Browsing by Author "Conroy, Samantha, committee member"

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9

Open Access
A computational model and empirical study of the self-undermining proposition in job demands-resources theory
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2019) Walters, Kevin M., author; Fisher, Gwen, advisor; Gibbons, Alyssa, advisor; Clegg, Benjamin, committee member; Conroy, Samantha, committee member; Kraiger, Kurt, committee member
The current conceptual model in job demands-resources (JD-R) theory contains eight propositions to explain the dual processes through which job demands and resources influence individuals' strain, motivation, and job performance. Although the theory is generally well-supported and widely-used in industrial-organizational (I-O) and occupational health (OHP) psychology literature, more research is needed to validate its two most recent propositions; that motivation and strain can lead to increases in job resources and demands through job crafting and self-undermining behaviors, respectively. The goal of this study was to test the dynamic variable relationships in the self-undermining proposition through two research methods in an academic context. First, I developed and tested a computational model of the self-undermining proposition based in JD-R theory and other psychological theories and research. Second, I collected longitudinal data from undergraduate students at two U.S. universities and analyzed the data through cross-lagged panel analyses and repeated measures multivariate analyses of variance. The results of the two methods were contradictory. Specifically, the specifications and theoretical assumptions of the computational model resulted in simulations of a perpetual loss spiral via a positive feedback loop, whereas statistical analyses of the longitudinal data did not identify or support the self-undermining proposition. Overall, the results did not support the self-undermining proposition and were influenced by several methodological limitations of this study, but these limitations and results exemplified several broader limitations of JD-R theory and suggested that the theory is currently inviable and in need of respecification.
Open Access
An examination of the relationships between vocational identity, hardiness, meaningful work, burnout, and work engagement
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) Loebel, Greg A., author; Dik, Bryan, advisor; Chavez, Ernest, committee member; Davalos, Deana, committee member; Conroy, Samantha, committee member
A cross-sectional study was conducted to expand the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model and personal resources within the model. The association between vocational identity as a personal resource and two criterion variables of burnout and work engagement were examined in a sample of 255 full-time U.S. working adults using Amazon's Mechanical Turk to collect survey data. JD-R is situated within occupational stress research that incorporates burnout and work engagement as the two primary constructs other variables are related to. Vocational identity has seen very little research in working adult samples and has been limited to career development outcomes. Minimal examination has been conducted of core features of identity within the JD-R model. Therefore, this study explored vocational identity as a personal resource that predicts burnout and work engagement, hypothesizing a negative relationship with the former and positive relationship with the latter. Results indicated vocational identity had significant main effects on both work engagement and burnout. Additionally, the perception that one's work is meaningful was examined as an important job resource hypothesized to explain the relationship between the main predictor and criterion variables as a mediator. Results also indicated that meaningful work significantly mediated the direct effects of vocational identity on work engagement and burnout. Since stress is a natural part of work, one's stress appraisal and coping style has a significant influence on well-being outcomes. Hardiness, which is a personality style that influences how one may effectively cope with stress, is viewed as an important personal resource. It was hypothesized that hardiness moderated the strength of the direct relationship between vocational identity and the criterion variables, as well as the strength of the relationship with the meaningful work mediator. A proposed moderated mediation model was tested where vocational identity predicted burnout and work engagement through the mediating relationship of meaningful work. The mediated effect was expected to be stronger for those higher in hardiness. Results revealed that hardiness only had a moderating effect on the relationship between vocational identity and the exhaustion subscale of burnout, but no significant moderating effect was detected for the other two burnout subscales or any of the three work engagement subscales. Results also showed no detectable moderating effect of hardiness on the indirect relationship of vocational identity on work engagement and burnout through meaningful work.
Open Access
Experiences of designing women: a portrait of female interior designers' job satisfaction across career-spans
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Goodnite, A. Elizabeth, author; Malinin, Laura, advisor; Ogle, Jennifer, committee member; Conroy, Samantha, committee member
The subject of job satisfaction is one of the most highly researched topics among organizational psychology (Lu, Barriball, Zhang, & While, 2012). However, only few studies have examined factors of job satisfaction among interior designers due, in part, to infancy of the profession (e.g., Hill, Hegde, & Matthews, 2014). The purpose of this study was to compose a portrait of female interior design professionals currently employed in the workplace and explored the factors impacting their perceived job satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Twelve female interior designers from three career phases (early, mid, and late career) were interviewed to gain diverse perspectives of job satisfaction. Participants were asked to draw the way they felt about their work based on Marcus' (1995) drawing elicitation method. Then interviews were performed using their drawings as a starting point for discussion, along with semi-structured questions guided by the conceptual framework developed for this study from two career phase models (AIA, 2017; Mainiero & Sullivan, 2005) and literature review. Findings suggested dynamic relationships between 1) personal-life factors; 2) work culture; 3) professional mindset; 4) relationships; and 5) resources to support creative performance at work. Participants felt greatest job satisfaction when optimal creative performance was bolstered by ideal conditions with respect to work culture, relationships, and resources when personal-life factors placed pressure on their lives. Furthermore, professional well-being seemed to be largely shaped by professional authenticity and its development through meaning-making tasks and achievements.
Open Access
Impression management manifested on LinkedIn and in resumes
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Cotter, Lauren, author; Cleveland, Jeanette, advisor; Murphy, Kevin, committee member; Chavez, Ernest, committee member; Conroy, Samantha, committee member
This study examines the effects of the use of impression management tactics on the professional networking site, LinkedIn. It makes three primary contributions to the literature. First, this study examines how a job seeker's use of impression management on LinkedIn affects inferences of his or her cognitive ability and conscientiousness. In addition, I compared inferences of cognitive ability and conscientiousness made from resumes and LinkedIn profiles, which showed inferences made from LinkedIn profiles have incremental validity over inferences made from resumes. Finally, these findings build preliminary validation evidence for the use of LinkedIn as a selection screening tool.
Open Access
Leadership in uncertain times: exploring leader-member exchange and leadership adaptations during the COVID-19 transition
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Shahbazian, Parnian, author; Williams, Elizabeth, advisor; Long, Ziyu, committee member; Conroy, Samantha, committee member
This thesis explores leadership dynamics during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on how leader-member relationships (LMX) influenced leadership strategies. Using qualitative methods, the study examines the experiences of 12 leaders who managed teams across various industries through the sudden transition to remote or hybrid work. The research highlights how intentional communication, support, safety, and relationship-building shaped leadership practices during this crisis. Leaders employed tailored communication strategies to maintain engagement, reduce uncertainty, and ensure that their team members felt valued as individuals. Findings demonstrate that virtual leadership required heightened intentionality, emphasizing person-first approaches and the importance of consistent support. Leaders had to adapt their communication styles, increase transparency, and show empathy to maintain trust and team cohesion. The study also discusses the theoretical implications of LMX during times of crisis, showing how strong leader-member exchanges positively impacted motivation, retention, and well-being. Practical recommendations highlight the need for clear communication, flexibility, and emotional support in remote leadership settings.
Open Access
Maintaining employment in turbulent times: the bridging of resilience and resistance in hotel employees
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Wagner-Kinyon, Eliza Amy, author; Long, Ziyu, advisor; Williams, Elizabeth, committee member; Conroy, Samantha, committee member
Previous communication scholarship has studied resilience and resistance separately, but researchers had not often studied them in tandem, especially in the organizational change context. Specifically, this study uses Buzzanell's (2010, 2018a) five resilience processes and Mumby's (2005) dialectical approach to resistance to complicate organizational communication scholarship and current understandings of resilience and resistance in the workplace. This research utilizes a case study approach to examine employees' communication and experience in the face of multifaceted change—the changes including a new corporate company, on-site leadership turnover, and a full renovation. Using semi-structured interviews, the study implicates connections between resilience processes and types of resistance. The findings in this study encourage organizational communication scholars to further develop and explore how resilience and resistance are enacted in unique, meaningful ways that enliven employee experiences in a turbulent workplace.
Open Access
Tensions in service-oriented temporary organizations: the emergence and management of tensions in student organizing
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Patton, Mellissa, author; Long, Ziyu, advisor; Williams, Elizabeth, committee member; Conroy, Samantha, committee member
Previous communication scholarship has focused on tension as a component of everyday organizing. However, minimal research has explored it in tandem with temporary organizing and servant leadership. This case study explores the discursive enactment of servant leadership and how it contributes to tension emergence and management as presented by Putnam, Fairhurst, and Banghart (2016) and Baxter & Montgomery's (1996) in the context of a temporary organization and organizing during COVID-19. Through the use of semi-structured interviews and a focus group, the study theorizes a tension-filled and tension-centered conceptualization of servant leadership. Furthermore, this research identifies how disruptions to everyday organizing, such as a global pandemic, can urge tensions to the forefront of organizations. The findings in this study also encourage scholars to interrogate popular leadership enactments, question the role of tension in the discursive enactment of leadership, and explore the implications of temporary organizing in term-limited organizations.
Open Access
The disclosure dilemma: when and why job applicants differ in disclosing their disability status
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Menendez, Jaclyn, author; Cleveland, Jeanette, advisor; Murphy, Kevin, committee member; Gibbons, Alyssa, committee member; Dik, Bryan, committee member; Conroy, Samantha, committee member
This study explores the complex issue involving the individual and organizational factors that influence an applicant's disclosure of their disability status on job applications, as well as their perceived likelihood of experiencing discrimination. Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act sets a hiring aspiration for 7% of all government organizations to be comprised of people with disabilities, and now requires applicants to fill out a disclosure form of disability status in order to track progress. One problem with this goal is the low disclosure rates among applicants with disabilities. The present study manipulates two factors that influence disclosure rates and discrimination expectations, and develops a theoretical framework for how these factors may be associated with an applicant's disability identity in the workplace. It is hypothesized that disclosure rates are affected by two organizational variables (organizational diversity climate and supervisor support), and how disability identity in the workplace moderates these relationships. Results show that organizational variables do not have a significant impact on willingness to disclose one's disability status on the voluntary disclosure form, nor do these organizational variables affect anticipated discrimination in the workplace. Disability identity was shown to significantly predict anticipated work discrimination. Future research may use these findings to better tailor strategies for increasing disclosure rates based on an applicant's disability identity in the workplace.
Open Access
Tolerated organizational forgetting in the U.S. Air Force: a case study analysis of knowledge loss among government civilian employees
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Lee, Daniel G., author; Chermack, Thomas, advisor; Chai, DaeSeok, committee member; Conroy, Samantha, committee member; Thomas, Cliff, committee member
Organizations do not learn well. As a result, they lose valuable knowledge. When knowledge is lost in organizations, workers are forced to spend as much as 25% of their workday looking for information to do their jobs, contributing to workplace frustration, anxiety, and personnel retention challenges (Businesswire, 2022). Numerous studies on knowledge management, organizational memory, and organizational forgetting have expanded organizations' view of knowledge as a valuable organizational resource. The problem of interest in this dissertation is that while prescriptive measures to retain organizational knowledge exist, organizations continue to lose valuable knowledge. Such knowledge loss in the government contributes to performance inefficiencies, unnecessary costs to U.S. taxpayers, and the potential inability of military forces to meet national security requirements. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the contextual issues that influence how and why forgetting is tolerated within strategic-level organizations of the Air Force as experienced by the civilian workforce. The research questions that guided this study are as follows: Why do Air Force organizations tolerate forgetting despite policy directives and available prescriptive remedies? How do Air Force organizations prioritize knowledge loss in their learning and knowledge management activities? and How are organizational processes, systems, and culture managed to address knowledge loss? The study expands the existing models of organizational forgetting that focus on intentional and unintentional knowledge loss to include forgetting that is neither of these but is tolerated by organizations. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 mid- to senior-level Air Force civilian employees representing eight strategic-level organizations. Four themes were identified as contributing to tolerated organizational forgetting. First, motivation and values within the organization often relegate knowledge management efforts to other tasks. Second, a culture of acceptance and lack of accountability habituate organizations to knowledge loss. Third, organizational focus on near-term objectives creates strategic blindness. Lastly, undocumented business processes contribute to a loss of governance and ad hoc practices. These findings provide practical considerations to address tolerated forgetting in organizations and provide new avenues for refining organizational forgetting theory.