Theses and Dissertations - Department of Management

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Organized Labor in Etowah County, Alabama
(University of Alabama Libraries, 1956) Barksdale, Oliver D.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
The purpose of this thesis is to study organized labor in Etowah County, Alabama. Emphasis will be given to the history of unions, and to an analysis of the present union scene. Certain background material will be included to establish the setting in which this union activity has occurred.
Job Satisfaction and Life Satisfaction Factors Relating to Intent to Turnover for American Expatriates: An Empirical Study
(University of Alabama Libraries, 1990) Birdseye, Meg Guerin; Odewahn, Charles; Dulek, Ronald; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Testing the Continuum of Harm: the Role of Generlized Harassment and Leader Tolerance for Sexual Harassment in Predicting Survivor Outcomes
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2021) Brady, Lisa; Harms, Peter D.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
At the time, high-profile events such as the Navy Tailhook Scandal in 1993, the Air Force Academy scandal in Colorado in 2003, and the scandals at West Point and the Naval Academy in 2013 shocked the nation. Despite decades of media and research attention to the topic of sexual harassment and assault in the U.S. military, violent crimes, such as the murder of Army Specialist Vanessa Guillen by a fellow solder at the Army base in Fort Hood in Texas in 2020, have not stopped. While not all incidents of sexual harassment are violent, the DoD’s continuum of harm model is used widely in research and practice to depict how seemingly innocent sex-related behaviors or “jokes” can create environments in which these behaviors escalate to violent crimes. To reduce the extent of harm to survivors’ mental health and job attitudes, it is critical to identify risk factors beyond sexual harassment that may belong on the continuum of harm. In this dissertation I explore two potential risk factors: 1) experiencing generalized (nonsexual) abuse, and 2) having leadership that is tolerant of sexual harassment. Regression-based analyses reveal that both generalized harassment and leader tolerance for sexual harassment across all levels of leadership are important risk factors that have adverse effects on survivors’ mental health and job attitudes, and that these variables interact to significantly exacerbate the effects of generalized harassment on survivors’ PTSD symptomology. These results provide empirical support for incorporating these risk factors in the DoD’s sexual harassment and assault prevention efforts.
Precariousness, anticipatory justice, and belief in delayed pay-off affect workers’ intertemporal choice orientation: implications on socioeconomic mobility
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2021) Wang, Yi-Ren; Ford, Michael; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Research has suggested that workers in precarious work conditions tend to show a temporal discounting pattern for intertemporal choices (i.e., decisions that involve competing rewards between now and the future), which has the potential to reinforce their socioeconomic disadvantages. Integrating Immediate-Delayed Compensation Theory (Martin, 1999a) and Uncertainty Management Theory (Lind & van den Bos, 2002; van den Bos & Lind, 2002), this dissertation aims at explaining and identifying ways to mitigate the motivational challenges associated with workers in precarious conditions. Three studies were conducted to test the hypotheses: a two-factor factorial experiment, a three-wave longitudinal study covering a one-month period, and a three-wave longitudinal study based on a nationally representative sample covering a four-year period. Findings across these three studies suggest that a lack of belief in delayed pay-off could be the mechanism explaining why precarious work conditions trigger the development of a temporally-discounting pattern of behaviors. In order for workers to strive for and stay engaged for long-term career rewards, it is crucial that they believe their efforts will be fairly compensated in a distal future. This finding contends that self-control failure may not be the only, primary driver of worker’s intertemporal choice orientations and instead presents an alternative explanation that worker’s temporal discounting pattern can be socially determined. This dissertation also reveals that anticipatory organizational justice played a particularly critical role in promoting worker’s belief in delayed pay-off and their future-oriented behavioral pattern. Anticipatory organizational justice was also found to predict improvements in one’s subjective social status four years later, showing evidence for its effect on workers’ upward mobility. These positive effects remained valid at the presence of currently-experienced organizational justice in the same model, supporting the unique importance of the anticipated organizational justice for workers to stay motivated for their long-term careers in an uncertain, delayed-return situation. Findings from this dissertation provide meaningful implications for workplace inequality and upward social mobility.
Can you feel it?: how and when leader passion impacts follower performance
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2020) Landay, Karen; Harms, Peter D.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Despite popular opinion that passion is a necessary ingredient for leadership, scholars have little insight into how, when, or even if leader passion impacts follower outcomes. I therefore make several contributions towards increasing scholarly understanding in this area. First, I reviewed existing definitions and measures of passion relevant to the workplace and provided a new, more comprehensive definition of work passion that conceptually differentiates it from related constructs. I also used socioanalytic theory to distinguish between felt work passion, which contains affective and cognitive elements, and displayed work passion, which contains behavioral elements. Second, in order to better align theory and measurement, I developed and validated new measures of felt (self-report) and displayed (other-report) work passion in two samples of working adults. The scales showed good convergent validity with other measures of work-related passion, somewhat concerning discriminant validity with job attitudes such as engagement and job satisfaction, and evidence of criterion validity with leader-member exchange. Third, I integrated social cognitive theory with theories of emotion, motive, and goal contagion to conduct an initial test of a multilevel moderated mediation model of how leader felt and displayed work passion influence follower felt work passion and performance, contingent on the emotional intelligence of both leaders and followers. In a sample of leaders and followers employed by a staffing agency, although I did not find support for my hypotheses, analysis suggested that leader displayed passion may interact with follower characteristics to predict follower outcomes.
A mismatch between theory and practice?: the role of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) motives and measures on performance outcomes
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2020) Irwin, Kristin; Drnevich, Paul; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are complex, multi-level transactions in which ownership of one firm is merged with another firm, or one firm acquires ownership of another firm. A wide-range of factors can affect M&A performance outcomes such as the driving firm’s corporate strategy, target availability and selection decisions, and knowledge absorption and resource integration issues, all of which can contribute to the potential for suboptimal M&A outcomes and failure. Varying contextual factors that influence M&A outcomes also makes assessing M&A performance outcomes problematic. Given these numerous challenges, it is not surprising that scholars have yet to fully model, theorize, and predict the performance outcomes of M&A activity effectively. One important, yet relatively under theorized factor is the motive for undertaking M&A activity in the first place. In this dissertation, I address this persistent gap in the M&A literature, using a typology of different theoretical applications, to theorize, model, measure, and empirically validate how M&A motives relate to different M&A outcomes. I utilize a multi-method triangulation approach through three studies to demonstrate the foundational importance of M&A motives and then explore further the different theoretical applications and relationships with varying M&A outcomes. Specifically, I perform a cross-discipline M&A motive literature review (Study 1), develop a stepwise approach using big data of M&A motives (Study 2), and test specific relationships of M&A motives to M&A outcomes (Study 3). My contributions include an alignment of multiple theoretical frameworks and a more expansive conceptualization of M&A motives. I differentiate among antecedents and moderators to M&A outcomes through introducing a new M&A motive categorization typology. By assessing M&A motive measures and utilizing a triangulation method, I develop a new method for how to capture M&A motives from practice. Utilizing the new M&A motive measures, I show through empirical testing how the assessment of M&A motives can influence our understanding of the inconclusive M&A performance outcomes. My findings have implications for both research and practice by demonstrating how a firms’ motivations for engaging in M&A activity affect the likelihood of M&A success or failure, and how a variety of theory applications, and their constructs and measures helps better capture the varying M&A performance outcomes.
A connectionist model of the ideal organization: investigating nurse assessment of person-organization fit
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2019) Lowman, Graham Hughes; Harms, Peter D.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
The attraction and retention of nurses is a primary concern in the healthcare industry. I propose a context-sensitive connectionist model of person-organization (P-O) fit to provide a framework for understanding the cognitive information processing that nurses undergo when determining to accept a position or remain at an organization. Building on this framework, I develop and test an occupation-specific instrument for evaluating nurse P-O fit using a qualitative-to-quantitative method. This provides three primary contributions to the P-O fit literature and the study of nurse attraction and retention. First, the proposed model of P-O fit expands on prior P-O fit theories by 1) identifying where the ideal organization concept originates, 2) providing an explanation for why the ideal organization concept changes over time, 3) detailing the cognitive information processing and pattern matching process that dictates how P-O fit is determined by an individual, and 4) accommodating normative and distinctive fit preferences. Second, the development of the corresponding P-O fit instrument, the Nurse Ideal Organization Prototype (IOP), contributes to the literature by demonstrating the qualitative-to-quantitative process of creating an occupation-specific measure of P-O fit. Finally, by testing this measure utilizing overall, normative, and distinctive fit indices, contributions are also made by reinforcing the importance of normative fit relative to attitudinal outcomes and by comparing universal to occupation-specific measures of P-O fit. These contributions both expand current understanding of P-O fit and provide a novel perspective for addressing nurse attraction and retention.
Work meaningfulness and its impact on stress appraisal
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2019) Pervez, Adam; Whitman, Marilyn V.; Ford, Michael T.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
The Transactional Model of Stress posits that stressors are cognitively appraised and those appraised as challenges or threats are coped with to return to homeostasis (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). This study incorporated job meaningfulness, the degree of significance one holds toward one’s job, into the Transactional Model of Stress as a mediator between appraisal and coping to determine its effect on turnover intent and burnout. Results indicated support for job meaningfulness as a mediator in the Transactional Model of Stress and meaning-focused coping’s significant negative relationship with turnover intent and the emotional exhaustion and cynicism facets of burnout and significant positive relationship with the professional efficacy component of burnout. An alternative model was presented and demonstrated strong, significant relationships between job meaningfulness and the outcome variables. A call is made to investigate task meaningfulness, the degree of significance held by an individual toward a piece of work. Implications and future directions are discussed.
The more we know; the less we know: the effects of interpersonal networks on employees misperception of peers preferences to utilize family-friendly benefits
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2017) Mandeville, Ashley; Halbesleben, Jonathon R. B.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Pluralistic ignorance is a situation in which individuals inaccurately perceive the attitudes of their peers within their work group to be different from their own and subsequently align their behavior with what they mistakenly believe are the attitudes of their peers. Prior research on has tended to focus on the consequences of pluralistic ignorance, including a recent study on family-friendly benefit utilization. This study seeks to examine the predictors of misperceptions, a key ingredient of pluralistic ignorance, in the context of peers’ preferences to utilize family-friendly benefits, using social network analysis. Specifically, this study examines the role of centrality on the degree to which central members misperceive their peers’ preferences over time and the degree to which their preferences influence the group over time. Further, this study examines how the overall network structure can suppress the relationship between centrality and misperceptions. Contrary to what one may assume, the more central an employee in their network, the greater their misperceptions of their peers’ preferences towards family-friendly benefit utilization. The results of this study imply that pluralistic ignorance is a possibility, even for work groups with close interpersonal relationships.
Tales from the dark side of entrepreneurship
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2016) Tucker, Reginald Lewis; Jackson, William E.; Marino, Louis D.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This dissertation proposes that personality is a missing link in the intention-behavior relationship that can help explain why some individuals who have entrepreneurial intentions take entrepreneurial action, but others do not. My theory is grounded in Markman and Baron’s (2003) person-entrepreneurship framework that posits individuals who have a personality that fits with the demands and tasks of entrepreneurship, and are guided by entrepreneurial intentions, are likely to enter into entrepreneurship and find success. Presumably, individuals who have entrepreneurial intentions are more likely to engage in entrepreneurial behaviors than individuals who do not have entrepreneurial intentions. To evaluate my argument, I analyze data collected from MBA alumni of a university in the Southeastern region of the United States. I collected data over two time periods with a series of hierarchal linear regressions to test the intention-behavior relationship with narcissism, psychopathy, and ADHD as the moderating personality variables. Overall, results suggest that dark personalities do influence the intention-behavior relationship. The interaction of entrepreneurial intentions and psychopathy had a positive and significant relationship with both discovery behaviors and exploitation behaviors. The interaction of entrepreneurial intentions and ADHD was also positive and significant for discovery behaviors, but not for exploitation behaviors. Narcissism did not have a significant relationship as a main effect with either entrepreneurial behavior.
Toward an understanding of one’s future work self salience as an indicator of work related behaviors
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2016) Bellairs, Tom; Halbesleben, Jonathon R. B.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Future work self (FWS) refers to who a person aspires to become in the future as it relates to his or her work. FWS serves as a distal goal that motivates individuals to engage in three work-related behaviors: job crafting, proactive career behavior (PCB), and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Because there is multifinality in goal attainment (e.g., several goals linked to the same means), individuals take steps, serving focal and distal goals, to advance in achieving their FWS. As individuals move toward their work goals, they incorporate feedback to reassess their progress and alter steps necessary to fully achieve their future self. I expand future focused research by integrating regulatory focus theory (RFT)—how individuals approach desired or avoid undesired outcomes—and extend research on three work-related behaviors in the context of becoming one’s FWS. I expect that a person’s promotion focus (and not prevention focus) will moderate the relationship between one’s FWS and these three work-related behaviors (i.e., job crafting, PCBs, OCBs). Overall, I suggest that a FWS is a valuable motivational resource that induces specific work-related behaviors.
The frustration-aggression hypothesis revisited: a deviance congruence perspective
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2015) Crawford, Wayne S.; Johnson, Diane E.; Kacmar, K. Michele; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
In 1939, Dollard and colleagues presented the frustration-aggression theory. The main tenet of the theory posits that individuals become frustrated when goal attainment is prohibited or interrupted. Further, following frustrating events, individuals will respond with aggressive behaviors as a form of retaliation against agents of the frustrating events. Organizational deviance has been posited as one such aggressive reaction (Fox & Spector, 1999). This dissertation takes a unique perspective on organizational deviance; I argue that situations may arise when organizational deviance perceptions also serve as an antecedent of frustration. Specifically, I argue that in circumstances where supervisors’ and subordinates’ perceptions of employee deviance are incongruent, or misaligned, employees will become frustrated. Frustrated employees engage in aggressive behaviors in the form of retaliation and displaced aggression (Berkowitz, 1989). In the current study, I propose that frustrated employees may both retaliate at work and displace their aggression in both the work and family domains. Thus, I argue frustration leads to higher levels of coworker abuse, greater levels of relationship conflict, and greater work-to-family conflict. I also hypothesize that frustration will result in employees engaging in fewer interpersonal citizenship behaviors, which is also detrimental to organizations. This dissertation uses a time-lagged research design and field sample to test the hypotheses offered. A sample of 215 supervisor-subordinate dyads from a large municipality in the southeastern United States was used for hypothesis testing. I followed the latent congruence modeling procedures to test the hypotheses offered (Cheung, 2009). The structural-equation based latent congruence model allowed me to test the effects of incongruence on the mediator and whether frustration ultimately predicted the outcome variables. I did not find support for the hypothesized mediation model using congruence analysis.
Exchange without return: helping behaviors over time in positive and negative reciprocity relationships
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2015) Leon, Matthew R.; Halbesleben, Jonathon R. B.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
There is broad awareness that the health of coworker relationships is often built on reciprocity and assessments of member exchanges, where relationships are pursued or terminated based on benefits received. Both social exchange theory and equity theory propose that, when an exchange relationship is no longer favorable (i.e., a negative reciprocity relationship), an individual should terminate it to prevent resource losses. While this is economically rational, it often is impossible or impractical to terminate a relationship in a work context. The objective of this dissertation is to address this apparent mismatch between theories of helping behavior and typical workplace dynamics. I do so by exploring three possible explanations for this mismatch. First, I argue that the one of the key assumptions of social exchange theory, that the relationships are voluntary, may not always hold in a work setting. Second, I argue that fluctuations in investment behavior, specifically helping, changes in a non-linear fashion over time. Finally, I examine the impact of reciprocity, perceptions of team member efficacy, and third-party investment on helping behaviors in a sustained, negative reciprocity relationship. Across two experiments and one field study, I found that helping behaviors change discontinuously over time, individuals will help a partner complete an interdependent task regardless of reciprocation, and that helping is driven by a combination of factors including partner performance and general perceptions of a partner's helpfulness.
Sins of the parents: how parenting style affects successors and key family firm outcomes after succession
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2015) Shanine, Kristen; Combs, James G.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
The intent to transfer control to the next generation is a defining characteristic of family firms. Yet, most family-controlled firms fail to transfer control and, when they do, the next generation’s leadership often fails to meet expectations. The succession literature describes characteristics of key actors and relationships that shape effective successions, but it does not leverage sociology research and theory on the key aspect that makes family firms different – i.e., families. Consequently, current theory does not explain how parenting influences successors’ personality, emotional well-being, or behavior, nor does it explain how these factors affect employees and the firm’s future prospects. I, therefore, develop new theory and extend parental control theory from sociology to help explain how parents in family firms influence successors and the family firm. In particular, I predict that predecessor parenting styles, described by Baumrind (1971) and later modified by Maccoby and Martin (1983) (i.e., Authoritative, Authoritarian, Indulgent Permissive, and Negligent Permissive), affect successor’s psychological profile (i.e., well-being, impostor phenomenon, and entitlement), which then has consequences for the leadership style the successor adopts, employee behavioral responses to the successor, and the firm’s strategy. My theory helps explain why some family successors are more successful than others. In order to test my theory, I developed a parenting style scale using student responses (N=233) and working adult responses (N=260). I also conducted a series of mediation regression analyses using a sample of matched employee and successor survey responses (N=52 firms). Results suggest that Authoritative predecessor parenting leads to successor psychological well-being, and Indulgent Permissive predecessor parenting leads to successor entitlement. Additionally, I found that successor psychological well-being mediates the relationships between Authoritative predecessor parenting and successor transformational leadership, and employee affective commitment. Overall, I found that the best kind of parenting style (i.e., Authoritative) in family science literature has the most positive impact in family firms. Broadly speaking, my theory and findings have implications for future research in that they point to the importance of family dynamics in family firms. Research in family science shows that parenting affects the behavior of family members, and my study is among the first to show how this research might be leveraged to better explain key attributes and outcomes of family firms.
Dynamic capabilities “now we see them” in the airline industry
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2016) Jifri, Ali; Marino, Louis D.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
The study of dynamic capabilities is one of the dominant research streams in strategic management. This dissertation contributes to the dynamic capabilities literature by theorizing and testing key questions regarding the relationship between dynamic capabilities and firm performance. Specific questions to be resolved include: 1) how does the performance of dynamic capabilities affect how firms adapt and co-evolve with the environment, 2) what is the interplay of two different kinds of dynamic capabilities operating simultaneously in the same context, and 3) what role does environmental dynamism and munificence play in the relationship between capability development and fitness in asset intensive industries. These questions are examined in the context of the airline industry where I identify two main capabilities that act as dynamic capabilities, namely, Resource Planning Capability (RPC) and Alliance Management Capability (AMC). First, I propose that there is a positive relationship between the two main capabilities (RPC and AMC) and sustained performance. Secondly, I propose alliance orientation will precede the development of an alliance capability. Third, I propose the interaction effect of AMC and RPC is positively associated with sustained performance. Finally, I propose that the positive relationship between each of these capabilities and sustained performance is moderated by environmental dynamism and environmental munificence such that the relationships is weaker, or stronger, at different levels of dynamism and munificence. I test hypotheses using longitudinal panel data on a sample of 132 firms in the airline industry. The analysis was performed using econometric estimators: a stochastic frontier estimator to test technical fitness of capabilities and random effect estimator to test the effect on dependent variable sustained performance. The results show that the two capabilities (RPC and AMC) have a positive effect on sustained performance. Interestingly, the two moderators appear to have differing effects on the two capabilities. Environmental dynamism appear to strengthen RPC and weakens AMC. Conversely, environmental munificence strengthen AMC and weakens RPC.
Risk in the eye of the beholder?: an examination of risk evaluation, role expectations and workplace risk-related behavior
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2015) Stoutner, Oliver Keith; Bachrach, Daniel G.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This dissertation presents the results of three studies designed to enhance understanding of how individual risk evaluation pertains to role theory and how prospect theory can offer clues on the process undergirding the translation of employee role expectations into behavior in the workplace. In studies 1 and 2 I develop a novel scale for evaluating employee risk-related role expectations. Study 3 draws on a sample of 439 working adults and examines how coworker general (non-work-related) risk propensity affects employee’s role expectations regarding risk and expectations of coworker approval. Further, I explore the linkages between employee expectations and subsequent behavior and the influence of coworker indicated approval. Integrating prospect and role theories, I find support for the hypothesis that coworker risk propensity has a negative relationship with employee risk-related role expectations, and expectations of approval. I also find support for the positive relationship between employee risk-related role expectations and behaviors, and mixed support for the positively moderating role of coworker indicated approval. Implications for theory and practice are discussed along with directions for future research.
Adherence to organizational routines: a micro-foundations lens
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2014) Maalouf, Jamal Tanios; Combs, James G.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Organizational routines are viewed as a source of strategic competitive advantage that enhances firm performance. How do organizations continue to adhere to organizational routines after the routines are integrated in the work flow? I introduce and define a new construct, adherence to routines, which captures the theoretical phenomenon of maintaining the repeatability of organizational routines. I apply trait activation theory to explain why employees adhere to routines. I theorize that three individual traits: (1) conscientiousness, (2) openness to experience, and (3) individual entrepreneurial orientation impact adherence to routines. Moreover, I theorize that employees' perception of their supervisors' initiating structure leadership moderates the relationships between the three individual traits and adherence to routines. In this study, I developed a scale for the newly introduced construct adherence to routines. Using a sample of 543 employees surveyed in the U.S., I validated the new scale. The findings also support my arguments that conscientiousness is positively related to adherence to routines, and that openness to experience and individual entrepreneurial orientation are negatively related to adherence to routines. I also found support for employees' perception of their supervisors' initiating structure leadership as a moderator to the relationship between conscientiousness and adherence to routines. These results suggest that initiating structure leadership may have triggered the expression of conscientiousness, resulting in higher levels of adherence to routines.
Choosing between the formal and informal economy: how do business managers in emerging markets decide?
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2014) Abi Aad, Amine A.; Combs, James G.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Why do managers in emerging markets conduct some activities in the informal economy and others in the formal economy when they have a choice? Using institutional economic theory, previous research shows that, at the country level, weak formal institutions create institutional voids that increase the transaction costs of using the formal economy. To evade high transaction costs, managers in emerging markets use the informal economy. However, previous research does not explain, at the firm level, why managers in emerging markets conduct some activities in the informal economy while conducting others in the formal economy. I theorize that, at the firm level, managers' social ties with formal institutions protect them against being singled out for enforcement and against potential opportunistic behaviors by business partners. In particular, opportunism, which increases transaction costs, might take place in the informal economy because contracting parties cannot be held legally accountable. That is, managers' social ties with formal institutions allow them to keep the transaction costs of using the informal economy lower than the transaction costs of using the formal economy for a specific activity. Moreover, I argue that not all managers who have social ties with formal institutions are prone to conduct more activities in the informal economy. In particular, based on regulatory focus theory, I argue that managers who have a promotion focus mindset are more prone to use their social ties with formal institutions to conduct activities in the informal economy. Using a sample of 206 Lebanese respondents, I developed two new scales: manager's social ties with formal institutions and manager's propensity to use informal economy. I then used these scales to empirically test my theory. The results of this study support my theory that managers who have social ties with formal institutions are more prone to conduct activities in the informal economy. However, the results of this study did not support the argument that managers who have a promotion focus mindset are more prone to use their social ties with formal institutions to conduct activities in the informal economy.
An examination of the mediators and moderators in the relationship between justifications, organizational contexts, and discrimination in personnel selection
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2013) Holmes IV, Oscar; King, James E.; Avery, Derek R.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Discrimination research has largely focused on what has been called old-fashioned racism. However, research exploring modern racism is a burgeoning area. This dissertation attempted to extend and build theory on modern racism by explaining when justifications and organizational contexts can lead people to discriminate in personnel selection situations. Explicit and implicit justifications are examined and tested using directives from leaders, coworkers, and customers. Additionally, two organizational contexts, diversity climate and the hiring context, are examined to determine when they may lead to discrimination. Three-way interactions are hypothesized among modern racism, submissiveness to authority, and agreeableness that are posited to affect one's propensity to discriminate. Finally, two mediation processes, stereotype activation/application and casuistry, are hypothesized as the psychological processes that explain the decision making process. Binary logistic regression was used to test the hypotheses. Results from three lab studies revealed that explicit coworker justifications led to both the selection of fewer and more Black job applicants. Stereotype activation/application mediated the relationship between explicit justifications and organizational contexts on the selection of Black job applicants but not between implicit justifications and Black job applicants. A complete discussion of the results along with the theoretical and managerial implications, limitations, and directions for future research are also presented.
Ethical leadership in firms: antecedents and consequences
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2013) Li, Chenwei; Johnson, Diane E.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Recent ethical misconduct of leaders, in some high profile firms, has drawn increased attention to the reality that, ignorance on the ethics of leaders could threaten the survival of companies, and that ethical leadership may be a critical piece for company success. This dissertation aims to further our knowledge of ethical leadership by examining moral emotions as the antecedents (Model I) and employee creativity as the consequence (Model II) in two separate models. Specifically, drawing on empathy literature and moral affect theory of gratitude, Model I hypothesized that leaders' moral emotions (empathy and gratitude) should predict ethical leadership behaviors. Based on ethical leadership literature and theories of creativity, Model II hypothesized that ethical leadership, both directly and indirectly, should create high levels of psychological safety and certainty, and have an effective and positive influence on promoting employee creativity. Data collected from two semiconductor companies in China were used in the dissertation. Theoretical and practical implications as well as limitations and directions for future research were discussed.

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