams with a majority of Malay members tend to be more cohesive, like each other more, agree to team goals, open to change and accept each other’s differences. They also tend to prefer structured activities such as the division of tasks into sub-teams and participative leadership style. Teams with a majority of Chinese and Indian members tend to have higher inter-team conflict and tend to focus on the team’s outcome. The findings have important practical implication for managers and supervisors who need to be sensitive to the differences and needs of the multi-ethnic race team. Intra-team and inter-team conflict could be minimised by providing interpersonal training and conflict resolution skills for team members to communicate positively and build rapport. The findings show that there is a strong relationship between team performance and team type, and team membership composition. Therefore, teams need to be labelled accurately according to the different team expectations and needs of the team (e.g., training, supervision, motivation). The findings found that team involvement in team goals is associated with team performance. This finding suggests that managers need to involve team members in setting reachable goals which provide a sense of direction to teams. In conclusion, the study found that there is a relationship between team ‘behavioural’ characteristics such as role clarity, role satisfaction and division of task into sub-teams and team performance in the Malaysian context. Ethnic values and cultural differences also influence team members’ behaviour. The study suggests that goal contribution by team and customer provide a sense of direction to teams in achieving the teams’ outcomes. Celebration of team success and team participation in convention enhances team performance.