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This research aims to analyze to what extent sustainability and its related core aspects are integrated in media and communication's curricula of higher education institutions in Europe.

A total of n = 1068 bachelor and master’s degree programs, as well as their related curricula/program specifications, from 28 European countries were analyzed by means of content analysis.

Results show that the level of curricular integration of sustainability aspects in the field of media and communication is low (14%) to very low (6%) on module level. In most cases, sustainability remains an abstract guiding principle that is not translated into a dedicated course offer. This can indicate the difficulty of operationalizing such a concept as sustainability, which is experienced by not only higher education institutions but also policy and society as a whole. In addition, the results leave space for a reflection on the social and educational responsibility of higher education institutions.

The authors are aware that not all teaching (content) is depicted in curricula. Especially where teaching is research-based, The authors assume that sustainability (communication) is more present as the curricula' analysis can represent it. In addition, the fact of solely investigating English language curricula can be seen as a further limitation.

This research is one of the few attempts to verify the actual integration level of sustainability aspects in the curricula of a specific sustainability-relevant discipline, which is neither conducted as a case study nor as a single-country analysis.

This study builds on previous survey research by the investigators (Benford, 2008), as well as anecdotal reports, which imply that, despite having social interaction and communication difficulties, internet communication (via email, chat rooms, newsgroups and bulletin boards) is welcomed by some people with high functioning autism (HFA) or Asperger syndrome (AS). Qualitative data about individual experiences, perceptions, and motivations regarding internet‐based communication was obtained from 23 adults with HFA or AS, mainly via email interviewing, but also by conventional mail. Analysis based on grounded theory revealed how the sample were able to use the internet to lessen the emotional, social and time pressures experienced in offline situations. Aspects that contributed to the perception of the internet as a potentially more comfortable communication medium included visual anonymity, a different and more flexible pace of communication, and the permanence of text. Overall, the complexity of communication was lessened, and a greater sense of control could be achieved.

This article explores the relationship between scholarly communication, an established research area receiving renewed interest, and digital libraries, a relatively new area of research. Scholarship is inherently a social process and it is embedded in a structure of relationships with other scholars, with scholarly societies, and with publishers and libraries. These stakeholders agree that the relationship has become unbalanced with the advent of electronic publishing, digital libraries, computer networks and associated changes in pricing, intellectual property policies and contracts, but they do not agree on solutions to redress the balance. Several problems worthy of research lie at the intersection of scholarly communication processes and digital libraries. These include the ability of digital libraries to support the cycle of information seeking, using and creating; the ‘social life’ of documents; and electronic publishing. Other interesting problems exist at the intersection of structures of scholarly communication and digital libraries. These include increased interdependency of scholarly documents, as links are embedded between documents, both within and between digital libraries; the indefinite preservation of digital documents; business models for electronic publishing and digital libraries; and conflicts between the physical and virtual aspects of libraries.

This chapter examines the use of social media within organizations in order to engage with both current and potential future employees.

It is commonly claimed that social media technologies can help organizations to engage with both current and potential employees. This chapter examines these claims through an examination of the use of social media within two organizations: a UK television company and an international UK telecommunications company. Data was gathered from the company websites and via 34 semi-structured interviews.

The two case studies confirm that social media has promise with regard to facilitating the engagement of existing employees. However, the findings suggest also that the use of social media to engage employees will not be successful unless the culture and leadership of the organization already embraces open communication and participation.

The findings are limited in that they rely on two case studies and therefore might not be applicable to other organizations. Despite the limitations, this chapter has significant implications for organizations considering the adoption of social media as a means to improve employee engagement. It suggests that when adopting social media for organizations, the very first step should be to assess the organizational readiness with a focus on culture and people rather than on the technology itself. This is because managerial behaviors and styles are central to the level of engagement individuals feel with an organization. For the same reason leaders need to be trained to lead collaboratively, and to be able to understand the new social practices.

The chapter makes an important contribution to an extremely sparse literature on social media as a means for engaging with employees through the provision of rare empirical data and is therefore valuable both for managers and for HR scholars and practitioners.

This study aims to highlight the mediating role of value co-creation between social media marketing, its dimensions – entertainment, customization, interaction, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and trendiness – and brand authenticity.

Data from 288 consumers was collected using both online and paper-based questionnaires. Partial least squares–structural equation modeling was used for hypothesis testing.

When studied compositely, the results of this study indicate that social media marketing impacts value co-creation and brand authenticity, while value co-creation mediates this relationship. However, value co-creation only mediates the impact of customization, interactions and eWOM on brand authenticity. Moreover, entertainment and trendiness directly affect brand authenticity without the mediating role of value co-creation.

The significance of value co-creation as the underlying mechanism between social media marketing and brand authenticity has received little scholarly attention. Likewise, the question of whether social media marketing dimensions help build brand authenticity perceptions has not been investigated. Thus, this study contributes to the marketing literature by empirically testing and establishing that interaction, customization and eWOM are essential social media marketing features that significantly affect brand authenticity with the mediating role of value co-creation.

While previous studies have described structural, process and social aspects of the healthcare communication space there is no overall model of it. Such a model is an essential first step to improving the operationalization and management of healthcare communication. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper used a case study approach to study team-based communication on a palliative care unit. Non-participant observation, interviews and documents were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

The analysis developed an overall model of the healthcare communication space that consists of five stages: purpose, practices and workflows, structures, implementation, and the development of common ground to support team-based communication. The authors’ findings emphasized that implicit communication remains a predominant means of communication and workflow issues at the individual level are a frequent cause of unnecessary group communication tasks.

To improve team-based communication we first need to develop protocols that support team communication needs such as loop closing of group communication tasks in order to minimize unnecessary individual communication tasks. We also need to develop common ground at the protocol, document and terminology levels as part of supporting team-based communication.

In this study, we examine the developments of transactive memory systems and collective mind and their influence on performance in virtual teams. Although one of the oft‐cited benefits of the virtual team is the ability of its members to contribute diverse knowledge and expertise, the question of how virtual team members can bring their respective knowledge and expertise to solve the problems they face has been largely ignored in the past research on virtual teams. Building on an emerging body of socio‐cognitive literature, we argue that transactive memory systems and the collective mind are two important variables that explain team performance. We tested our hypotheses with a longitudinal data set that was collected from 38 virtual teams of graduate management students from six universities in four countries over eight weeks. The results suggest that the influence of team members' early communication volume on team performance decreases as teams develop transactive memory systems and a collective mind. The results further suggest that the development of a collective mind represents a high‐order learning in team settings.

Despite research spanning a 20‐year period (from 1950 to 1970), Ray L. Birdwhistell’s work on body language and theory of kinesics has been recorded only in occasional papers. Birdwhistell defined kinesics as “the study of body‐motion as related to the non‐verbal aspects of interpersonal communication”. He believed body‐motion communication to be systemic, a socially learned and communicative behaviour unless proven otherwise. The article extensively collates and analyses Birdwhistell’s work and theories. Birdwhistell was frequently forced to admit that a number of his theories were subject to some dispute. The article concludes that Birdwhistell’s work contains major flaws and the verdict of other researchers who have tried to develop his theories of kinesics has been damning.

Intercultural communication problems are most often argued to be caused by differences in cultural values. This exploratory paper aims to argue that attention should not only be directed at national differences. Alternatively, it aims to argue that more interest should be paid to the actual use of those differences in communication.

The paper is an ethnographic field study including 12 interviews and observations. It uses a short case on interaction between expatriates and local managers in a Chinese subsidiary of a Danish multinational corporation.

The paper illustrates how individuals and groups may essentialize cultural differences during intercultural business encounters and how this fixation of cultural traits can be used in social stratification.

Only scant extant research has focused on the active use of cultural differences in an intra‐subsidiary context.