The rise of research on workplace mistreatment in the past twenty years can be attributed to the realization that workplace mistreatment is associated with a host of deleterious outcomes for both the individual targets of the mistreatment and the organizations in which they work. However, the extant literature is failing to capture the full range of sex-based mistreatment that people may experience through a tendency to focus solely on sexual harassment and sex discrimination, which are very specific types of behavior based on one's sex and gender stereotypes. In this dissertation, I introduce the construct of Not Woman Enough Harassment, or the extent to which women perceive that they are treated unfavorably because they do not meet traditionally held stereotypes of femininity. A scale was developed and validated in order to measure this type of harassment, and a model from antecedent to outcome was proposed. Results demonstrated that not woman enough harassment was experienced by approximately 32.5% of the sample. The scale showed good psychometric properties, with two distinct factors of harassment based on physical and non-physical traits. Not woman enough harassment was demonstrated to be distinct from other forms of sexual and workplace harassment. Discomfort with gender norm conformity and masculine physical and non-physical expression were shown to be antecedents of not woman enough harassment, along with a moderating effect of job gender context. In addition, not woman enough harassment significantly predicted decreased job satisfaction, affective organizational commitment, and task performance and increased withdrawal and job stress. Similar patterns were found for males with not man enough harassment.

This dissertation brings attention to two concepts that I label mistreatment anticipation and mistreatment anxiety. Similar constructs are implied in prior occupational stress research, and they are popularly understood by workers in the hospitality industry and other customer-facing workplace settings. However, they have not been directly studied in the empirical work psychology literature. In Study 1, I develop theory on the meaning of these two constructs and develop reliable survey measures of them using a sample of 242 laid-off and furloughed hospitality workers reporting their return-to-work concerns. In Study 2, I test causes, consequences, and moderators that distinguish the two constructs using a sample of customer-facing employees current working in the hospitality industry. I find that hospitality workers' past experiences with mistreatment predicted their mistreatment anticipation and, in turn, their mistreatment anxiety. Mistreatment anxiety was particularly high for workers who had high mistreatment anticipation and whose jobs involved customer satisfaction ratings of service. Mistreatment anxiety predicted workers' subsequent emotional exhaustion. Results suggest that direct mistreatment cues can impact workers' mistreatment anticipation and, in addition, mistreatment anxiety results in emotional strain. Also based on these results, I advise that employers eliminate or reduce the impact of customer ratings in service contexts and take efforts to reduce customer mistreatment.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the relationship between being introverted and the need to affiliate with others. Specifically, I sought to find out whether social media can be used as a replacement for face-to-face interactions. Previous studies have remained inconclusive on whether social media can be seen as a beneficial tool for individuals who tend to be more introverted. In the study, multiple measures were utilized to determine the correlation between social media usage and need fulfillment. The results indicated that individuals with social anxiety had a propensity towards being more introverted and having an increased amount of time on TikTok. Furthermore, these same individuals who show a propensity towards introversion, have indicated that they not only need to affiliate with others, but that their interactions on TikTok are overall, positive, and to some extent, meaningful. Ultimately, the data collected offers some insight into the importance of social media as a tool to fulfill social needs in individuals who are introverted and display social anxiety.

A plethora of extant research focuses on the positive outcomes of recovering from the workday. However, since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been more of a focus on how employees can recover during the workday as individuals are regularly experiencing pressure from the workplace. This thesis explicitly explores the relationship between various lunch break habits (e.g., eating during one's lunch break, not eating during one's lunch break, multitasking during one's lunch break) and psychological wellbeing, physiological strain, and counterproductive work behaviors (CWB). To add to the current research, the impact of ego depletion on the relationship is also studied. A survey was conducted to test the hypothesized mediation of ego depletion on the relationship between the three different lunch break habits and psychological wellbeing, physiological strain, and CWB. The participants included 394 individuals over the age of 18 years who were employed full-time, lived in the U.S. and worked from a central place of work. Results indicated that ego depletion significantly buffered the relationship between two of the lunch breaks habits (e.g., eating during one's lunch break and not eating during one's lunch break) when it predicted psychological wellbeing, physiological strain, and CWB. However, the third lunch break habit (e.g., multitasking during one's lunch break) was not supported. Future research directions, limitations, and practical implications are included.

The use of microcomputerized cognitive testing of personnel has thus far been limited to military and environmental stressor applications. The investigation of such testing as a substitute for assessment center performance represents a novel application of this technology. An examination of the relationship between performance on a cognitive test battery and assessment center performance was conducted. A battery of selected microcomputerized tests measuring cognitive constructs was administered to assessment center candidates in law enforcement occupations. Contrary to expectations, the computerized cognitive measurements did not exhibit significant correlations with assessment center performance measures. It was speculated that the two measures assessed diverse domains of performance, thus limiting the degree of potential overlap. Range restriction of the criterion measure was cited as a methodological concern in this study.

Interest in corporate fitness is increasing. In this study, absenteeism rates and health care costs were measured for 12 months before and 12 months after implementation of a corporate fitness class. It was hypothesized that those who participate in the fitness program would have lower absenteeism rates and health care costs. It was also hypothesized that lifestyle factors would be significantly related to the decision to participate in the fitness program and to absenteeism. Results showed no significant relationship between program participation and absenteeism. Also, it was found that average health care costs were lower before the program intervention and increased after the program began. Second, lifestyle variables relating to the decision to participate in the fitness program were evaluated using multiple correlation. A significant relationship was found between certain lifestyle variables and participation in the program. Third, lifestyle variables were included in a multiple correlation with absenteeism as the dependent variable. Again, a significant relationship was found between certain lifestyle variables and absenteeism. The study failed to support the hypothesized relationship between fitness, health care costs and absenteeism.

In recent years, more and more organizations are being held responsible for the social impact of their organizational priorities, commonly referred to as corporate social responsibility. As a result, there has been an increased implementation of employee volunteering initiatives. However, research on volunteering has largely remained separate from the context of work. As the prevalence of employee volunteering initiatives continues to grow, the need to integrate the theoretical and practical findings from the volunteering literature with that of the extensively studied and related discretionary prosocial work behavior (i.e., organizational citizenship behavior) research has become increasingly apparent. This dissertation examines how commonly used motivational theories found within the volunteering literature can be leveraged to aid the prediction of important work-related outcomes. More specifically, a person-centered perspective is applied using a latent profile approach, where the relationship between an employee's combination of motives for pursuing volunteer opportunities and their subsequent discretionary behaviors at work, including organizational citizenship behaviors and counterproductive work behaviors, are tested with vigor and depletion as respective mediating mechanisms. A sample of employed individuals who participated in a volunteer activity within the past year responded to a series of survey items related to their volunteering experience, motivations for participating, and their behaviors at work following the activity. Results demonstrated the most support for a three-profile solution, and profile membership was revealed to be significantly related to levels of vigor, and ultimately, subsequent engagement in organizational citizenship behaviors. Findings did not support the hypothesized relationship between the profiles and depletion (nor counterproductive work behaviors). However, a supplemental mediation analysis using multiple regression with each volunteer motive as a predictor did demonstrate support for the indirect effects of the career and protective motives on counterproductive work behaviors through depletion. Theoretical and practical implications of this dissertation's findings are also discussed.

This two-part study used a field study and experimental vignette design to investigate predictors (extent of change, adaptability, and communication) of threat, hindrance, and challenge appraisals of change. The field study also examined employee well-being, job attitudes, and behaviors as outcomes of these appraisals. Drawing from stress appraisal theory, the primary goal of the study was to add to our knowledge of how personal characteristics and contextual factors relate to positive and negative appraisals of change and how those appraisals manifest in employee related outcomes. I hypothesized that adaptability and high-quality communication would function as resources that promote positive appraisals, but reduce negative appraisals, of change, especially when changes were extensive. The field study sampled hospitality workers in the greater Orlando area and hospitality workers in the US on Prolific.com. The experimental vignette design sampled college students. Overall, the results from both the studies provide evidence that changes can be appraised as positive or negative events, which has implications for employee well-being, attitudes, and behaviors. Across both studies, changes that were more extensive were appraised as threats, while change communication had a negative relationship with threat appraisal and a positive one with challenge appraisal. Adaptability also had a positive relationship with challenge appraisals. In the field study, threat appraisals were associated with lower well-being and more negative job attitudes, while the opposite was found for challenge appraisal. Moreover, challenge appraisals of change were positively related to proactive work behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

This research examined gender and employment status (full-time worker or student) differences in perceptions of workplace sexual harassment and incivility. Previous and recent meta-analyses suggested small effects by gender. The current research introduced a method of measuring perceptions by forcing a choice of identifying a behavior as sexual harassment, incivility, or neither. The instrument was designed in this way to determine if small effects existed because males tended to have overlapping definitions of sexual harassment and incivility. Propensity to sexually harass was also measured. Results suggest no gender or employment status effects on the method, but propensity to sexually harass effects were found.

Item response theory (IRT) offers several advantages compared to classical test theory (CTT) in providing additional information on psychometric qualities of the scale. My goal was to demonstrate the superiority of IRT as compared to CTT through two analyses of the Top Leadership Direction scale (TLDS), which was created to measure the effectiveness of top leadership through the followers’ perceptions in the context of providing guidance of the organization. Furthermore, the participants (n = 8046) were the employees from various positions at 18 of the 23 California State University campuses. In the graded response model (GRM) analysis, the result showed that IRT provided more information about each item and allowed a useful visual inspection of the items. With the second analysis, I aimed to provide evidence of measurement equivalence across functional groups of employees using differential item functioning (DIF) analysis in IRT. Due to the lack of model fit, the DIF analysis was incomplete. A supplementary multigroup CFA was conducted to investigate the structural difference across the groups for the items of the TLDS. The result of multigroup CFA suggested that item 2 and item 4 did not show measurement equivalence across the groups at the construct level. An alternative model in IRT was discussed due to some limitations of GRM in the present study. Practical and theoretical implications for the use of IRT were also presented and contrasted with CTT.