Search results

This paper aims to explore the perspectives of registered nurses towards communication with family members of older people with a tracheostomy.

A qualitative design was used. Ten participants were recruited through purposive sampling. Face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were used in collecting data. Data were analysed by thematic analysis.

The four themes identified were as follows: communication by considering time difference; considering factors related to effective communication, either family member–related factors or registered nurse–related factors; strategies of communicating to support family members, such as giving an opportunity to ask for accurate information, communicating to build self-confidence and communicating through cases; and using the art of communication by speaking slowly and clearly, using colloquialisms, being steady and calm, as well as using positive language.

Having strategies and using the art of communication are important to help family members in obtaining accurate information and in building self-confidence in the care of older people.

The paper indicates that registered nurses consider factors related to communication, and they gave more information to family members using effective strategies and the art of communication. Therefore, effective communication training to nursing teams should be performed to promote adherence to treatment and family members’ satisfaction.

This study aims to investigate on access and communication of COVID-19 information among Tanzanians.

Quantitative methods were applied to identify a total of 636 respondents.

Results show that the majority (86.9%) of respondents seek information on COVID-19. Gender, age, education and marital status did not influence individual’s information-seeking behaviour. Respondents largely used social media, particularly WhatsApp, to communicate. Respondents prefer blending professional and traditional information to combat COVID-19. The majority (51%) of respondents indicated that COVID-19 information was not communicated ethically. Employed people are more likely to ethically communicate information on the pandemic in social media.

Findings imply that novelty of the pandemic has enhanced active information-seeking behaviour. Respondents rely on multiple information sources to seek and collaboratively communicate COVID information. Employment status is associated with respondents’ information-seeking behaviour. Audio-visual sources are mostly preferred and relied in communicating information on the pandemic. Social media usage has enhanced timely and appropriate decision-making measures to tackle the COVID menace. Level of education has an influence on the use of credible sources and ethical communication of information on the pandemic. Utilization of COVID-19 preventive information was not statistically associated with socio-demographic variables. Availability of information infrastructures, particularly the internet, influences access, use and clear informed decision on prevention and treatment of COVID-19 disease.

The study contributes to knowledge and literature on response and preventive measures on COVID-19 pandemic in developing countries.

Two decades of research have identified a robust effect: Members of decision-making groups mention and repeat shared information that all members know more so than unshared information that a single member knows. This chapter explores the idea that processes related to member status both affect and explain information exchange in decision-making groups. First, we offer five propositions that identify information sharing patterns and their implications for high- and low-status group members. Second, we highlight three theoretical explanations for the group preference for shared information and examine how well each theory accounts for the proposed member status processes.

Design details are not always simple and easy to understand. Builders may spend considerable time on interpreting difficult or complex details in a drawing; this could result in constructability problems. Advanced computer visualisation tools offer good visualisation capabilities that cannot be achieved using traditional tools, such as 2‐D drawings. They provide considerable potential to improve this process in construction and can effectively be used for communication between design and construction teams that are geographically dispersed. However their use is still at present limited and not fully understood. This paper presents an industry survey on the use of computer visualisation to communicate design information as part of a research study, which aims to demonstrate how computer visualisation can be used in clarifying design details and in dealing with constructability problems. The analysis of the results shows that the most common methods used by designers and site teams for clarifying information on constructability problems were traditional tools and methods, which have serious limitations in supporting virtual construction project teams. It also shows that traditional tools are not adequate to communicate design information related to constructability between designers and builders.

Purpose – This essay attempts to answer the question, “What distinguishes inter-human influence from other forms of influence?”

Design/methodology/approach – Specifying the micro-foundations of social structures in terms of communicative inferences necessitates a revision of the concept of social structures (and institutions) as distributed, and hence, uncertain, structures of expectation. Institutional realities are generated in linguistic interaction through the indirect communication of generic references. The generalizing function of language – in particular, abstraction and memory – coupled with its reflexive function, to turn references into things, are sufficient to generate both social structures and institutions as collective inferences.

Findings – Social relations are fundamentally communicative relations. The communicative relation is triadic, implying an enunciator, an audience, and some referential content. Through linguistic communication, humans are capable of communicating locally with others about others nonlocally. Institutions exist only as expectations concerning the expectations of others. These expectations, however, are not only in the mind, and they are not exclusively psychological entities. Linguistically, these expectations appear as the reported statement within the reporting statement, that is, they are constituted through indirect discourse.

Research limitations/implications – An important implication for current sociological theory is that, from the point of view of a sociology defined as communication about communication from within communication, institutional realities should not be reified as existing naturalistically or objectively above or behind the communications through which they are instantiated.

Originality value – This approach, then, is decidedly anti-“realist.” The goal of such research is to examine the inadequacy of nonreflexive models of social order. Accounts of how sets of social relationships emerge will remain inadequate if they do not reflect upon the cognitive and communicative processes which make possible the consideration of such structures.

The purpose of this paper, building on the media richness theory (MRT), is to propose that while communicating product information via streaming video should enhance outcome measures, such an enhancement will be evident mainly for users with equivocal, latent goals (i.e. recreational browsing) rather than for those with less equivocal, concrete goals (i.e. the search of a specific product).

The experiment involved 337 potential online consumers in Canada, and had full factorial design with four conditions (two methods to communicate product information: textual vs streaming video, and two goals: product searching vs recreational browsing). Analysis of covariance was used to test the hypotheses.

The results lent support to the hypotheses. The perceived information quality, trusting competence, and arousal for participants with recreational browsing goals were significantly affected when product information where communicated using streaming video. For participants with concrete goals (product searchers), the traditional textual method was as effective as the streaming video method.

The findings entice practitioners to use rich media such as the streaming video method to communicate online information predominantly for users with experiential browsing goals, and to use lean media for users with less equivocal, concrete goals.

The results contribute to the sparse literature that underscores the key role of user goal in shaping the effectiveness of online information. The results provide empirical support to the prediction of MRT that the use of rich media to communicate information is advantageous for users with latent, equivocal goals.

The purpose of this study is to discuss the concept of information in relation to temporality within the context of climate change communication. Furthermore, the paper aims to highlight the empirical richness of information as a concept by analysing its use in context.

The discussion is based on 14 semi-structured interviews with initiators and collaborators of 6 open letters on climate change published in 2018–2019. By taking three specific notions the interviewees introduced—fast food information, information quality and information gap–as the analytical point of departure, the study aims for a contextual understanding of information grounded in temporal sensitivity.

The paper finds that information in the context of open letters is informed by different, and at times contradicting, temporalities and timescapes which align with various material, institutional and discursive practices. Based on this finding, the paper argues that notions of information are intrinsically linked to the act of communicating, and they should be viewed as co-constituting each other.

The paper contributes with an empirically informed discussion regarding the concept of information as it is used in a specific context. It illustrates how “information” is far from being understood in a singular fashion, but is made up of multifaceted and at times contradictory understandings. Ultimately, they correspond to why and how one communicates climate change information.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how trust, honesty and transparency impact the willingness and timeliness of communicating financial information between Government Finance Officers (GFOs) and members of the municipal boards they serve.

Survey data was collected from professionals who work with municipalities to ensure government resources are properly managed. Nonparametric local-linear regression was used to analyze the data.

Evidence suggests that trust in the board, GFO preference for honesty and greater transparency of the municipality influence the timeliness of communication. There is evidence that when the GFO and board members have a working relationship built on trust and the GFO has a preference for honesty, the GFO is more willing to share positive information with the board. In addition, there is evidence that with greater transparency and trust in the board, there is a reduction in the time of sharing positive information in situations where there is little discretion in disclosing and less willingness to share information.

A principal limitation of this study is the small sample size. In addition, the study was conducted using only participants from the pool of members of the Government Finance Officers Association of Texas. As an exploratory study, the survey included a minimal number of questions to gather data from actual GFOs and included only six possible scenarios. The time constraint resulted in a reduced number of questions related to the models used. Other limitations include the potential of missing variables, factors or perceptions related to scenarios not presented in the survey instrument.

The findings suggest that with greater transparency, there is less time between the event and the GFO communication to the board providing the opportunity to improve the effectiveness of the decision-making process.

This study is the first to explore the effects of increased transparency on the level of communication between the GFO and the board.

In the past decade internal communication began to take on a new identity as it supports the many change efforts underway in organizations today. Change communication – how internal messaging effects individual behavior change – is a key element for an organization undergoing transformation. Although research points to the need to communicate during change, very little information is available on what the outcomes are of an internal communication strategy that can positively influence individual behavior change during transformation. This chapter enhances current knowledge on this topic by investigating the relationship of awareness and understanding of change messages to individual behavior change through the case study examination of the intentional organizational transformation experienced in a large, consumer packaged goods (CPG) company.

This paper aims to understand the potential usefulness of sell-side analysts’ investment recommendation reports as a medium for communicating intellectual capital (IC) information. It explores the manner in which analyst reports supply IC information and the types of companies in relation to which analyst reports supply most IC information.

A content analysis of 64 initiating coverage analyst reports written on Australian companies is performed. The content analysis focuses on three semantic properties of IC disclosures: format (i.e. discursive, numerical-non-monetary, numerical-monetary and visual), news-tenor (i.e. positive, neutral and negative) and time-orientation (i.e. forward-looking, non-time-specific and past-oriented). The paper investigates whether analyst reports contain more IC information on companies providing less IC information through their own channels. For this, the authors test the hypothesised relationship between the extent of IC information and the IC intensity of the analysed company’s sector and the systematic risk of the company.

IC information in analyst reports is more discursive than numerical, not significantly more forward-looking in general and balanced between negative or neutral and positive attributions (except for information on company management). However, compared to the semantic properties of corporate reporting media, analyst reports in this study communicate IC information in a manner arguably more useful to investors. A company’s systematic risk and sector in which the company operates are associated with the extent of IC information in analyst reports. The findings indicate that analysts’ contribution as an IC information provider is greatest for companies providing less IC information directly to the public.

The results have implications for policymakers contemplating reforming non-financial reporting regulation and ensuring a level playing field for investors and companies when determining corporate IC disclosure strategy and strategies for investor relations.

This is the first study to explore semantic properties and drivers of IC information in analysts’ initiating coverage reports. This paper highlights the importance of analyst reports as a medium for communicating IC information that could complement corporate communication media.