FACE Peace Design Brief #1: Communities of Practice On/Offline

The FACE Peace Initiative at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice intends to help peacebuilders answer questions about in-person and online collaboration with intention and care. This design brief combines desk research on best practices from other fields with observation of peacebuilding organizations to identify key debates and concerns and provide insight into how to navigate trade-offs between in-person and distanced peacebuilding activities and events. Peacebuilding organizations often attempt to gather members of the field into “communities of practice” (“CoPs”), which intend to increase skills and knowledge among members through long-term information-sharing and reciprocal mentorship. Facilitators of practice communities in peacebuilding and other fields frequently complain that the community falls moribund over time. This FACE Peace design brief considers the question of practice community success from the perspective of hybrid work and the tensions peacebuilders have come to feel between digital and in-person interactions in a truly global field. What does in-person interaction between practice community members accomplish? When are these benefits essential for success? When are they simply “nice to have”? What are the best ways to recreate the benefits of in-person meetings at a distance? Are there benefits only distanced work can provide? Answers depend in part on the goals, constraints and characteristics of the practice community. This design brief offers insights on two related questions. First, how should the facilitators of practice communities decide what happens in person and what happens at a distance? Second, how can facilitators administer the in-person and online aspects of their practice communities to maximum effect?https://digital.sandiego.edu/ipj-research/1059/thumbnail.jp

The Role of Community Belongingness in the Mental Health and Well-Being of Black LGBTQ Adults

The impact of racial and sexual minority stigma, prejudice, and discrimination on the mental health and well-being of Black and LGBTQ individuals, respectively, has been well documented in the literature. Research on these relationships for Black LGBTQ individuals who are multiply marginalized due to their position at the social intersections of gender identity, sexual orientation, and race/ethnicity is less common. Belongingness to identity-based communities can protect against the negative impact of these minority stressors for Black and LGBTQ individuals and aid coping processes. However, Black LGBTQ individuals often experience stigma and discrimination in their racial, sexual, and gender minority communities due to their multiple minority identities. They may choose instead to create Black LGBTQ communities as a strategy to access the group-level coping resources needed to support their mental health and well-being in the face of compounded minority stress. Thus, the present study aimed to explore the relationships between identity-based community belongingness, coping, minority stress, mental health, and well-being for Black LGBTQ individuals. Path and multiple regression analyses were conducted to test the hypothesized relationships between these variables in a sample (n = 345) of Black LGBTQ adults living in the United States. Study results found that: (1) community belongingness was associated better with mental health and well-being; (2) coping partially explained the relationships between community belongingness and well-being, but did not explain the relationship between community belongingness and mental health; (3) Black community belongingness was associated with better mental health; and (4) Black LGBTQ community belongingness was associated with better well-being. Implications for social work practice and education, and future research, are discussed

Belonging to Different Types of Families as a Protective Factor Against Minority Stress in Queer Young Adults

Research on resilience focuses on how people recover from stressful situations. This honors thesis addresses resilience in people who experience rejection from their families of origin. A common source of support in the Gay community is chosen families. However, these families are often formed related to a deficit in social support from the original family. Creating families to make up for a lack of social support could be come from a deficit-reduction approach to the need to belong, which is related to lower levels of well-being. To investigate this conceptual inconsistency between resilience and social support from a deficient orientation, I studied if all chosen families are related to resilience, or if only those of individuals with a growth belongingness orientation related to resilience in a sample of college-aged individuals. To answer these questions, I recruited a sample of emerging adults by contacting department chairs at various colleges and universities in the United States. Participants filled out a survey on Google Forms measuring: Social support from their original family; social support from their chosen family; their belongingness orientation; a non-clinical measure of depressive symptoms; and a measure of self-esteem. The results suggested that the relationship between social support and well-being may involve bi-directional causality, where people seek out social support to cope with low self-esteem and high levels of depression, and this may be especially common for people with a high growth belongingness orientation. Future research should include longitudinal studies to better understand this relationship

Incivility of Coworker Behaviors and Minority Firefighters’ Belongingness in the Workplace

Research with firefighters continues to indicate that this population is particularly vulnerable to development of mental health conditions as a result of their professional roles (International Association of Firefighters [IAFF], 2019; Stanley et al., 2017; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA], 2018) and minority firefighters may be at heightened risk as a result of their experiences within the fire service. An answer to this concern may lie in the exploration of belonging and uncivil behaviors, as research has demonstrated that belonging in the workplace serves to reduce mental health symptoms and enhance an individual’s ability to cope with stressors and workplace trauma (Cockshaw & Shochet, 2010; Shakespeare-Finch & Daley, 2017), while uncivil behaviors have been linked to decreased work performance and detriments to mental health (Kunkel & Davidson, 2014; Porath, Foulk, et al., 2015; Porath & Gerbasi, 2015; Porath, Gerbasi, et al., 2015; Porath & Pearson, 2012). Therefore, to better understand minority firefighters’ experiences with uncivil coworker behaviors that influenced their sense of belonging in their workplace, I used Concept Mapping design (CM; Kane & Trochim, 2007). Ten firefighters that self-identified as racial minorities generated 73 statements describing behaviors that decreased their feelings of belonging. These statements were organized into four regions encompassing seven clusters. I discussed findings of the current study with implications for mental health professionals’ treatment of firefighters, counselor education, and the fire service as a whole as well as the limitations to the study and suggestions for future research

The Role of Sense of Community in Online Brand Social Networking Sites

This study was designed to explore the phenomenon of social commerce marketing in relation to consumer-brand relationship development. The specific research objective were as follows: (a) to identify multiple factors motivating consumers to have sense of community in the context of brand social networking sites; (b) to investigate the effects of general connection between consumers and the brand on developing a sense of online brand community in social networking site-based brand communities; (c) to examine potential outcomes of having a sense of online brand community in brand social networking sites such as brand commitment, advocacy, and loyalty; (d) to investigate whether levels of participation in brand social networking site strengthens the relationship between a sense of online brand community and relational outcomes such as brand commitment. Theoretical foundations from sense of community (i.e., sense of psychological community), social identity theory, and social capital theory were used to support and test a proposed model. This research employed an online self-administered survey method. A total of 617 complete responses were collected from consumer panels across United States. The analyses of responses were based on a two-step approach: confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Through confirmatory factor analyses with the measurement model development, each construct was examined carefully. The results from the structural model suggested that perceived social support and consumer-brand relationship were important drivers of relationship mediators (i.e., sense of online brand community), which led to relational outcomes (i.e., brand commitment, brand preference, brand advocacy, and behavioral loyalty). However, need for affiliation did not have impact on developing a sense of online brand community. In addition, the levels of engagement of in brand social networking sites strengthened the relationship between sense of online brand community and brand commitment. From the results, academic and managerial implications were suggested, and suggestions for future research were presented

Detecting Well-being in Digital Communities: An Interdisciplinary Engineering Approach for its Indicators

In this thesis, the challenges of defining, refining, and applying well-being as a progressive management indicator are addressed. This work\u27s implications and contributions are highly relevant for service research as it advances the integration of consumer well-being and the service value chain. It also provides a substantial contribution to policy and strategic management by integrating constituents\u27 values and experiences with recommendations for progressive community management

Perceived Belongingness, Self-Esteem, and Outness Level on Psychological Distress Among Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Individuals

Perceived belongingness has demonstrated significant positive effects on psychological distress levels. Various other demographic and psychological constructs including sexual orientation, ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES), self-esteem, and outness level also have been found in past literature to have significant relationships with psychological distress levels. Because sexual minority individuals are at increased risk for psychological distress, the purpose of this study was to assess the role belongingness played in psychological distress among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) university students after already accounting for these other variables through a hierarchical regression analysis. Due to the nature of hierarchical regression analysis, the effects of all variables on psychological distress (i.e., sexual orientation, ethnicity, SES, self-esteem, and outness level) were also analyzed independently. Additionally, a moderating effect of sexual orientation on the relationship between perceived belongingness and psychological distress was assessed. Results from 132 LGB students showed that the combined effect of sexual orientation, ethnicity, and SES (entered at Step 1 of the hierarchical regression analysis) on psychological distress was non-significant (R2 = .038, p = .285). Outness level and self-esteem were entered at Step 2 of the regression analysis and explained a significant additional portion of the variance in psychological distress levels (ΔR2 = .392, p \u3c .001) mainly due to the effect of self-esteem because outness level was found to be a non-significant construct. Perceived belongingness accounted for an additional significant portion of psychological distress variance when entered at Step 3 (ΔR2 = .052, p = .001). With all of the variables in the model, 48.8% of psychological distress variance was accounted for among the sample. Sexual orientation did not moderate the relationship between perceived belongingness and psychological distress. Self-esteem and perceived belongingness are important protective factors against psychological distress among sexual minority students, so more research refining our understanding of how these constructs combat psychological distress is merited. Specifically, research implications are discussed suggesting how future research can expand upon the current findings to better understand the results. Clinical implications are discussed emphasizing the importance of self-esteem and perceived belongingness as a way to combat psychological distress among LGB university students. These implications include some ideas that counseling psychologists can use to strengthen these constructs for clients. Theoretical implications are also discussed showcasing how the research findings fit into Meyer’s Minority Stress Theory, the theoretical framework used to guide the current research

Do Users Mind the Brand Engagement? The Effect of Brand Engagement in Knowledge Sharing Virtual Community

Although previous studies have discussed antecedent mechanisms for user participation and the value it creates in the brand community. Few studies discuss the role of brands, communities, and users in the co-creation of value when virtual communities are established based on users\u27 interests or needs. This paper explored the effect of brand participation on user community engagement intentions/behaviors in virtual communities. Data was collected from China by online survey and empirical analysis was used for hypotheses testing. The result shows that when brands participate in virtual communities, the higher the user\u27s engagement intention, the easier it is for them to make knowledge contribution, which will promote the development and operation of virtual communities. What’s more, in the context of brand participation, brand interactivity will affect the user\u27s community engagement intention and thus the user\u27s knowledge contribution, which will prompt the development of a virtual community. These findings confirmed that virtual community can help to implement circle marketing, interact with consumers, improve consumers\u27 willingness to participate actively, and have positive practical significance for the government and firms

MANAGING POLICY NETWORKS: A SOCIAL MARKETING- AND COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS-DRIVEN VIEW

This research contributes a new view of Policy Networks (PN) management. The research object is a successful PN practice in the Basque Country (BC) over an 8-year period, in relation to Local Agenda 21 (LA21) promotion. The Basque experience is studied using a qualitative and a quantitative approach. PNs are viewed as social marketing-driven collective intelligence systems built to have an effect on municipality commitment to LA21 (in terms of value, satisfaction and loyalty). The research concludes that by fostering the co-development ‘genome’ (a mix of co-decision, co-creation, love, glory and money ‘genes’) a commitment to the new tool is achieved.

Detecting Well-being in Digital Communities: An Interdisciplinary Engineering Approach for its Indicators

In this thesis, the challenges of defining, refining, and applying well-being as a progressive management indicator are addressed. This work\u27s implications and contributions are highly relevant for service research as it advances the integration of consumer well-being and the service value chain. It also provides a substantial contribution to policy and strategic management by integrating constituents\u27 values and experiences with recommendations for progressive community management