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Westminster Student's Undergraduate Research Leads to Elite Summer Research Program

Posted on Monday, April 30, 2007

Brett Turk, a Westminster College junior psychology/human resources major from New Castle, was recently chosen by the National Science Foundation's Research Experience for Undergraduates to spend the summer working on research at Oklahoma State University related to his Westminster honors thesis.

"There are typically about 150-200 who apply for this honor and the people chosen are usually from much larger institutions," Turk said. "This was a long shot, and I'm very happy I received such a quality education here, that I can compete against those odds."

Turk's Westminster honors thesis, "Idiosyncratic Working Arrangements and Their Relationship to Organizational Attitudes and Behaviors," relates to the research that he will conduct with Dr. Marie T. Dasborough and Dr. W. Matthew Bowler this summer.

"My research is about how an employee responds to what might not be the norm in working conditions," Turk said. "For example, maybe the norm is an 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. work day with a half hour lunch, but the employee can't get to work until 9 a.m. and needs no lunch time. What would happen if this was granted to the employee? Would he or she be happier, perhaps work harder or help others more? There is speculation on this subject, but it's never been actually studied."

This eight-week research program runs from May 19-July 25 and includes free transportation to Oklahoma State, a stipend, and lodging, as well as all supplies needed for the research.

"Dr. [Jamie] McMinn [assistant professor of psychology] guided me toward this internship experience," Turk said. "He wrote a recommendation letter and helped me with the application, but I had the support of all the professors here. They help to guide me just as my mom would if I were home."

"Brett's honors project focuses on specialized work arrangements that employees negotiate with their organizations and the consequences those arrangements have for job satisfaction and other organizational outcomes," said McMinn, Turk'sacademic and honors advisor. "Surprisingly, this area has not received much attention from organizational psychologists, and so Brett's research is really quite important. The NSF-REU program will be invaluable to Brett as he collaborates with nationally-recognized experts in organizational behavior and members of the Psychology Department could not be more pleased that he has earned this prestigious opportunity."

Turk is the son of Debra Turk, New Castle, and a graduate of Union Area High School. Turk is president of the Westminster Chapter of Students in Free Enterprise that recently won the regional competition and competes in the national competition in Dallas May 5-8. He is also a member of four honor societies: Omicron Delta Kappa, Mortar Board, Pi Sigma Pi, and Lambda Sigma; and was formerly involved in the Student Government Association and the Student Alumni Association.

"I've had to drop a couple of organizations because I needed more time for my honors thesis," Turk said. "I want to be prepared to apply for grad schools that have an organization behavior program. After I finish that, I'm open to all ideas."

Contact Turk at turkbm@westminster.edu for more information.

Brett Turk