Stelman, Samantha A., authorByrne, Zinta, advisorAlbert, Lumina, committee memberKraiger, Kurt, committee memberRhodes, Matthew, committee member2016-08-182016-08-182016http://hdl.handle.net/10217/176659To 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.born digitalmasters thesesengCopyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright.Text