Office Housework: Standalone Concept or Organizational Citizenship Behavior?

The purpose of the project is to determine if the concept of Office Housework (OH) is included as an Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) or if the two are different and form two separate constructs. This project proposes to use two preexisting OCB measures and a list of OH tasks and have participants rate each item on how well it represents the behavior of an ideal employee. The results will be analyzed via confirmatory factory analysis (CFA). Additionally, this study seeks to determine if men are participating in less OH than women because of lower self-efficacy for tasks of that nature. Participants will be asked the frequency at which they complete OH tasks and how confident that are in their ability to complete them. The results will be analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The results of the study will clarify Office Housework’s role in contextual performance and if there are discrepancies in contextual performance between men and women

Effects of communication and negotiation training on women’s entrance into the workforce

The purpose of the project is to determine if administering a communication training program to women, with an emphasis on negotiation skills, will influence their starting salaries. More specifically, this project proposes to develop and deliver a communication and negotiation skills training workshop to all of the women in a sorority at a South-Eastern university. The project involves conducting a needs analysis to determine the participant’s current level of communication knowledge and negotiation skills. Once the results of the needs analysis are analyzed, the training program will be formally developed and administered. This study proposes that once women have higher knowledge on workplace communication and negotiation skills, their salary will increase. While no men will be included in this study, the ultimate aim is to lessen the pay gap

The Effects of Resilience on Mindfulness and Stress in Students

This study tested part of a theoretical model on resilience in the workplace proposed by Rees, Breen, Cusack, and Hegney (2015). We hypothesized that resilience would mediate the relationship between mindfulness and perceived stress. Using an online Qualtrics survey, we measured 127 student participants’ levels of mindfulness, resilience, and perceived stress. The results supported a positive relationship between mindfulness and resilience. In addition, there was a positive relationship between resilience and perceived stress. As a result, the proposed mediation was not supported. Resilience did not mediate the relationship between mindfulness and perceived stress. Future research should test alternative measures of psychological adjustment within the model (e.g., job burnout)

Employee characteristics: resilience and self-efficacy as protective factors

This study will explore the relationship between self-efficacy and resilience as they affect stress-related outcomes in the workplace. The study will first measure all participant’s self-efficacy and resilience. The experimental group will then receive feedback mirroring that of a negative performance appraisal. The feedback will suggest the participant performed below average on a trivia test. Participants in the control group will receive neutral feedback on the same trivia test. Lastly, all participant’s resilience will be measured a second time. This study will seek to recruit students from a local South-Eastern university. The results of this study will further clarify the relationship that exists between self-efficacy and resilience as well as further demonstrating the value of resilience as a protective factor

Developing a scale for measuring perceptions of ethical misconduct

The purpose of the study is to develop a scale to measure individual’s ethical misconduct perceptions in the workplace. The Ethics Resource Center (2014) identified the most frequent types of ethical misconduct within the United States. These behaviors served as the 28 initial items for the implicit perceptions of ethical misconduct scale. A previous study identified four dimensions of unethical misconduct: Deceit, Use of Drugs and Alcohol, Sexual Misconduct, and Theft. The perceptions of ethical misconduct survey items were reduced to reflect the four dimensions. Therefore, we propose a confirmatory factor analysis on a separate data set will confirm these dimensions. We also believe that perceptions of ethical misconduct will be positively correlated with counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs). Additionally, individuals with dark personality traits, such as psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism, were more likely to perceive unethical misconduct as ethical

Understanding the Effect of Individualism vs. Collectivism on Ethical Decision Making

This project will investigate cross cultural differences in the ethical decision-making process of people at work. The project will involve research collaborators across the globe to gather unique data from several nations and cultures. This multinational research project will examine how culture impacts the ethical decision-making process. Specifically, this study proposes that perceptions of ethical misconduct will mediate the relationship between dark personality characteristics (narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) and ethical misconduct, and that culture will moderate these relationships. This research will recruit participants from three different countries: The United States, Chile, and India. This groundbreaking international initiative will allow the researchers to better understand the interaction of individual personality and culture on perceptions of ethical misconduct and counterproductive work behaviors