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Generative Artificial Intelligence has the potential to influence organizational strategies and ethical leadership in today's rapidly transforming business landscape. As a socio-technological tool, GenAI plays a crucial role in the digital transformation of businesses, processes, and society, aiming to meet diverse goals from profit-making to economic development. The rapid use of GenAI raises concerns about its impact on employee perceptions of ethical leadership, which can be both positive and negative. This research examines how GenAI use impacts perceptions of ethical leadership and competitive advantage within organizations and further explores how organizational innovativeness and the regulatory environment moderate these relationships. Drawing on survey data from 234 respondents, the study employed a multi-step data-cleaning approach to ensure data quality and utilized Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling for hypothesis testing. Results indicate that GenAI use strongly predicts competitive advantage but does not significantly shape employees’ perceptions of ethical leadership. Interestingly, ethical leadership exhibited a modest yet counterintuitive negative relationship with competitive advantage, hinting at potential trade-offs between ethical considerations and aggressive market positioning. Additionally, the regulatory environment emerged as a significant moderator, amplifying the positive effect of GenAI use on competitive advantage in more regulated settings. In contrast, organizational innovativeness did not meaningfully alter these relationships. By analyzing GenAI’s role in leadership practices, this research aims to enhance understanding of the interplay between GenAI use, ethical leadership, and competitive advantage, contributing to the literature in this field.
Emotional Labor, Burnout, and Well-Being: The Moderating Roles of Resilience and Professional Calling Within the Veterinary Profession
by
Kelly A. Burich
(Under the Direction of Dr. Laura Stanley)
In the United States, the veterinary profession ranks as the third highest profession at risk for suicide, according to data produced by the three established professional organizations. Recent research has demonstrated that veterinarians face uniquely and disproportionately high levels of stress, depression, and even suicide compared to other healthcare professionals.
Grounded in the Conservation of Resources Theory and Career Construction Theory, this dissertation examines the influence of novel moderators and personal resources—specifically resilience and professional calling—in mitigating the adverse effects of emotional labor on burnout. Furthermore, it explores how these factors contribute to eudaimonic and hedonic well-being. A sample of veterinarians and veterinary technicians (N = 147) were surveyed to test nine (9) hypotheses. Three of the nine hypotheses were supported, further establishing the negative relationship between emotional labor and well-being in the veterinary profession. This study recommends future research and opportunities in organizational behavior, social psychology, burnout, emotional labor, and well-being.
KEYWORDS: Burnout, Emotional Labor, Eudaimonic Well-Being, Hedonic Well-Being, Resilience, Professional Calling, Veterinarian, Veterinary Technician
This dissertation examines to what extent organizations adapt their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in response to major macro events as moderated by dynamic capabilities and environmental turbulence. Drawing on literature in CSR, dynamic capabilities, and environmental turbulence, a moderated moderation model is theorized and empirically tested that proposes: (1) Organizations attempt to respond to major macro events through changes in CSR activities; (2) More robust organizational dynamic capabilities impact the ability to adapt CSR in response to macro events; (3) Higher environmental turbulence impacts the ability to adapt CSR and (4) Dynamic capabilities mitigate the negative moderating effect of environmental turbulence. The model provides a novel framework for understanding CSR adaptation as a strategic response to changing external conditions. This empirical research contributes to the CSR literature through examination of CSR adaptation as a dependent variable rather than an independent variable while integrating insights from dynamic capabilities and environmental turbulence research. Furthermore, it contributes to the marketing literature by exploring how firms can strategically adjust their CSR activities to maintain firm reputation and competitiveness in response to changing societal expectations. This research also offers insight into how firms can leverage dynamic capabilities to enhance their responsiveness to external events and maintain competitive advantage through strategic CSR adaptation, thereby providing practical guidance for organizations.
While numerous existing studies have explored the relationship between health and various socioeconomic factors that impact access to healthcare services, access to healthcare services remains a significant challenge, particularly for individuals affected by socioeconomic disparities. This dissertation builds upon the existing literature by empirically exploring a unique combination of socioeconomic factors —namely, housing availability, transportation access, and the utilization of social welfare programs —to examine their effect on accessing healthcare services within counties in the states of North Carolina and California.
The study employed Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to predict and evaluate these relationships while assessing the moderating effect of geographic area. Following the social determinants of health and Levesque et al. (2013) conceptual frameworks, the findings show that housing availability is the socioeconomic factor providing the best access to healthcare services. The findings also validate the importance of offering National Housing First programs that prioritize providing decent, safe, and affordable housing as quickly as possible for individuals experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity before other supportive healthcare services.
Celiac disease is one of the most prevalent autoimmune conditions worldwide, affecting 1% of the population or 80 million people. Yet, literature estimates 80% of patients with celiac disease have not received a diagnosis. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to increase nurse practitioner students’ knowledge of celiac disease and confidence in caring for patients with celiac disease. This project utilized a quasi-experimental approach with a pre-posttest design. The results showed statistically significant increases in both knowledge and confidence from the pre- to the post-test, at p=<.001 for both. All of the participants demonstrated increased knowledge test scores and 83% reported increased confidence following the education intervention. The participants developed Commitment to Change statements to reflect on tangible ways they intended to use the knowledge gained in practice. A limitation is that the project participants self-reported their perceived confidence level before and after completing the education course and could have over- or underestimated this value. The results of this project indicate that virtual, scenario-based continuing education is an effective way to increase provider knowledge and confidence related to celiac disease.
Although identification at work is typically framed as a positive experience, scholars have increasingly called for greater attention to how it might paradoxically undermine psychological well-being. Indeed, emerging empirical evidence suggests its relationships with burnout may be less consistent than previously assumed. However, prior research has primarily focused on strong identification with a single work target and treated identification as a relatively stable construct. This dissertation advances our understanding of the relationships between identification at work and burnout by examining three underexplored mechanisms: the combined effects of multiple forms of identification, the temporal variability of identification, and the moderating influence of factors within and beyond the workplace. Across two studies, I identify distinct profiles of organizational, team, and professional identification that are meaningfully associated with theorized antecedents and outcomes. I also demonstrate that these forms of identification fluctuate daily and that between-person relationships established in prior research do not consistently hold at the within-person level, with daily professional identification predicting higher levels of burnout. Additionally, I find that affective rumination and psychological detachment moderate the effects of daily team identification, though in unexpected ways. Beyond these contributions, I underscore the need for greater theoretical clarity on professional identification and extend the study of identification at work beyond core identity theories. These findings also have practical implications, suggesting that organizations should implement strategies that strengthen organizational and team identification—not only for their potential benefits but also to mitigate the risks of excessive professional identification.
The complex, unsteady flow dynamics around road vehicles significantly influence their aerodynamic performance. This dissertation investigates the coherent flow structures surrounding the generic, but realistic automotive shape, fastback DrivAer geometry and the idealized squareback Ahmed body at high Reynolds numbers, specifically 2.4E+06 and 7.7E+05, respectively, based on vehicle height; both of these automotive representations are very popular in the study of ground vehicle aerodynamics. Dynamic Mode Decomposition (DMD) is employed to analyze and classify these coherent structures. Initially, DMD was applied to numerical simulation data of the DrivAer model to identify dominant flow modes. This analysis successfully reproduced established modes reported in the literature. However, challenges related to DMD convergence, energy content stability, and computational expense highlighted the need for a more systematic approach when applying DMD to ground vehicle aerodynamics. To establish robust guidelines for DMD parameter selection, a detailed analysis was conducted on the Ahmed body. This study revealed critical parameters for achieving accurate and reliable DMD results. Specifically, a minimum of 3000 snapshots and a sampling frequency ratio between 5 and 10 were found to ensure reconstruction errors below 1%. Furthermore, a normalized sampling period of T*=250 corresponds to 20 cycles of the lowest frequency coherent structures, stabilized DMD mode shapes and energy distributions. With a validated DMD framework, the dominant wake structures of the Ahmed body were extracted and classified. Three primary flow regimes were identified within the Strouhal number range St<0.2: symmetry breaking, bubble pumping, and large-scale vortex shedding. The energy contributions of these regimes were quantified across shear layers, the near-wake, and the far-wake for both pressure and three velocity components. Additionally, Pearson correlation coefficients of the DMD spectral amplitudes were calculated to analyze the interaction between pressure and velocity fluctuations, providing insights into the underlying wake dynamics. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the aerodynamic forces acting on road vehicles and establishes a systematic methodology for applying DMD to high-Reynolds-number vehicle flows. The developed framework provides critical insights for developing real-time flow control strategies and constructing reduced-order models (ROMs) for efficient aerodynamic predictions.
This dissertation examines the impact of early life experiences—Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), Exposure to Role Models (ERM), and Youth Sports Participation (YSP)—on Entrepreneurial Intentions (EI), with resilience as a moderating factor. Grounded in Self-Efficacy Theory (SET), this study explores how early experiences shape entrepreneurial aspirations and extends SET by demonstrating the role of resilience in overcoming adversity.
Using survey data from participants aged 18–42 (n = 292), the analysis revealed that ERM significantly influenced EI, reinforcing the idea that exposure to entrepreneurial role models fosters confidence in pursuing entrepreneurship. Resilience was positively associated with EI and moderated the impact of ACEs, helping to counteract their negative effects. However, ACEs and YSP did not show a direct influence on EI.
Further analysis revealed that household dysfunction, a category of ACEs, had a significant negative relationship with EI, suggesting that instability in the home environment may suppress entrepreneurial motivation. Additionally, individuals with a history of criminal justice involvement exhibited higher EI, highlighting the potential of entrepreneurship as an alternative pathway for those facing barriers to traditional employment. However, resilience did not moderate these relationships.
These findings highlight how early life experiences shape resilience, which in turn drives entrepreneurial motivation while expanding SET by illustrating resilience’s role in overcoming adversity to foster entrepreneurial intentions.
KEYWORDS: Entrepreneurial Intentions, Adverse Childhood Experiences, Resilience, Role Models, Youth Sports Participation, Criminal Justice Involvement and Self-Efficacy Theory.
Residual neuromuscular blockade (rNMB) is a critical patient safety concern resulting from incomplete neuromuscular recovery after anesthesia. Despite evidence supporting quantitative neuromuscular monitoring (QNM) to reduce rNMB, subjective assessments remain prevalent among Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs), increasing postoperative risks. This Doctor of Nursing Practice project educated CRNAs on QNM, addressing knowledge gaps and improving confidence and attitudes (CA) toward its use.
Conducted at a large academic hospital, the project targeted 43 CRNAs with at least one year of experience. Participants completed an online, self-paced educational module covering rNMB risks, limitations of subjective monitoring, and QNM benefits. Pre- and post- intervention surveys assessed changes in knowledge and CA. Wilcoxon signed-rank test results showed significant improvements in knowledge (z = 4.079, p < .001) and CA (z = 4.792, p < .001), confirming the intervention’s effectiveness.
This project highlights the role of targeted education in promoting evidence-based practice (EBP) among CRNAs. While improvements in knowledge and CA were observed, the immediate impact on clinical practice remains undetermined. Future research and projects should evaluate long-term behavior changes, patient outcomes, and sustainable QNM integration in anesthesia care.
