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Browsing Theses and Dissertations by Author "Albert, Lumina, committee member"
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Item Open Access Assessing employee engagement: a comparison of the Job Engagement Scale and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Drake, Travis J., author; Byrne, Zinta, advisor; Gibbons, Alyssa, committee member; Albert, Lumina, committee member; Rickard, Kathryn, committee memberTwo employee engagement measures were compared and contrasted to determine if one is better than the other, or if both are required to adequately assess the construct domain. The first measure is Rich, LePine, and Crawford's (2010) Job Engagement Scale based on Kahn's (1990) conceptualization of engagement. The second measure is Schaufeli, Salanova, Gonzalez-Romá, and Bakker's (2002) Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, based on Maslach and Leiter's (1997) conceptualization of engagement. The measures were compared by examining their convergent and discriminant construct validity, examining the factor structure of each measure, and examining the criterion-related validity of each through dominance analysis. Using responses from 470 working adults, results showed significant differences between the UWES and JES in terms of construct and criterion-related validity evidence.Item Open Access Climate of workplace fun in a retail setting(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Sandell, Kyle James, author; Byrne, Zinta, advisor; Albert, Lumina, committee member; Harman, Jennifer, committee member; Kraiger, Kurt, committee memberWorkplace fun is a relatively new topic of interest for organizations and researchers alike, and one that holds much promise given the reported positive attitudinal and behavioral outcomes associated with individuals experiencing fun at work. However, no research to date has investigated shared perceptions of workplace fun, or a climate of workplace fun, within a team. A climate of workplace fun is particularly relevant in retail store settings where customer engagement and overall store performance are top priorities. Thus, the major goal of the present study is to contribute to the literature by proposing a new theoretical model of how a climate of workplace fun is fostered and what group-level outcomes result from this climate of fun. Using self-report data from retail store employees and their managers, I proposed a theoretical model of climate for fun and examined the relationships between collective coworker trust and attitudes toward workplace fun in creating an overall climate of workplace fun. In addition, I examined the relationships between this climate of fun and the group-level outcomes of engagement, store organizational citizenship behaviors, and store performance. Results indicate that both employee and manager attitudes toward fun, as well as collective coworker trust, significantly relate to climate of fun at work. Additionally, climate of fun was significantly and positively related to the store employees’ average group levels of engagement and individually-directed organizational citizenship behaviors. Climate of fun was not, however, significantly related to store performance. Results from this study highlight the potential value in creating a climate of fun in retail settings and as such, makes a significant contribution to the scientific literature on fun at work.Item Open Access Employee engagement in the interpersonal context(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Stelman, Samantha A., author; Byrne, Zinta, advisor; Albert, Lumina, committee member; Kraiger, Kurt, committee member; Rhodes, Matthew, committee memberTo advance the theoretical understanding and research on engagement, I examined how engagement spreads within the interpersonal context. I developed and tested a theoretical framework built upon Kahn’s (1990) conceptualization of employee engagement, Byrne’s (2015) newly proposed mechanism of engagement contagion, and research on team dynamics. The study sample included students (N = 148) working in teams on a semester-long course project. Through the measurement of engagement levels and individual differences related to emotional and cognitive contagion, I assessed two potential mechanisms for the transmission of engagement. Results showed that emotional contagion (as assessed with emotional contagion susceptibility) is not a significant predictor of change in affective engagement scores between two time points. Further, although cognitive contagion (as assessed with perceptions of shared mental models) significantly predicted change in cognitive engagement scores, students reporting higher levels of this construct experienced small changes in cognitive engagement. Based on these findings, recommendations for future research are discussed.Item Embargo The call to sell: a qualitative exploration of calling for religiously identified women in multi-level marketing(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Jayne, Alexa, author; Dik, Bryan, advisor; Prasad, Joshua, committee member; Tompkins, Sara Anne, committee member; Albert, Lumina, committee memberWork is a life domain in which many people perceive a calling. Research on calling reveals that workers who perceive and live out a calling often experience a range of positive outcomes, such as increased work-related and overall life satisfaction and well-being. However, living a calling can also lead to negative outcomes, such as workaholism, burnout, and exploitation. Multi-level marketing (MLM) is a business model that operates via direct selling and network recruitment. This business model has been found to be particularly attractive to women. It has also gained traction within the faith community, with many MLM companies aligning with Christian values and faith communities. This study sought to investigate the sense of calling that religiously identified women who work in Young Living, a leading MLM company in the United States, may experience. Six individuals participated in-depth structured interviews, and transcripts were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Results revealed four domains and multiple themes, including 1) Reasons for Joining (e.g., supplementary income, pipeline of buying to selling, positive previous experiences with product, means to achieve work-life balance, desire to have own business), 2) Sense of Calling (e.g., transcendent summons, desire to educate and share clean products with others, sharing their faith with others, empowering others to become distributors, perceiving multiple callings), 3) Positive Outcomes (e.g., personal and professional growth, belonging to a community of like-minded people, camaraderie with other women in business, positive recognition and social influence, increased religious engagement), and 4) Negative Outcomes associated with the work (e.g., overwhelm and difficulty setting boundaries, moral disagreements with discourse and utilization of certain products, negative perceptions of business structure from others, needing to convince others about usefulness of products). Implications for clinicians, organizations, and future research are explored. Future research is recommended to replicate and validate the results of this study. Research is also recommended to investigate how the results of this study may apply to more diverse samples, utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methods. The results of this study may help to inform clinicians into how one's religious perspective may inform their sense of calling.Item Open Access The silent minority: differential effects of diversity climate on silence and burnout depending on minority status(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Rosen, Marisa Ali, author; Gardner, Danielle, advisor; Prasad, Joshua, committee member; Chavez, Ernest, committee member; Albert, Lumina, committee memberThe purpose of the study was to examine if diversity climate serves as a resource, particularly for racial and ethnic minorities, that promotes speaking up and reduces burnout from the perspective of Conservation of Resources Theory (COR) and Social Identity Theory (SIT). I tested that supposition in a sample of 502 working adults, split between racial/ethnic majority and minority status, across three time points with one-week time lags. Path analysis demonstrated that diversity climate reduced opportunistic silence, particularly among racial and ethnic minorities. Further, diversity climate had a stronger relationship with emotional exhaustion for minorities compared to majority group members. The study extends the voice behavior and silence literatures because it further investigates the influence of organizational variables and integrates diversity research. Findings also have implications for theory and practices, such that COR and SIT were supported, and organizations should aim to implement diversity climates to benefit both majority group and racially/ethnically minoritized employees.Item Open Access Transformational leadership, engagement, and performance: a new perspective(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Sandell, Kyle, author; Byrne, Zinta, advisor; Kraiger, Kurt, committee member; Harman, Jennifer, committee member; Albert, Lumina, committee memberThe transformational leadership style has long been shown to elicit above average performance in followers; however, the reasoning behind why this process occurs is unclear. The present study investigates whether follower engagement mediates the relationship between perceived transformational leadership and performance on a task. Although the relationships between transformational leadership, employee engagement, and job performance have been studied before, they have been studied at a macro level that seems to go against the original conceptualization of engagement as being task-related. Therefore, the present laboratory study explores these relationships at a micro task-related level, in a specific interaction between leader and follower in which the leader delegates a task to the follower. Results provide evidence that follower task engagement mediates the relationship between perceived transformational leadership and task performance. By better understanding how leaders build engagement and drive performance in regard to a specific task, organizations can take advantage of the influence that leaders have on everyday interactions with their followers.Item Open Access Transformational teachership: how principles of transformational leadership foster student outcomes(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Peters, Janet M., author; Byrne, Zinta, advisor; Kraiger, Kurt, committee member; Rickard, Kathryn, committee member; Albert, Lumina, committee memberAs higher education continues to undergo reform, the role of teachers as leaders in the classroom is becoming more important than ever. However, there is a relative dearth of information regarding the operationalizing of transformational leader behaviors and understanding the theoretical mechanisms that explain how transformational leadership facilitates positive outcomes for followers. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to create and test specific behaviors of transformational teachers, as well as to propose a new model of transformational teachership that explains how transformational teachers facilitate followers' experience of three psychological states, perceived meaningfulness, psychological safety, and self-efficacy, which in turn influences student outcomes, including student engagement, satisfaction, effort, and performance. Using an experimental design with 541 undergraduate students and 3 graduate student instructors, the results of this study demonstrated an observed difference in student observations of transformational leadership behaviors (at Time 1 and Time 2), as well as students in the experimental condition performing significantly better than students in the control condition. Results for the proposed psychological states that mediate the relationship between transformational teachership and students outcomes were mixed. In this study, perceived psychological meaning was strongly supported as a mediating variable, but psychological safety and academic self-efficacy were not.Item Open Access Within and between person effects of learning agility: a longitudinal examination of how learning agility impacts future career success(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Laxson, Erin N., author; Kraiger, Kurt, advisor; Albert, Lumina, committee member; Dik, Brian, committee member; Gibbons, Alyssa, committee memberThe business environment is highly complex and constantly evolving. Previous research on learning agility has demonstrated support for its use in identifying high potential leaders who can adapt effectively to the evolving business environment. The purpose of this study was to provide further evidence of the construct validity of learning agility and applicability in assessing leadership potential. Learning agility was examined within a broader nomological network of related constructs—a framework developed by DeRue, Ashford, & Myers (2012). It was hypothesized that personality would predict learning agility and learning agility would predict performance and learning over time. The results demonstrate partial support for these hypotheses. Several personality variables (e.g., Openness to Experience) were significantly related to learning agility. Further, learning agility was found to predict performance and learning, but not the rate at which these factors changed over time.