Search results
1 – 10 of over 42000Carolin Kaiser and Freimut Bodendorf
The paper's aim is to mine and analyze opinion formation on the basis of consumer dialogs in online forums.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper's aim is to mine and analyze opinion formation on the basis of consumer dialogs in online forums.
Design/methodology/approach
The study identifies opinions, communication relationships, and dialog acts of forum users using different text mining methods. Utilizing this data, social networks can be derived and analyzed to detect influential users and opinion tendencies. The approach is applied to sample online forums discussing the iPhone.
Findings
Combining text mining and social network analysis enables the study of opinion formation and yields encouraging results. Out of the four methods employed for text mining, support vector machines performed best.
Research limitations/implications
The data set applied here is fairly small. More threads on different products will be considered in future work to improve validation.
Practical implications
The approach represents a valuable instrument for online market research. It enables companies to recognize opportunities and risks and to initiate appropriate marketing actions.
Originality/value
This work is one of the first studies that combine communication content, relationships and dialog acts for analyzing opinion formation.
Details
Keywords
Rebecca R. Kitzmiller, Reuben R. McDaniel, Constance M. Johnson, E. Allan Lind and Ruth A. Anderson
We examine how interpersonal behavior and social interaction influence team sensemaking and subsequent team actions during a hospital-based health information technology (HIT…
Abstract
Purpose
We examine how interpersonal behavior and social interaction influence team sensemaking and subsequent team actions during a hospital-based health information technology (HIT) implementation project.
Design/methodology/approach
Over the course of 18 months, we directly observed the interpersonal interactions of HIT implementation teams using a sensemaking lens.
Findings
We identified three voice-promoting strategies enacted by team leaders that fostered team member voice and sensemaking; communicating a vision; connecting goals to team member values; and seeking team member input. However, infrequent leader expressions of anger quickly undermined team sensemaking, halting dialog essential to problem solving. By seeking team member opinions, team leaders overcame the negative effects of anger.
Practical implications
Leaders must enact voice-promoting behaviors and use them throughout a team’s engagement. Further, training teams in how to use conflict to achieve greater innovation may improve sensemaking essential to project risk mitigation.
Social implications
Health care work processes are complex; teams involved in implementing improvements must be prepared to deal with conflicting, contentious issues, which will arise during change. Therefore, team conflict training may be essential to sustaining sensemaking.
Research implications
Future research should seek to identify team interactions that foster sensemaking, especially when topics are difficult or unwelcome, then determine the association between staff sensemaking and the impact on HIT implementation outcomes.
Value/originality
We are among the first to focus on project teams tasked with HIT implementation. This research extends our understanding of how leaders’ behaviors might facilitate or impeded speaking up among project teams in health care settings.
Details
Keywords
Charlotte Ryan and Gregory Squires
We argue that by conducting systematic research with communities rather than on communities, community-based research (CBR) methods can both advance the study of human interaction…
Abstract
We argue that by conducting systematic research with communities rather than on communities, community-based research (CBR) methods can both advance the study of human interaction and strengthen public understanding and appreciation of social sciences. CBR, among other methods, can also address social scientists’ ethical and social commitments. We recap the history of calls by leading sociologists for rigorous, empirical, community-engaged research. We introduce CBR methods as empirically grounded methods for conducting social research with social actors. We define terms and describe the range of methods that we include in the umbrella term, “community-based research.” After providing exemplars of community-based research, we review CBR’s advantages and challenges. We, next, summarize an intervention that we undertook as members of the Publication Committee of the URBAN Research Network’s Sociology section in which the committee developed and disseminated guidelines for peer review of community-based research. We also share initial responses from journal editors. In the conclusion, we revisit the potential of community-based research and note the consequences of neglecting community-based research traditions.
Details
Keywords
Jan Czarzasty and Adam Mrozowicki
In the context of debates on the role of social partners in shaping anti-crisis policies, the article explores the developments of social dialogue in Poland following the outbreak…
Abstract
Purpose
In the context of debates on the role of social partners in shaping anti-crisis policies, the article explores the developments of social dialogue in Poland following the outbreak of the pandemic. The central research question is whether the crisis has helped to revitalise social dialogue or has it further revealed its weaknesses that were apparent before it.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on the combination of literature review and the analysis of primary data derived from 22 expert interviews with the representatives of trade unions, employers and ministries collected in 2020–2021 in four essential industries (education, health care, social care and logistics).
Findings
The analysis suggests that the pandemic led to reinforcement of “illusory corporatism” in Poland, deepened mistrust among social partners and triggered a shift to informal channels of influencing policymaking. The weakness of the social partners and the strong position of the right-wing populist government meant that fears of recession and a health crisis were insufficient to develop “crisis” corporatism. While business interests were represented better than labour in policymaking, limited labour-friendly outcomes have been achieved as a result of workers’ mobilisation and unilateral decisions of the government rather than tripartite social dialogue.
Originality/value
Based on original empirical research, the article contributes to the discussion on the impact of the crisis on social dialogue under patchwork capitalism. It points to the role of strong governments and informality in circumventing tripartite structures and the importance of essential workers’ mobilisation in response to the lack of social dialogue.
Details
Keywords
Jan Czarzasty and Adam Mrozowicki
The purpose of this paper is to examine the interrelations between the evolution of industrial relations (IR) and IR research in Poland in the historical context. Two questions…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the interrelations between the evolution of industrial relations (IR) and IR research in Poland in the historical context. Two questions are put forward: How was the evolution of the IR system in Poland influenced by the re-constitution of a particular model of the capitalism and the strategies and struggle of IR actors? How were the ways of approaching and theorizing IR influenced by the aforementioned evolution?
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws upon academic literature, secondary data on actors and processes of IR as well as four expert interviews with the representatives of the first generation of IR scholars in Poland.
Findings
The paper suggests that the development of the IR system and the related scholarship can be divided into three phases: the pre-1989 period characterised by the lack of autonomous interests representation and rather limited IR research; the early development of the post-1989 IR system marked by the debates on the integrative role of IR as peacekeeping mechanism in the period of deep economic and political changes (1989-2004); the post-EU accession consolidation of the IR system characterised by the weakness of the IR actors vis-à-vis the state and increasing neo-etatist tendencies.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the ongoing debate on the relationships between the emergent models of Eastern European capitalism and the evolution of IR systems. It critically analyses the state of the discussion on the IR field Poland emphasising the relevance of political-economic factors as well as the ideology of “social peace” for both the evolution of the IR system in the country and the state of the IR debate.
Details
Keywords
Wim J.L. Elving and Rosa May Postma
In this study, the strategies of companies regarding social media and stakeholder dialogue and engagement are central. Based on insights from previous studies, it showed that…
Abstract
In this study, the strategies of companies regarding social media and stakeholder dialogue and engagement are central. Based on insights from previous studies, it showed that organizations used little opportunities for stakeholder dialogue on social media. Since dialogue is a condition to create engagement, it is of importance for a follow-up study. Therefore, 10 respondents from leading European companies were interviewed and asked about strategies regarding stakeholder dialogue and related topics. From the results, we can conclude that engaging in dialogue with stakeholders on social media is still underdeveloped. Organizations are not only missing opportunities but also take risk not pursuing the opportunities social media offer.
Details
Keywords
Describes two‐way dialogue, between each side of industry, is a key element in social policy. Proposes to analyse and comment on some of the social dialogue, in particular both…
Abstract
Describes two‐way dialogue, between each side of industry, is a key element in social policy. Proposes to analyse and comment on some of the social dialogue, in particular both the role and significance of this notion in the soon‐to‐be enlarged Europe. Acknowledges that the ten candidate countries that join on 1 May 2004 must build a social dialogue and negotiate and conclude collective agreements.
Details
Keywords
Chukwuma Ukoha and Andrew Stranieri
This paper aims to use the writings of Mikhail Bakhtin to reveal new insights into the role and impact of social media in health-care settings.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to use the writings of Mikhail Bakhtin to reveal new insights into the role and impact of social media in health-care settings.
Design/methodology/approach
With the help of Bakhtin’s constructs of dialogism, polyphony, heteroglossia and carnival, the power and influences of the social media phenomenon in health-care settings, are explored.
Findings
It is apparent from the in-depth analysis conducted that there is a delicate balance between the need to increase dialogue and the need to safeguard public health, in the use of social media for health-related communication. Bakhtin‘s constructs elucidate this delicate balance and highlight the need for health-care providers that use social media to find the right balance between these competing communicational priorities.
Originality/value
This paper advances a nascent theoretical approach to social media research. By applying Bakhtinian ideas to consumer health informatics, this paper has the potential to open a new approach to theorizing the role of social software in health-care settings. Stakeholders in digital health will find this paper useful, as it opens up dialogue to further discuss the role of social media in health care.
Details
Keywords
Simon S. Gao and Jane J. Zhang
To identify the applicability of social auditing as an approach of engaging stakeholders in assessing and reporting on corporate sustainability and its performance.
Abstract
Purpose
To identify the applicability of social auditing as an approach of engaging stakeholders in assessing and reporting on corporate sustainability and its performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing upon the framework of AA1000 and the social auditing studies, this paper links stakeholder engagement, social auditing and corporate sustainability with a view to applying dialogue‐based social auditing to address corporate sustainability.
Findings
This paper identifies a “match” between corporate sustainability and social auditing, as both aim at improving the social, environmental and economic performance of an organisation, considering the well‐being of a wider range of stakeholders and requiring the engagement of stakeholders in the process. This paper suggests that social auditing through engaging stakeholders via dialogue could be applied to build trusts, identify commitment and promote co‐operation amongst stakeholders and corporations.
Research limitations/implications
This research requires further empirical research into the practicality of social auditing in addressing corporate sustainability and the determination of the limitations of dialogue‐based social auditing.
Practical implications
Social auditing has been identified as a useful mechanism of balancing differing interests among stakeholders and corporations in a democratic business society. The application of social auditing in developing and achieving corporate sustainability has apparently practical implications.
Originality/value
This paper examines the applicability of dialogue‐based social auditing in helping business to move towards sustainability. Social auditing as a process of assessing and reporting on corporate social and environmental performance through engaging stakeholders via dialogue could be applied to build trusts, identify commitment and promote cooperation amongst stakeholders and corporations.
Details