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1 – 10 of over 6000Davide Giusino, Marco De Angelis, Rudolf Kubík, Carolyn Axtell and Luca Pietrantoni
The purpose of this study is to describe the implementation of a digital-based team coaching intervention aimed at improving team communication in the workplace through social…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to describe the implementation of a digital-based team coaching intervention aimed at improving team communication in the workplace through social network visualization. The study examined recipients’ perceptions of the intervention at two time points and assessed the temporal stability of various factors, including the intervention’s integrity, design, transferability, acceptance and the usability of the adopted visualization tool. The moderating role of digital usability was also evaluated.
Design/methodology/approach
Four team coaching sessions were delivered to 62 participants from seven teams across three departments within a large public health-care organization in Northern Italy. Perceptions of the intervention dimensions were collected after the second and fourth sessions.
Findings
Results indicated that, at both time points, recipients appreciated the intervention’s integrity and usability more than its design, transferability and acceptance. Furthermore, no significant changes in recipients’ perceptions were observed over time. The transferability of the intervention was significantly associated with its acceptance, but only when the usability of the digital tool was high.
Research limitations/implications
The study enriches existing literature on digital interventions in group communication by focusing on process dimensions like recipients’ perceptions of various aspects and the implementation process. Furthermore, the study underscores the potential of integrating specific techniques such as sociomapping and coaching within health-care organizations, encouraging more research and development in these areas.
Practical implications
The study emphasizes the critical role of usability and integrity in digital-based team coaching interventions, suggesting that high-quality, user-friendly tools not only lead to initial effectiveness but also sustain positive impacts over time, while also increasing transferability and acceptance.
Originality/value
The present study uniquely deploys a longitudinal approach to examine recipients’ perceptions of a digital-based intervention that combines social network visualization and team coaching to enhance team communication.
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Ileana Zeler, Cristina Fuentes-Lara and Ángeles Moreno
This paper aims to explore the position of women in the communication management sector in Spain from their own experiences. The study examines female communication and leadership…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the position of women in the communication management sector in Spain from their own experiences. The study examines female communication and leadership styles, emphasising the cost of leadership in which they are leaders or led.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a qualitative methodology based on in-depth interviews with 22 women actively working in top companies and agencies: female communication directors, female employees with a female leader and female employees with a male leader. Data were analysed through thematic analysis.
Findings
Results show mixed communication and leadership styles. In addition, the high level of self-demand of female communication managers stands out, making it challenging to achieve a work-life balance and the implementation of successful role models.
Social implications
Exploring the factors of female leadership remains necessary to understand and make their situation in various industries and positions visible. It also helps remove barriers to leadership, guide organisations in addressing gender discrimination issues and develop mechanisms for the internal promotion of female professionals.
Originality/value
To the best of authors' knowledge, this is the first study exploring the leadership and communication styles of women in the Spanish Public Relations (PR) and communication management industries. It also highlights the aspects influencing the cost of leadership.
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Lynn McAlpine, Isabelle Skakni, Anna Sala-Bubaré, Crista Weise and Kelsey Inouye
Teamwork has long featured in social science research. Further, with research increasingly “cross-national,” communication becomes more complex, for instance, involving different…
Abstract
Purpose
Teamwork has long featured in social science research. Further, with research increasingly “cross-national,” communication becomes more complex, for instance, involving different cultures, languages and modes of communication. Yet, studies examining team communicative processes that can facilitate or constrain collaboration are rare. As a cross-national European team representing varied disciplines, experiences, languages and ethnicities, we undertook to examine our communication processes with the aim to promote better qualitative research practices.
Design/methodology/approach
Viewing reflection as a tool for enhancing workplace practices, we undertook a structured reflection. We developed an empirically derived framework about team communication, then used it to analyse our interaction practices and their relative effectiveness.
Findings
The results highlighted two under-examined influences, the use of different modes of communication for different purposes and the need for face-to-face communication to address a particularly challenging aspect of research, negotiating a shared coding scheme to analyse diverse cultural and linguistic qualitative data.
Practical implications
The study offers a procedure and concepts that others could use to examine their team communication.
Originality/value
The communicative processes that can constrain and facilitate effective cross-national research team collaboration are rarely examined. The results emphasise the need for careful negotiations around language, epistemologies, cultures and goals from the moment collaboration begins in formulating a project, through applying for grant funds, to when the last paper is published – timely in a context in which such work is increasingly expected.
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Abeer A. Zaki, Nesma A. Saleh and Mahmoud A. Mahmoud
This study aims to assess the effect of updating the Phase I data – to enhance the parameters' estimates – on the control charts' detection power designed to monitor social…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to assess the effect of updating the Phase I data – to enhance the parameters' estimates – on the control charts' detection power designed to monitor social networks.
Design/methodology/approach
A dynamic version of the degree corrected stochastic block model (DCSBM) is used to model the network. Both the Shewhart and exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control charts are used to monitor the model parameters. A performance comparison is conducted for each chart when designed using both fixed and moving windows of networks.
Findings
Our results show that continuously updating the parameters' estimates during the monitoring phase delays the Shewhart chart's detection of networks' anomalies; as compared to the fixed window approach. While the EWMA chart performance is either indifferent or worse, based on the updating technique, as compared to the fixed window approach. Generally, the EWMA chart performs uniformly better than the Shewhart chart for all shift sizes. We recommend the use of the EWMA chart when monitoring networks modeled with the DCSBM, with sufficiently small to moderate fixed window size to estimate the unknown model parameters.
Originality/value
This study shows that the excessive recommendations in literature regarding the continuous updating of Phase I data during the monitoring phase to enhance the control chart performance cannot generally be extended to social network monitoring; especially when using the DCSBM. That is to say, the effect of continuously updating the parameters' estimates highly depends on the nature of the process being monitored.
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Shadia Salah Salem and Amaal Abdulqader Basaffar
The purpose of this study is to present a training system on smart phones to develop fashion and textile concepts among the female students with severe hearing impairment and then…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to present a training system on smart phones to develop fashion and textile concepts among the female students with severe hearing impairment and then to determine the effectiveness of the training system in developing fashion and textile concepts among the female students with severe hearing impairment.
Design/methodology/approach
The analytical descriptive methodology and experimental methodology were used to examine the training system in developing fashion and textile concepts among the female students with severe hearing impairment.
Findings
The findings of this study indicate that the training system on smart phones was effective in developing fashion and textile concepts among the female students with severe hearing impairment.
Research limitations/implications
This study has some limitations such as limited sample size, lack of control group and lack of long-term.
Practical implications
This study provides practical implications for educators, researchers and practitioners in terms of using smart phone applications in educational processes for people with disabilities.
Social implications
This study has social implications for people with disabilities as it provides them with access to education through smart phone applications which can help them develop their skills in fashion and textile design.
Originality/value
This study presents an original model of a training system on smart phones for developing fashion and textile concepts among the female students with severe hearing impairment, which can be used as a reference for other studies related to this field.
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Jana Žnidaršič, Sabina Bogilović, Matej Černe and Roopak Kumar Gupta
Besides diversity's positive effects, groups of “we” against “them” may form in accordance with social categorization theory, showing diversity's negative consequences. The…
Abstract
Purpose
Besides diversity's positive effects, groups of “we” against “them” may form in accordance with social categorization theory, showing diversity's negative consequences. The authors aim to reconcile these results and examine their boundary conditions.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors studied 584 working professionals from five contexts (transnational companies dealing with multicultural interactions) and analyzed data using moderated-mediation procedures.
Findings
A leader-promoting diversity climate plays a crucial role in moderating the negative relationship between perceived dissimilarity and group identification, which is mediated by value dissimilarity.
Originality/value
This study mainly contributes by treating dissimilarity as a multicomponent construct, emphasizing the crucial differences embodied in various conceptualizations of dissimilarity – namely visible and value dissimilarity. For dissimilarity to result in group identification, the results highlight leaders' crucial role, beyond that of organizations and individuals, in stimulating a diversity-embracing climate in work units.
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Osku Torro, Henri Pirkkalainen and Hongxiu Li
The purpose of the paper is to examine how media synchronicity facilitates the emergence of social exchange (i.e. trust and reciprocity) in organizations’ information and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to examine how media synchronicity facilitates the emergence of social exchange (i.e. trust and reciprocity) in organizations’ information and communication technology (ICT)-mediated interactions. A model of media synchronicity in organizational social exchange (MSiOSE) is proposed.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper has a design and review approach. The theoretical analysis is based on social exchange theory (SET) and media synchronicity theory (MST).
Findings
The authors propose that, in general, social exchange benefits from both asynchronous and synchronous communication processes. However, media synchronicity has different boundary conditions (i.e. pros and cons) in relation to the emergence of social exchange, determined in accordance with the mutually interacting patterns of trust and reciprocity predicted by SET. The authors provide testable theoretical propositions to support the analysis.
Originality/value
Social exchange is a critical business factor for organizations due to its well-known positive outcomes, such as the strengthening of social ties. The need for successful social exchange in remote work conditions is particularly emphasized. However, with regard to the communication and behavioral patterns that lead to social exchange via ICT, the theoretical understanding is limited. The study reveals previously unmapped heuristics between social exchange and physical media capabilities. Thus, the study's propositions can be used to study and analyze social exchange in the ever-changing media landscape. As a practical contribution, the study helps organizations to improve their communication strategies and use of ICT.
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