Date of Award
Spring 5-29-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Industrial/Organizational Psychology (PhD)
Department
Industrial/Organizational Psychology
First Advisor/Committee Member
Joey A. Collins
Second Advisor/Committee Member
Mark North
Third Advisor/Committee Member
Meghan Quint
Keywords
Women's Work Experiences, Career Stages, Employee Engagement, Kaleidoscope Career Model
Abstract
Employee engagement among women has historically been subsumed within general employee engagement research. Additionally, employee engagement is often conceptualized as independent from one’s career stage. The present study explored these assumptions by examining employee engagement among women and how organizational factors may differentially promote engagement across career stages. The Kaleidoscope Career Model served as the theoretical foundation, proposing that authenticity, balance, and challenge are particularly salient for women in early-, mid-, and late-career stages, respectively. The current study evaluated how career stage moderated the relationship between these three factors and employee engagement. A sample of women (N = 360) from a state Department of Transportation (DoT) employee engagement survey was analyzed using moderated multiple regression. Findings suggested that early-career women demonstrated particular responsiveness to authenticity, balance, and challenge in comparison to mid- and late-career women. These findings suggest that employee engagement among women may vary across career stages and should not be treated as uniform across the lifespan.
Recommended Citation
Lopez, Alyssa Hope, "The Kaleidoscope at Work: Examining Women’s Employee Engagement Through the Kaleidoscope Career Model" (2026). Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations. 57.
https://digitalcommons.spu.edu/iop_etd/57