This study examined federal court cases related to the use of social media websites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn) in various employment practices (e.g., selection, promotion, employee monitoring, layoffs). Court cases were identified using various online databases in an attempt to create an exhaustive list of cases to be used to better understand the role that social media has played in organizational settings and the legal implications of its use. The results of this study show that there were a significant number of cases involving termination and Facebook, and organizations prevailed in court significantly more than the defendant did. The results of this study provide organizations, employees, and applicants with a better understanding of how organizational social media use has been perceived in the court of law, thereby allowing people and employers to make better decisions regarding social media use.

The proposed study explores the cognitive miser approach to perception formation in job interviews, as well as factors that may motivate people to not act as cognitive misers. Personality type (introverted and extraverted) and gender are characteristics of people that are associated with many stereotypes (Heilman, 2001; Andersen & Klatzky, 1987), and can have a large influence on an employer’s perception of an applicant, particularly when the employer is acting as a cognitive miser. It is hypothesized that in longer interviews, employers will be motivated to not act as cognitive misers, because they have more information about the applicant, have more of an opportunity to disconfirm any biases they may hold about the applicant, and experience greater liking toward the applicant. To test this, participants will conduct interviews with job applicants (who are actually confederates) and rate their perceptions of the applicants’ expected job performance. Participants will either conduct a long or short interview with a male introvert, a female introvert, a male extravert, or a female extravert. Job applicants will provide participants with the same information, although the information about personality type and the amount of information given will depend on the condition. It is predicted that participants who conduct shorter interviews will rate the applicants in line with popular stereotypes that favor extraverts over introverts, and males over females. Conversely, participants in longer interviews will be motivated to thoroughly think through their evaluations of the applicants, and there will be no significant difference in their ratings of male extraverts, female extraverts, male introverts, and female introverts.

In recent times, situational judgment tests (SJTs) have emerged as an instrument of choice in organizations. This emergence is partly due to the high costs associated with developing and conducting high fidelity simulations such as assessment centers, coupled with the recent economic downturn affecting many organizations. The current study sought to validate an SJT as a low cost, alternate form of assessing leadership within an organizational context. A content validation study was carried out by retranslating items into eight dimensions and calibrating item responses. This study resulted in a content valid measure of leadership knowledge. Future studies should focus on further evaluating the psychometric properties of this new leadership assessment. Alternate forms reliability, convergent validity, and divergent validity studies, in particular, should be conducted to evaluate the new test.

This study investigated three issues problematic to the state of knowledge on mentoring. These issues were: (a) lack of scientifically derived operational definitions in use in research on mentoring; (b) lack of agreement about how common mentoring is; and (c) lack of agreement about whether or not alternate forms of career support are more efficient than mentoring. The information collected to address each of these issues was acquired in two phases: a literature survey followed by a sample survey. The literature survey addressed the first issue. It resulted in the formulation of an operational definition of mentoring which was based on an empirical profile of an "ideal" mentoring relationship. Formulation of the profile was a major focus of this study.

Leadership Development Programs (LDPs) programs are employed by firms globally in different multiple manners that are aimed at accelerating the development and growth of highly capable candidates. Among these candidates, depending on the particular LDP, may be those possess engineering skills typically afforded through engineering education as measured by completion of an engineering degree. Infrastructure reductions might be afforded corporations if multiple LDPs could be supplanted with one program such as an Engineering Leadership Development Program. In practice, however, economic constraints limited the total sample population of this category to 67 (48 with engineering degrees and 15 without). Employing SPSS Sample Power 3, based on the pilot testing for CPMs, 113 subjects per group (with and without engineering degrees - totaling 226) would be required to yield a power of 80%, and of the 350 received completed surveys received, CPMs meeting the desired criteria accounted for only 63 (18%) of the total number of rated organizational leaders. Consequently, while all testing included the CPM group, the scope was expanded to also include managers with and without PMI certifications as well as managers with and without engineering degrees. The first research hypothesis was Ho: There is no affiliation amongst Transformational Leadership (TL) and engineering education. Thus, the author’s aim is to determine the role, if any, that engineering education plays in perceived leadership style as exhibited by CPMs and non-CPMs holding engineering degrees (e.g. EE, ME, IE, etc.) versus the same without engineering degrees. A secondary goal is to determine, within the management category, which style (transformational or transactional) serves as the dominant style of leadership. With this in mind, the independent variable, CPMs with and without engineering degrees, was operationally defined consistent with this Project.

The case of mobilization against hydraulic fracturing by interest groups provided an opportunity to examine the influence of three factors (mission, audience, and policy context) on diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational framing. A comparative analysis was conducted of the mobilization activities of five national environmental organizations with a local presence in the Pennsylvania and New York Marcellus Shale regions. The organizations varied with respect to organizational mission, the audiences they were targeting (urban and rural), and the policy context in which they worked (pro and anti-hydraulic fracturing). Data came from eleven semi-structured in-depth interviews with organization personnel, and from the organizations' websites and published documents. The results of this research show how the organizations use diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational framing to mobilize citizens against hydraulic fracturing. They illustrate the influence of organizational mission, audience (urban versus rural), and policy context in how the groups take on these framing tasks. Overall, the findings provide insights into the variation in frames and framing that can occur at the organizational level inside a movement. They illustrate the explanatory value of investigating multiple factors as they affect diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational framing.

OBJECTIVE: This study explores psychological experiences that may influence service members’ self-concepts and future orientations. As stable, optimistic, future orientations have been associated with resilience to psychological distress and suicidality (Johnson, et al., 2011), it is worthwhile to explore how service members’ attitudes toward the future might be shaped in the context of intrapersonal and interpersonal experiences. METHOD: Data were collected from service members of the Virginia National Guard (N = 192) and included a Transportation unit, an Engineer unit, an Infantry unit and a group with no specific unit affiliation or substantive military experience. The study is a cross-sectional design that seeks support for the hypothesis that interpersonal and intrapersonal psychological needs differentially influence one’s future orienation. RESULTS: Analysis demonstrated that autonomy, competence and relatedness each play partial mediating roles with respect to the identity style-identity commitment relationship. Further analysis demonstrated that all three psychological needs also significantly predict identity commitment, but that the intrapersonal needs of autonomy and competence are stronger predictors than the interpersonal need, relatedness. The competing hypothesis that psychological needs balance would outperform the psychological needs variables as predictors of identity commitment was not confirmed. CONCLUSIONS: The data indicate that all three psychological needs variables are significantly influential (by degree and category) with regard to protective factors that involve identity-based processes and identity-based beliefs. Implications and areas for future research are discussed.

This cross-sectional study examined the associations among perceived parental behavior and personality on work behaviors of undergraduate students from a large Southeastern university. Past research suggests that children who perceive their parents to be workaholics are more likely to exhibit workaholic behavior themselves (Chamberlin & Zhang, 2009). Moreover, personality factors including conscientiousness and neuroticism, have been categorized as antecedents of workaholic behavior in previous studies (Andreassen, Hetland, & Pallesen, 2010; Aziz & Tronzo, 2011; Burke, Matthiesen, & Pallesen, 2006). Students (N = 209) completed questionnaires assessing Big Five personality factors, dispositional optimism, and perceptions of parental work drive, parental work involvement, and parental work enjoyment. Hypotheses regarding parental work behaviors and their ability to predict undergraduate student work behavior were not supported. Conscientiousness and extraversion were significant predictors of work drive, involvement and enjoyment. Neuroticism was also significant in predicting work drive among students included in the sample. Findings and recommendations for future study are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a biographically weighted application blank for use in selecting delivery personnel. The England (1971) procedure for weighting biographical information was utilized. The criterion was a ratio of planned work time to actual work time. It was hypothesized that (a) significant derivation and cross-validities would be obtained, and (b) significant practical benefits in terms of correct placement of workers in the high and low criterion groups would result. The first hypothesis was partially supported in that a significant derivation validity was obtained (r = -.56, P < .05). However, the cross-validity (r = -.12) was not significant. Thus, the second hypothesis was not supported. A discussion of the results and recommendations for the implementation of the weighted application blank are provided.

Employers want to reduce or eliminate claims of employee retaliation whenever possible because of associated negative organizational consequences such as legal liability, various financial costs for the organization, and negative effect on employee morale. As such, it is important to identify the factors that impact the court’s decision to rule in favor of the plaintiff or the defendant. The purpose of the present study is to identify factors driving the court’s decision, as well as to review the implications of recent Supreme Court holdings for retaliation issues. Supreme Court cases involving a claim of employee retaliation from BNSF v. White (2006) to the present were reviewed and coded on factors likely to influence the court’s decision. Implications associated with these factors and the implications of relevant Supreme Court holdings are discussed. The ability of the plaintiff to establish all three prongs of a retaliation claim was found to be important for the court to rule in his/her favor. If the retaliatory act meets or exceeds the EEOC deterrence standard, the court tended to favor the plaintiff. Finally, the results suggest that the plaintiff should use the organization’s grievance policy, if there is one, as the court tended to rule favorably for the plaintiff when he/she used the available grievance policy. Additional implications are explored and limitations are discussed.