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A vast array of communication and behavioural theories and models has long assisted the communication management industry in its quest for excellence. While relying upon and discussing many of these theories in relation to website communication, this paper explores the development of theoretical platforms which are unique to the website mode of communication. It asserts that investigating new and varied theoretical paradigms can assist the communication management industry in analysing, extending and optimising its efforts in cyberspace. This paper explores the potential of a generic, theoretical approach to desired behavioural response via the website. It provides a modular definition of desired behavioural response to websites. This definition comprises six potential positive outputs and has been called “positive response action”. The paper proves, via comparative analysis, that positive response action parallels established communication goals and objectives. This paper also explores the concept of any one website belonging to one of three sender motivated categories: individual, strategic stakeholder communication and non‐strategic stakeholder communication. Traditional communication and behavioural response theories are analysed in relation to positive response action as are the essential cognitive needs of a website visitor. These needs are contextualised in a critical path “user gratification” format in relation to the achievement of the goal of positive response action. Excellence in effective website communication has become a priority for the public relations profession worldwide. While exploring this quest for excellence and its relation to theoretical dynamics, this paper reinforces the universally accepted requirement of accurate audience definition in order to achieve communication success and behavioural response.

The purpose of this paper is to address the under-researched issue of how formal determinations of organizational responsibility for a crisis affect the effectiveness of the denial strategy in protecting organizational reputation. Because studies that omit later determinations of responsibility produce misleading representations of the value of denial, a pilot study and primary study investigated how later determinations of organizational culpability in a management misconduct crisis interact with crisis response strategies to affect reputation and anger.

Two studies used experimental designs to assess how denial interacted with determinations of crisis responsibility to influence reputation and anger.

The pilot study demonstrated reputational damage and stakeholder anger increased when an organization initially denied responsibility and then was found to be responsible for the crisis. The second study replicated the pilot study findings and also demonstrated that later determinations of guilt decreased reputation scores. When found guilty, the organization’s reputation was significantly more favorable when the positive action strategy was used. Comparison of three response strategies (no response, denial, and positive action) revealed the denial and no response conditions were significantly less effective than the positive response strategy when the organization was found guilty.

Paper demonstrates the need for research on the denial strategy to consider later determinations of crisis responsibility (guilt) when assessing denial’s impact on organizational reputation.

When selecting response strategies in situations where crisis responsibility is unclear, practitioners should consider how later determinations of responsibility could affect reputation.

This paper questions past research on the value of the denial strategy, integrates findings from the trust violations research, and demonstrates the importance of considering formal judgments of organizational responsibility when selecting crisis response strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a method that can gradually find a sweet spot between user experience and visual intensity of website elements to maximise user conversion with minimal adverse effect.

In the first phase of the study, the authors develop the method. In the second stage, the authors test and evaluate the method via an empirical study; also, an experiment was conducted within web interface with the gradual intensity of visual elements.

The findings reveal that the negative response grows faster than conversion when the visual intensity of the web interface is increased. However, a saturation point, where there is coexistence between maximum conversion and minimum negative response, can be found.

The findings imply that efforts to attract user attention should be pursued with increased caution and that a gradual approach presented in this study helps in finding a site-specific sweet spot for a level of visual intensity by incrementally adjusting the elements of the interface and tracking the changes in user behaviour.

Web marketing and advertising professionals often face the dilemma of determining the optimal level of visual intensity of interface element. Excessive use of marketing component and attention-grabbing visual elements can lead to an inferior user experience and consequent user churn due to growing intrusiveness. At the same time, too little visual intensity can fail to steer users. The present study provides a gradual approach which aids in finding a balance between user experience and visual intensity, maximising user conversion and, thus, providing a practical solution for the problem.

In response to readers' requests, we are including occasional articles that define certain concepts that are basic to the subject of women in management. In this first article, Wilf Knowles, Assistant Chief Executive at the Equal Opportunities Commission, discusses positive action.

To inform policy, curricula, and future research on cyberbullying through an exploration of the moral reasoning of digitally active 10–14-year olds (tweens) when witnesses to digital abuse.

Conducted interviews with 41 tweens, asking participants to react as witnesses to two hypothetical scenarios of digital abuse. Through thematic analysis of the interviews, I developed and applied a new typology for classifying “upstanders” and “bystanders” to cyberbullying.

Identified three types of upstander and five types of bystander, along with five thinking processes that led participants to react in those different ways. Upstanders were more likely than bystanders to think through a scenario using high-order moral reasoning processes like disinterested perspective-taking. Moral reasoning, emotions, and contextual factors, as well as participant gender and home school district, all appeared to play a role in determining how participants responded to cyberbullying scenarios.

Hypothetical scenarios posed in interviews cannot substitute for case studies of real events, but this qualitative analysis has produced a framework for classifying upstanding and bystanding behavior that can inform future studies and approaches to digital ethics education.

This study contributes to the literature on cyberbullying and moral reasoning through in-depth interviews with tweens that record the complexity and context-dependency of thinking processes like perspective-taking among an understudied but critical age group.

This paper aims to provide an alternative explanation for how organizations could increase levels of organizational identification, in turn reducing employee turnover intention. Specifically, the study empirically tests the joint effect of two types of organizational resources – structural empowerment and serving culture (SE*SC) – on employee identification. Moreover, it investigates the mediating effect of organizational identification on the relationship between the joint effect (SE*SC) and turnover intention.

The data were collected in 2018 from employees working in a higher education institution located in the USA. Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed model.

Statistical analysis reveals the positive joint effect (SE*SC) on organizational identification and the mediating effect of identification on the relationship between the joint effect (SE*SC) and turnover intention.

This study contributes to past research by revealing a new important mechanism. Business organizations could increase levels of employee identification and, in turn, reduce turnover by providing empowering resources that allow employees to successfully complete their jobs. Moreover, the study also contributes to practice by providing some recommendations that managers may implement to improve internal effectiveness in their respective organizations.

The paper summarises the scope, methodology and main findings of a PhD thesis about how the use of metaphor can be used to constructively influence project team behaviours. The purpose of this paper is to inform other candidates on the experience of the research journey using action research in a project environment and highlight how creative metaphor can stimulate relationship building in team environments.

The research approach that was used in the thesis is described in this paper. Candidate and supervisor reflections are shared on how the thesis journey process was experienced, including some of the challenges of doing academic research in a practitioner environment.

This research provides a simple and pragmatic reflective model that enables leaders and team members to increase the awareness of opportunities for collaborative behaviours. Facilitating creative metaphor conversations around model engages team members and leads them towards understanding how behavioural awareness can improve performance outcomes.

This paper provides insights into how simple and fun behavioural interactions can be used to enhance the performance of project teams. Implementing the intuitive metaphorical conversations will enable team leaders to leverage behavioural diversity as an asset rather than be a victim of it. Managers and leaders in all organisations have experienced the difficulties of inappropriate behaviours that have led to suboptimal performance, stress or outright conflict. Research candidates and supervisors will find this methodology an interesting option to conduct pragmatic research that is also robust.

Behaviour can be an asset or a liability in projects. This approach helps to leverage behaviour in a constructive way and decreases the likelihood of behavioural challenges and conflict in project teams and with stakeholders.

For the practice of project management the Reflective Performance Cycle is a unique model that can be used as a practical tool to build relationships in teams. From a social research perspective the research design and data interpretation process are new innovative ways to generate data and insights that are both robust and relevant, enabling more effective dialogue between researchers and practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the acceptance of mobile advertising by consumers in public service institutions in Lagos Nigeria from the perspective of non-permission-based nature of advertising practice in Nigeria.

Guided by the theory of reasoned action, data were collected from 389 respondents in a sample survey using a structured questionnaire, and the variables were measured on ordinal scale.

The respondents reported that the mobile advertising is informative; they also strongly agreed that the media is ubiquitous but irritating. Attitude of consumers towards mobile advertising, behavioural control and subjective norm have correlations with acceptance. Irritation and informativeness significantly and positively predicted acceptance of mobile advertising, while credibility and ubiquity predicted acceptance of the technology negatively. Age has a negative relationship with acceptance; both gender (male =1) and tertiary education have a significant relationship with acceptance of mobile advertising just as marital status.

The study focused only on public service mobile consumers in Lagos, Nigeria.

Mobile adverts are ubiquitous in Nigeria, but consumers do not trust or use the adverts, although they consider them informative. The telecomm regulatory body needs to control deployment of mobile technologies for produce and service ads, so that ads will be subject to individual choices and discretion, and thereby reducing the ubiquity and increase the trust consumers have on the strategy.

There is hype that mobile advert has penetrated Nigerian market, but the strategy is not credulous to the people.

There is no study focusing on the acceptance of this ad strategy in the public service sector in Nigeria.

Drawing upon conservation of resources (COR) theory and social exchange theory (SET), this study aims to empirically test a conceptual model in which social loafing (SLof) acts as a mediator in the relationship between fear of COVID-19 (FoC-19) and organizational deviant behaviors (OD). Additionally, the model proposed the moderating effect of servant leadership (SL) in the relation between FoC-19 and SLof.

The relationships were examined using structural equation modeling with LISREL (linear structural relations) 8.30 using data from front-line restaurant employees and their supervisors in India using a time-lag design.

Results suggest that SLof mediates the effects of FoC-19 on OD. Additionally, the results confirm that SL moderates the relation between FoC-19 and SLof.

It would be beneficial to increase the knowledge concerning the other potential outcomes of SLof. Moreover, it would be helpful to examine other probable moderators like trust in supervisor and supervisor support to understand whether they can have an interfering role in mitigating and minimizing SLof among restaurant employees.

Based on the findings, restaurant managers should pay sufficient attention to and carefully choose the leadership approach they apply in their workplaces. Restaurant managers would try to establish a bond with their employees by showing them empathy and paying attention to their emotional needs. The authors also suggest leaders who are leading people through crises make their employees understand why their job is important, rejuvenate their sense of attachment to their groups and organizations, and set clear directions for their employees.

The current study adds to the existing literature by investigating the effects of FoC-19 on front-line employees using data collected in the Indian restaurant industry. This empirical study will enrich the authors’ knowledge and understanding of the effect of SL to reduce the positive impact of FoC-19 on SLof.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how customers respond to a service provider’s invitation to share responsibility for the experience of an “impersonal” service that is not customized but available to all customers on an equal footing; specifically to assess the extent to which the tendency to psychological reactance moderates their responses.

Four studies investigate the effects of such invitations on perceptions of shared responsibility, the mechanism underlying that process, the effect of trait reactance on susceptibility to an invitation, and the extent to which a predisposition to reactance moderates the effect of an invitation on willingness to share blame for service failure.

Service customers are more likely to feel a sense of shared responsibility and less likely to experience reactance in response to a “reciprocal” invitation to participate in “co-creation” of the experience than to a more “unilateral” invitation. That heightened perception of shared responsibility was restricted to low-reactance individuals, who were also more willing to share the blame for service failure in response to a unilateral invitation and even more so when it was reciprocal. The willingness of high-reactance individuals was unaffected by the type of invitation.

Whereas the relevant literature has focussed mainly on person-to-person service transactions, the studies reported here show how customers may be converted into active partners in an “impersonal” service encounter.