<p> The purpose of this quantitative study with a correlational design was to explore the relationship between spirituality and work intentions from the perspective of 140 employees of a behavioral health agency in the state of Arizona. The predictor, spirituality, is supported by the theory of Spirituality in the Workplace, which applies the Spirituality in the Workplace Scale. The criterion, work intentions, is sustained by the Employee Work Passion Appraisal (EWPA) model and employs the Work Intention Inventory Short-Form. This study intended to determine if there was a relationship between the overall of spirituality in the workplace and its three dimensions (organizational values, meaningful work, and sense of community) and the overall of work intentions and its five dimensions (intent to use organizational citizenship behaviors, intent to endorse the organization, intent to perform at a higher than average level, intent to stay in the organization, and intent to use discretionary effort on behalf of the organization). RQ1 applied Spearman rank-order correlation coefficient to determine a statistically significantly positive relationship between the overall of spirituality and the overall of work intentions, rs = 0.658, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001. Additionally, RQs 2-6 employed multivariate linear regression and multiple linear regression to determine a statistically significant relationship between spirituality and intent to endorse, <i> t</i>(132) = 3.806, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001 and a statistically significantly relationship between spirituality and intent to stay, <i> t</i>(132) = 3.590, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001. However, there was insufficient evidence to support a significant relationship between spirituality and the intent to use OCBs, the intent to perform, and the intent to use discretionary effort. Key Words: Spirituality, Spirituality in the Workplace, Work Intentions</p><p>

<p> This paper involved a path analysis of a new measure of grit to understand work engagement. Recent studies have found significant correlations between both constructs; however an explanation of &ldquo;how&rdquo; grit plays a role in work engagement is opaque (Robertson-Kraft &amp; Duckworth, 2014; Suzuki, Tamesue, Asahi, &amp; Ishikawa, 2015). The hypothesized model of this study failed to fit the data. Data fit problems likely relate to significant contrasts of two different samples and unsupported theory for the overall model. However, several findings resulted from this study. Grit was found to correlate to work engagement for nursing related staff; whereas, business executives there was no support. Evidence suggest nurses possibly experience a reduction in challenge stressors when they suppress their emotions. In contrast, business executives likely increase hindrance stressors from suppression. Results of this study hint at the notion different groups of people appraise stressors uniquely relative to work engagement.</p><p>

Virtual teams have become more commonplace in the corporate landscape of the twenty-first century. These non-traditional teams are typically involved in complex and dynamic projects. They are comprised of members who are located in more than one geographic location and who rely on computer-mediated communication to accomplish their goals. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between various dimensions of virtual teams and team effectiveness. Variables of interest included trust, shared understanding, internal collaboration, external communication, functional diversity, team leadership, and amount of face-to-face communication. Thirty-three virtual teams from high-technology firms participated in the study. Since this study incorporated both individual team member data and project team data into the majority of analyses, Hierarchical Linear Modeling was used to eliminate the problems associated with using regression for cross-level data sets. Three models were developed based on the results of the analyses reflecting the significant relationships between various predictors and the outcomes of overall performance, innovativeness and member satisfaction. The findings indicated that trust, shared understanding, and internal collaboration abilities among the team members had strong positive relationships with effective outcomes of virtual teams. In some cases, the extent to which the team members were geographically dispersed negatively interacted with the predictor variables and lessened their impact on the outcome variables. In addition, teams that were self-managed had higher performance, were more innovative and had more satisfied team members than those led externally. Further, the results indicated that the effect of face-to-face communication varied with the desired outcome. Specifically, teams that brought members together in person tended to have higher innovativeness ratings and increased levels of member satisfaction. Face-to-face communication also positively interacted with internal collaboration, increasing the joint effect of these variables on member satisfaction. The extent that team members communicated with individuals outside the team was also shown to have a direct effect on innovativeness. Finally, functional diversity interacted with trust, which served to increase the joint effect on a team's innovativeness. These models now serve as a foundation for future research on virtual teams. The implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.

This dissertation seeks to examine the claim that contemporary industrial societies are witnessing a fundamental transformation in the nature of work leading to the advent of a new organizational paradigm. This research contends that while the new paradigm does exhibit significant breaks from the ways of organizing in the past, the change is by no means all embracing. A critical examination of the new paradigm must therefore attempt to focus attention on not just the transformation but also the continuities that persist from the past. This dissertation project has three inter-related components. First, it constructs a historiography in an attempt to offer an explanation of the shift from the old to the new organizational paradigm. Drawing upon literatures from multiple disciplines, it scrutinizes the claim of the transformation of work and identifies the changes and the continuities across the paradigmatic divide. Second, it uses the empirical sites of two software consulting firms--one at Silicon Valley and one at New York City--in order to examine the transformation of work at a leading edge of change. Through participant observation at the research sites and interviews with managers, programmers and end-clients, it examines the ruptures from earlier forms of work in the context of the software industry paying particular attention to the nature of the changing technologies, the local and the international division of labor, and the changing contours of space and time that accompany the transformation of work. Third, it constructs and tests two sets of hypotheses. One attempts to explore the nature of various forms of work commitment demonstrated by the growing assembly of the contingent workers of the new paradigm while the other focuses on the division of labor and the fragmentation of work in the organizations of the present. Through these three stages, this dissertation attempts to contribute to a more complex understanding of the issues around the transformation of work and to subject the discourse of the new organizational paradigm to critical scrutiny.

Employees adapting to change display a wide array of responses. Coping with change can be difficult for some individuals, whereas some employees may not be bothered by change; instead they look at it as a chance to grow and learn. Carver (1998) and O'Leary and Ickovics (1995) purport four potential modes of adapting to change: to succumb to the change, to survive the change, to be resilient to the change by regaining the level of functioning prior to the change, or to thrive and function better than before the change. This study analyzed the causes, consequences and outcomes of individual adaptation to a changing work environment. This study served to broaden and refine our understanding of the process of adaptation to organization change by filling some of the conceptual and empirical gaps in the research on individual adaptation at work (Chan, 2000). Prior studies have concentrated mostly on individual differences contributing to one's ability to adapt to change (Judge, Thorensen, Pucik, and Welbourne, 1999), or have focused on how organization changes affect stress and anxiety levels among individuals (Wanberg & Banas, 2000, Shaw, Fields, Thacker & Fisher, 1993 e.g.). This study advanced empirical research on individual change by developing and testing a model of both individual differences and organizational, or context specific factors affecting individual responses to change. It was hypothesized that individuals reporting higher levels of the above variables would also report higher levels of adaptability. This study also introduces the notion of thriving (functioning at a higher level after a change) to the empirical research on organizational changes and tested the hypothesis that better adaptors would perceive better work outcomes in the form of higher job satisfaction and perceived performance and lower absenteeism and intentions to quit the organization. The above model was tested in a field study of 169 participants across four different organizations experiencing varying changes. Results indicated participation, role clarity and optimism were positively related to adaptability. Further, it was found that better adaptors were more satisfied with their jobs, were less likely to quit the organization, and perceived higher performance after the change.

After a general review of the dynamics of personal crisis and change, a theory of how complex organizations decline into a crisis state was developed. The premise is that misalignment of dominant elements work to establish a degenerative state. Such a state causes the organization to become maladaptive. As the maladaptive condition increases, change inhibitors begin to form. The level of organizational decline determines what inhibitor or combination of inhibitors evolve. The primary organizational change inhibitors identified are: inappropriate defense patterns and defense mechanisms; traumatized leadership; organizational blockages; and organizational syndromes. As misalignment increases, assisted by the negative coping mechanisms or inhibitors, a point is reached where a state of disharmonic resonance is established (the negative of synergy) and a crisis state is created or organization utility equals zero. This descriptive theory was then translated into a prescriptive model of degenerative intervention called "organizational triage" (OTR). Triage refers to an efficient process of identification of the most significant dominant elements that will have the greatest impact on reversing the decline and the selection of the most appropriate intevention protocol--salvage, treatment, or surgery--to realign these dominant elements. The degenerative intervention model identified seven major stages: equilibrium misalignment occurrence, pre-crisis, crisis, stabilization, regeneration, and new equilibrium. The pre-crisis and crisis stages were further broken into four phases. Intervention and alignment strategies and observations about the model were developed. Special emphasis was placed on the stabilization of an organization in crisis as a triage component needed to prepare an organization to accept the realignment intervention. Last, a review of applications, and further areas of research and conclusions were presented.

The challenges of the turbulent environment facing most top executives today, the need for creative skills at every level in organizations and at the top in particular, and the lack of clear understanding as to what creativity is all about point out the need for an investigation into the factors influencing creativity at the top of organizations. The issues are rich and complex. The causes of the differences in creativity levels are many and not easily isolatable. The complexities of understanding the dynamics are heightened when they are put into a real-life context of a particular person, in a certain place, at a particular point in time. Much research has been conducted in the various relevant disciplines on diverse pieces of the complex puzzle, but most research has not been specifically related to the factors influencing creativity levels in top executives. The purpose of this dissertation is to better understand, through interviews with sixteen top executives of sixteen different organizations, how these executives, in their own words, perceive their personal creativity and the factors influencing its levels during their climb to and tenure at the top. As a result of the research, four themes emerge: (1) Personal issues play a much larger role than do external factors in explaining the differences in top executives' creativity levels; (2) Creativity in business is not well understood, and there are consequences from an incomplete understanding of creativity for both the top executive as well as the business; (3) The picture of the creative top executive resulting from these interviews and the literature is that of an artist. Awareness of the need for a new set of creative skills is a starting point for the development of a top executive's own program of education and growth; and (4) Several strategies for personal development are identified in this study. Implications for practitioners and aspirants, Boards of Directors, human resource specialists, and the teaching and research communities are explored. Suggestions for further research are also outlined.

The purposes of this study were twofold: (1) to explore whether and how the self relationship orientations of attachment and equality described by Gilligan in her research on moral development are identifiable in a new domain--professionals' descriptions of organizational conflict; and (2) to produce a rich account of a conflict situation presented through the perspectives of a group of professionals engaged in a conflict in their organization. The participants are seven physicians involved in an on-going conflict over compensation in their organization. Qualitative research methods were used in collecting the data with an open-ended, in-depth interview conducted with each of the participants and analyzed using the protocol developed by Gilligan and her colleagues for reading narratives of conflict and choice. The study's research questions focus on: (1) whether the orientations of attachment and equality are identifiable in these narratives of conflict; and, (2) how these orientations shape the individual's definition of conflict, perceived stakes and aspirations for resolution. The findings support the extension of Gilligan's theory into the domain of organizational conflict. The data revealed that both relationship orientations were expressed by each individual, regardless of gender or position in the organization, in their constructions of this conflict. In these narratives, attachment was expressed as a desire for voice in the organization, as caring for others, as a view of self interdependent with others, and as a desire for maintaining relationships. Equality was framed as a balancing of scales, as objectified considerations, and as inequity of power, position and money. The data suggest that how individuals perceive themselves in relation to others influences how they construct a conflict and what they desire as resolution. In addition, the analysis reveals that context is critical to understanding an individual's construction of conflict and that not knowing is a critical concept in defining conflict in an organizational setting. This study carries implications for the extension of Gilligan's theory as well as for creating a more inclusive understanding of organizational conflict. It also has relevance for practitioners who are involved in intervening in organizational conflict.

This study is an investigation into the complexities of organizational commitment and its effect(s) on people's behaviors. In recent management literature, the concept of organizational commitment has developed along two separate lines of research. One holds commitment to be a set of positive attitudes towards an organization with motivational effects on performance and membership. The other views commitment as an outcome of "investments" in a relationship which retrospectively bind the individual to continued membership. Following an exploratory study into managers' views on "commitment", a measure of commitment to "goals" was added. All three types were compared to hypothesized outcome behaviors. An interactive effect between "calculative" commitment and "job alternatives" on "intent to remain" was included. A questionnaire was used to measure individual commitment on the three commitment scales and reported behavior on seven outcome variables. All ten measures were operationalized by combining existing measure with ideas drawn from the exploratory study. The questionnaire was administered to 250 people at two private companies. Factor analysis was conducted on related variable measures in order to examine discriminant validity. Correlation analysis, multiple regression, and LISREL analysis were conducted in order to test 26 separate hypotheses derived from two models. All three types of commitment were confirmed as separate constructs. As expected, both "affective commitment" and "goal commitment" appeared to have positive relationships with performance variables. Also as expected, "affective" and "calculative commitment" proved to be strong predictors of "intent to remain". "Affective commitment" also a predicted low "search behavior" and high "desire to remain". Contrary to expectations, the effect of "affective commitment" on performance variables was stronger than that of "goal commitment". Also contrary, "calculative commitment" had a positive relationship with "desire to remain" and low "search behavior". There was no evidence of an interactive effect between "calculative commitment" and "job alternatives". The results confirm the power of "affective commitment" as a motivating phenomenon and suggest that its power exceeds that of commitment to "goals". Results also suggest that "calculative commitment" is related to desire to remain a member, though not with a willingness to expend extra job effort.

<p> Psychological ownership has come to light as an important state with strong implications on employee attitudes and behaviors. However, relatively little attention has been paid towards the process by which employees come to develop feelings of psychological ownership towards their work, particularly regarding the role played by individual traits in this process. Ownership theorists claim that personality and disposition should matter (Mayhew, Ashkanasy, Bramble, &amp; Gardner, 2007; Pierce &amp; Jussila, 2011), yet these claims remain largely untested. The purpose of the current investigation is to address these gaps by exploring how employee disposition and job design contribute to the development of job-based psychological ownership. Employing a cross-sectional approach, data were collected using an online survey where participants were asked to complete measures of trait positive affectivity (PA), job characteristics, work experiences, and job-based psychological ownership. Because the study focused on job-related phenomenon, participants were required to work full-time in a location other than their home to be considered for this study. The final 426 participants (60.4% male, 39.6% female) had an average tenure of 5.04 years (SD = 5.03) and represented a wide range of industries and job levels (23.7% entry-level, 31.0% individual contributor, 17.8% supervisory, 10.8% mid-level manager, 2.8% senior manager, 13.8% technical or professional). Hypotheses were tested using bootstrapped regression analyses and structural equation modeling. Results indicated that job autonomy has a positive effect on job-based psychological ownership (B = 0.501, CI 0.415 to 0.594) through three mediated paths: investment of ideas, effort, and self into one&rsquo;s work (B = 0.252, CI 0.178 to 0.349), experienced control and influence over one&rsquo;s work (B = 0.214, CI 0.137 to 0.293), and intimate knowledge and understanding of one&rsquo;s job (B = 0.036, CI 0.003 to 0.082). Employee PA significantly moderated the mediated path from autonomy to ownership through experienced control (Index of ModMed = 0.017, CI 0.000 to 0.045), such that control mattered more for high-PA employees. Exploratory analyses suggest that PA may play a dual role &ndash; as a moderator of autonomy&rsquo;s effects on control (B = 0.052, CI 0.009 to 0.100), and as an indirect effect on ownership itself. For example, high-PA employees reported greater investment of self in their work, which in turn predicted job-based psychological ownership (B = 0.255, CI 0.177 to 0.361). Ultimately, job autonomy stood out as having a particularly strong and consistent positive effect on job-based psychological ownership. Results suggest that all employees, from the most enthusiastic to the most apathetic can experience this positive psychological state. That is, as long as they are afforded a high level of autonomy in deciding how to plan and carry out their work.</p>