The purpose of the current study was to examine the effect of a blind selection process on gender discrimination. Due to persistent gender discrimination in selection processes, the intention of the current study was to investigate a blind selection process as a means to decrease gender discrimination against women. A total of 391 individuals were recruited through SONA and convenience sampling to participate in the current study. Materials included a selection scenario, three applicant résumés with applicant names and three with applicant ID numbers, a rank order form, and measures for procedural justice and fairness, modern sexism inventory, and the attitudes towards women scale. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions; one with applicant names, one with applicant ID numbers with no explanation for the ID numbers, and one with applicant ID numbers without an explanation. Results illustrated partial support for hypothesis 1a (H1a) and H2a, such that there was a significant difference in rank orders (H1a) and job suitability scores (H2a) as a function of condition assignment, though in the opposite direction than hypothesized. There was support for H1b, H1c, H2b, and H2c such that in blind conditions, qualified applicants received similar rank orders (H1b) and job suitability scores (H2b), while the unqualified applicant received the lowest rank order (H1c) and job suitability scores (H2c). Procedural justice scores were similar between the two blind conditions, and as such, H3a and H3b was not supported. Participants with an explanation perceived blind conditions as fair and non-blind conditions as unfair, thus H3c was supported. However, H3d was not supported, as participants without an explanation still perceived a blind process as fair and a non-blind process as unfair. Neither H4a nor H4b were supported, as sexism did not serve as a covariate with rank orders as a function of condition assignment. Last, H5 was not supported, as participants across all three conditions were similarly confident in their rank order decisions. Limitations included an imbalanced sample of primarily female (N = 320) psychology students (N = 380). Possible explanations for results obtained include the effects of similarity bias, identification, sophistication and education, and experimenter effects. Results expand the current body of literature in personnel selection processes and create implications for blind selection processes and practical use in organizations to decrease gender discrimination.

Social media (SM) permits the sharing of personal information online, which can lead to employers accessing personal, non-job-related information about applicants throughout the selection process. Limited prior research (Jeske & Shultz, in press; Stoughton et al., 2015) has found that, to varying degrees, applicants find this access of their personal information to be an invasion of their personal privacy. The aim of the present study was to replicate prior findings regarding invasion of privacy moderating the relationship between SM screening presence and procedural justice perceptions and to expand on prior research by exploring whether the stage at which this information was collected (pre- and post- conditional job offer) would mediate the relationship between SM screening and perceived invasion of privacy. A survey was administered electronically and participants (N = 210) were randomly assigned to one of four SM screening conditions: (a) SM screening absent, job offer absent, (b) SM screening absent, job offer present, (c) SM screening present, job offer absent, and (d) SM screening present, job offer present. One component of the hypothesized model was supported, that those in the SM screening groups reported higher levels of perceived invasion of privacy as compared to the no SM screening groups. No interaction effects were found between SM screening and stage in the selection process on either perceived invasion of privacy or procedural justice perceptions, indicating limited to no support for the proposed model. Thus, alternative, more robust contextual models for the examination of SM screening in the selection process were proposed for future research.

Hispanic women in leadership are vastly understudied and little is known as to what factors influence their leadership aspirations and ultimately their career advancement. Mentoring has been found to have a positive influence on women’s perceptions of career advancement and the gender of the mentor plays a role (Tharenou, 2005). The purpose of this study was to examine how career-related mentoring influences the protegee’s career advancement and how the gender of the mentor may change that relationship. Furthermore, the relationship between psychosocial (emotional) support and the protegee’s leadership aspirations were examined, as well as the role of the mentor’s gender and ethnicity. In addition, negative factors, such as barriers to obtain a mentor and work family conflict, were also examined to determine how they may affect their leadership aspirations. Last, we also examined if social support moderates the relationship between work family conflict and leadership aspirations. The results indicated that career-related mentoring is positively related to career advancement and is moderated by the mentor’s gender. However, the relationship between psychosocial mentoring and leadership aspiration is positive, but not moderated by the mentor’s gender or ethnicity. It was found that work family conflict is negatively related to leadership aspirations, but not moderated by social support. A mixed method approach was used and the themes found in the qualitative data aligned with the quantitative findings. Both the theoretical and practical implications of the results for Hispanic women’s career aspirations and advanced are discussed

This study proposed a model to specify the influence of negative expectations of the manager in regard to working with a consultant, the level of cynicism of the manager, the client-consultant relationship and the level of management change skills on a manager's client satisfaction.

Growing research attention has been devoted to understanding the implications of work engagement with an emphasis on its motivational mechanism linking its antecedents to consequences. Findings from such research efforts could inform intervention efforts. Integrating organizational justice theories within the leadership framework, this study examined the effects of supervisory interactional justice and supervisory procedural justice on subordinates' work engagement. Based on survey responses from 352 Chinese employees collected at two time points with three months in-between, moderated regression analyses were conducted to test hypotheses that there is a direct positive effect of supervisory interactional justice and supervisory procedural justice on subordinate's work engagement respectively, and that leader-member exchange (LMX) quality moderates the justice-engagement relationships. Specifically, the supervisory interactional justice-engagement relationship was expected to be stronger for subordinates with high LMX quality, and the supervisory procedural justice-engagement relationship was expected to be stronger for subordinates with low LMX quality. The results showed that both supervisory interactional justice and supervisory procedural justice significantly correlated with subordinate-reported work engagement measured three months later. However, the results did not support the proposed main and interactive effect hypotheses after adding control variables. Supplemental analysis results demonstrated that supervisory interactional justice and supervisory procedural justice had significant indirect effects on work engagement through LMX quality. Further, POS was found to moderate the indirect effects of supervisory interactional justice. But POS was not a moderator for supervisory procedural justice. Moreover, emotional labor job type interacted with supervisory interactional justice in predicting vigor, such that supervisory interactional justice was significantly and negatively related to vigor when higher emotional labor is involved. In conclusion, the findings of the current study contribute to work engagement, leader fairness and social exchange theory literature and provide important theoretical and practical implications for future research in the field of work engagement and leader fairness.

Teaching is stressful. The demands placed on teachers can result in emotional exhaustion and burnout, causing many to leave the profession. Teachers early in their careers seem to be at special risk, with desistence rates estimated as high as 40% in the first five years. This study was based on the notion that constructive coping can be a resource for teachers, and that teachers later in their professional lives may provide a model for adaptive ways of dealing with professional demands. The goal of the study was to examine whether the coping process utilized by teachers (including reported demands, appraisals, ways of coping, resolutions, and post-coping assessment) differed at different stages of their career. Participants (n = 57) were teachers (90% female) ranging in age from 28-63, teaching in grades 4 to 12. The current study utilized a portion of the baseline open-ended interview of a randomized waitlist control study conducted to explore the effects of a mindfulness-based program. After coding the interview data for each step of the coping process, frequency analyses revealed that: (1) as in previous studies, the most frequently reported demands were problems with students (40%), followed by workload (18%) and parents (15%); (2) the most frequently reported appraisal was extreme negative emotion (44%); (3) the most frequently reported ways of coping were adaptive, including problem-solving (65%), support seeking (35%), and self regulation (22%); (4) the most frequently reported resolution of the stressful episode was successful (51%); and (5) with regards to post coping assessment, teachers most frequently reported that they would do something differently in future episodes if they could (54%). A series of Chi-square analyses to explore whether there is an association between how the teachers responded to questions corresponding to each step revealed that (1) teachers who reported parents as a demand in teaching were more likely to report extreme negative emotion and the use of self-regulation, which was associated with a successful resolution; (2) teachers who reported the administration as a demand were also more likely to use support seeking as a way of coping; and (3) teachers who reported using more maladaptive ways of coping were also more likely to report an unsuccessful resolution. Finally, pairwise comparisons to determine which groups of teachers differed from each other showed that, in keeping with expectations, early career teachers reported "no negative emotion" less and "extreme negative emotion" more than other groups, while late career teachers mentioned "no negative emotion" more. In terms of demands, early career teachers mentioned the environment less whereas late career teachers mentioned parents less and students more often. In terms of coping, late career teachers reported using self-regulation less and cognitive accommodation more than the other groups. Finally, early career teachers were more likely to say that they would try different effective strategies in future coping episodes while late career teachers were less likely to report that they would do so. Applications of these findings are discussed for process-oriented theories of teacher stress and coping, for future studies examining how coping develops over the course of a professional career, and for preservice training and school-based interventions designed to promote adaptive coping for teachers at every phase of their profession.

Motivated by an assumption of and concern about the unsustainable trajectory of modern human civilization, the purpose of this study was to develop a measurement tool to assist organizations striving to align their operations with principles of sustainability. The relevant context is established with consideration of the dimensions of environment, society and economy, as well as their interconnections, with an eye towards sustainability. Some of the challenges and opportunities presented to organizations by the current unsustainable trajectory are reviewed. The social constructs of culture and climate (organizational and psychological) are discussed as important to understand organizational life. I propose the notion of a sustainability climate to represent factors within the organization that are theorized as important for successfully integrating the principles of sustainability into organizational decision-making and routine behaviors. Items were developed to tap the theorized constructs and were administered to a population of university employees (N = 252). The study explored construct validity of these measures through exploratory factor analysis, assessment of internal consistency, convergent and divergent validity, and criterion validity. Results provide preliminary evidence for the reliability and validity of the sustainability climate factors (perceived top-management support, shared vision, employee involvement, rewards, sustainability norms), and factors of sustainability beliefs (personal understanding, supportive attitude, and positive engagement). These factors' power predicting the criteria, sustainability role expectations, sustainability role behaviors, and environmental stewardship demonstrates the potential to improve upon the instrument. Limitations of the present study are discussed and appropriate application of the Sustainability Climate Survey is explored.

An employment process suprasystem contains human resource-related systems such as training, recruitment, performance appraisal, and personnel selection. Similarly, a personnel selection system consists of interdependent subsystems that work together to manifest its properties (e.g., the acquisition of qualified and high-potential individuals). Finally, each of these complex subsystems (e.g., applicant reactions to selection methods) have interdependent elements (e.g., procedural and distributive justice) that work together to manifest the properties of the subsystem (e.g., applicant fairness perceptions). This dissertation takes such a systems approach to understanding the complexities of a personnel selection system to explore the interactions among three of its subsystems: (1) job performance predictors, (2) multidimensional job performance, and (3) applicant reactions to selection methods. Participants were 214 entry-level managers at a major U.S. airline. First, I examined the notion that job performance is multidimensional, consisting of at least two distinct elements (task and contextual performance). Next, using a concurrent validation design, I explored the relationship that cognitive ability and personality have with task and contextual performance. I also studied whether framing a personality inventory in the context of work yields higher validities and led to more positive fairness perceptions. Finally, I explored whether fairness perceptions moderate test validity. The current study contributes to the selection research in several ways. First, the dissertation used field data to confirm the notion that overall job performance is multidimensional, a function of both task performance and contextual performance. Moreover, results suggested that personality is a better predictor of contextual job performance and that cognitive ability is a better predictor of task performance. Frame-of-reference of a personality test appeared to affect both its validity and applicants' fairness perceptions. Results also suggested that the perceived fairness of a personality test may affect its validity. Therefore, this dissertation demonstrates that taking a systems perspective of personnel selection integrates different branches of selection research and thus begins to identify the interactions and complexities of a selection system.

In the experiment, with forty-eight students as subjects, a serie s of nonsense syllables (DAX, MEF, TOV, VIC, YOP, ZIP, and ZIL) were to be associated with four geometric figures. The task was so arranged that Zip applied to all figures, Dax and Vic to subsets of two figures each, and the remaining were individual labels. In each of three experiments there was an experimental group that received pre-response cueing by means of an analogy which involved hierarchic concepts in the same general form, i. e ., animal, wild, tame, and individual names. The results suggest that the order and timing of the presentation of the cues were varied in the three separate experiments. Groups that received prior analogy versus groups not given the analogy were more successful in ordering the random stimuli. Further, the order of presentation of the cues had no significant effect on the ability of the subjects to order the random stimuli.

Emergency medical teams operate under unusual circumstances. They assemble for a singular, temporary purpose, potentially change in size and composition, and their performance can influence whether a patient lives or dies. Although leadership is a critical component to team success, it is rarely investigated in the context of emergency medical teams. This study sought to examine the relationship between directive leadership behaviors and team performance outcomes. It was hypothesized that directive leadership would be particularly effective for emergency medical teams. In addition, a contingency model was proposed. Specifically, it was hypothesized that the effectiveness of directive leadership is contingent upon the complexity of the situation and the experience level of the team such that directive leadership is more effective when teams are inexperienced and the situation is complex. Neonatal resuscitation teams served as the emergency medical teams in this study. The proposed relationships were tested using observations from high-fidelity, neonatal resuscitation team training simulations. Hypotheses were not supported. Limitations and suggestions for future research for the development of leadership training curriculum are discussed.