Scholar Lunch

Come to L203 at noon. If you’re one of the first to arrive, you can have free pizza. The meal’s entertainment consists of five minute talks by representatives from majors and minors across campus. Speakers will take a single idea they learned from their major or minor coursework, explain it, explain why it’s useful or beautiful, and explain why they personally love it. Scheduled speakers:

  • Gabe Evans, Marketing
  • Liam Kerr, Software Engineering
  • Alexia Krogh, English
  • Abby Weston, Math
  • Matthew Wilhite, Psychology

L203

Noon – 1 PM

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Matthew Wilhite

Exploring How the Complex Relationship of the Individual, Culture, and the Workplace Environment Inform Job Satisfaction

In this evidence-based synthesis paper, I reviewed 15 research articles regarding information about job satisfaction from 2020 to 2025. Job satisfaction is a complex measure that reports an individual’s current feelings, position, and understandings with what they receive and contribute to in their line of work. When researching job satisfaction, adopting a cross-cultural lens was crucial and resulted in 10 different countries being represented in the 15 research articles used. The 10 countries represented are Belgium, China, Ethiopia, Italy, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United States. Millions of people work across the globe and utilizing a cross-cultural lens deepens our understanding of how job satisfaction is determined in a particular culture. To summarize this research, I divided the components of job satisfaction into three categories: the individual, culture, and the workplace environment. These three categories join together to influence how a person determines their own job satisfaction status. The majority of this research implied that there are various factors that influence job satisfaction rates in a positive or negative manner such as work autonomy, compensation, leadership styles, work schedules, et cetera. A few of the studies emphasized how measuring job satisfaction in a longitudinal method can reveal important job satisfaction trends in the workplace. An important conclusion I made was related to how job satisfaction can be utilized to enhance organizational productivity. Enhancing organizational productivity is essential for companies to thrive which will help them succeed because of the positive influence from the employees reporting a positive job satisfaction status. However, there are limitations found in the components used to determine job satisfaction. As we live in a dynamic world where people depend on their job to help them stay afloat in society, it is important to measure their job satisfaction as we all strive to live an enjoyable life.

PSY 499, Senior Capstone

Siefke 100

3:30 – 4 PM

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The State of Teaching at Bushnell University

In the Fall 2023 term, a call went out for nominations of Bushnell students who had demonstrated by their observable behaviors that they were committed to approaching their classes as opportunities to learn, not simply to manipulate the class environment for high grades or other indirect rewards. Those nominees were named Bergquist Laureates. The award is named for Dr. Tim Bergquist, the founder of ACE Day, who loved to encourage students to be scholars. At noon, the Bergquist Laureates will participate in a panel whose topic is the elements of Bushnell classes that help them learn, things that do not help them learn, and things they wish they would see that would help them learn. Bushnell faculty are invited to attend to listen.

The panelists:

  • Ezekiel Aldaco
  • Albert Allen
  • Christopher Kamkar
  • Grace Kitchens
  • Annika Poet
  • John Stephens
  • Matthew Wilhite

L203 (click here to view the live stream)

Noon – 1 PM

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