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This study aims to examine the extent to which organizational dissent predicts perception of workplace bullying. As previous studies have reported inconsistent and sometimes contradictory results regarding the interaction between the reporting of bullying and demographic variables, these variables are examined in the New Zealand context. Organizational communication research provides considerable insight into the ways individuals make sense of and resist workplace bullying through juxtaposition with the concepts of dissent and intragroup conflict.

A nationally representative sample of managers in New Zealand (n = 239) was conducted. Surveys included demographic questions and the following measures: Organizational Dissent Scale and Negative Acts Questionnaire Revised Scale.

Key results and indications for further research are highlighted by the third model in this study. First, workers who reported they engaged in either articulated dissent or latent dissent were more likely to perceive workplace bullying. Second, workers who are more likely to express contrary opinions in the workplace are more likely to recognize, acknowledge and tolerate less positive interactions in the workplace such as bullying.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to analyze dissent and bullying in the New Zealand context. Second, this research raises the question of whether there is a conflation of work-related bullying behaviors and bad leadership styles that may not be targeted (e.g. authoritative leadership and micromanaging). Finally, communication research provides a distinctive contribution by exploring the narrative form of worker responses to perceived bullying. In this manuscript, the authors examine potential predictors on the perception of workplace bullying in the context of New Zealand, particularly focus on the relationship between dissent and the perception of workplace bullying.

Advertisements for dietary supplements (DS) often include misleading claims regarding their health benefits. In this study, the authors designed an online advertisement for plant-based DS featuring misleading claims and investigated its effects on mature Chinese consumers before and after revealing the false claims. A consumer involvement framework was developed to evaluate the mediating effect of advertising involvement (AI) on the correlation between product involvement (PI), situational involvement (SI) and purchase intention (PI).

A total of 467 mature adults aged over 40 years who resided in China's Yangtze River Delta region and had experience in purchasing DS online were recruited. Relevant data were collected through an online survey and analysed through structural equation modelling.

Cognitive PI was positively correlated with both SI and PI and SI was positively correlated with PI. AI negatively moderated the correlation between affective PI and SI. Both cognitive PI and AI were positively correlated with PI and the correlation was mediated through SI.

DS consumption is a rational decision-making process driven by utilitarian motives. Consumers who are aware of the misleading claims adopt a cautious evaluation approach and place themselves in specific purchase situations before making a purchase decision. This study advances the literature by incorporating the consideration of misleading advertisements into the consumer involvement model within the context of online DS consumption. The study's findings provide insights to intensify monitoring of false advertisements in the DS industry and design effective consumer education programmes.

Research is needed regarding how to influence young adults’ patterns of cell phone use while driving, amid social pressures to stay connected to their peers. Such insight could form the basis of a social marketing campaign. This study aims to explore the potential of inoculation and narrative messages as strategies to protect (i.e. generate resistance against) negative attitudes toward texting and driving.

Using a three-phase experiment, the investigation explored the impact of different communication message strategies (i.e. inoculation, narrative, control) aimed at reducing texting while driving.

Results indicated that, for college students exposed to messages in support of texting and driving, inoculation messages were superior to both narrative and control messages. These findings can guide the development of strategic social marketing interventions.

Social marketing scholars and practitioners should consider weaving inoculation messages throughout social marketing campaigns focused on this important issue.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate and compare inoculation and narrative strategies in the context of texting and driving.

This paper aims to provide an exposition of the constructive research approach (CRA) to show the potential utility of CRA in transcending or mitigating the methodological and practical issues involved in researching organisations.

The paper is a literature review, and resulting thematic discussion of methodological and practical issues involves in action research (AR) in organisations through the lens of the CRA approach.

The paper identifies that CRA has benefits in orientation to a practical outcome grounded in a theoretical domain but with leeway to facilitate creativity, which can also potentially improve the quality of the collaborative relationships. The centrality of the construction within the method provides a “vantage point” to manage the emic (inside) and etic (outside) positionality concerns of action researchers working within organisational settings.

CRA has multiple practical benefits for action researchers and their collaborators in terms of time, risk and collaborative commitment.

The paper develops a useful tactical framework for discussing the practical and methodological issues when considering AR in organisations and highlights how CRA can be used in wider organisational scholarship outside its roots in management accounting.