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During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, ubiquitous social media has become a primary channel for information dissemination, social interactions and recreational activities. However, it remains unclear how social media usage influences nonpharmaceutical preventive behavior of individuals in response to the pandemic. This paper aims to explore the impacts of social media on COVID-19 preventive behaviors based on the theoretical lens of empowerment.

In this paper, survey data has been collected from 739 social media users in China to conduct structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis.

The results indicate that social media empowers individuals in terms of knowledge seeking, knowledge sharing, socializing and entertainment to promote preventive behaviors at the individual level by increasing each person's perception of collective efficacy and social cohesion. Meanwhile, social cohesion negatively impacts the relationship between collective efficacy and individual preventive behavior.

This study provides insights regarding the role of social media in crisis response and examines the role of collective beliefs in the influencing mechanism of social media. The results presented herein can be used to guide government agencies seeking to control the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper aims at providing a theoretical perspective to study the effects of the communication management/public relations of organizations on the social cohesion of individuals, groups and societies.

The possible connections between communication management and social cohesion, social integration and diversity are explored by looking at the concept of social capital. After discussing aspects of the hypothesis of decreasing social capital and of the hypothesis of increasing contingency of Western societies, questions are raised about the societal role of communication management as a profession that is usually described as being concerned with building relations. To study questions like these empirically, the actor network theory (ANT) is suggested as an analytical perspective and a methodological approach to elaborate the position of reflective communication management.

ANT or the sociology of associations seems a suitable theoretical perspective for studying the relations between communication management, social capital and social cohesion. ANT sheds a light on fact and meaning construction, on issues of power and framing and on coalition building activities and translation: who is bridging or bonding with whom and with what consequences?

Research from the perspective of ANT could result in a comprehensive understanding of communication management/public relations incorporating functionalistic, social psychological, relationship and rhetorical approaches.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the theoretical basis of the claim that social cohesion is served better by processes within civil society than by government policies. This paper also aims to provide an empirical test using recent UK data. This paper combines literatures from sociology, political science and social psychology in an innovative way.

The approach used was analysis of a range of relevant literatures. Statistical analysis of the DCLG Citizenship Survey to examine aspects of cohesion was also undertaken.

The civil society argument has both strengths and weaknesses. Group processes and group interests in civil society may lead towards exclusion rather than inclusion. In the UK context, the civil society route to social cohesion is uncertain: the groupings that develop do not necessary promote commitments broadly across society and particularly between advantaged and disadvantaged citizens.

This article shows the value of social psychological as well as sociological and political science material. It identifies severe limitations as well as strengths in the kind of civil society approaches that have been promoted in recent discussion of the “Big Society”.

The civil society route to social cohesion is no substitute for the welfare state.

Moves to re‐centre social cohesion on civil society processes are unlikely to be successful.

The paper uses a combination of theoretical literatures from different disciplines, including social psychology. The paper uses an empirical test of the civil society thesis using up to date material.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate asymmetric effects of team cohesion and team members’ relational qualification on the creativity of new product ideas.

Structural equation modeling was conducted on survey data collected from 195 new product development practitioners in various US high-technology industries.

The study suggests that creative and potentially successful product ideas include three dimensions – usefulness for customers, and novelty for customers and usefulness for the firms (i.e. enhancement efficiency and effectiveness of companies’ new product development process). By focusing on a relational aspect of new product development teams, the study shows that team task cohesion mediates the relationship between the antecedents (team members’ organizational commitment and social competency) and the three outcome dimensions of a successful product idea (novelty, usefulness to customers and usefulness to the firm). The team members’ interpersonal relationship has no positive association with task cohesion and the desirable qualifications of product ideas.

An ideation team’s socially competent members who identify with their organization are likely to be attracted to a given task. This task cohesion, in turn, enhances the creativeness of the development of product ideas.

To generate fruitful product ideas using a team approach, companies should make sure that their new product ideation teams achieve a sense of mutual commitment to the given ideation tasks, develop a feeling of belongingness and ownership toward the firms and include members who have good social and interpersonal skills. However, the possession of strong social cohesion is not essential for the teams.

This study provides novel insights concerning the relational aspect of product development teams assigned to the initiation phase (front end) of a new product development process.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of state fragility on select indicators of human development and identify aspects of state fragility that have the greatest impact on poverty reduction and sustainable development. The paper also explores the impact of social cohesion on human development as well as the mediating role of state legitimacy in mediating the relationship between social cohesion and human development.

The study is based on data from 180 countries and uses ordinary least squares regression and mediation analysis to explore the effects of social cohesion on human development.

The findings show a significant relationship between state fragility and human development. It suggests that policies and efforts aimed at enhancing social cohesion would have the most significant impact on human development. The findings also show that social cohesion not only has a direct effect on human development but it also has an indirect effect on human development through state legitimacy (mediator).

Even though state fragility has been largely associated with low income countries, different facets of fragility are manifested in various countries regardless of levels of economic development.

The study is timely in view of the evidence of increasing state fragility in many countries. Furthermore, this is the first scholarly work linking lack of social cohesion, state fragility and human development.

This study examines whether there are unintended consequences that emerge from status interventions in task groups in relation to cohesion and solidarity. Past theorists have argued that inconsistent status structures produce weaker levels of cohesion and solidarity in comparison to consistent status structures.

Data come from an online experiment involving mixed-sex dyads interacting in one of three conditions. Participants individually completed an ambiguous problem-solving task and then worked together over Zoom audio to form a group decision. In the three conditions, participants were either given no performance feedback before the problem-solving task or were informed the male or the female participant performed better on a pretest related to the task. The conversations were recorded and analyzed using measures related to paraverbal synchronization and accommodation.

In terms of self-reported cohesion, there appeared to be a difference, albeit a weak one, in only the inconsistent-status condition, with female participants reporting higher levels of cohesion in comparison to males. However, in terms of solidarity, there was no significant difference between the conditions.

Although inconsistent status structures were associated with weaker perceptions of cohesion, it did not appear to impact solidarity like theorists have suggested. Status structures do not appear to impact group solidarity.

The nature of group membership in conjunction with status consistency/inconsistency may produce the significant differences in solidarity that theorists have suggested.

To date, there has been little empirical examination of how status consistency affects cohesion and solidarity. Relatedly, the current study advances the research on vocal accommodation by analyzing status and solidarity simultaneously.

This chapter reviews the challenges associated with measuring and studying cohesion over time and provides guidance for addressing these issues in future research.

We reviewed the team cohesion and team development literatures, including definitions and conceptualizations of cohesion as well as the seminal team development taxonomies. We then integrated these literatures to identify the challenges and potential solutions for studying team cohesion as a dynamic construct.

We identified five key challenges – theoretical and practical in nature – that researchers and organizations often face in capturing and studying team cohesion emergence: problems with self-report measures; measuring multiple dimensions of cohesion at appropriate times; failure to combine multilevel and temporal frameworks; and tracking of team and organizational events. In response, we provide actions that researchers can take in addressing these challenges: using indirect/unobtrusive measures; using social network analysis; studying “swift cohesion”; adopting an event system theory framework; and applying agent-based modeling.

This comprehensive chapter provides recommendations for studying team cohesion as a dynamic, emergent process rather than as a static state. We discuss the challenges pertaining to study design and measurement when capturing team cohesion emergence, and provide theoretical and practical ideas to guide researchers in overcoming these issues in future research.

This chapter suggests tools and data collection techniques that organizations and practitioners can use for measuring and improving team cohesion, such as using unobtrusive measures and timing measurement according to team and organizational events.

Teams are best positioned for success when certain enabling conditions are in place such as the right mix of individuals. Effective team staffing considers team members’ knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) as well as the configuration of team member KSAOs and their relations, called team composition. In practice, however, how to integrate team composition considerations into team staffing to facilitate outcomes such as team cohesion can seem nebulous. The purpose of this chapter is to describe how team member KSAOs and their configurations and relations affect team cohesion, and suggest how this information can inform team staffing. We frame team cohesion as an aspect of team human capital to understand when it may be an important consideration for staffing. We describe multilevel considerations in staffing cohesive teams. We summarize theories that link team composition to team cohesion via interpersonal attraction, a shared team identity, and team task commitment. Finally, we propose a six-step approach for staffing cohesive teams, and describe a few areas for future research.

This paper aims to explore and examine how public houses or pubs function as facilitators and developers of community cohesion and social interactions in rural areas of England.

The authors use data and information about facilities and services available for 284 rural parishes in two different points in time (2000 and 2010) to elaborate an index measurement of community cohesion. The index, created upon a range of discrete variables capturing multiple aspects of community living, is then investigated by using structural equation models to assess the impact of pubs in shaping the levels of community cohesion in the English countryside.

Findings gathered from the analysis identify a strong positive relationship between the presence of pubs and higher levels of community cohesion index occurring within the examined parishes, indicating that this relationship is maintained in time regardless of size of the parish, although different impacts are found in the two time points considered.

As the study is based on a longitudinal examination, it can stimulate research on themes and issues regarding the impact of third places on community cohesion and social capital in rural and remote communities, increasing the amount of information and data available. For instance, due to the nature of information considered, the study could not explore the effects on rural communities’ wellbeing associated with different types of pubs’ ownership and management.

These results provide a valuable and original contribution to the literature related to the measurement of community cohesion and wellbeing with regard to third places such as small businesses and local retailers, whose significant functions of fostering social aggregation and communal initiatives at a local level are frequently neglected.

Findings from this study provide a valuable opportunity for policymakers and local administrators to evaluate policies and actions in support of their communities. In particular, findings provide an original piece of information about the social value of community pubs particularly in small and peripheral areas of England.

The paper provides new and original information about the importance of pubs and third places in general in fostering and developing community cohesion and wellbeing at a local level. Given the significant paucity of empirical studies in the field, the paper represents a valuable contribution to knowledge with particular regard to the methodology applied as well as the potential implications of its findings.

This article aims to introduce a two‐dimensional instrument for the measurement of the social capital of professions. On a general level, the social capital of a profession is defined as a source of power that allows a profession to further its goals and maintain its professional identity.

The measure is developed and tested by using data collected among Finnish dentists (N=1,302) in April 2012. The methods employed include confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), mean comparisons (ANOVA and t‐test) and OLS regression. Data analysis is guided by theories of social capital, especially the Putnamian tradition, and the literature on modern professions.

The first dimension of social capital is social cohesion, which consists of solidarity, trust, identification and commitment to professional ethical principles. The second dimension of social capital is network density, which includes both formal and informal professional networks. Social cohesion and network density are positively correlated. By conceptualizing social capital as an individual‐level attribute, this research shows that the employment of dentists across the public and private sectors increases the social capital of the profession.

Until now no tools have been available for the measurement of the social capital of professions. The article also sheds new light on the nature of modern professions, their associations and sources of power in contemporary societies.