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Perceptions of Work Group and Managerial Behaviors as Antecedents of a Salesperson's Commitment, Performance, and Turnover (open access)

Perceptions of Work Group and Managerial Behaviors as Antecedents of a Salesperson's Commitment, Performance, and Turnover

Theoretically grounded and empirically testable conceptualizations that offer alternative explanations regarding sales force performance and turnover can: (a) enhance understanding regarding these pivotal outcomes, and (b) augment an organization's capability to increase sales and decrease turnover. The study advances one such explanation by conceptualizing and testing a perceptual model that links a salesperson's psychological climate dimensions to organizational commitment, performance, and turnover. The framework the study proposes respecifies the leadership and work group dimensions of psychological climate into four distinct perceptions (i.e., a salesperson's perceptions regarding the behaviors of work group, sales manager, senior management, and non sales employees in the organization). These climate dimensions are posited to influence positively a salesperson's organizational commitment which consequently influences positively the salesperson's effort and intention to stay with the organization. The proposed outcomes of organizational commitment result in increased performance and decreased turnover. Success beliefs and perceived behavioral control are posited to moderate the relationship between the salesperson's organizational commitment and effort. The study tests the hypothesized relationships on a sample of salespersons belonging to a telecommunications organization utilizing path and hierarchical regression analyses.
Date: August 1999
Creator: Gulati, Rajesh, 1964-
System: The UNT Digital Library
Thermodynamic Properties of Nonelectrolyte Solutes in Ternary Solvent Mixtures (open access)

Thermodynamic Properties of Nonelectrolyte Solutes in Ternary Solvent Mixtures

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the thermodynamic properties of nonelectrolyte solutes dissolved in ternary solvent mixtures, and to develop mathematical expressions for predicting and describing that behavior in the solvent mixtures. Thirty-four ternary solvent systems were studied containing either alcohol (1-propanol, 2-propanol, 1-butanol, and 2-butanol), alkane (cyclohexane, heptane, and 2,2,4-trimethylpentane) or alkoxyalcohol (2-ethoxyethanol and 2-butoxyethanol) cosolvents. Approximately 2500 experimental measurements were performed. Expressions were derived from the Combined Nearly Ideal Multiple Solvent (NIMS)/Redlich-Kister, the Combined Nearly Ideal Multiple Solvent (NIMS)/Bertrand, Acree and Burchfield (BAB) and the Modified Wilson models for predicting solute solubility in ternary solvent (or even higher multicomponent) mixtures based upon the model constants calculated from solubility data in sub-binary solvents. Average percent deviation between predicted and observed values were less than 2%, documenting that these models provide a fairly accurate description of the thermodynamic properties of nonelectrolyte solutions. Moreover, the models can be used for solubility prediction in solvent mixtures in order to find the optimum solvent composition for solubilization or desolubilization of a solute. From a computational standpoint, the Combined Nearly Ideal Multiple Solvent/Redlich-Kister equation is preferred because the needed model constants can be calculated with a simple linear regressional analysis. Model constants …
Date: August 1999
Creator: Deng, Tʻai-ho
System: The UNT Digital Library
Construction of a Physical Map of Moraxella (Branhamella) catarrhalis Strain ATCC25238 (open access)

Construction of a Physical Map of Moraxella (Branhamella) catarrhalis Strain ATCC25238

In order to gain a better understanding of this microorganismand its role in human pathogenesis, a physical map of Moraxella catarrhalis type strain ATCC25238 was constructed using pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) in combination with Southern hybridization techniques. Restriction endonucleases Not I, Rsr II, and Sma I were used to digest the chromosomal DNA. An overlapping circular map was generated by cross-hybridization of isolated radiolabeled fragments of Moraxella catarrhalis genomic DNA to dried PFGE gels. The number and location of the 16S and 23S ribosomal RNA genes were determined by digestion with l-Ceul enzyme and by Southern hybridization. Virulence-associated genes, the gene for β-lactamase, and housekeeping genes were also placed onto the physical map.
Date: May 1999
Creator: Nguyen, Kim Thuy
System: The UNT Digital Library
Timed vs. Untimed Initiation Intervals and the Effects of Confidence on a Golf Putting Task (open access)

Timed vs. Untimed Initiation Intervals and the Effects of Confidence on a Golf Putting Task

Low, moderate, and high handicap golfers, while wearing glasses with a blinder on the side, attempted 9 putts differing in length from 5 to 21 ft under timed (less than 3.5s from grounding of club to initiation of back swing) and untimed conditions in a counterbalanced design. Confidence ratings were taken prior to and following each putt. The results revealed a significant condition by handicap group interaction (p=.021). The lower handicap group had a more consistent and lower initiation interval duration than did the moderate and high handicap players. Post interviews determined that 33 of the 35 golfers felt more comfortable in the untimed condition. However, golfers' confidence levels were not significantly different in the untimed condition as compared to the timed condition.
Date: August 1999
Creator: Sundberg, Jeffrey D.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Changes in the Status of Texarkana, Texas, Women, 1880-1920 (open access)

Changes in the Status of Texarkana, Texas, Women, 1880-1920

This study concentrates on the social status of women in one southern town during the late nineteenth century and the Progressive Era.
Date: August 1999
Creator: Rowe, Beverly J.
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Comparison of Predicted and Actual Trophic Status of Lake Ray Roberts, Texas Based on Chlorophyll A (open access)

A Comparison of Predicted and Actual Trophic Status of Lake Ray Roberts, Texas Based on Chlorophyll A

Two years before impoundment, the trophic status of Lake Ray Roberts was predicted by applying the total phosphorus input into the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) eutrophication model. Predicted mean summer epilimnetic (MSE) chlorophyll a of Elm Fork arm, Isle duBois arm and Main Body were in the eutrophic category of the OECD model. Observed MSE chlorophyll a two years after impoundment of Elm Fork arm, Isle duBois and Main Body had not reached their predicted means and were at the mesotrophic-eutrophic boundary of the OECD model. Six years after impoundment, observed MSE chlorophyll a for Main Body, was closer to its predicted mean and in the eutrophic category of the OECD model. Six years after impoundment, Elm Fork arm was the most productive area of Lake Ray Roberts. Observed means of chlorophyll a, total phosphates, suspended solids and turbidity were often highest in the Elm Fork arm. Wastewater effluent from Gainesville and Valley View, TX, had an impact on productivity in Elm Fork arm.
Date: May 1999
Creator: Lytle, Lili Lisa
System: The UNT Digital Library
Reverberating Reflections of Whitman: A Dark Romantic Revealed (open access)

Reverberating Reflections of Whitman: A Dark Romantic Revealed

Walt Whitman has long been celebrated as a Romantic writer who celebrates the self, reveres Nature, claims unity in all things, and sings praises to humanity. However, some of what Whitman has to say has been overlooked. Whitman often questioned the goodness of humanity. He recognized evil in various shapes. He pondered death and the imperturbability of Nature to human death. He exhibited nightmarish imagery in some of his works and gory violence in others. While Whitman has long been called a celebratory poet, he is nevertheless also in part a writer of the Dark Romantic.
Date: August 1999
Creator: Lundy, Lisa Kirkpatrick
System: The UNT Digital Library
Strain, Social Support, and the Meaning of Work for New Mothers (open access)

Strain, Social Support, and the Meaning of Work for New Mothers

The purpose of this study was to describe the relative importance of aspects of the occupational environment in predicting personal strain and changes in the meaning of work (perceived changes in work role salience and work values) during the transition to parenthood. The aspects of the work environment under investigation were: work interference with family, family interference with work, supervisor support for combining work and family, and organization support (respect, separation, and integration types). Control variables were husband support, an important factor in adjustment during the transition to parenthood, and socioeconomic status. A sample of 118 women in dual career couples with one child under two years of age were recruited through childcare centers and newspaper announcements. The sample was predominantly Caucasian and middle or upper-middle class. Subjects completed self-report questionnaires. Hypotheses were tested using hierarchical multiple regression. Results of this study provided partial support for the hypothesis that workplace support and work/family interference would contribute to personal strain. Only family interference with work emerged as a significant predictor. The results of this study provided partial support for the hypothesis that husband support, workplace support, and work/family interference would contribute to change in work values. Only husband support was a …
Date: August 1999
Creator: Hallett, Catherine Croghan
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Effects of Modeling, Roleplaying and Feedback on the Performance of Teachers of Children with Autism (open access)

The Effects of Modeling, Roleplaying and Feedback on the Performance of Teachers of Children with Autism

Teachers providing treatment to children with autism are responsible for implementing numerous procedures. Teacher training has not been addressed extensively in the literature. This study employed a multiple baseline design to evaluate the effects of a training package incorporating modeling, roleplaying and feedback on teacher performance. Results indicated that the teacher implemented correct teaching episodes following training. Changes in teacher performance were only observed when the training package was applied to each setting and skill area. As a result of changes in teacher behavior, the child demonstrated an increase in the number of desired responses. Results are discussed in the context of generalization, training package components, cost-benefit of single-subject designs, and limitations of the study.
Date: August 1999
Creator: Edwards, Carla Ward
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Power of One: Bonnie Singleton and American Prisoners of War in Vietnam (open access)

The Power of One: Bonnie Singleton and American Prisoners of War in Vietnam

Bonnie Singleton, wife of United States Air Force helicopter rescue pilot Jerry Singleton, saw her world turned upside down when her husband was shot down while making a rescue in North Vietnam in 1965. At first, the United States government advised her to say very little publicly concerning her husband, and she complied. After the capture of the American spy ship, the U.S.S. Pueblo by North Korea, and the apparent success in freeing the naval prisoners when Mrs. Rose Bucher, the ship captain's wife, spoke out, Mrs. Singleton changed her opinion and embarked upon a campaign to raise public awareness about American prisoners of war held by the Communist forces in Southeast Asia. Mrs. Singleton, along with other Dallas-area family members, formed local grass-roots organizations to notify people around the world about the plight of American POWs. They enlisted the aid of influential congressmen, such as Olin "Tiger" Teague of College Station, Texas; President Richard M. Nixon and his administration; millionaire Dallas businessman Ross Perot; WFAA television in Dallas; and other news media outlets worldwide. In time, Bonnie Singleton, other family members, and the focus groups they helped start encouraged North Vietnam to release the names of prisoners, allow mail …
Date: August 1999
Creator: Garrett, Dave L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Effects of Instructional Methods on Student Performance in Postsecondary Developmental Mathematics (open access)

Effects of Instructional Methods on Student Performance in Postsecondary Developmental Mathematics

This study examined success rates and end-of-semester grades for three instructional methods used in developmental algebra and college algebra. The methods investigated were traditional lecture, laboratory, and computer mediated learning. The population included the 10,095 students who had enrolled in developmental algebra and college algebra at Richland College in Dallas, Texas, for five semesters. Success was defined as earning a grade of A, B, C, or D in a course.
Date: May 1999
Creator: Hernandez, Celeste Peyton
System: The UNT Digital Library
Assessment and Analysis of Per Pupil Expenditures: a Study Testing a Micro-Financial Model in Equity and Student Outcome Determination (open access)

Assessment and Analysis of Per Pupil Expenditures: a Study Testing a Micro-Financial Model in Equity and Student Outcome Determination

The purpose of this study was to examine district level financial data to assess equity across districts, to compare equity benchmarks established in the literature using selected functions from the state's financial database, and to determine the predictive value of those functions to the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) tests of 1997.
Date: May 1999
Creator: Holsomback, James Richard
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Anglo-American Council on Productivity: 1948-1952 British Productivity and the Marshall Plan (open access)

The Anglo-American Council on Productivity: 1948-1952 British Productivity and the Marshall Plan

The United Kingdom's postwar economic recovery and the usefulness of Marshall Plan aid depended heavily on a rapid increase in exports by the country's manufacturing industries. American aid administrators, however, shocked to discover the British industry's inability to respond to the country's urgent need, insisted on aggressive action to improve productivity. In partial response, a joint venture, called the Anglo-American Council on Productivity (AACP), arranged for sixty-six teams involving nearly one thousand people to visit U.S. factories and bring back productivity improvement ideas. Analyses of team recommendations, and a brief review of the country's industrial history, offer compelling insights into the problems of relative industrial decline. This dissertation attempts to assess the reasons for British industry's inability to respond to the country's economic emergency or to maintain its competitive position faced with the challenge of newer industrializing countries.
Date: May 1999
Creator: Gottwald, Carl H.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Problem-Based Learning for Training Teachers of Students with Behavioral Disorders in Hong Kong (open access)

Problem-Based Learning for Training Teachers of Students with Behavioral Disorders in Hong Kong

This study attempts to explore the perceived value of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) in training teachers of students with behavioral disorders (E/BD) in Hong Kong. It represents an effort to improve the predominately lecture focussed approach adopted in many preparation programs. Data on the training needs of Hong Kong teachers were also acquired and 31 knowledge/skills areas related to teaching students with E/BD were identified. Subjects viewed the PBL approach as dynamic, interesting and incentive driven. It develops skills involved in group learning, self-directed learning, use of information resources and problem-solving. Most important, teachers felt they were supported to explore the practical problems they personally encountered in the classroom and actions they could take to resolve them. Difficulties in using PBL included a lack of resources and the tendencies of most Chinese students to accept rather than challenge others' ideas.
Date: August 1999
Creator: Heung, Vivian Woon King
System: The UNT Digital Library
Theological Distance Learning through Trinity College and Theological Seminary: Programs, Problems, Perceptions, and Prospects (open access)

Theological Distance Learning through Trinity College and Theological Seminary: Programs, Problems, Perceptions, and Prospects

An international survey was conducted to assess theological higher education via distance learning as perceived by graduates of Trinity College and Theological Seminary's (Trinity) doctoral programs. The purpose of the study was to determine student-perceived strengths and weaknesses of Trinity's doctoral-level distance education theology programs. Also, the future of distance-learning mediated programs of theological higher education was speculated. A random sample of 400 doctoral recipients was selected from the population of 802 doctoral recipients who graduated from Trinity between the years of 1969 and March 1998. A mailed questionnaire was used to collect data. A total of 203 (50.0%) were returned. Frequency counts, percentage distributions, and chi-square tests of goodness-of-fit were employed to analyze the data. A profile of the modal type of student who would participate in theological distance education at the doctoral level was developed from the demographic variables queried. Responses to questions regarding respondents' educational experiences and coursework were solicited as well. Respondents identified five primary strengths of Trinity's distance education doctoral programs as: the convenience of the program; the immediate application of course content to personal and professional endeavors; the quality of education provided; the Biblical groundedness of the curricula, the materials, and the faculty; and …
Date: August 1999
Creator: Ray, Abby A. (Abby Adams)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Chaucer and the Rhetorical Limits of Exemplary Literature (open access)

Chaucer and the Rhetorical Limits of Exemplary Literature

Though much has been made of Chaucer's saintly characters, relatively little has been made of Chaucer's approach to hagiography. While strictly speaking Chaucer produced only one true saint's life (the Second Nun's Tale), he was repeatedly intrigued and challenged by exemplary literature. The few studies of Chaucer's use of hagiography have tended to claim either his complete orthodoxy as hagiographer, or his outright parody of the genre. My study mediates the orthodoxy/parody split by viewing Chaucer as a serious, but self-conscious, hagiographer, one who experimented with the possibilities of exemplary narrative and explored the rhetorical tensions intrinsic to the genre, namely the tensions between transcendence and imminence, reverence and identification, and epideictic deliberative discourse.
Date: May 1999
Creator: Youmans, Karen DeMent
System: The UNT Digital Library
Why Orville and Wilbur Built an Airplane (open access)

Why Orville and Wilbur Built an Airplane

This dissertation comprises two sections. The title section collects a volume of the author's original poetry, subdivided into four parts. The concerns of this section are largely aesthetic, although some of the poems involve issues that emerge in the introductory essay. The introductory essay itself looks at slightly over three centuries of poetry in English, and focuses on three representative poems from three distinct periods: the long eighteenth century and the Romantic period in England, and the Post-war period in the United States. John Dryden's translation of Ovid's "Cinyras and Myrrha," John Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale," and James Dickey's "The Sheep Child," whatever their stylistic and aesthetic differences may be, all share a concern with taboo. Each of the poems, in its own way, embraces taboo while transgressing societal norms in order to effect a synthesis that merges subject and object in dialectical transcendence. For Dryden, the operative taboo is that placed on incest. In his translation of Ovid, Dryden seizes on the notion of incest as a metaphor for translation itself and views the violation of taboo as fructifying. Keats, in his Nightingale ode, toys with the idea of suicide and reconstructs a world both natural and mythic …
Date: August 1999
Creator: Jenkinson, John S.
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Comparison of Points Versus Sounds as Reinforces in Human Operant Research (open access)

A Comparison of Points Versus Sounds as Reinforces in Human Operant Research

Research shows that human operant behavior typically differs from non-human operant behavior on schedules of reinforcement. These differences in performance may be related to differences between the experimental preparations used to study human and non-human operant behavior. One such difference is the type of reinforcer used. This experiment analyzed the differential effects of points alone, points backed up by money, and sounds on schedule performance of human subjects. Results show that sounds generated moderate rates of responding, capable of change in either direction. When points backed up with money were the reinforcers, however, high rates of behavior were generated, disrupting the previously established baseline performance. This suggests that while points may be effective in generating high rates of behavior, they may be ineffective in producing sensitive baselines needed to study human operant behavior on schedules of reinforcement.
Date: August 1999
Creator: Rouse, Susan L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Relationship Between the Grief Process and the Family System: The Role of Affect, Communication, and Cohesion (open access)

The Relationship Between the Grief Process and the Family System: The Role of Affect, Communication, and Cohesion

Sixty-six people who had recently experienced the death of a parent or a spouse completed a questionnaire packet to assess their current grief symptomatology and some characteristics of the relationships within their family. Participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire 4-5 weeks after the death and then again six months later. The present study compared two competing models to explain whether the grief process affects the characteristics of relationships within the family system or that family characteristics affect the experienced grief symptoms.
Date: August 1999
Creator: Schoka, Elaine
System: The UNT Digital Library
Sexual Identity Development and Heterosexual Mistrust: An Exploratory Study (open access)

Sexual Identity Development and Heterosexual Mistrust: An Exploratory Study

The sexual identity development process in gay men was the focus of this study. It was theorized that, as a result of negative experiences with the dominant heterosexual culture, gay men might feel mistrustful of heterosexuals in various settings. A new theoretical construct, that of heterosexual mistrust, was identified and explored. A new scale, the Heterosexual Mistrust Inventory (HMI), was created to measure this construct. Gay male subjects' stage of homosexual identity formation (HIF) was also determined. Results indicated that heterosexual mistrust existed to a significantly stronger degree among gay men than among heterosexual men. Heterosexual mistrust was strongly related to stage of HIF. The various settings in which heterosexual mistrust was found to occur were discussed. Implications for current knowledge about HIF and about cultural belief systems unique to gay men were identified and explored.
Date: August 1999
Creator: Shepard, William D., 1965-
System: The UNT Digital Library
Design of a Monitoring System for a Plasma Cleaning Machine (open access)

Design of a Monitoring System for a Plasma Cleaning Machine

Plasma cleaning is the most effective dry process to remove surface contaminates from a SAW (Surface Acoustical Wave) device. Consistent gas pressures, flows, and good electrical connections between the chamber shelves are necessary for the process to function predictably. In addition, operation of the monitoring system must be transparent to the plasma cleaning unit. This thesis describes a simple solution to the complex problem of monitoring a plasma cleaning system. The monitoring system uses the LabVIEW® G programming language and hardware, both products of National Instruments, Inc.®, to monitor critical parameters necessary to achieve a consistent process when cleaning these devices.
Date: May 1999
Creator: Fooks, Terry M. (Terry Max)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Evolution of Vacancy Supersaturations in MeV Si Implanted Silicon (open access)

Evolution of Vacancy Supersaturations in MeV Si Implanted Silicon

High-energy Si implantation into silicon creates a net defect distribution that is characterized by an excess of interstitials near the projected range and a simultaneous excess of vacancies closer to the surface. This defect distribution is due to the spatial separation between the distributions of interstitials and vacancies created by the forward momentum transferred from the implanted ion to the lattice atom. This dissertation investigates the evolution of the near-surface vacancy excess in MeV Si-implanted silicon both during implantation and post-implant annealing. Although previous investigations have identified a vacancy excess in MeV-implanted silicon, the investigations presented in this dissertation are unique in that they are designed to correlate the free-vacancy supersaturation with the vacancies in clusters. Free-vacancy (and interstitial) supersaturations were measured with Sb (B) dopant diffusion markers. Vacancies in clusters were profiled by Au labeling; a new technique based on the observation that Au atoms trap in the presence of open-volume defects. The experiments described in this dissertation are also unique in that they were designed to isolate the deep interstitial excess from interacting with the much shallower vacancy excess during post-implant thermal processing.
Date: May 1999
Creator: Venezia, Vincent C.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Synthesis and Alkali Metal Extraction Properties of Novel Cage-Functionalized Crown Coronands and Cryptands (open access)

Synthesis and Alkali Metal Extraction Properties of Novel Cage-Functionalized Crown Coronands and Cryptands

A novel crown ether precursor was developed in which a rigid 4-oxahexacyclo (5.4.1.26.3,10.05,9.08,11) dodecyl cage moiety ("cage functionality") was incorporated.
Date: August 1999
Creator: McKim, Artie S.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Father Absence, Onset of Menarche, and Body Dissatisfaction: Importance of Father Absence (open access)

Father Absence, Onset of Menarche, and Body Dissatisfaction: Importance of Father Absence

Relationships between body dissatisfaction, dieting methods, father absence, and puberty timing were investigated in this study. Participants included adolescent females from Wave 1 of the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health. Logistic regression results indicated that girls without a biological father in the home were significantly more likely to have an early onset of puberty than on-time or late. Girls who experienced early puberty exhibited higher levels of body dissatisfaction, but didn't use more dieting methods. Early onset girls more likely used dieting methods if their biological father was present than absent; however, no significant difference in body dissatisfaction was shown. A negative relationship with fathers indicated more body dissatisfaction. None of the attained findings were found when the biological mother was absent, and having a stepfather did not seem to matter. Evidence was revealed that fathers play a role in their daughters' view of their own bodies.
Date: August 1999
Creator: Gartrell, Stacey R.
System: The UNT Digital Library