Telecommunicators (e.g., dispatchers and 911 operators) experience firsthand the death and suffering of friends, family, peers, and strangers in a chaotic work environment characterized by chronic stress and lack of support. Previous research has demonstrated telecommunicators are at increased risk for negative health outcomes; however, existing research does not identify predictive pathways to posttrauma symptoms in telecommunicators. In an application of the transactional theory of stress and coping, I used structural equation modeling to examine occupational antecedents, work-family conflict, negative appraising, and coping as predictors of posttraumatic stress symptoms in telecommunicators. A convenience sample of 103 telecommunicators, recruited through agencies across the United States, completed a series of PTSD, stress, and coping surveys. Results supported three theorems from the transactional theory of stress and coping: (a) Chronic antecedents are correlated with work-family conflict (r = .54, p < .01), (b) work-family conflict predicted negative appraising ( β = .64, p < .01), and (c) coping predicted posttraumatic stress symptoms in telecommunicators ( β = .30, p = .01). These findings contribute to the current body of occupational health literature by expanding understanding of telecommunicators'€™ occupational experiences and appraisals and provide insights into modifiable processes and policies that can enhance and protect telecommunicator long term health. Specifically, employee-focused policies directed at preserving work-home balance and reducing chronic stressors in the workplace are recommended. Additionally, further research can be initiated to evaluate effectiveness of policy changes in telecommunicator appraising, health, and wellbeing.

Although there are several robust leader development programs in the U.S. Army, no standardized access to leader development is provided to all service members at the start of their career. Forty-four percent of the Department of Defense (DoD) active duty personnel are 25 years of age or less. Despite this known experience gap, there is a shortfall in policy that ensures standardized access to leader development during this foundational period. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the experiences of service members who participated in the United States Army Pacific's Regional Leader Development Program-Pacific (RLDP-P) to inform DoD policy on leader development. The RLDP-P and its unique participant composition provided the conceptual framework and transformational leadership provided the theoretical framework for this study. Semistructured interviews of 16 RLDP-P participants were used to identify scalable and feasible elements of the program that positively impacted the service members' professional goals. Data were analyzed using inductive coding to identify the study's major themes. This study's central research question addressed the RLDP-P's impact on the participants' professional goals. The findings revealed the program inspired participants to create or refine their professional goals, increased their desire for self-development, and motivated them to develop others. Policy recommendations to the DoD for future leader development programs include diversity of mentor engagements in a small group environment and exposure to professional broadening opportunities. These findings will inform future DoD policy on standardized access to leader development from the start of service members' careers.

Although transactional analysis (TA) theory has been used by psychotherapists since its introduction by Eric Berne in the 1960s, the ego state functioning constructs, a seminal part of the theory, have not been adequately validated. Previous research has focused on whether therapy using TA methodology works. This study tested the TA ego state constructs by measuring client change occurring during psychotherapy and comparing those changes with predictions from the TA theory. Fifty-six subjects, who were clients at a university counseling center in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States, were tested before and after therapy using two standardized instruments, the Adjective Check List (ACL) and the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and client and therapist global ratings of success of therapy. Critical Parent, Nurturing Parent, Adult, and Adapted Child ego state scores from the ACL all changed in the predicted directions and reached statistical significance. Free Child ego state score changes did not reach statistical significance. Ego state scores correlated with BSI Global Severity Index in predicted directions and all correlations except Critical Parent were statistically significant. Changes in ego state scores did not correlate with client and therapist ratings of success with one exception--Nurturing Parent was related to Client ratings of success. Changes in ego state scores did not correlate with subject pretest symptomatology, number of sessions, or the therapist's level of experience. Limitations of the study and recommendations for further research are discussed.

This applied dissertation was designed to provide better access to current information for best practices in kindergarten to Grade 12 (K-12) online learning. Virtual schooling is becoming a mainstream option for high school students, especially when some courses are not offered in every traditional school. Despite its increased popularity, very few studies had been conducted in K-12 virtual schooling. There was a need for more research based on the perspectives of adolescent students to understand the importance of quality interactions that can bridge the psychological and communications gap that may result when the learner and teacher are separated by time and distance. A quantitative study was conducted at a district-level high school located in the southeastern area of Florida to understand the relationship between adolescent students’ perceptions of the quality and level of learner-teacher, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions; academic achievement; and satisfaction in an online course. Transactional distance theory was used to explain if the quality interactions utilizing synchronous and asynchronous tools have the potential to increase the dialogue within this online course, thereby, reducing the transactional distance. Data was gathered by using a nonexperimental, self-reported, Web-based interaction preferences survey of approximately 50 high school students. Descriptive and nonparametric inferential statistical methods were used to guide, interpret, and analyze students’ responses from this survey.

Mergers and acquisitions bring convenient solutions for organizations who are looking to broaden their scales. These activities are being pushed towards cross- border activities due to increased globalization. While strategic and financial perspectives are carefully evaluated before an M&amp;A, the human factor is oftentimes neglected. This results in a high rate of failure and dissatisfaction. Managing a cross-border M&amp;A comes with the responsibility of achieving employee satisfaction. While prior research has noted the importance of managerial approaches in post-merger states it failed to compare transformational and transactional leadership styles.  This paper examines the achieved employee satisfaction under transformational/transactional leaders in post-merger environments. The purpose is to compare these two managerial styles to denote how they achieve said satisfaction.  A qualitative approach with exploratory purpose and a grounded theory methodology was followed in our study. We build upon a relativist ontology paired with a social constructivist epistemology. Nine open-ended interviews were conducted with employees from three different merged organizations.  The results show that transformational and transactional leaders both carry essential virtues when it comes to achieving employee satisfaction in a cross-border, post- merger environment. Our research indicates this state is achieved when the leaders use the two approaches complementary and frequently adjusted to the situation, thus are ambidextrous.

Transactional analysis has been a useful tool for the researcher in categorizing these characteristics. Using it, he was able to recognize both commonalities and differences between types of problem adolescents. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the life scripts of problem adolescents of selected institutions to determine what the commonalities are within and between the categories of injunctions, counter injunctions, basic positions, rackets, games, decisions, programs of life course, and treatment contracts. The purpose and problem are embodied in four basic questions: (1) Do commonalities exist in the categories of injunctions, counter injunctions, basic positions, rackets, games, decision, programs of life course and treatment contracts?; (2) What are the most prevalent commonalities within each category? Example: What is the most common injunction?; (3) What are the commonalities between categories? Example: What is the most common game when the injunction is “Don’t get close?”; and (4) What are the commonalities among total life scripts? Calude Steiner categorizes the alcoholic into three main types: “drunk proud,” “lush,” and “wino;” is it possible to categorize adolescent delinquents into similar personality patterns.

To ensure the success of a company, it is essential for supervisors to interact effectively with the employees they oversee. Effective interactions between supervisor and employee go hand-in-hand with employee satisfaction, which can impact firm performance. The purpose of this thesis is to examine key drivers of employee satisfaction. Specifically, this thesis tests whether or not employees with supervisors of the same sex as themselves are more satisfied than employees with supervisors of the opposite sex. It also compares and contrasts the level of satisfaction an employee has in correspondence with transformational and transactional leadership styles and whether this relationship is contingent on the employee's level of work experience.

Modern retailers have been collecting more and more data over the past decades. The increased sizes of collected data have led to higher demand for data analytics expertise tools, which the Umeå-founded company Infobaleen provides. A recurring challenge when developing such tools is the data itself. Difficulties in finding relevant open data sets have led to a rise in the popularity of using synthetic data. By using artificially generated data, developers gain more control over the input when testing and presenting their work. However, most methods that exist today either depend on real-world data as input or produce results that look synthetic and are difficult to extend. In this thesis, I introduce a method specifically designed to generate synthetic transactional data stochastically. I first examined real-world data provided by Infobaleen to determine suitable statistical distributions to use in my algorithm empirically. I then modelled individual decision-making using points in an embedding space, where the distance between the points serves as a basis for individually unique probability weights. This solution creates data distributed similarly to real-world data and enables retroactive data enrichment using the same embeddings. The result is a data set that looks genuine to the human eye but is entirely synthetic. Infobaleen already generates data with this model when presenting its product to new potential customers or partners.

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