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Research on organizational communication has shown significant associations with many important outcomes. Although these researches are appealing, there have been criticisms and suggestions for improvement of the organizational communication scales, developed in Western organization settings, to make them applicable to collectivist culture‐based organizations. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to access the organizational communication construct through the development and validation of an organizational communication measure for Malaysian organizations.

Item analysis for Malaysian organizational communication scale involves survey of 250 university employees, followed by construct and criterion‐related validation using 346 employees, representing three organizations in Malaysia, resulting in a Malaysian organizational communication scale.

Through the validation of a Malaysian organizational communication measure, support was found for the proposition that Malaysian organizations are composed of information flow, communication climate, message characteristics, and communication structure, as well as new dimensions, namely, the group bond and respect.

One of the weaknesses of the study was the size of sample used for the focus group. Another weakness was the organizations involved in the validation segment of the study, which were service‐related organizations. Finally, current investigations limit themselves to job satisfaction. These results have to be handled carefully.

The paper shows that group bond and mutual respect are salient work relationships in Malaysian organizations.

The emergence of group bond and respect dimensions in the Malaysian organizational communication construct is consistent with the examination of organizational behavior.

People spend a lot of time communicating with their co-workers each day; however, research has yet to explore how colleagues influence each other’s health behaviors. The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between health-related communication and health behaviors among co-workers in a workplace wellness program.

Participants (n=169) were recruited from a large south-western university and its local school district through e-mail announcements sent from a wellness administrator. Participants were part of a workplace wellness program that offers several daily group fitness classes, as well as cooking classes, and other educational programs for faculty and staff.

Structural equation modeling was used to examine the association between people’s perceived social influence and social support from co-workers, organizational socialization and their health behaviors. Results indicated that perceived social influence from co-workers had an indirect effect on people’s health behaviors through their perceived social support from their co-workers, as well as through their organizational socialization.

These variables were examined cross-sectionally, meaning that causal relationships and directionality cannot be determined in this study.

Co-worker communication and socialization appear to be important factors in understanding individuals’ health behaviors; thus, organizations that offer workplace wellness programs should provide opportunities for socialization and co-worker communication to facilitate employees’ healthy behaviors.

Although the authors only looked at one wellness program and did not examine these variables in programs of varying sizes and types, this study uniquely incorporates interpersonal and organizational communication perspectives in order to give new insight into co-workers’ health-related communication.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a model of the factors that explain the level of interpersonal conflict between marketing managers and sales managers. The paper aims to establish the overall level of interpersonal conflict in the full sample and in the two sampled countries (UK and Australia).

The study draws on two theoretical frameworks to develop the model, namely structural contingency theory and the interaction approach. More specifically, the conceptual framework uses three groups of variables to explain interpersonal conflict: structural, individual, and communication. Importantly, the study developed and tested nine hypotheses. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the validity of the measures while OLS regression was used in testing the hypotheses. The data were collected from 200 sales managers in the UK and Australia.

Overall, the study finds that there was a surprisingly low level of interpersonal conflict between marketing managers and sales managers and that there were no differences across the two countries. Of the three groups of variables, the two communication variables – frequency and bidirectionality – had the strongest effects on interpersonal conflict. The next strongest effects were from the individual‐level variables – psychological distance and the sales manager's formal education. The findings also reveal that the level of the sales manager's marketing training and the marketing manager's sales experience had no influence on interpersonal conflict. Two of the three structural variables – use of lateral linkages and being part of a corporation – had the hypothesized negative impact on interpersonal conflict.

This is the first study to use a large empirical survey to examine the marketing and sales dyad. Also, it is one of the few studies to test the effects of communication behviours on peer manager conflict.

Accumulating evidence suggests that Team-member exchange (TMX) influences employee work attitudes and behaviours separately from the effects of leader-member exchange (LMX). In particular, little is known of the effect of LMX differentiation (in-group versus out-group) as a process of social exchange that can, in turn, affect TMX quality. To explore this phenomenon, this chapter presents a multi-level model of TMX in organizations, which incorporates LMX differentiation, team identification, team member affect at the individual level, and fairness of LMX differentiation and affective climate at the group-level. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our model for theory, research, and practice.

Despite the detrimental effects of supervisor knowledge hiding on employees and organizations, little research has focused on how subordinates cope with it. Drawing on the impression management theory, this study proposes a mediated moderation model to explain who and how cope with supervisor knowledge hiding.

Using a sample of 340 full-time participants in various organizations and industries in China, the proposed model was tested using ordinary least squares regression with the PROCESS 3.5.

The results support the mediated moderation model, indicating that proactive subordinates are motivated to manage their impression towards supervisors and engage in upward ingratiation to cope with supervisor knowledge hiding. In contrast, subordinates with low level of proactive personality trait have less impression management motive and engage in fewer upward ingratiatory behaviors.

Based on the impression management theory, the current paper contributes to the literature on supervisor knowledge hiding by expanding the consequences of supervisor knowledge hiding, identifying a boundary condition of supervisor knowledge hiding on subordinate’s subsequent behaviors and enriching the mechanism underlying the effect of supervisor knowledge hiding with proactive personality.

One of the principal organizational developments in the last decade has been the pervasive influence of computer mediated communication (CMC) tools. The purpose of this paper is to closely interrogate the day‐to‐day role of e‐mail in explicating, influencing and shaping social and information interactions within an organization.

A series of in‐depth interviews (n=29) were undertaken to elicit employee opinions on their e‐mail adaptation, experiences and practices.

The paper provides insights into the polymorphic role of e‐mail, particularly the way in which it is adapted by individuals within the organization. Specifically, it shows how this tool interacts within day‐to‐day work activities and tasks.

This paper investigates only one CMC tool, e‐mail, although it is envisaged that this initial work will be used to raise a new understanding of the socially skilled adaptation of other CMC tools by employees as well as leaders.

Previously unreported insights into employee opinion are delineated in order to provide a focus from which organizations can train and develop their employees and leaders to maximise knowledge creation within the organization.

This study assesses CMC from an under‐researched “real‐life” perspective in which everyday interactions are used to understand employee reactions to e‐mail communication and hence foster an atmosphere in which these interactions assist organizational development.

The purpose of this study is to promote a better understanding of performance assessment (PA) as a managerial means via analyses and discussion of the system and practice in an academic library.

One existing PA system of a university library is presented. Descriptive analyses of two specific system‐inherent problems, respectively: weighting scheme of the evaluated criteria and disqualification of the immediate supervisor as rater, are conducted. The purpose of PA is addressed with reference to PA and pay linkage. Circular supervision as an effective element to ultimately eliminate individual errors in an administration is discussed.

The PA system and practice of CL are flawed. First, the weighting scheme of the evaluated categories is so allocated that the least measurable category has the overriding power. Second, the most qualified evaluator (the direct supervisor) is deprived of the numeric rating vote. Third, the end ratings from the PA lead to unfair merit compensation decisions and salary inequity. Finally, the system lacks a circular supervision mechanism to eliminate undefeatable power in the administration.

With concrete examples and data, this study brings to light some serious problems that exist in a PA system. Via in‐depth analyses and discussion of specific issues, it touches upon circular supervision, a core element in a sound administration that needs to be adequately addressed.

The purpose of this paper is to use Motivating Language Theory (MLT) as a framework in determining leader use of different language styles during times of dynamic change.

This exploratory study of executive members of the Australian Institute of Management examined how MLT may provide a mechanism for analyzing what leaders say in the context of a work setting. Written transcripts of interview data were analyzed to determine leaders’ use of three language styles: meaning-making (locutionary), direction giving (perlocutionary), and empathetic (illocutionary) language. The software program NVivo was used to help aggregate themes emerging from written and interview data into discrete modules to enable more robust and comprehensive analysis of the data.

A range of issues pertinent to the way executives lead and manage their businesses, both in private and not-for-profit organizations, was identified in this study. Direction giving language was most prominent in management activities and leadership that was strategic or people related, followed by meaning-making and empathetic language. The findings suggest that business leaders could develop a repertoire of language approaches in order to achieve organizational outcomes.

More research of the language of leadership and its implications for organizational outcomes is warranted. For instance, the strategic integration of motivating language with a compatible set of leader behaviors, organizational objectives, and cultures may reveal mechanisms as yet unknown for achieving outcomes. Research is needed to determine the content and construct of these behaviors, objectives, and cultures. Some questions also remain regarding the appropriateness of using the Motivating Language Scale to examine the types of language used by managers and leaders in the work place. The authors recommend further application of MLT through the Motivating Language Scale in order to help clarify these queries.

This paper used MLT as a framework for identifying leader use of different language styles during times of dynamic change. MLT has been used to identify the speech patterns of leaders during verbal communication exchanges with staff and work colleagues, but this study is the first example of the use of MLT when examining leader responses to interviews and in their written responses to survey questions.

With the increase of social media usage in the workplace as a background, this paper specifically addresses social media efficacy's and social media privacy's impact on supervisor and subordinate trust, affective organizational commitment (AOC) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) through the theoretical lens of communication privacy management (CPM) theory.

An online survey of 337 full- and part-time workers was conducted.

Path models showed that social media efficacy positively influenced social media privacy which in turn impacted both supervisor trust and subordinate trust. Supervisor trust was positively related to AOC, while subordinate trust positively influenced OCB. t-tests revealed differences between workers who have social media relationships with supervisors and/or subordinates and those workers without such relationships.

If workers believe they are adept at using social media, they will also be less concerned about the company's ability to infringe upon privacy through unwanted access to social media content. If social media efficacy drives perceptions of social media privacy and indirectly influences trust and organizational outcomes then it may be worthwhile for organizations to help enhance workers' feelings of social media efficacy through professional development programs.

This study is the first to extend research on workplace communication privacy into the realm of social media. Social media relationships also influence the work environment. These findings can be used as information in future research as well as policy development and professional development programs.

One challenge facing the digitalized workplace is communication control, especially emotion regulation in which individuals try to manage their emotional experiences and/or expressions during organizational communication. Extant research largely focused on the facilitating role of a few media features (e.g. fewer symbol sets). This study seeks to provide a deeper understanding of media features that individuals, as receivers of negative emotions expressed by communication partners, could leverage to support regulating negative emotional communication in the workplace.

This study used qualitative research methods to identify media features that support regulating negative emotional communication at work. Data were collected using interviews and was analyzed using directed content analysis in which media features discussed in media synchronicity theory (MST) were used as the initial coding schema but the researcher was open to media features that do not fit with MST.

In addition to media features (and capabilities) discussed in MST, this study identified five additional media features (i.e. message broadcasting, message blocking, receiving specification, recipient specification and compartmentalization) and two underlying media capabilities (i.e. transmission control capability and participant control capability) that may support regulating negative emotional communication. Two major mechanisms (i.e. reducing or eliminating emotion regulation workload, and providing prerequisites or removing obstacles for emotion regulation) via which media features support emotion regulation were also identified.

This paper provides a more comprehensive understanding regarding communication media features that may support emotion regulation in particular and communication control in general. Findings of this study contribute to several literatures and may also transfer to other similar contexts.