Why do people engage in innovative behavior in the workplace? More specifically, what motivational reasons affect an employee?s decision to introduce new product ideas, apply new work methods, and suggest new ways to achieve objectives? Based on the efficiency-oriented perspective and the social-political perspective in understanding innovation, I hypothesize and test expected positive performance outcomes, expected image risks, and expected image gains as proximal determinants of individual innovative behavior at work, and examine how they mediate the effects of more distal antecedents. Adopting a contingency approach, I also examine the explanatory power of performance and image outcome expectations under different reward contingency situations. The theoretical framework was tested in a field study. I found a significant positive effect of expected positive performance outcomes and a significant negative effect of expected image risks on employee innovative behavior. Five distal antecedents (perceived organization support for innovation, supervisor relationship quality, innovativeness as job requirement, reputation as innovative, and dissatisfaction with the status quo) had indirect effects on innovative behavior by either increasing expectedpositive performance outcomes or reducing expected image risks, or both. The effect of expected positive performance outcomes was stronger when perceived performance-reward contingency was high. The effect of expected image risks was stronger when perceived image-reward contingency was high. Implications were discussed in terms of building a multiple-perspective framework for understanding innovative behavior and designing managerial strategies to encourage employee innovativeness.

Why do people engage in innovative behavior in the workplace? More specifically, what motivational reasons affect an employee?s decision to introduce new product ideas, apply new work methods, and suggest new ways to achieve objectives? Based on the efficiency-oriented perspective and the social-political perspective in understanding innovation, I hypothesize and test expected positive performance outcomes, expected image risks, and expected image gains as proximal determinants of individual innovative behavior at work, and examine how they mediate the effects of more distal antecedents. Adopting a contingency approach, I also examine the explanatory power of performance and image outcome expectations under different reward contingency situations. The theoretical framework was tested in a field study. I found a significant positive effect of expected positive performance outcomes and a significant negative effect of expected image risks on employee innovative behavior. Five distal antecedents (perceived organization support for innovation, supervisor relationship quality, innovativeness as job requirement, reputation as innovative, and dissatisfaction with the status quo) had indirect effects on innovative behavior by either increasing expectedpositive performance outcomes or reducing expected image risks, or both. The effect of expected positive performance outcomes was stronger when perceived performance-reward contingency was high. The effect of expected image risks was stronger when perceived image-reward contingency was high. Implications were discussed in terms of building a multiple-perspective framework for understanding innovative behavior and designing managerial strategies to encourage employee innovativeness.

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Thesis advisor: Ryan Chahrour / This dissertation consists of three independent explorations of the interplay between expectations and macroeconomic activity. I investigate economic dynamics and policy issues concerning the management of expectations both from the lens of business cycles and medium-term fluctuations, embracing a rational expectations approach as well as venturing into the wilderness of bounded rationality. The first chapter, "Monetary Policy & Anchored Expectations - An Endogenous Gain Learning Model," investigates how a concern to anchor expectations affects the conduct of monetary policy. The chapter first proposes a novel model of expectations which provides a notion for unanchored expectations. In this model, expectations are the more unanchored the higher the sensitivity of long-run inflation expectations to short-run fluctuations. I then embed the expectations model in a general-equilibrium model of the business cycle, and estimate the extent of unanchoring using data on inflation expectations. Within the context of the thus calibrated model, I derive the Ramsey-optimal monetary policy. The main result is that it is optimal for a central bank to anchor inflation expectations to the inflation target. The way the central bank can achieve this is by responding very aggressively with its interest rate tool to fluctuations in long-run inflation expectations. The observation that motivates the second chapter, "Talking in Time - Dynamic Central Bank Communication," is that the management of expectations by the monetary authority is a dynamic problem in two ways. Firstly, in a dynamic economy, a central bank needs to decide when to communicate. Secondly, every time the central bank does talk to the public, it also has to choose what to talk about: the present or the future? The chapter thus extends existing macroeconomic research on various dimensions of optimal central bank communication by asking what the implications of dynamics are for the optimal information provision of the central bank to the public. To this end, I analyze a Bayesian Persuasion game between a central bank and the private sector in a static and a dynamic setting, in which the private sector tracks one economic variable, while the central bank wishes it to track a second variable instead. Importantly, the two problems are identical except for the correlation structure between the two variables, which is either cross-sectional or temporal. This way, I isolate the role of dynamics for the optimal communication policy. The main result is that in the dynamic setting, the prior beliefs of the private sector become endogenous to central bank communication and dampen the effectiveness of the central bank's communication. Therefore, the central bank faces a new tradeoff: it needs to push against priors in two ways. Relatively to the static solution, the central bank talks more about the economic variable it wants the private sector to learn about, and it also talks with less clarity in order to render the private sector's beliefs sufficiently responsive to its messages at each point in time. In the third chapter, "ICT-Specific Investment Shocks and Economic Fluctuations - Evidence and Theory of a General-Purpose Technology," joint with Marco Brianti, I explore empirically the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) for medium-run economic fluctuations. The first set of results demonstrate the hump-shaped dynamics of total factor productivity after an innovation in ICT, as identified in a structural vector autoregression context. I interpret the hump-shaped impulse response as a consequence of the slow diffusion of ICT technologies, and test this hypothesis using an estimated two-sector growth model. The second set of results document that, viewed through the lens of the model, the data favor the interpretation of innovations in the ICT-sector playing the role of a general-purpose technology. In other words, the slow buildup of the overall effect on productivity stems from the gradual diffusion of ICT in the economy. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

Successful project management requires continuous communication aligning the expectations between project stakeholders and the project team. Expectations include both product expectations (how the product will look, feel, and perform) and programmatic expectations (timelines, deliverables, expenditure of project resources). In order to make the most effective use of project resources throughout the life of the project, a process or tool for quickly aligning expectations as closely as possible should be employed early on in the project. Project management literature is lacking in tools for aligning expectations, and solutions and best practices need to be determined since the current best option is hiring experienced project managers and hoping they can communicate successfully. This paper lays out the quantitative statistical methods that are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of potential expectations alignment tools in order to determine best practices. Engineering capstone students lack the industry experience aligning programmatic expectations that a good project manager would have. Curriculum may not be addressing the alignment of programmatic expectations, leaving students with blind spots that can lead even the brightest of student teams to fail. Failure to properly align expectations and achieve project goals can then lead to ruined relationships and damage a program's reputation. Using the methodology we propose, we determined that students at Brigham Young University and the United States Air Force Academy have a statistically significant misalignment regarding two major programmatic expectations: design deliverables to be created as part of the project, and the desired technology readiness level the project needed to achieve. It was also determined that these students have a statistically significant bias towards overestimating the importance their sponsors put on creating prototypes. The alignment tool we tested and the alignment measurement methodology we propose provide a groundwork for future development and testing of tools and best practices for quickly aligning design teams' expectations with their stakeholders.

Monetary policy changes that are unexpected by the investing public can generate great volatility and illiquidity in the equities market, and therefore may severely compromise the Federal Reserve’s ability to control the economy. Given the investing public’s power, their fear of uncertainty, and their impulsive nature to create and act upon uninformed expectations, it is imperative that the Federal Reserve uses any and all communication about monetary policy with the purpose of further advancing the their stability objectives. Initially, the Federal Reserve felt that changes in monetary policy were most effective if decided and implemented in private however over 50 years after its establishment, Ben Bernanke began to realize the power of transparency and communication. Given how recently its power was recognized and utilized, it is still a relatively new topic with various facets that have yet to be explored. This paper will carefully analyze these different facets of transparency. First it will explain why a lack of communication was originally considered to be the most effective way to implement monetary policy. Next, it will explore the relationship between the investing public’s power and their need for communication. And lastly, it will attempt estimate the best way to use communication to the Federal Reserve’s benefit, with special attention to the recent financial crisis of 2008 and how Ben Bernanke handled it. These results will reiterate the value of transparency between the Federal Reserve and the investing public about target federal funds rates and expected inflation, which will ultimately allow them to work together to achieve the same objectives.

This study aimed at investigating the differences in expectations between students with respect to their chosen programs between two English degree programs (Arts and Education). Eight research questions were formulated to pursue the purpose of this study. 351 students of English from the College of Education and the Faculty of Arts constituted the sample. The data was collected randomly through the use of survey questionnaire and was analyzed with the use of SPSS v11.0. Frequencies and percentage distributions as well as two independent-samples t-test statistical procedures were used to analyze the collected data. In general, the results showed that students' expectations played an important role in students' choice of the preferred program of study with respect to English language programs. Based on a given context, students were found to hold what could be termed 'global' expectations where students show similar expectation, and 'program-related' expectations. One main conclusion drawn from this study was that students' expectations were vital in students' decision to invest in continued participating in education. Students were significantly statistically differentiated as a function of different expectations, particularly economic expectations. However, expectations were not just confined to pecuniary benefits; students tended to value the non-pecuniary benefits as well. Hence, students, along with their expectations should be included in evaluating or revising the academic programs instead of relying thoroughly on signals coming from the labor market and employers. Implications for educational policies and recommendations for future research were included as well. / Ph. D.

Abstract  The severe situation of female child soldiers worldwide continues, and the harsh reality they stand in front of once returning back to their communities is often concealed. By the time former female child soldiers begin their journey back to civilian life and a life of dignity, they face various difficulties. Females are often exposed to marginalisation, stigmatisation, discrimination and isolation, and their livelihood and safety tend to be jeopardised. Females are often disregarded and are desperately fighting a battle to become accepted and to receive needed assistance. Since gender roles and gender identities vary around the world and between regions, communities tend to treat females and males very differently. Expectations of females vary depending on structures in communities and therefore communities tend to treat females in a certain way. This study seeks to explore national reintegration strategies in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and how the gap between these strategies and traditional cultural and social expectations of females affect reintegration processes in the country. The complex situation of female child soldiers in the DRC in terms of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR), with particular focus on reintegration is addressed in this thesis. The objective of this study is to analyse to what extent national reintegration strategies in the DRC are adapted to meet the needs of females and their home community. The findings indicate that the national program of DDR in the DRC, the PNDDR, is not aligned with existing cultural and social expectations of females, which have major consequences in reintegration processes. The findings demonstrate that there are many systems which are vital and have to be considered for reintegration to be effective. These systems have to be considered by the PNDDR on a broader level since there are shortcomings in these systems. It is significant to have knowledge about females to be able to streamline DDR processes and once designing programs of DDR. If reintegration of females is unsuccessful, this has negative effects for peace. This study draws on qualitative approaches and a desk study is performed. A created analytical framework taking surrounding environments, child development and social and cultural components into account is used. Keywords: DDR, DRC, Females, Reintegration, Traditional Social Expectations, Traditional Cultural Expectations

Expectations are a key aspect of human success and behavior that predict outcomes in a variety of settings, including academics. Trait expectations (e.g., hope and optimism) and previous experiences appear relevant to the formation of specific expectations. Specific expectations predict outcomes, with positive expectations predicting better outcomes. In academics, positive specific expectations predict improved academic performance; however, there are aspects of this relationship that are unclear. This study sought to examine the formation of specific academic expectations and the relationship between these expectations and academic performance. The current study aimed to replicate previous research about the unique influences of academic expectations, expand this knowledge by examining possible mechanisms of the relationship between academic expectations and academic performance, and test how previous academic experience affected this relationship. Results of this study showed that previous GPA and optimism, but not hope, predicted academic expectations. Academic expectations predicted academic performance, but this relationship was not mediated by study time or stress. Finally, previous GPA moderated the relationship between academic expectations and academic performance, such that the positive association between academic expectations and academic performance was stronger for those with poorer prior performance. <br>

Given the projected increase of Hispanic Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs), researchers have begun examining issues related to their high levels of school dropout, largely stemming from academic underachievement. The focus of this study is to examine the impact of teacher expectations, parent expectations, and academic self-efficacy on the achievement of Hispanic Spanish-speaking ELLs. Participants in this study were from a medium-size school district in southwest Texas and included 99 2nd, 5th, and 8th grade students identified as limited English proficient, their parent, and their teacher. Norm-referenced achievement measures and researcher developed measures were utilized in this study. Findings from this study indicate that teacher expectations was a significant predictor of all measures of achievement, while parent expectations was a significant predictor of English reading and students? academic self-efficacy was a significant predictor of Spanish reading. Second, this study determined the best predictor for reading and math achievement was teacher expectations in 2nd grade, but there were no significant predictors in 5th and 8th grade. Third, this study addressed the possibility of academic self-efficacy functioning as a mediator, but the analysis was not conducted because academic self-efficacy did not serve as a significant predictor of all measures of achievement. Findings from additional analyses indicate that students' English language proficiency was determined to be a significant predictor of English reading achievement and parent expectations. Furthermore, students' Spanish proficiency was positively associated with their grade levels, and Spanish proficiency was negatively related to English proficiency. Academic self-efficacy was separated by domains (i.e., math self-efficacy and reading self-efficacy). In the overall sample math self-efficacy was not a significant predictor of math achievement. Math self-efficacy served as a significant predictor for 5th and 8th grade math achievement. In the overall sample, reading self-efficacy did not significantly predict English or Spanish reading. Reading self-efficacy served as a significant predictor in 8th grade English reading. Parents' employment desires for their children demonstrated a mismatch with parents' desire for their child's highest level of education. Teachers believed that family concerns were the greatest obstacle participants faced and many did not desire to speculate about students? future employment.