Threat or Challenge? Intensified Job Demands and the Moderating Effect of Differentiated Transformational Leadership

Over the past 30 years, industrialized democracies have experienced major economic change due to globalization, economic instability, and rapid technological innovation. To remain viable, organizations maximize flexibility through strategies like downsizing, just-in-time inventory, and temporary labor. Consequently, employees face heightened responsibility, variable workloads, and rising job insecurity. While these demands are stressful, at times, some may represent an exciting challenge. Recently, researchers started studying how the long-term intensification of work affects employees via intensified job demands. This dissertation builds on their efforts by exploring short-term job demand intensification. Specifically, the transactional model of stress and the job demands-resources model were utilized to examine how a) intensified job insecurity, b) intensified decision-making and planning (IDP), and c) work intensification influence employee burnout and work engagement. It was hypothesized that all intensified job demands would be positively associated with burnout while potential challenge demands, like IDP, would positively predict work engagement. Further, drawing upon the intrinsic linkage between transformational leadership (TL) and environmental uncertainty, it was theorized the effects of intensified job demands would be differentially moderated by the four, core TL dimensions such that supportive dimensions (e.g., individualized consideration) would act as buffers whereas others, like inspirational motivation, would act as motivational boosters. A total of 443 full-time workers recruited through MTurk responded to two surveys administered 30 days apart. Each intensified job demand was positively related to burnout and intensified job insecurity negatively predicted work engagement, whereas IDP did not. Interestingly, the bivariate work intensification—work engagement relationship was negative, but became positive after controlling for core self-evaluations. Contrary to expectations, inspirational motivation, idealized influence, and individualized consideration reverse-buffered the effects of intensified job insecurity and work intensification on burnout and work engagement such that these dimensions exacerbated both intensified job demands’ negative effects. Further, exploratory analyses detected several three-way interactions. Overall, the aforementioned findings contribute to the nascent literature on intensified job demands as well the more studied, but still incomplete construct of TL. Moreover, this study sheds light on a number of practical implications regarding employees’ experiences with intensified job demands and the modern nature of work

Influence of Nutritional Modifications on Sow, Litter, and Nursery Performance

Two separate series of experiments were conducted to determine: 1) the influence of dietary arginine supplementation in late gestation on reproductive performance, and 2) the impact of a whole yeast product in gestation, lactation, and weaned pig diets on reproductive, growth, and immune parameters. In the first study 99 sows were provided a control diet, or the control diet supplemented with 1% L-arginine from gestation d 93 to 110. Compared to control-fed sows, no differences were observed in reproductive parameters, however a tendency for increased gestational weight gain was observed for sows provided supplemental arginine. In a second study, 98 sows were provided a control diet, or the control diet supplemented with 0.1 or 0.2% CitriStim (whole yeast product, Pichia guilliermondii [Pg]) through gestation and lactation. Additionally, two separate nursery studies were conducted in a 3 (sow treatments) × 2 (nursery with or without Pg) factorial arrangement. Pigs were challenged with lipopolysaccharide in a sub-study during the second nursery study. Supplementation with Pg increased number born alive, number weaned, and preweaning mortality, and decreased the number born weighing less than 0.9 kg compared to the control diet. Additionally, total neutrophils and the neutrophil:lymphocyte ratio were increased in sows receiving diets supplemented with Pg. In the first nursery study, pigs from sows fed Pg supplemented diets, but not from control sows, had increased ADG, ADFI, and BW in a linear fashion in phase 1 when Pg was also fed to weaned pigs (interaction; P \u3c 0.05). In several instances an additive effect of Pg supplementation to sow diets and nursery diets was observed. Additionally, linear increases in weaned pig growth performance were observed in the second nursery study as the level of Pg inclusion increased in gestation/lactation diets. Supplementation of sow diets with Pg improved feed intake following LPS challenge in weaned pigs and altered the febrile and immune response compared to pigs from sows fed control diets. In conclusion, Pg in sow and nursery diets improved sow reproductive performance, weaned pig performance, impacted immune parameters and altered immune response to LPS stimulation

Senior Recital:Benjamin Sullivan, Bass Gloria Cardoni, Piano

Kemp Recital Hall Saturday Evening December 4, 1999 6:30 PM

Junior Recital:Edward Corpus, Bass Benjamin Blozan, Piano

Kemp Recital Hall Sunday Noon April 20, 1997 12:00p.m

Conflicting and Complementing Logics: Examining Sustainability Practices Across Economies

The role institutional environments play in sustainability practices across countries is well documented in the international business literature. However, how multiple and occasionally conflicting institutional logics shape sustainability practices at the individual-level is underexplored, especially across countries. To enhance our understanding of this process, we investigate how individuals in two high-hazard organizations in the energy sectors in the Republic of Serbia and Canada practice sustainability. Our findings illustrate that in both contexts, individuals “pull down” structural elements of high-hazard logics into their daily sustainability practice, thereby relating their practices to the well-being of others as well as aligning them to their salient identities. However, our findings also illustrate how multiple, often conflicting, logics interact to shape this process distinctively across two countries. In Serbia, individuals pull-down and combine elements of high-hazard and legacy state logics to construct community logic and align their practice to it. In Canada, individuals do so to construct professional logics and align their practice to it. Based on our comparative case analysis of a developed economy and an economy in transition, we create a general model, as well country-specific models, depicting how individuals navigate multiple institutional logics to engage in sustainability practices

Regulation of Pituitary Gene Expression in Lines of Swine with Different Ovulation Rates

Litter size plays a major role in the economics of pork production. Even modest increases in average litter size can have considerable effects on overall profitability. Two major components of litter size – ovulation rate and embryonic survival – have been used in a selection index project ongoing for several generations at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL). Additionally, the Chinese Meishan breed is one of the most prolific breeds, producing four to five more pigs per litter than white crossbred females. We investigated the role of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) receptor and gonadotropin subunit genes in determination of ovulation rate between lines of swine. Ten UNL Index and Control line white crossbred gilts and 12 Meishan gilts were ovariectomized following three (Index and Control) or 6 (Meishan) successive estrous cycles. After a 21-day recovery period, gilts from each line were treated with either a specific GnRH antagonist (SB-75; 10 μg/kg of body weight) or 0.9% saline at 60, 36 and 12 hours prior to slaughter. Blood samples were collected prior to the first treatment and at slaughter before anterior pituitary collection. Serum luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) levels were determined by radioimmunoassay and RNA was extracted from anteriorpituitary tissue. In all lines, LH was reduced to basal levels by SB- 75 treatment, confirming the efficacy of SB-75. In contrast, levels of FSH decreased only in Control gilts following treatment with SB-75. Pituitary levels of GnRH receptor and gonadotropin subunit gene expression were measured by quantitative PCR. Levels of gene expression for the GnRH receptor and gonadotropin subunits decreased following treatment with the GnRH antagonist in pituitaries of gilts from the Index and Control lines; however, these values remained unchanged in pituitaries from Meishangilts. Identification of unique genetic changes in swine strains with increased ovulation rates, such as the Chinese Meishan and the UNL Index selection line, may allow for a better understanding of prolificacy. This critical information may also be used to enhance litter size in other lines of pigs and improve efficiency of pig production

Index of Refraction from the Near-Ultraviolet to the Near-Infrared from a Single Crystal Microwave-Assisted CVD Diamond

The refractive index of a type IIa CVD-grown single-crystal diamond was measured by ellipsometry from the near ultraviolet to the near infrared region of the spectrum. As a consequence, a one term Sellmeier Equation with coefficents of B-1 = 4.658 and C-1 = 112.5 for the refractive index of diamond, for the wavelength range from 300 to 1650 nm, was derived that is only as accurate as the input data, +/- 0.002. The experimental results in this paper between 800 and 1650 nm are new, adding to the values available in the literature

Senior Rectial:Benjamin Cubberly, Bass-Baritone

Kemp Recital Hall Sunday Evening October 25, 1998 6:00p.m

Emotion Regulation in Consumption: Antecedents and Consequences

While people often feel “ruled by their passions,” individuals can and do exert substantial control over their emotional experiences. A growing body of literature in psychology suggests that the various ways emotions are regulated can have considerable impact on both the emotional experience and other psychological processes. Over three essays, this work examines how individuals regulate their emotions, when they are motivated to do so, and why these concepts are important for consumer behavior. In the first essay, I investigate how emotions are managed by looking at one specific emotion regulation strategy: attention deployment. Using experimental methods, I determine that individuals naturally use attention deployment to regulate their emotions, but the effectiveness varies with the emotion being regulated. After establishing attention deployment as a viable emotion regulation strategy, the second essay asks when individuals are motivated to change their emotions. I propose that identities are associated with discrete emotions, and that these associations give rise to emotion profiles that describe appropriate emotional experiences for individuals with that active identity. The studies reported in the second essay establish that social identities have associations to specific emotions, these associations differ between identities, and the emotion-identity relationships lead to outcomes in cognition, affect, motivation, and regulation. Additional experiments demonstrate that individuals engage in emotion regulation to reduce (enhance) their experience of emotions which are inconsistent (consistent) with the identity’s emotion profile. In the third and final essay, I connect emotion regulation and emotion profiles to marketing and consumer outcomes. Four studies show that experiencing emotions consistent with the identity’s emotion profile enhances persuasion, product choice, and consumption—even for identity-unrelated products and advertisements. Ultimately, consequences for the framing and positioning of identity-relevant products are drawn. Across the three essays, I investigate how, when and why emotion regulation processes influence consumer outcomes. From identifying a specific emotion regulation strategy, to introducing the concept of emotion profiles, new insights into the emotion regulation process are provided. These findings suggest that emotion regulation has widespread impact on consumer outcomes, and represents a new viewpoint on how the emotion experience varies by individual

Charles W. Bolen Faculty Recital Series: Angelo L. Favis, Guitar; Anne McNamara, Trumpet; Benjamin de Kock, Double Bass; Cora Swenson Lee, Cello; September 26, 2023

Kemp Recital HallSeptember 26, 2023Tuesday Evening7:30 p.m