6,496 research outputs found

    Talk and Let Talk: The Effects of Language Proficiency on Speaking up and Competence Perceptions in Multinational Teams

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    Collaboration within multinational teams necessitates the adoption of a common language, typically English, which often leads to significant differences in language proficiency across members. We develop and test a multilevel model of the effects of language proficiency within multinational teams. An experimental study of 51 teams (102 American and 102 Chinese participants) revealed that, at the individual level, members with higher levels of language proficiency were more likely to speak up, which led to more positive perceptions of their competence. At the team level, greater dispersion in language proficiency across members was associated with less accurate competence recognition, which, in turn, led to lower overall team performance. Moreover, communication medium moderated these relationships, such that the effects of language proficiency were more potent in face-to-face than in computer-mediated teams. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research and for managing participation, competence, and technology in multinational teams

    MEASURING ACCOMMODATION ON FACEBOOK BETWEEN SINGLE-A MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAMS AND FACEBOOK USERS

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    The following research was designed to introduce CAT into a practical setting for social media managers while primarily examining Minor League Baseball (MiLB) at the Single-A level. Single-A baseball has not been examined solely in a social media setting, which was why this level of MiLB was selected. Study A was designed to measure the levels of accommodation across various posting strategies (neoliberal, social, team related, open code) and the subsequent number of likes and number of comments accompanying each post. The accommodation scores, measured through the Language Inquiry and Word Count software (LIWC, pronounced “Luke”), accompanied by a series of algorithms, and the traditional measures for traditional Facebook metrics were measured using a regression analysis. There was some evidence to suggest that number of comments was correlated to LSM scores, while various posting types were significant at the team level. Study B was designed to measure the differences between the most and least liked Single-A MiLB Facebook pages in terms of levels of accommodation. This exploration utilized regression to measure accommodation’s influence on likes and number of comments. As expected, traditional Facebook metrics such as likes and number of comments per post were higher for the team with more page likes, although accommodation scores were higher for the team with fewer page likes. The implications of these studies, and future direction for social media academics and practitioners, are also explored

    Mind the gap: gap factors in intercultural business communication : a study of German-Indian semi-virtual tech/engineering teams

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    While the affordances of technology have facilitated virtual modes of global collaboration, cultural variances and a geographically-dispersed environment can also lead to impaired group communication in team interaction. This qualitative study draws on data gathered from four organizations to investigate the miscommunication and cognitive dissonances reported by virtual German-Indian engineering/tech communities of practice. The study argues that it is not so much the performance or doing of a communicative act that creates dissonances, but the gaps, i.e., the absence or not-doing of certain communicative actions expected in a collaborative context. The gap factors are experienced as unfulfilled reciprocal expectations, and are classified and explored against three parameters: 1) the culture of a technological community of practice, 2) the power relations between the interactants, and 3) the consequences of virtual communication. The findings indicate a complementary divergence between the two groups regarding the nature of gaps. While the German teams report gaps in communicative efficiency and content caused e.g., by non-disclosure, euphemistic language and a deficiency in push communication, the Indian teams perceive gaps in relationality and affective signaling. At the same time, they are two sides of the same coin, with the divergences arising from the way in which the intersecting structural parameters are viewed as being salient in interaction. The study concludes with implications and suggestions for organizational practice

    Language, writing, and social (inter)action: An analysis of text-based chats in Macedonian and English

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    The purpose of this study is to investigate the text-based chatting practices of a particular community of native Macedonian speakers who chat both in Macedonian and in English (as their foreign language). Much research in computer-mediated communication (CMC) over the last decade has been done in English as L1. Some of the few studies which explored CMC cross-linguistically include the comparison of French vs. English (Werry, 1996), Japanese vs. English (Nishimura, 2003b), Spanish vs. English (del-Teso-Craviotto, 2006), Serbian vs. English (Radic, 2007) and Turkish vs. English (Savas, 2010). In these studies, a number of different language features (e.g., orthography, code switching) and functions (e.g., representation of gender) common to TBC have been analyzed, but none has explored in-depth the use of language as social action in online text-based interactions. Data collected from surveys, text-based chats, and interviews were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively using methods and concepts borrowed from discourse analysis, conversation analysis, systemic functional linguistics and communication accommodation theory. Seventy text-based chats in Macedonian and English from seven native Macedonian speakers, who form an intact group, were collected over a period of four months. By investigating linguistic elements, extralinguistic phenomena (e.g., emoticons, typographic forms such as LOL), and contextual phenomena (e.g., appraisal, limitations of the medium) in the text-based chats of my participants, and by conducting follow-up text-based interviews regarding their individual chatting practices, this study has explored how all these phenomena are used for performing social action in two languages. Text-based chat was also found to be a convenient medium for participants to co-position in various ways while carefully accommodating to various contextual factors

    Treat him as a normal baby: paediatrician's framing of parental responsibility as advice in the management of a genetic condition

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    Oral Presentation - Parallel Session 2: 2E Risk and Uncertainty/Ethics: no. 2E.4Parental responsibility in the management of genetic conditions has been the focus of both family-oriented interview-based research (e.g. Arribas-Ayllon et al. 2008; 2011) as well as real-life face-to-face genetic counselling research (Sarangi fc; Thomassen and Sarangi 2012). The current paper is an attempt to contribute to the latter tradition involving paediatricians and parents where parental responsibility is constitutive of professional advice. The genetic condition in question is G6PD deficiency (commonly known as favism), a mild hereditary disorder prevalent in Asia (Zayts and Sarangi 2013). We draw on 18 consultations in a maternal unit in Hong Kong (recruitment ongoing) where paediatricians communicate with mothers of newborns diagnosed with G6PD. We employ theme-oriented discourse analysis – comprising activity analysis and accounts analysis (Sarangi 2010) – to examine how the paediatricians frame their advice-giving trajectories – on to which elements of parental responsibility (in terms of future actions and moral selves) can be mapped. We show how 'causal responsibility' (Sarangi, fc) that concerns potential consequences of the mothers' actions in managing the condition emerges as a dominant thread in our data corpus. 'Causal [parental] responsibility' is embedded in the paediatrician's advice-giving trajectories which include, among other things, how to 'treat' these children, ranging from safeguards against certain medications and food to prevention of negative physiological scenarios (such as an acute hemolytic reaction). We examine closely the attendant discourse devices through which parental responsibility is framed, e.g., modalisation, contrast, character/event work. We conclude that, in terms of temporality, 'causal [parental] responsibility' is 'forward-looking' as the mothers' responsible actions can normalise the child’s immediate and future wellbeing.postprin

    Projecting voice: towards an agentive understanding of a critical capacity

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    Intercultural communication competence in a global virtual team

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    Abstract In recent years, the global prevalence of remote work has rapidly increased. This has been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the effects of globalisation. A specific form of remote work is a global virtual team (GVT). A GVT refers to a team that uses computer-mediated technology to communicate in order to work towards a common goal, and is temporary, multicultural, and geographically dispersed. The communication in such a team also involves interactions among people of different cultures, intercultural communication. This can be characterised by misunderstandings and communication failures. However, intercultural communication competence (ICC) can aid in achieving mutual understanding. ICC refers to the ability to effectively and appropriately interact with people of different cultural backgrounds. The purpose of this study is to answer the research question: How can intercultural communication competence be applied in a global virtual team? Answering to the question involves descriptions and categorisations of intercultural communication and collaboration challenges, and of solutions to the challenges in the form of ways of applying ICC. The research design of this study included an expert interview, and a single case study of a GVT. The GVT consisted of students at multiple universities. The interview findings indicated that making assumptions related to culturally different others based on insufficient information was the basis of all intercultural communication challenges in a GVT. One solution to this challenge was extending the time of analysing one another’s communication. The case study findings indicated that the most pronounced and common challenges faced by the GVT were related to coordination, particularly to some members’ lack of commitment, which led to other challenges. One solution to the challenge was starting an interaction in order to involve team members in collaboration. Many of the challenges can be related to one another. Furthermore, solutions in the form of ways of applying ICC can be devised, if not to all, at least to nearly all communication and collaboration challenges faced in a GVT. Knowledge of these challenges and ways may allow companies and their employees to overcome and prevent such challenges, improve their intercultural communication and collaboration, as well as ultimately experience increases in task and relationship outcomes.Tiivistelmä Viime vuosina etätyö on nopeasti yleistynyt maailmanlaajuisesti. Syinä tähän ovat olleet COVID-19-pandemia sekä globalisaation vaikutukset. Etätyön erityinen muoto on globaali virtuaalitiimi (GVT). GVT viittaa tiimiin, joka viestii tietotekniikan välityksellä työskennelläkseen yhteisen tavoitteen hyväksi, ja on väliaikainen, monikulttuurinen, ja maantieteellisesti hajautunut. Tällaiseen viestintään kuuluu eri kulttuurien edustajien välistä vuorovaikuttamista, kulttuurienvälistä viestintää. Tähän voi liittyä väärinymmärryksiä ja viestinnän epäonnistumisia. Kuitenkin, kulttuurienvälinen viestintäkompetenssi (KVK) voi auttaa molemminpuolisen ymmärryksen saavuttamisessa. KVK viittaa kykyyn viestiä tehokkaasti ja soveliaasti eri kulttuuritaustaisten ihmisten kanssa. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on vastata tutkimuskysymykseen: Miten kulttuurienvälistä viestintäkompetenssia voidaan soveltaa globaalissa virtuaalitiimissä? Tähän kysymykseen vastaamiseen liittyy kulttuurienvälisen viestinnän ja yhteistyön haasteiden, ja näiden ratkaisujen kuvailuja ja luokitteluja. Ratkaisut viittaavat tapoihin soveltaa KVK:ta näihin haasteisiin. Tämän tutkimuksen tutkimusasetelmaan sisältyi asiantuntijahaastattelu, ja yksittäistapaustutkimus GVT:stä. Haastattelulöydökset viittasivat siihen, että oletusten tekeminen liittyen kulttuurisesti erilaisiin toisiin perustuen riittämättömään informaatioon oli kaikkien kulttuurienvälisten haasteiden perusta GVT:ssä. Yksi ratkaisu tähän haasteeseen oli osapuolten toistensa viestinnän analysointiajan pidentäminen. Tapaustutkimuslöydökset viittasivat siihen, että korostuneimmat ja yleisimmät haasteet, jotka GVT kohtasi, liittyivät koordinaatioon, erityisesti joidenkin jäsenten sitoutumisen puutteeseen, joka johti muihin haasteisiin. Yksi ratkaisu haasteeseen oli vuorovaikutuksen aloittaminen tiimiläisten osallistamiseksi yhteistyöhön. Monet haasteista voivat liittyä toisiinsa. Lisäksi, ratkaisuja voidaan löytää KVK:n soveltamisen tapojen muodossa, jos ei kaikkiin, ainakin lähes kaikkiin GVT:ssä kohdattujen viestinnän ja yhteistyön haasteisiin. Tieto näistä haasteista ja tavoista voi mahdollistaa yritysten ja näiden työntekijöiden selviytyä näistä haasteista ja ehkäistä näitä haasteita, edistää heidän kulttuurienvälistä viestintäänsä ja yhteistyötänsä, sekä lopulta parantaa tehtävätuloksia ja ihmissuhteita

    Gender Bias In The Technical Disciplines

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    This study investigates how women are affected by gender bias in the workplace. Despite the increasing numbers of women in the workforce, women are still under-represented and under-valued in workplaces, which, in part, is due to their gender stereotype. This study demonstrates how gender bias in the workplace has been proven to limit women in their careers and potential in their occupational roles. The media’s negative depiction of women in their gender stereotype reinforces and perpetuates this image as a cultural norm in society. Women both conform and are judged and evaluated according to their weak and submissive gender stereotype. Women face challenges and problems in the workplace when they are evaluated and appraised by their female gender stereotype. Women have been prevented from acquiring jobs and positions, have been denied promotions and advancements, failed to be perceived as desiring of and capable of leadership or management positions, as well as typically receive lower paid than their male counterparts. Furthermore, women’s unique, indirect, and congenial conversational methods are perceived as unconfident, incompetent, and thus, incapable in the masculine organizational culture of most workplaces. Through the investigation of gender bias in the workplace, professionals and employers will gain an awareness of how gender bias and socially-prescribed gender roles can affect the workplace and interfere with women’s success in their career. Technical communicators and other educators will have a better understanding of how to overcome gender stereotyping and be encouraged to teach students on how to be gender-neutral in their communications in the workplace, perhaps striving for a more egalitarian society
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