Browsing by Author "Byrne, Zinta, advisor"
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Item Open Access A multi-level examination of authentic leadership and organizational justice in uncertain times(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Kiersch, Christa E., author; Byrne, Zinta, advisor; Ganster, Daniel, committee member; Gibbons, Alyssa, committee member; Henry, Kimberly, committee memberAnswering long-standing calls for research on how leaders influence followers and organization performance, as well as for the integration of leadership and justice research, this study proposes and tests a multi-level model of leadership, justice, and uncertainty. Building upon uncertainty management theory and the nascent research in authentic leadership, I propose a multi-level moderated mediation model wherein authentic leaders influence individual fairness perceptions and create a fair climate, which in turn is related to the well-being, turnover intention, commitment, and performance of subordinates. Uncertainty serves as a moderator in the model, such that leadership and fair climate are proposed to have a stronger relationship with employee outcomes when the level of perceived job and organizational uncertainty is high than when uncertainty is low. Survey data from 211 employees, clustered under 37 leaders (direct supervisors) is tested using a modification of Preacher et al.'s (2007, 2010) multi-level structural equation modeling (MSEM) approach. Results indicate that authentic leaders impact follower and organizational outcomes in part via directly influencing follower justice perceptions and justice climate, and that the effects of authentic leadership and justice are relatively independent of uncertainty level. This study contributes to the scientific literature by integrating theories of leadership, fairness, and uncertainty management, and by illustrating a novel and sophisticated approach (MSEM) to test this integrated model at the individual and leader levels of the organization. Implications for practice include support for authentic leadership development as an actionable strategy to bolster fairness perceptions and build a fair climate, as well as positively impact well-being, attitudinal, and behavioral intent outcomes of followers.Item Open Access Appraising organizational politics and support: challenging employees to engage(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Manning, Steven G., author; Byrne, Zinta, advisor; Fisher, Gwen, committee member; Rickard, Kathryn, committee member; Ganster, Dan, committee memberOrganizational politics are an inevitable part of organizational life (Hochwarter, Ferris, Laird, Treadway, & Gallagher, 2010) and yet research has largely demonstrated that perceptions of politics are typically negative and, consequently, have a negative influence on employees (Bedi & Schat, 2013; Rosen & Hochwarter, 2014). Because politics are so prevalent – and indeed necessary – in organizations (e.g., Pfeffer, 1992), researchers have recently called for a broader perspective that considers the positive aspects of politics. Although some have forged new roads to examine the positive side of politics (Albrecht & Landells, 2012; Hochwarter, 2012), the journey has only just begun. Therefore, contributing to this line of research, the current study flips the focus on politics research from negative outcomes to positive by exploring when and how a negative perception of politics can lead to positive outcomes for employees and the organization. By experimentally manipulating participants' perceptions of politics and organizational support, I hypothesized that some work environments lead employees to perceive politics as a challenge stressor (Byrne, Manning, Weston, & Hochwarter, 2017; Cavanaugh, Boswell, Roehling, & Boudreau, 2000) encouraging them to act (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) and increase engagement at work. Results of analyses using 258 participants demonstrates experimentally that organizational politics and organizational support impact participants' appraisals of the environment as challenging or hindering. Additionally, political environments are negatively associated with persisting on a frustrating task. This experimental study provides a nuanced and novel view of political environments without re-conceptualizing what organizational politics are, and helps to explain how employees perceive positive outcomes at work even though organizational politics are so prevalent and most often considered a negative influence at work.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 Open Access Employee engagement: understanding the construct's stability(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Weston, James W., author; Byrne, Zinta, advisor; Fisher, Gwenith, committee member; Ganster, Daniel, committee member; Harman, Jennifer, committee memberResearch has been contradictory in the definition and measurement of employee engagement. Despite being predominantly measured as a trait-like stable construct, engagement was originally introduced as a moment-to-moment fluctuating concept. The focus of the current research is on the conceptualization of the stability of the employee engagement construct. Specifically, I examined fluctuations in engagement as they related to varying levels of three theoretical antecedents (psychological safety, psychological availability, and psychological meaningfulness). Using experience sampling, forty nine participants were asked to complete surveys on cellular devices or workplace computers, for five weeks, twice per day at random moments, for a total of 30 data-points per participant. These daily surveys assessed fluctuations in engagement levels in relation to the other contextual variables, while their accumulation over the five-week period provided insight into the relative stability of the construct. Results showed momentary job engagement was positively related to momentary stress, affect, and the quality of coworker interactions. Additionally, between-person differences in engagement were positively related to job satisfaction, general positive affect, and general job engagement. The current study provides a glimpse into within-person fluctuations in engagement. Findings suggest that although engagement may vary within-employees, between-person differences are still present and represent valuable information.Item Open Access Experiencing information: using systems theory to develop a theoretical framework of information interaction(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Raymer, Steven D., author; Byrne, Zinta, advisor; Prasad, Joshua, committee member; Rhodes, Matthew, committee member; Fisher, Ellen, committee memberThis study outlines the construction, development, and initial testing of a proposed theoretical framework and measure for information interaction. To address the challenges associated with experiencing information, I synthesized existing literature from complementary and multidisciplinary domains of cognitive psychology, computer science, and organizational communication. I initially proposed theoretically driven components of information interaction based on a literature review, followed by a multimethod evaluation to further develop and refine the framework. Quantitatively, I researched organizational practices used for managing the information environment. Empirically, I collected data using multiple samples to test the psychometric properties of a proposed measure of information interaction. I used structural equation modeling to assess relationships associated with information interaction to develop its nomological network. The findings of these studies have implications for research and practice by establishing a new theoretical space in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, using a systems approach to construct development and application, and providing organizations with a mechanism for constant, minimally obtrusive collection and assessment of the information experience of members within the organizational system.Item Open Access Individual perceptions of culture and change: a unifying perspective on change-oriented organizational cultures(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Weston, James W., author; Byrne, Zinta, advisor; Fisher, Gwen, committee member; Ganster, Dan, committee member; Graham, Dan, committee memberOrganizational change has become a mainstay for today's organizations. Yet, organizational change efforts overwhelmingly represent unsuccessful and stressful events for both organizations and employees. Much of the extant literature on organizational change focuses on a modified culture as an outcome of change, but this ignores the potential for organizational culture itself to facilitate organizational change efforts by engendering an inherent value for organizational change in employees before changes even happen. I propose that one potential solution to unsuccessful change efforts is for organizations to adopt a change-oriented culture, making change acceptable rather than an obstacle to overcome. Because a changed culture is the typical change outcome, existing organizational culture frameworks are broad and therefore address organizational change (e.g., adaptive culture in the competing values framework, or learning organizations) in a cursory manner. Furthermore, these broad frameworks were developed in parallel yet isolated streams of research; hence, their value for predicting organizational change outcomes is limited. Therefore, to address failing organizational change efforts and disjointed culture frameworks, I synthesize the facets of existing organizational culture frameworks that focus on change to create and define a change-oriented culture. Data from multiple samples of a total of 963 Amazon's Mechanical Turk workers were used to test the psychometric properties of a new measure of change-oriented organizational culture. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the relationship of change-oriented organizational culture to its nomological network above and beyond existing cultural frameworks. Results from structural equation modeling indicated that change-oriented culture directly relates to organizational change attitudes, turnover intentions, and organizational commitment; indirectly relates to change-related behaviors through readiness for change; and indirectly relates to perceptions of change success through resistance to change. Moreover, change-oriented organizational culture related to change-related attitudes and organizationally relevant outcomes significantly better than the adhocracy dimension of the competing values framework, the innovative dimension of Wallach's organizational culture measure, and perceptions of learning organizational culture. However, both change-oriented organizational culture and perceptions of learning organizational culture related to affective commitment to change and organizational commitment equally well. This study advances the organizational culture literature by proposing a new theoretical orientation to change – that the culture can facilitate change efforts rather than simply serve as an outcome of change interventions – and furthermore, provides a first attempt at defining and collecting empirical data to support the validity of a change-oriented culture dimension.Item Open Access Meaning of work among cancer survivors: understanding critical paths to engagement(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Nowacki, Emily, author; Byrne, Zinta, advisor; Howe, Adele, committee member; Vacha-Haase, Tammi, committee memberThough connections between meaningful work and employee engagement exist, almost no empirical research has examined this relationship. Both meaningful work and employee engagement have important implications for employees and their employing organizations, especially in the context of stressful events or circumstances. The present study adds to our knowledge as to how the two constructs might relate to each other, by examining a population that was hypothesized as facing great barriers to becoming engaged: cancer survivors. Data for this study were collected by conducting semi-structured in-person and phone interviews with 12 employed cancer survivors. Interviews were coded and analyzed using grounded theory techniques to determine how meaningful work relates to employee engagement in situations of duress. The results suggest that participants reframed or reappraised the meanings they found at work in several ways that implied engagement (e.g., motivation to continue working or return to work). Based on the results of this initial grounded theory study, propositions are made for future investigation.Item Open Access Moderators of the relationship between organizational injustice and employee stress(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2008) Johnson, Rachel M., author; Byrne, Zinta, advisorAlthough there have been a few notable research studies illustrating the relationship between organizational injustice and stress in the workplace, hardly any researchers have investigated potential moderators of the injustice-stress relationship. I first present an overall theoretical model explaining the relationship between injustice and stress, and then empirically test a portion of the model. Specifically, the empirical investigation examined possible individual difference and situational moderators of the relationship between organizational injustice and perceived stress. Approximately 300 participants, undergraduate students, were recruited from a Western university and given measures of belief in ultimate justice, sensitivity to befallen injustice, equity sensitivity, four types of organizational injustice (distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational), social support, perceived stress, and strain in order to test the hypotheses derived from the theoretical model. Results showed that perceived stress fully mediated the relationships between distributive and procedural injustice and strain, and partially mediated the relationship between interpersonal injustice and strain. Also, perceived supervisory support buffered the effects of procedural and interpersonal injustice on stress.Item Open Access The development and validation of a measure of disengagement(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Manning, Steven G., author; Byrne, Zinta, advisor; Fisher, Gwenith, committee member; Ganster, Dan, committee member; Rickard, Kathryn, committee memberEven though no measure of disengagement exists, researchers and practitioners have claimed to identify employees who are disengaged using measures that assess satisfaction, engagement, or burnout. This study outlines the development and initial validation of a theoretically-based measure of employee disengagement. Consistent with theory, the measure is composed of affective, physical, and cognitive factors. Data from 709 participants collected through Amazon‟s crowdsourcing tool, Mechanical Turk (MTurk), show that disengagement is distinct from, but moderately related to engagement, burnout, and withdrawal. Consistent with theory, low levels of the psychological conditions of psychological meaningfulness, safety, and availability predicted higher level of disengagement. Additionally, high levels of psychological meaningfulness and psychological availability predicted high levels of engagement. The new measure of disengagement developed in this study may help researchers develop a more accurate understanding of disengaged employees.Item Open Access The physiological measurement of employee engagement(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Weidert, Janet M., author; Byrne, Zinta, advisor; Kraiger, Kurt, committee member; Cleary, Anne, committee member; Hickey, Matthew, committee memberPrevious assessments of employee engagement have all been self-report, creating the possibility for common method bias and a gap in assessing all components of the construct, especially the physiological component. The purpose of this study was to measure engagement using a physiological approach that reflects actual physical differences in individuals experiencing an engaged versus an unengaged state. In a within-subjects laboratory study, 40 college-aged participants were assessed using the BIOPAC physiological measuring system in both an engaged and an unengaged task condition. GSR findings indicate that a heightened level of arousal was present in the engaged versus unengaged task, but that the arousal level was not strong enough to produce an increase in heart rate. Implications of results are that we may want to re-evaluate how employee engagement is defined and how it is measured.Item Open Access The theoretical development and empirical testing of the measure of job crafting (MJC)(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Dvorak, Kyla J., author; Byrne, Zinta, advisor; Cleveland, Jeanette, committee member; Dik, Bryan, committee member; Eakman, Aaron, committee memberThis study outlines the construction, development, and initial testing of a theoretically-based measure of job crafting. The resulting measure reflects three dimensions of job crafting behaviors - task, relational, and cognitive crafting, as hypothesized by theory. Based on two samples of Subject Matter Experts and two developmental samples, the results found in this study establish initial content, internal structure, and construct validity evidence for the Measure of Job Crafting. The measure also demonstrated high reliability of scores across samples. This measure will be a useful tool in future research about job crafting, including whether crafting predicts meaningfulness in work.Item Open Access Theoretical antecedents and positive employee work experiences of job crafting(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Holcombe, Kyla J., author; Byrne, Zinta, advisor; Dik, Bryan, committee member; Eakman, Aaron, committee member; Kraiger, Kurt, committee memberAlthough there have been recent advances in the conceptualization of job crafting (e.g., Berg, Dutton, & Wrzesniewski, 2013; Leana, Appelbaum, & Shevchuk, 2009) and in mapping its nomological network (Berg, Dutton & Wrzesniewski, 2007; Demerouti & Bakker, 2014; Petrou, 2013), the theory of job crafting remains limited. Specifically, job crafting theory fails to recognize important theoretical antecedents of job crafting behavior, including individual, work context, and leadership factors that serve as sources of motivation for employee job crafting. Furthermore, the theory does not explain the complex interrelationship of job crafting and traditional work design (Hackman & Oldham, 1976; Humphrey, Nahrgang, & Morgeson, 2007), even though job crafting is said to complement and supplement traditional work design to influence employee work experiences (Berg et al., 2013). Through this study, I expand job crafting theory to not only rely on a needs-based approach to motivation (Berg et al., 2013; Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001), but to also apply cognitive, trait/dispositional, behavioral, and work design approaches to understand why employees are motivated to craft in their work roles. Study hypotheses were investigated using a sample of working adults and their colleagues (N = 120 employee-colleague dyads), both of whom provided information about individual, leader, and work characteristics, as well as ratings of job crafting behaviors, work attitudes, motivation, and adaptive performance. Results show individual factors (i.e., proactivity and learning orientation), work design factors (i.e., task and social characteristics), and leader factors (empowerment and trust) all significantly relate to job crafting and should be conceptualized as theoretical precursors to job crafting. Additionally, job crafting and work design factors predict positive employee work experiences. Specifically, task characteristics and job crafting explain significant variance in employees’ intrinsic motivation; task and social characteristics explain significant variability in person-organization fit; and as a final indicator of positive work experiences, employee adaptive performance is significantly related to knowledge characteristics. The findings of this study advance job crafting and work design theories and provide practical recommendations for facilitating positive work experiences through both job crafting and work design efforts.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.