Workplace incivility is increasing in prevalence in healthcare organizations. Despite the adverse effects of workplace incivility on employee engagement and voluntary employee turnover, some organizations do not have policies to address workplace incivility among employees. The purpose of this descriptive, single case study was to explore successful strategies leaders at healthcare organizations with 50 or more employees used to reduce workplace incivility and improve employee retention. The spiral theory provided the conceptual framework for the study. Semistructured interviews were held with 2 human resources (HR) professionals and 1 department manager with experience dealing with employee relations and success in retaining healthcare employees within Greenville, South Carolina. Interviews and policies were reviewed, analyzed, and coded for themes and subthemes. To assure the credibility and trustworthiness of the findings, member checking and methodological triangulation were used to verify and compare the interpretations from the interviews and the organization's policies and processes. Among the key themes that emerged were the uniform use of strategies and processes for addressing workplace incivility including consistently communicating and enforcing policies for addressing workplace incivility, using one-on-one communication techniques between managers and employees, and addressing key implementation barriers such as resistance to change. To effect positive social change, HR professionals and department managers in similar organizations can assess the findings' relevance for reducing workplace incivility, reducing employee turnover, and increasing retention for improving the quality of patient care to benefit patients, families, and communities.

Chapter 1 – This paper analyzes the effects of extreme temperature on manufacturing output using a dataset covering the universe of manufacturing establishments in Canada from 2004 to 2012. Extreme temperature can affect manufacturing activity directly through its impact on labour productivity and indirectly through a change in demand for products. Using a panel fixed effects method, our results suggest a non linear relationship between outdoor extreme temperature and manufacturing output. Each day where outdoor mean temperatures are below -18◦C or above 24◦C reduces annual manufacturing output by 0.18% and 0.11%, respectively, relative to a day with mean temperature between 12 to 18◦C. In a typical year, extreme temperatures, as measured by the number of days below -18◦C or above 24◦C, reduce annual manufacturing output by 2.2%, with extreme hot temperatures contributing the most to this impact. Given the predicted change in climate for the mid and end of century, we predict annual manufacturing output losses due to extreme temperature to range between 2.8 to 3.7% in mid-century and 3.7 to 7.2% in end of century. Chapter 2 – In May 2011, the municipality of Slave Lake, Alberta was hit by a devastating wildfire; the second costliest natural disaster in Canada at the time. In this study, we use longitudinal income tax data from 2004-2018, to analyze the short, medium, and long-term effect of this wildfire on incomes, and related outcomes. This paper contributes to the very limited literature examining the economic effects of natural disasters on individuals. It also contributes to the discussion about the cost of natural disasters and highlights an important cost often excluded in published reports of natural disasters. Our results suggest that this event led to a decrease in total income mainly explained by a drop in employment income. Evidence of an intensive margin effect, whereby individuals are more likely to report lower earnings conditional on paid employment, is found. We also find evidence for an extensive margin effect, in which the employment rate falls for individuals over 55 years old. Chapter 3 – How do firms in the manufacturing sector respond to voluntary energy conservation program? Using data covering the universe of manufacturing firms in Canada over the period 2004 to 2012, we estimate the effectiveness of the Canadian Industry Program for Energy Conservation, the flagship federal government energy conservation program targeted at large industrial firms. We use a difference-in-difference approach, coupled with coarsened exact matching, to estimate the effect of this program on firms energy intensity, output, as well as productivity. Our results suggest that the program does not significantly affect the energy intensity of participating firms compared to non-participating firms. We also find no evidence that participant firms perform differently from non-participant firms in term of total productivity or total production. Our study results add to the evidence that voluntary programs play a limited role in transforming energy and environmental outcomes.

The current study examined the effects of personality traits, psychopathy, and narcissism in the context of voluntary false confessions. The administration of various self-report measures in a sample of university students (N= 485) to assess personality traits, psychopathy, narcissism, and self-reported likelihood of voluntary falsely confessing enabled quantitative analysis of the interaction among these essential parameters. Narcissism and openness to experience accounted for 14% of the total variance in the likelihood of the voluntary false confessions in the male sample. Whilst narcissism and psychopathy accounted for 11% of the total variance in the female sample. These findings indicate that narcissism, psychopathy, and openness to experience are psychological factors that may have an impact on the likelihood of an individual confessing to a crime they did not commit, outside of the forensic settings.

Throughout the United States, state governments are allocating millions of dollars to support Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten (VPK) programs. Recent research has indicated that students that participate in VPK demonstrate higher academic achievement scores across a number of subject areas. Moreover, VPK participants are more likely to enter primary school on grade level, which in turn leads to a reduction in grade retention. Studies have indicated that although all students that participate in VPK programs benefit from such programs, minority students and students that come from low-socioeconomic backgrounds benefit at an even higher level. The intent of this study was to determine to what extent, if any, a VPK program within a large, suburban school district impacted the academic achievement and kindergarten preparedness of participants in comparison to students that did not participate in the VPK program offered by the district. To measure the impact, student scores on the 2006-2007 Florida Kindergarten Readiness Screener (FLKRS) were compared through the use of an independent samples t-test. The same students had their 3rd grade Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) Reading and Mathematics scored compared as well. Two groups were compared against one another. The control group was a group of students that did not participate in the VPK offered by the school district. The treatment group was the group of students that participated in the district offered VPK. The results of each of the independent sample t-tests conducted determined that there was not a statistically significant different in either student preparedness or student academic achievement between the VPK participant group and the non-participant group.

Våldsutsatta kvinnor kan vända sig till kvinnojourer för att söka hjälp, stöd och skydd. Där arbetar kvinnor som har en anställning men även kvinnor som arbetar ideellt. Att arbeta med människor kan upplevas emotionellt påfrestande. Syftet med studien är att undersöka vad som motiverar kvinnor att arbeta ideellt på kvinnojourer, samt om de upplever emotionell påverkan till följd av arbetet med våldsutsatta kvinnor. Semistrukturerade intervjuer med 12 ideellt arbetande kvinnor genomfördes, som sedan analyserades med tematiskanalys. Resultatet påvisade viljan att göra något meningsfullt, engagemanget i samhällsfrågan våld mot kvinnor och att tro på framtiden motiverar till ideellt arbete på kvinnojourer. Känslor till följd av uppdraget påvisades vara styrkan i gemenskapen, känsla av frustration och otillräcklighet samt känslan av att uppdraget är en större känslomässig vinst än förlust. Resultat av studien kan bidra till att motivera flera kvinnor att arbeta ideellt och främja välbefinnandet på arbetsplatser vid möten med våldsutsatta.

<p> An organization can adopt one of two implementation techniques to execute layoffs. Through involuntary layoffs, management can unilaterally select which employees to layoff. Alternatively, through voluntary layoffs, employees can self-select through volunteering for a layoff. A model from the turnover realm was adapted and applied to assess antecedents of the layoff decision for both implementation techniques. Antecedents included work related variables (job performance, salary, job satisfaction, stress, organizational commitment, severance packages) and non-work related variables (age, education, tenure, gender, family size).</p> <p> A policy-capturing approach compared voluntary versus involuntary layoffs. Management and employee dyads assessed employee profiles and judged the layoff decision for each profile. Given the exploratory nature of this research, subject matter experts (SMEs) assessed 388 profiles to validate the model. Semi-structured interviews with SMEs provided improvements adopted for the field study. The field study involved managers and employees from three companies evaluating 976 employee profiles to determine the likelihood for voluntary or involuntary layoffs. Logit regression analysis provided the significance, strength and direction of influence for each antecedent on the layoff decision.</p> <p> The results provide evidence that job performance, job satisfaction and organizational commitment have a negatively correlated relationship with both layoff implementation techniques. Slightly more than half (56.35%) of employees had the same stay or leave decision during voluntary versus involuntary layoffs. The residual (43.65%) represent mismatches that are a result of different influence and interpretation of the remaining layoff antecedents. This thesis provides evidence that voluntary and involuntary layoff implementation techniques result in a different mix of employees leaving the organization. From a policy perspective, recommendations on how to minimize mismatch are provided. From a theory perspective, a closer bridge between layoff and turnover research is proposed. This thesis also suggests that layoffs should be assessed based on the voluntary-involuntary divide in future research.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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Scholars in the history and sociology of engineering in the United States have commented critically on the unwillingness of twentieth century engineers to participate actively in politics. Alfred Chandler, for example, has noted the absence of engineers in Progressive Era reform movements, while Edwin T. Layton Jr has criticized engineers in the 1920s for an excessive focus on sterile status seeking. This perceived lack of twentieth century engineering activism is especially puzzling given that nineteenth-century American engineers and engineering societies did not hesitate to lobby openly for clean water, smoke abatement, municipal reform, and numerous other issues. / Ph. D.

No / This paper argues that recent struggles against neoliberal axioms such as free trade and open markets have led to a militant reframing of global civil society by grassroots social movements. It contests that this struggle to invest the concept of global civil society with transformative potential rests upon an identifiable praxis, a strange attractor that disturbs other civil society actors, through its re-articulation of a politics that privileges self-organization, direct action, and direct democracy. The paper further suggests that the emergence of this antagonistic orientation is best understood through the lens of complexity theory and offers some conceptual tools to begin the process of analyzing global civil society as an outcome and effect of global complexity