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The purpose of this paper is to describe a theory-driven intervention called VOICES that was developed to improve police-community relations. The intervention was designed based on principles derived from social psychological theories of intergroup contact and communication.

The authors discuss the theoretical basis for the intervention, as well as its development and implementation in the Santa Barbara Police Department. Based on this pilot testing, the authors provide preliminary evidence about its effectiveness using survey responses and qualitative feedback provided by participants.

Although the case study method used here does not allow for causal inferences about the effectiveness of the intervention, the limited evidence the authors present does suggest that participants found VOICES useful and it may have improved their perceptions of police. The next step will be to test this intervention using experimental or quasi-experimental methods that allow for causal inferences about effectiveness.

The paper shows how police can develop theory-driven interventions in an effort to improve trust between police and the public, including communities in which relationships with police have been historically strained. It also underscores how insights from the study of intergroup contact and communication can benefit policing.

This paper aims to extend the consideration of distributed leadership in health-care settings. Leadership is typically studied from the classical notion of the place of single leaders and continues to examine distributed leadership within small teams or horizontally. The purpose is to develop a practical understanding of how distributed leadership may occur vertically, between different layers of the health-care leadership hierarchy, examining its influence on health-care outcomes across two hospitals.

Using semi-structured interviews, data were collected from 107 hospital employees (including executive leadership, clinical management and clinicians) from two hospitals in Australia and the USA. Using thematic content analysis, an iterative process was adopted characterized by alternating between social identity and distributed leadership literature and empirical themes to answer the question of how the practice of distributed leadership influences performance outcomes in hospitals?

The perceived social identities of leadership groups shaped communication and performance both positively and negatively. In one hospital a moderating structure emerged as a leadership dyad, where leadership was distributed vertically between hospital hierarchal layers, observed to overcome communication limitations. Findings suggest dyad creation is an effective mechanism to overcome hospital hierarchy-based communication issues and ameliorate health-care outcomes.

The study demonstrates how current leadership development practices that focus on leadership relational and social competencies can benefit from a structural approach to include leadership dyads that can foster these same competencies. This approach could help develop future hospital leaders and in doing so, improve hospital outcomes.

The article examines how the two Cypriot leaders – the Greek-Cypriot community leader Nicos Anastasiades and the Turkish-Cypriot community leader Mustafa Akinci – have used their Twitter accounts during the period leading to the intensification of the Cyprus peace process between 30 April 2015 and 31 October 2016.

This article presents, using descriptive analysis and thematic analysis, how the two leaders have used Twitter in the negotiations' period.

The analysis shows that the leaders, during the time frame examined, developed both pro-peace discourses around the Cyprus problem and para-social and vicarious intergroup contact that contributed in what Hogg (2015) defines an intergroup relational identity that is an effective form of “bridging” leadership across communities.

The article argues that Twitter is a tool that, in the hands of political leaders in segregated public spheres caused by yet unresolved ethnic conflicts, can become a useful tool for constructing both a positive meaning around issues concerning the rival sides and transforming opposing social identities in the formation of an “extended sense of self that includes the collaboration partner” (Hogg, 2015, p. 191).

The peer-review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-03-2022-0161

This study explores aspects of entrepreneurial social identity that are made salient in communication, and that are related to positive group distinctiveness.

The study employs a thematic analysis methodology, and the analysis is sensitized by social identity theory and related concepts. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 43 entrepreneurs in several US cities. The women and men discussed the nature of their entrepreneurial identities, and the relationship of past intra- and intergroup conversations to their realizations of a positively-distinct entrepreneurial identity. Open and axial coding of the entrepreneurs' verbal conversational content was conducted.

The analyses revealed four themes (and nine accompanying sub-themes) that represented dimensions of entrepreneurial social identity that were related to positive group distinctiveness.

Findings may prove useful for mutual understanding among current and aspiring entrepreneurs, and for educators and managers with an interest in encouraging entrepreneurial mindsets through training program development.

This study is unique not only in its adoption of an intergroup comparison approach to entrepreneurship that integrates recalled past communication, but also in its focus on positive in-group distinctiveness. The desire for this psychological state may be one motivating force guiding the content of entrepreneurial identity, and it may, for some individuals, be one factor that drives the pursuit of entrepreneurship itself. This study offers themes that break new ground in illuminating dimensions derived from recalled conversational content that entrepreneurs considered key to positive identity salience.

The purpose of this paper is to examine what managers perceive Millennial employees as doing in organizations to find generalizations rather than relying upon stereotypes.

In total, 25 interviews were conducted with managers in the hospitality industry. The transcribed data were analyzed to learn about identified category-bound activities described.

Three prominent findings are elaborated. First, Millennials express a desire for learning and training, because they see this as fostering advancement. Second, there were mixed evaluations of Millennials effectiveness in teamwork. Specific teamwork problems managers identified involved cliquish behavior. Finally, managers stated that Millennials desire feedback. In order for the Millennial employee to feel satisfied with the feedback, however, it needs to be ample, positive and personal.

The ability to generalize findings is limited because the objective of qualitative research is not to predict. The study does offer some patterned observations by managers that may be useful to future employees and other managers.

The analysis revealed that some practical problems managers may face when leading Millennial employees; however, these employees bring their own solution to the workplace: a desire for training.

Existing research on Millennials has not acknowledged the desire for training by Millennials. This is an important finding due to its implications for effective management.

This study drew on the core concerns framework (CCF) and communication accommodation theory (CAT) to examine the direct and indirect effects of manager core concerns accommodativeness on employee integrative (i.e. cooperative) intention through the mediating role of positive emotional change and manager credibility (i.e. competence, trustworthiness and goodwill). Core concerns accommodativeness refers to the degree to which one responds to another’s socio-psychological needs.

A quasi-experimental design was used. A total of 339 working adults from various industries in the USA took an online questionnaire composed of manipulations, closed-ended and open-ended questions. Quantitative data was analyzed using a series of mediation analyses and triangulated with qualitative data.

The results showed that both accommodating and overaccommodating manager messages significantly improved employees’ emotional state, perception of manager credibility and integrative intention more than the underaccommodating message. Importantly, the manager communication accommodativeness increases employees’ positive emotional change which heightened the employees’ perception of manager trustworthiness which then stimulated employees’ integrative intention. Qualitative data surprisingly revealed that the overaccommodating message was regarded predominantly positively.

The mixed-methods approach of this study added deeper insight into the role of communication accommodation and emotion in supervisor-subordinate conflict negotiation, extending both the CCF and CAT literature. The findings also inform managers about how to effectively use the core concerns.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between leader group prototypicality and intergroup conflict, as well as its mechanisms and contextual factors using the social identity theory.

The research model was empirically tested using multi-phase, multi-source and multilevel survey data in China. The final sample consisted of 75 group leaders and 231 group members. Multilevel structural equation modelling and a Monte Carlo simulation were used for hypothesis testing.

The results showed that leader group prototypicality would engender intergroup conflict via intergroup distinctiveness. Further, leaders’ benchmarking behaviour moderated this indirect effect. In particular, leader group prototypicality resulted in higher intergroup distinctiveness and intergroup conflict, only when the leaders’ benchmarking behaviour was higher rather than lower.

First, this study addresses the question of whether leader group prototypicality would lead to intergroup conflict to provide theoretical and empirical insights to supplement extant literature. Second, the study advances the understanding of mechanisms (intergroup distinctiveness) and the consequences (intergroup conflict) of leader group prototypicality in an intergroup context. Third, the study shows that leaders’ benchmarking behaviour moderates the effect of leader group prototypicality on intergroup conflict through intergroup distinctiveness. As such, the findings are of value to future management practice by offering precise, practical interventions to manage the intergroup conflict caused by leader group prototypicality.

While language is vital for a successful service exchange, it can also become a source of vulnerability if one party is a non-native speaker in an inter-culture service encounter (ICSE). Hence, the purpose of this study is to understand the relationship between language-related stigma that non-native customers perceive in an ICSE and the associated psychological and behavioral responses.

A survey-based research method and an experimental study was used to collect data from non-native speakers in the USA with English as their second language. Structural equation modeling procedure was used to test the hypothesized relationships.

The findings suggest that the customers who perceive language-related stigmatization in an ICSE context experience intergroup anxiety and lack of social belonging. In turn, intergroup anxiety influences their interaction comfort with the service provider. In the end, these experiences shape their future buying behavior, i.e. they tend to avoid direct interactions with the servers and prefer smart services.

Future research is needed to explore the focal phenomenon in other service contexts and cultures to enrich knowledge on language vulnerabilities.

The study highlights the importance of technology, not just from a convenience perspective, but also as an accommodation mechanism for linguistically vulnerable customers.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to empirically examine the language-related stigmatization and associated psychological and behavioral responses from the non-native customers’ perspective in a services exchange setting.

This study aims to systematically evaluate the psychological factors of independent versus interdependent self-construal, self-evaluation motives of enhancement versus verification, and the mediating role of bridging and bonding social capital on consumers' positive and negative brand-related electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) sharing with in-group and out-group audiences.

The online survey was conducted with young adult consumers in the Netherlands (N = 322). Multiple regression analysis with PROCESS was used to test the hypotheses.

Consumers with independent self-construal are more likely to share negative eWOM, particularly via social messengers with in-group members. These consumers, however, tend to share positive eWOM on companies' social media accounts that reach out-group audiences including online strangers. Additionally, self-evaluation was the key motivation driving positive eWOM sharing with in-groups, while bridging social capital mediated the effects of self-construal on sharing negative eWOM.

The paper provides a more holistic understanding of the factors impacting the valence and intended audience for eWOM sharing. The findings advance eWOM research by differentiating positive and negative eWOM sharing in the context of intergroup communication.