Employee motivation

This dissertation presents an analytical framework based on the processes of social identification
and self-categorization as mechanisms through which team-focused leadership and group affective tone
separately and jointly contribute to team outcomes at both the team and team member levels A review of
relevant literature supported the development of the research hypotheses The hypotheses were tested using
multilevel structural equation modeling and single level path analysis to tease out significant effects of
team leadership and affective processes in teams
The results of single level path analyses demonstrated that leaders and team members contribute to
the affective tone of a team through the sharing of emotions and processes of emotional contagion and
norms of emotional expression via identification and self-categorization processes Both individual leaders
(vertical team-focused leadership) and team members sharing in leadership processes (shared team-focused
leadership) were found to distinctly contribute to group affective tone and the important team outcomes of
team performance, creativity, trust, team member engagement, team member identification, and team
member citizenship behaviors The results further demonstrated that the affective tone of a team (group
affective tone) has direct effects on team member outcomes, and mediates direct effects on outcomes of
team-focused leadership Group affective tone was found to mediate the effects of both vertical and shared
team-focused leadership on team member engagement, identification, citizenship behaviors, and team trust The results are relevant to both researchers interested in studying leadership and affective
processes in teams and to management practitioners interested in understanding contributions to team
effectiveness The consideration of both team-focused leadership and the affective tone of a team matter in
team effectiveness The emotional climate of a team appears to be important to team member outcomes
more so than team-level outcomes Therefore, what managers consider to be important indicators of team
effectiveness (either team-level or team member-level) determine the actions of a manager to monitor and
strengthen the positive affective tone of a team Limitations are discussed and future research directions are
provided to extend the observations of this study

The purpose of this study was to identity within the workplace sources of satisfaction and sources of dissatisfaction for child care workers in southeast Florida and to develop a predictive model of child care workers' intentions to leave their jobs based on selected work environment variables. The work environment variables selected as predictor variables were administration, communication, compensation, career advancement opportunity, goals and job tasks, children, co-workers, parents, and facility and supplies. The population surveyed consisted of 227 child care workers from 45 licensed child care centers in Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties, Florida. Instruments used in this study were the Child Care Director Questionnaire and the Child Care Worker Questionnaire. Results of data analyses revealed a significant relationship between some of the predictor variables and child care workers' intentions to leave their jobs. The strongest correlations with intent to leave were compensation (r = -.461) and career advancement opportunity (r = -.426). The model with the greatest parsimony and ability to predict child care workers' intentions to leave their jobs included the predictor variables of compensation, career advancement opportunity, children, co-workers, facility, and communication. This model accounted for 25.6% of the variance in child care workers' intentions to leave their jobs. Compensation was identified as a source of job dissatisfaction for child care workers in southeast Florida. Administration, communication, parents, co-workers, children, career advancement opportunity, facility, and goals and job tasks were more sources of satisfaction than of dissatisfaction. More child care workers in this study (92.7%) were satisfied or very satisfied with working with children than with any other work environment variable.

This academic exercise in organizational commitment research explores the causal relationships between organizational commitment, job satisfaction as its covariate latent exogenous variable and nine manifest endogenous variables: (a) organizational conflict, (b) personal values/role conflict, (c) cognitive/affective attitude, (d) intention to leave the organization, (e) job security, (f) role ambiguity, (g) job satisfaction, (h) organizational commitment and, (i) the deficiency in meeting basic Maslovian needs. This data sample of 400 (faculty members from four public community college districts in south-central Florida) represented urban and non-urban community colleges, large and small campuses, east- and west-coast community colleges, and both full- and part-time faculty. The covariance matrix based on complete data for the sample (n = 400), along with information of the estimated reliabilities, were analyzed using EzPATH, the SYSTAT implementation of structured equations modeling. GFI criteria accompanied diagnostic output and are provided. The path coefficients of the primary model and their respective standard errors complied with accepted statistical methods in most cases. Also, the root mean square residual of the primary model was .0180. The p-value for the primary model was 0.4506 which was supported by a chi-square (χ2) divided by DOF equating to 1.00513. The determined AGFI and GFI indices were .9755 and .9897 respectively. Only the psychological attitudes of conflict, either conflicting standards of the organization or personal values with the organization, and role ambiguity, showed any direct influence by satisfaction and non-significant influence by commitment. Only the psychological attitudes of cognitive/affective attitude, intention to leave the organization, and job security showed any direct influence by commitment and non-significant influence by satisfaction. In this study, job satisfaction and commitment show a mutual causal relationship with each other (represented by the high mutual causation coefficient of 0.94556 SE = 0.02163). The primary model was modified to address both the path of satisfaction being a precedent of commitment (SAT --> COM) and commitment being a precedent of satisfaction (COM --> SAT). Neither of these two models demonstrated goodness of fit criteria as strong as the primary model. This dissertation has shown that by using carefully collected data, it is possible to construct structural equation models consisting entirely of psychological-social variables in a model as large as nine manifest endogenous variables.

Researchers have proposed several theoretical explanations of how employee creativity is fostered and developed in organizations. The early literature attributed creativity to personal factors, such as personality and cognitive ability. Researchers also examined the role of environmental factors, such as role models, support and feedback in creativity. More recent research suggests that when individuals lack creativity-relevant skills, there are certain contextual factors that can provide support for the development of the necessary skills. However, there is a dearth of empirical research investigating these relationships. This dissertation summarizes extant research and advances the field by empirically testing the individual and collective roles of personal and contextual factors in employee creativity.