Most studies on organizational justice have focused on individuals’ reactions to justice. As such, a key question has been left largely unanswered: Why do individuals act fairly or unfairly? The present research adopted a person-situation interactionist approach (Trevino, 1986) to examine psychological and situational antecedents of individuals’ fair behavior. The social identity model of deindividuation (SIDE; Reicher, Spears, & Postmes, 1995) and side-bet theory of continuance commitment (Becker, 1960) was used to examine how organizational identification and continuance commitment might influence employees’ fair or unfair behavior depending on an organization’s justice climate. Based on SIDE, it was hypothesized that organizational identification relates positively to employees’ feelings of deindividuation. Based on side-bet theory, it was further hypothesized that employees’ continuance commitment relates positively to their adoption of a subordinate role. Both deindividuation and adoption of a subordinate role were argued to make employees more susceptible to external influences and, therefore, make individuals more likely to behave in ways that are normative in a given context. Individuals who have higher levels of continuance commitment and organizational identification were, therefore, argued to engage in fair or unfair behavior depending on the level of the justice climate and the strength of the justice climate of their workgroup. The results of three studies provided support for the majority of hypotheses. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

Research describing conservation agencies has generally been exploratory and limited in the use of theory. Similarly, organizational theories can provide an understanding for how organizations change and adapt to their given environments, but they have not been applied to conservation agencies with unique challenges and strains from other public bureaucracies or private corporations. In expanding this body of literature, not only were these theories applied conservation agencies, but they were also explored in what Powell and Colyvas (2008, p. 276) called "microfoundations" of organizations, which focuses on the interplay between individuals and organizations. To explore this, a convergent mixed-methods design was conducted. Within the quantitative strand, anonymous online surveys (n = 183) were distributed to rangers within the Association of National Park Rangers and several social media groups as well as publicly available secondary data. For the qualitative strand, Zoom interviews (n = 11) and a participant observation of a Ranger Rendezvous conference was conducted. Through bivariate analyses, differences were found between law enforcement and non-law enforcement rangers; ordinary least squares regression indicate that role ambiguity and job satisfaction are important in predicting organizational commitment, and an interaction effect was found between type of ranger and job satisfaction on organizational commitment. Qualitative data finds several themes associated with rangers' perceptions of their organizations, including the variability of the implementation of policies, the importance of training in shaping ranger identity, and the variety of ways they perceive effectiveness and legitimacy. These strands are combined to describe how role ambiguity is important in organizational commitment as well as discussing the impacts of organizations on individual rangers. Theoretical and policy implications, limitations and future research are also discussed.

Data were collected by an external company for a healthcare service firm interested in learning the job-related attitudes of their employees. Thus, archival data from 1,287 employees were collected for a different purpose. The survey consisted of 117 questions covering a broad range of constructs. Consequently, the items were used to derive effective measures of employee engagement and behavioral outcomes, as well as the emotional, mental, spiritual and physical dimensions. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis procedures were used to create scales reflecting these four factors. Interestingly, six scales emerged, logically linking to and further specifying the initial dimensions. These were Organizational Linkage, Manager Relationship, Job Fit, Job Clarity, Work Pressure, and Meaningful Work. To test the hypotheses, six separate regression equations were calculated, which statistically supported modification by each of the dimensions. However, statistical significance of the interactions resulted from having a large sample, given the actual association was too small to be meaningful (e.g., a contribution of 0.6% of the variance). As each of the dimensions had a main effect on the behavioral measure during hypothesis testing, exploratory regression equations were calculated to further understand the interrelationships. Of most interest was finding that in the presence of Engagement, the main effects of only Organizational Linkage and Job Fit reached significance. However, when Engagement was not included, four of the six dimensions made a significant contribution to Behavioral Outcomes. Overall, there was support for previous conceptualizations. From the scientist-practitioner perspective, the six factors identified in this study may be more useful than the four initially proposed. The distinctions give practitioners additional information to use in interventions to improve employee behavior and retention.

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Reducing employee turnover through retention practices is an area of great interest to employers who depend on a highly skilled workforce. In recent years, Cooperative Extension has experienced the loss of many local agents/educators due to resignation and also retirement incentives offered as a cost saving measure to manage reduced funding. Due to the type of work, the training needed, and the small pool of qualified applicants, it is important to pay attention to the retention of newly hired Extension workers. Prior research suggests a linkage of factors that can predict the likelihood of new employees' intention to quit. Human resource practices including recruitment & hiring, compensation & benefits, training & development, and supervision & evaluation are items that can directly influence the level of job satisfaction of new employees as well as their level of commitment to the organization. The level of job satisfaction and organizational commitment can, subsequently, predict an employee's level of intention to quit. This paper will share findings of research conducted in the fall of 2010, which included 480 Extension agents/educators, representing 12 states in the Southern United States. The study targeted employees with less than six years of employment and investigated human resource practices that influence intention to quit. Findings indicate a significant relationship between perceptions of human resource practices and intention to quit, mediated by organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Accordingly, the research has important implications for the management of Cooperative Extension and anyone working in or preparing to work in related fields. / Ph. D.