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1 – 3 of 3This study explored how organizational leaders at different hierarchical levels may communicatively enhance employees' health and well-being. Drawing on interdisciplinary…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explored how organizational leaders at different hierarchical levels may communicatively enhance employees' health and well-being. Drawing on interdisciplinary research, it proposed a model that connects health-oriented leadership communication at supervisory and executive levels with remote workers' self-care and stress levels during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
Data collected through a survey of 363 full-time United States (US) employees were analyzed to test the model.
Findings
Results showed health-oriented communication at the two leadership levels directly influenced employees' self-care, which in turn reduced their stress levels. Further, executive leaders' health-oriented leadership communication indirectly impacted remote workers' self-care through its positive association with supervisors' health-oriented leadership communication.
Practical implications
This study offers much-needed guidelines for executive leaders, supervisors and communication practitioners seeking to meet employees' growing expectations for a healthy work environment in today's post-pandemic era.
Originality/value
Although the literature has established organizational leadership as a vital determinant for a healthy workforce, few studies have explored leaders' health-specific communication to enhance employee health. This study is the first to conceptualize health-oriented leadership communication at dual hierarchical levels and uncover its influence on employees. The results suggested the importance of health-oriented leadership communication across hierarchical levels in building a healthy workplace.
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Anne Margrethe Glømmen, Beate Brevik Sæthern and Rikard Eriksson
This study aimed to identify and describe how mentoring influences the mentor, by operationalising and specifying learning outcomes involved in mentoring.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed to identify and describe how mentoring influences the mentor, by operationalising and specifying learning outcomes involved in mentoring.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used an action research approach, by uniting theory and practice to explore new ways of learning and evolve the field of practice in education. Thematic analysis was used to identify and organise patterns or themes that emerged from the data.
Findings
The results showed that mentoring changed the mentors' perspectives towards improved understanding, more flexibility and approval of other cultures. It seems that mentoring expanded the mentors' search for values, wishes and resources, including an awareness that our values, wishes and needs are more similar than different. Mentoring also seems to have improved the ability to reformulate, be flexible, strive to optimise user engagement and engage with people as they are, based on their own prerequisites.
Research limitations/implications
The low number of participants means the results cannot be generalised, and voluntary participation may have led to more motivated involvement and positive results.
Practical implications
This study shows that mentoring has had an impact on students' development of intercultural competence and cultural sensitivity through regular meetings with individuals from a different cultural background. Mentoring seems to have revealed insights into underlying prejudices and changed perspectives towards better understanding, thus increased acceptance of other cultures.
Originality/value
Search for similar studies shows a lack of research that operationalises and specifies the learning outcomes that mentors gain from being a mentor.
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This paper aims to review and critically assess the role that data visualizations played as communication media tools to help society during a worldwide crisis. This paper…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to review and critically assess the role that data visualizations played as communication media tools to help society during a worldwide crisis. This paper re-creates and analyzes several visualizations, critically and ethically assesses their strengths and limitations and provides a set of best practices that are informative, accurate, ethical and engaging at each stage in a reader’s interest.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper bases its methodology on the construct of “The Network Society” (Van Dijk, 2006; Castells, 2000, 2006) by creating a series of social networked visualizations, identifying the challenges and pitfalls associated with this communication approach and suggesting best practices in information communication technology. The case study is COVID-19.
Findings
The research in this study found that visual data dashboards and interactive Web-based charts did play a significant role in helping society understand COVID-19’s impact to make better informed decisions about society’s health and safety.
Research limitations/implications
Visual expositions of data do have strengths and weaknesses depending on how they are designed, how they communicate the story and how they are ethically deployed. Best practices are provided to help mitigate these limitations.
Practical implications
Visualizations are certainly not new, but the technology for rapidly developing and sharing them is new. Visual expositions provide an effective media for communicating complex information to a networked society.
Social implications
Visual expositions provide an effective media for communicating complex information to a networked society.
Originality/value
This paper highlights the significance of the need to understand complex data in a crisis in a visual format and to communicate the information quickly, persuasively, effectively and ethically to a networked audience.
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