Our workforce continues to gray due to advances in medical science and new technology, which allows workers to remain in the workforce longer. Furthermore, we need our current workforce to remain motivated and work until an older age due to decreased birth rates and the smaller size of the post baby boomer cohorts. An in-depth examination of the motivation of our aging workforce is necessary to determine how we can increase motivation and keep older workers (those 55 and older) in the workforce longer, while remaining productive. In this study, three divisions of health (i.e., Major Illnesses, Functional Impairments, and Psychosomatic Illnesses) were related to three work goals (i.e., To-Work, At-Work, and To-Retire), combining aspects of the works of Feldman (1994), Shultz and Wang (2007), and Kanfer, Beier, and Ackerman (2012), using archival data extracted through the National Heath and Retirement Study (HRS). A two-step hierarchical regression was conducted with age, gender, wealth, education level, marital status, financial control, and ethnicity as covariates. Most hypotheses were partially supported, with Functional Impairments exhibiting a small effect on To-Work, At-Work, and To-Retire goals. Major Illnesses exhibited some unexpected relationships, however, as they were not positively related to To-Work and To-Retire goals. All health factors exhibited a negative relationship with a small effect on At-Work goals.

In today’s information age, technological advances in virtually every industry allow organizations, both big and small, to create and store more data than ever before. Though data are highly abundant, they are still often underutilized resources with regard to improving organizational performance. The popularity and intrigue around big data specifically has opened up new opportunities to study how organizations embrace evidence and use it to improve their business. Generally, the focus of big data has mainly been on specific technologies, techniques, or its use in everyday life; however, what has been critically missing from the conversation is the consideration of culture and climate to support effective data use in organizations. Currently, many organizations want to develop a data-embracing climate or create changes to make their existing climates more data-informed. The purpose of this project was to develop a scale to assess the current state of data usage in organizations, which can be used to help organizations measure how well they manage, share, and use data to make informed decisions. I defined the phenomena of a data-embracing climate based on reviewing a broad range of business, computer science, and industrial-organizational psychology literature. Using this definition, I developed a scale to measure this newly defined construct by first conducting an exploratory factor analysis, then an item retranslation task, and finally a confirmatory factor analysis. This research provides support for the reliability and validity of the Albrecht Data-Embracing Climate Scale (ADEC); however, the future of this new area of research could benefit by replicating the results of this study and gaining support for the new construct. Implications for science and practice are discussed. I sought to make a valuable contribution to the field of I-O psychology and to make a useful instrument for researchers and practitioners in multiple and diverse fields. I hope others will benefit from this scale to measure how organizations use evidence from data to make informed decisions and gain a competitive advantage beyond intuition alone. Do not cite without express permission from the author.

Conflict resolution research has resided at both the individual and group level for the many years. However, recent findings have provided evidence for the existence of conflict resolution strategies at the cultural level. As these recent findings indicate, the existence of such resolution styles at that macro level can have great implications on organizational outcomes. Therefore, the first goal of this study was to examine if these conflict resolution cultures would predict outcomes such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and psychological withdrawal behavior. Similarly, research on P-O fit has also provided some very interesting insights into employee behavior and attitudes. Given the idiosyncratic nature of conflict resolution and the recent findings mentioned in the previous paragraph, the second goal of this study was to examine if perceptions of congruence between an individual’s resolution style and the organization’s resolution style would affect job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and psychological withdrawal behavior. Finally, it was determined that perceptions of resolution (i.e. was the conflict constructively resolved) would be an appropriate and rather informative mediating variable for the relationships proposed above. Data was collected using a web-based survey software, which garnered 212 participants for the analysis. Evidence was found to support a majority of the proposed hypotheses. All three-conflict resolution cultures (collaborative, dominant, and avoidant) predicted the outcome variables in the directions consistent with both logic and the literature. Similarly, perceptions of resolution did mediate six of the nine proposed relationships between the resolution cultures and the outcome variables. Two of these mediation analyses were not conducted due to an insignificant initial bivariate correlation. Support was also found for all three proposed direct effects between perceptions of congruence and the proposed outcome variables. Finally, perceptions of resolution mediated the relationship between perceptions of congruence and all three-outcome variables. Again, the directions of these findings were consistent with both logic and the literature. Both the theoretical and practical implications, as well as the limitations with this study will be discussed.

Online education is becoming more prominent, but it has been found that employers are biased against hiring job applicants with online education. The influence of mode of education and degree level on employer perceptions of applicants’ hireability was investigated. It was hypothesized that employer perceptions would decrease as the education of an applicant moved to a category consisting of more online education. It was hypothesized that employers would be less likely to move forward with applicants in the hiring process (viability) as applicants’ education moved to a category consisting of more online education. It was hypothesized that degree level would moderate the relationship of mode of education on employer perceptions of applicants’ hireability and viability. Although it was expected that perceptions of hireability would increase as the applicants’ degree level increased and that perceptions would decrease as applicants’ education moved to a category consisting of more online education, as mode of education moved from hybrid to online, employer perceptions of applicants’ hireability were expected to decrease as applicants’ college degree level advanced. Survey results were collected using Qualtrics Resume Screener service. Results showed employer biases against an applicant’s hireability and viability exist as an applicants’ education moved to a category consisting of more online education, but degree level did not change this relationship. Theories were applied to results to provide possible explanations for the biases. The limitations of the current study as well as the theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

Every individual associates him/herself with a specific and sometimes a unique identity. In a workplace setting individuals may choose to either openly display and/or speak about their identity or they may choose to conceal it. Research shows that manifestation and/or suppression of an identity in the workplace can affect individual outcomes such as perceptions of discrimination, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. The present study investigated whether an identity characterized as visible and/or invisible would affect an individual’s decision to either manifest and/or suppress his/her identity. The study further examined the effects of identity management techniques used by individuals on their perceptions of discrimination in the workplace, job satisfaction, and intentions to leave the organization. The sample included 369 individuals who were at the time of the survey at least half time employed. Independent-samples t-tests were used to test the relationship between identity characteristics and identity management. Path analyses was used to analyze the hypothesized relationship between identity management, perceptions of discrimination, job Satisfaction, and turnover intentions. The study found that individuals with an invisible identity are more likely to suppress their identities. It was also found that identity suppression had a direct positive relationship with perceptions of discrimination. Perceived discrimination was found to have a negative correlation with job satisfaction and a positive relationship with turnover intentions. Additionally, the study found that Job satisfaction is negatively correlated with Turnover Intentions. The importance of proper diversity management strategies and the role of an inclusive work environment on employees’ decision to either manifest and/or suppress their identities are discussed.

Certain job characteristics have been shown to be important for improving employee job fit. In particular, the degree of autonomy and feedback employees are afforded could allow them to more effectively manage job stressors, and acquire and/or uphold the requisite skills to maintain satisfactory work performance. These job characteristics may also lead to greater job satisfaction by supporting employees’ need for continuous growth, desire for social connectedness, and fulfillment of basic psychological needs. Accordingly, a model was proposed wherein the facets of person-job fit (demands-abilities fit and needs-supplies fit) are expected to mediate the relationship between both autonomy and feedback and both employee job satisfaction and task performance. The sample contained 228 individuals who were either working professionals or employed college students. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was used to test the direct and indirect effects. Results indicated that both autonomy and feedback increase satisfaction, but not effectiveness, by improving job fit. In summary, the findings of this study could be used for developing and implementing organizational strategies to improve or maintain person-job fit.

The purpose of this study was twofold in that it explored the relationships in which transformational and transactional leadership impact particular subordinate outcomes such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Secondly, once transformational leadership was tested and shown to be a better predictor of both job satisfaction and organizational commitment when compared to transactional leadership, employee motivation and one’s broaden-and-build schema, building off of concepts from the Broaden-and-Build theory, were proposed as mediators of the relationship between transformational leaders and their subordinate’s outcomes in terms of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Transformational leadership is a strong predictor of many subordinate outcomes, but the goal of this study was to better understand the “why” in the relationship between transformational leadership and employee outcomes. After pilot testing the Broaden-And-Build Schema Questionnaire, a cross-sectional sample of employees were surveyed to assess the mediation of broaden-and-build schema and employee motivation on the relationship between transformational leadership and subordinate outcomes, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Participants (N = 390) responded to a survey consisting of four scales previously developed and one scale developed specifically for this study. Examining seven different hypotheses, regression analysis and SEM models were utilized to analyze the data. Regression analyses was used to analyze hypotheses 1 through 3 and it was found that transformational leadership predicted both subordinate outcomes and the mediating variables better than transactional leadership. Mediation analyses was used to analyze hypotheses 4 through 7 and it was found that while the mediations were positive, the proposed mediators did not significantly mediate the relationships. This study strived to reiterate the importance of transformational leaders and help to give direction to leaders as to what focus is important when job satisfaction and organizational commitment are the desired outcomes. These findings add to the extensive research on transformational leaders and their subordinate outcomes.

Goal Orientation (GO), the behavioral tendencies for the goals individuals will adopt in a variety of situations has been thoroughly utilized to understand feedback seeking behaviors. While previous and ongoing research has answered many questions within this area, there remains theoretical inconsistencies involving these relationships. For example, the relationship between prove performance goal orientation (PPGO) and feedback seeking has largely been inconsistent. There are also relationships yet to be tested such as how the GO dimensions are related to different sources of feedback within the workplace. Because of this, the purpose of the present research was to examine the relationships between the three GO dimensions and feedback seeking to different sources (supervisor and colleague). Additionally, the impact of impression management on the relationship between PPGO and feedback seeking behaviors, and the impact of feedback source credibility on the relationship between learning goal orientation (LGO) and feedback seeking behaviors was examined. Based on a sample of 291 working adults in southern California, results indicated that LGO and PPGO positively predicted feedback seeking to a supervisor and a colleague. Additionally, APGO (avoidance performance goal orientation) was unrelated to either feedback source in regression models containing LGO and PPGO, but bivariate correlations revealed a small positive relationship between APGO and a colleague. Impression management did not practically moderate the relationship between PPGO and feedback seeking to a supervisor and feedback source credibility did not impact the relationship between LGO and feedback seeking to a supervisor. This means that individuals with a LGO and PPGO have tendencies for seeking feedback from not just a supervisor, but also colleagues within the workplace, while APGO individuals may lean towards a colleague for feedback. For the two interactions, Impression management may not be an adequate measure for finding the inconsistencies between PPGO and feedback seeking. Finally, feedback source credibility does not seem a factor for LGO individuals in the feedback seeking process. Practical and theoretical implications are provided along with the limitations and suggestions for future research.

Law enforcement requires comprehensive hiring and training practices in order to curb misconduct and turnover. Some of the available data suggests a shift in the dynamics of law enforcement toward a more objective approach that favors education, cognitive ability testing, a community policing orientation, and technological advances, such as body cameras, that hold enforcers of the law and the American public, accountable for misconduct and violations of the law. The utilization of various technological advances requires assessment and dynamic, comprehensive analysis. The present study examined the influence of education and the professionalization of policing hiring requirements, cognitive ability tests and training, community policing initiatives and training, and the utilization of body cameras, on the number of dismissals and voluntary resignations and police use of force incidents recorded, while considering gender composition, and ratio of officers to size of the community served, in a federally-released report. Many of the hypotheses were not confirmed. However, support for the relationship between education and officer dismissal, SARA training and all dependent variables, and gender composition and reduction in the number of use of force incidents reported, were substantiated. Implications, limitations, and directions for future research are explored herein.

Managers and researchers alike have long yearned for a solution to garner peak performance from employees. With the use Locke and Latham’s goal setting theory as a motivational foundational principle, goal commitment was predicted from four primary personality traits commonly found in scientific literature: general self-efficacy, conscientiousness, honesty/humility, and learning goal orientation. The possible moderation effect of goal difficulty on these relationships was also explored. 248 undergraduate students at California State University, San Bernardino were presented personality inventories, followed by an anagram word task, and were assigned to either an easy or hard goal condition. Goal commitment was measured at two phases during the assigned task. The results revealed that only self-efficacy and honesty/humility were significantly positively correlated with goal commitment; however, none of the relationships were moderated by goal difficulty. The results highlight the notion that goal-setting theory is more intricate and dynamic than previously assumed. Additionally, the results of the present study provide insight into the malleable nature of motivation, as well as the highlighting specific traits that may be beneficial in the selection for difficult occupations.