Browsing by Author "Ward Bartlett, Anna Katherine"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Applying a Cognitive Lens to the Exploration of Social Mobility for African American Men: A Phenomenological Study
    Woods-Wells, Tinesha Marie (Virginia Tech, 2016-12-08)
    The American Dream which boasts equal opportunity, meritocracy, and prosperity in accordance with an individual's hard work and dedication continues to instill hope in upward social mobility. Understanding social mobility necessitates an examination of individuals' or groups' ability to move upward or downward in status based on wealth, occupation, education, or some other social variable ("Social mobility," n.d.). Accordingly, social mobility within a hierarchical status system like the United States parallels inequality and presents challenges for underrepresented populations. More specifically, there is a gap that exists in the perceptions, generalizations, and realizations of social mobility for Black men in America resulting in a dichotomous disparity that is perplexing and adds to some of the greatest challenges and barriers to social mobility facing Black men. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to employ a cognitive lens to examine factors affecting the social mobility experiences of Black men throughout their educational and occupational pursuits, and/or community involvement; ultimately giving voice to a traditionally marginalized group. Cognitive problem solving styles, decision making, performed behaviors, and diverse social interactions were explored within the context of negotiating overarching stereotypes, overcoming barriers, making good decisions, and persisting towards social mobility. The conceptual framework for the study took into account cognitive function, race, and resilience by way of Kirton's Adaption-Innovation Theory, Critical Race Theory, and Resilience Theory, respectively. The study findings offer counter-narratives to rebuff dominant ideology about Black men in society, facilitate an understanding of values and motivators, introduce characteristics that aid social mobility, and may inform strategies, policies, and programing that affect Black men. Recommendations for further research are also offered.
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    BCC’ing AI: Using Modern Natural Language Processing to Detect Micro and Macro E-ggressions in Workplace Emails
    Cornett, Kelsi E. (Virginia Tech, 2024-05-24)
    Subtle offensive statements in workplace emails, which I term "Micro E-ggressions," can significantly impact the psychological safety and subsequent productivity of work environments despite their often-ambiguous intent. This thesis investigates the prevalence and nature of both micro and macro e-ggressions within workplace email communications, utilizing state-of-the-art natural language processing (NLP) techniques. Leveraging a large dataset of workplace emails, the study aims to detect and analyze these subtle offenses, exploring their themes and the contextual factors that facilitate their occurrence. The research identifies common types of micro e-ggressions, such as questioning competence and work ethic, and examines the responses to these offenses. Results indicate a high prevalence of offensive content in workplace emails and reveal distinct thematic elements that contribute to the perpetuation of workplace incivility. The findings underscore the potential for NLP tools to bridge gaps in awareness and sensitivity, ultimately contributing to more inclusive and respectful workplace cultures.
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    Development and Initial Validation of the African American Workplace Authenticity Scale
    Sturdivant, Manasia Gabrielle (Virginia Tech, 2021-06-24)
    Workplace authenticity for African Americans has received much attention in recent years, both in various research domains and in popular media. However, empirical research is scarce regarding what drives Blacks' decisions around whether to outwardly express their inner racial identity at work and what impact (in)authenticity has on workplace outcomes. The lack of empirical research is likely due, in part, to the fact that there are few existing measures designed to assess Blacks' workplace authenticity. Thus, the purpose of the current research was to develop and provide initial validation evidence for a situational judgment test (SJT), called the African American Workplace Authenticity Scale (AAWAS), aimed at measuring Blacks' propensity to use various identity negotiation strategies related to authenticity. Those identity negotiation strategies included identity shifting, referred to as code-switching by laypeople, avoidance, and authentic self-expression. The first phase of the research included item generation and refinement of the item pool using a web-based sample of Black working adults (n=207). For this phase, 38 items were created. Each item included one scenario and three response options each; each response option corresponded to one of the three aforementioned identity negotiation strategies, and each identity negotiation strategy is considered its own subscale. Furthermore, each scenario involved a situation wherein a Black individual was presented with pressure to conform to their White counterparts at work. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to determine which items to retain, which resulted in a three-factor solution and the retention of 13 items. The second phase of the research involved gathering initial validation evidence for the 13-item scale, again using a web-based sample of Black working adults (n=252). For this phase, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and analysis of measurement invariance between genders was completed to determine whether the three-factor solution fit on a new sample and whether the scale can be used to make meaningful comparisons between males and females. Additionally, the relationships between the AAWAS and existing scales related to authenticity and response bias were explored using correlations. The CFA generally supported the three-factor solution, and metric invariance was found between males and females. Evidence for convergent and discriminant validity from the correlational analyses is presented. Moreover, the subscales of the AAWAS demonstrated good reliability according to rules of thumb for Cronbach's alpha (Identity Shifting Cronbach's α = 0.79, Avoiding Cronbach's α = 0.85, and Authentic Self-Expression Cronbach's α = 0.85). Overall, the AAWAS demonstrated promising psychometric properties thus far and has the potential to facilitate causal modeling in the area of workplace authenticity for Blacks with further validity evidence.
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    Discursive Diversity Strategy:  Signaling Theory and Implications for Firm Value
    Baldwin, Quentin Tramond (Virginia Tech, 2024-06-10)
    Diversity is a multi-billion-dollar business. Dating back to the pre-Civil Rights era, what scholars now call discursive strategy–the language and meaning that shape phenomena–has shaped the diversity landscape. Over the past 75 years, we have witnessed a pattern of strategic maneuvering of the discursive strategy concerning diversity from the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) of the 1970s to affirmative action (1980s) to diversity management (1990s) to inclusiveness (2000s) and most recently to Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG). However, in response to reactions from its stakeholders, firms, e.g., Bud Light and Target have been forced to rethink the word choices, and subsequent actions, that reflect its attention to diversity. To frame these issues for strategy research, I propose that firms expand their strategies to include discursive diversity strategy, which I define as word choices among top leadership that reflect the firm's attention to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
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    Employing an Implicit Task to Measure the Effects of Contextual Constraints on Perceptions of Leadership
    Boyd, Kathleen Benton-Snead (Virginia Tech, 2015-09-03)
    A laboratory experiment was conducted to test the effects of follower behaviors (passive or active) and affect (positive or negative) on leadership perception within the context of an implicit association task (IAT). Individuals watched either a positive or negative affect inducing video, were placed in a leader role, and were asked to read a brief scenario detailing the behavior of their followers. The results indicated that: 1) active follower behavior information activated leadership perceptions that reflect an implicit preference for Visionary Leadership, and 2) positive affect activated leadership perceptions that reflect an implicit preference for Visionary Leadership. It was hypothesized that there would be an interaction between follower behavior and leader affect such that negative affect would lead to more detailed follower behavior information processing and therefore follower behavior would have stronger effects on leadership perceptions. The interaction was not significant; however the main effects provide support for the Connectionist Model of Leadership, such that contextual constraints do influence perceptions of leadership. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.
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    Local Reasons to Give Globally: Identity Extension and Global Cooperation
    Buchan, Nancy R.; Jeong, Sophia Soyoung; Ward Bartlett, Anna Katherine (Springer Nature, 2017-11-14)
    Recent political events across the world suggest a retrenchment from globalization and a possible increase in parochialism. This inward-looking threat from parochialism occurs just as the global community faces growing challenges that require trans-national cooperation. In this research, we question if strong identification with an in-group necessarily leads to parochialism and ultimately is detrimental to global cooperation. Building on research on global social identification, we explore whether strong local identification can expand in inclusiveness to global identification, and among whom this is likely to happen. The results of our global public goods study - conducted in South Korea and the United States - show that high levels of social identification with a local group can extend to the global collective, particularly for individuals who are also high in concern-for-others. Furthermore, this identification translates into behavior that benefits the global, anonymous group at a cost to oneself. These results shed light on how to avoid the trap of parochialism and instead engender cooperative behavior with the broader global community.
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    Stereotype Threat and Women Leaders’ Performance: The Moderating Role of Positive Gender Identity
    Elfeki, Yasmine (Virginia Tech, 2023-05-24)
    The “think leader, think male” phenomenon continues to persist in terms of implicit conceptualizations that people hold about leaders (Schein, 1973; Offermann & Coats, 2018). Men are often perceived as more suitable occupants of leadership roles than women, resulting in women leaders facing stereotype-based expectations. Being in a situation where the stereotype about women applies (i.e., leadership) has been found to be an antecedent to experiencing stereotype threat—the psychological threat of validating a stereotype about the indivdiual’s social group, which can have detrimental effects on performance and self-perceptions. This research focuses on how women leaders' positive gender identity (i.e., the favorable regard that a woman holds for her gender identity) may buffer against stereotype threat. We hypothesized that the more positive a woman's gender identity, the better she would cope with identity-threatening experiences in terms of better performance, better perceived performance, and reduced identity separation. To examine the impact of stereotype threat on female participants’ performance on a leadership task, 72 female participants were primed with a blatant stereotype threat before completing a managerial in-basket task. Contrary to our predictions, the results revealed that stereotype threat vulnerability did not have a direct negative impact on women's performance on the leadership task, or their perceptions of how well they performed. However, our findings confirmed a significant interaction between positive gender identity and stereotype threat vulnerability on identity separation, revealing that the association between stereotype threat vulnerability and identity separation was weaker at higher levels of positive gender identity. In other words, positive gender identity buffered against the negative effect of stereotype threat on women’s identity separation. The unexpected results and the failure of stereotype threat to evoke vulnerability responses suggest that further investigation of stereotype threat boundary conditions, situational cues, and effect sizes is needed. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.