Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto:Emergence of Automated Social Presence in Organizational Frontlines and Customers’ Service Experiences

Technology is rapidly changing the nature of service, customers’ service frontline experiences, and customers’ relationships with service providers. Based on the prediction that in the marketplace of 2025, technology (e.g., service-providing humanoid robots) will be melded into numerous service experiences, this article spotlights technology’s ability to engage customers on a social level as a critical advancement of technology infusions. Specifically, it introduces the novel concept of automated social presence (ASP; i.e., the extent to which technology makes customers feel the presence of another social entity) to the services literature. The authors develop a typology that highlights different combinations of automated and human social presence in organizational frontlines and indicates literature gaps, thereby emphasizing avenues for future research. Moreover, the article presents a conceptual framework that focuses on (a) how the relationship between ASP and several key service and customer outcomes is mediated by social cognition and perceptions of psychological ownership as well as (b) three customer-related factors that moderate the relationship between ASP and social cognition and psychological ownership (i.e., a customer’s relationship orientation, tendency to anthropomorphize, and technology readiness). Finally, propositions are presented that can be a catalyst for future work to enhance the understanding of how technology infusion, particularly service robots, influences customers’ frontline experiences in the future

An examination of factors influencing United States student perceptions of native and non-native United States teacher effectiveness.

Future research directions for integrating intercultural communication and intracultural communication concerns are discussed. Implications for training non-native U.S. instructors and developing future programs to enable more effective teaching are discussed.This investigation examines factors influencing U.S. student perceptions of native and non-native U.S. teacher effectiveness. A questionnaire employing measures of ethnocentrism, intercultural communication apprehension, willingness to communicate, and motivation was completed by 204 native U.S. students. Further, students responded to affective, cognitive, and behavioral measures with regard to native and non-native U.S. teacher effectiveness. The results showed that native U.S. students significantly evaluated native U.S. teachers more positively than non-native U.S. teachers. Simple correlations between evaluation scores for the two teacher types (native and non-native U.S.) for each dependent variable (classroom willingness to communicate, classroom motivation, affect for content, affect for instructor, behavioral intent, learning, learning loss, overall effectiveness, and ideal teacher) suggest that students in this study responded very specifically to the different teachers (intracultural or intercultural context) rather than on a general trait basis. The positive associations with the difference scores obtained indicated that more ethnocentric U.S. students tend to evaluate native U.S. teachers more favorably than non-native U.S. teachers. Further, students with higher general levels of motivation toward learning were somewhat more willing to communicate in classes with non-native U.S. teachers and were somewhat more motivated in those classes. Students who had high levels of intercultural communication apprehension rated non-native U.S. teachers more negatively than U.S. teachers.Drawing from research on uncertainty reduction theory (URT; Berger & Calabrese, 1975), anxiety and uncertainty management theory (AUM; Gudykunst, 1995), and expectancy violation theory (EVT; Burgoon, 1979), the results are discussed in reference to factors which distinguish the native U.S. teacher context (intracultural) and the non-native U.S. teacher context (intercultural). The possible situational differences for student level of anxiety, amount of uncertainty, and valence of expectations are elaborated and provided support by past research in the instructional communication literature on teacher effectiveness (Andersen, 1979a; Norton, 1977; Nussbaum, 1984; Richmond, Gorham, & McCroskey, 1987).Stepwise regression analyses revealed that up to 10 percent of the variability in differences of student perceptions of native U.S. and non-native U.S. teachers could be predicted by student levels of ethnocentrism. Intercultural communication apprehension was found to be wholly redundant with ethnocentrism in all of the models generated. The result of the regression analyses suggest that student bias in the form of ethnocentrism is a factor influencing perceptions of teacher effectiveness. The magnitude of the effects observed in the present study suggest that true differences in teacher effectiveness are most likely the primary causes of the perceived differences between native U.S. and non-native U.S. teacher effectiveness

Communication Apprehension: Evaluation of Use of the Indonesian Language Version of the PRCA-24 [Kecemasan Komunikasi: Evaluasi Penggunaan PRCA-24 Versi Bahasa Indonesia]

Communication apprehension (CA) is the anxiety of an individual associated with actual or anticipated communication with others. The Personal Report of Communication Apprehension - 24 Items Version (PRCA-24) is a measurement implement constructed to measure the level of CA of an individual. This research was aimed at the evaluation of the use of the PRCA-24 within the context of research in Indonesia. The participants in the research comprised 336 undergraduate program university students, in an Indonesian university. The evaluation of this implement of measurement used, as an evidence source, validity, based upon internal consistency (analysis of the factors of exploration and reliability testing), and relatedness to another variable, i.e., assertiveness. Assertiveness was selected as the external variable, which predisposes people to communications apprehension behavior, and is measured using the Rathus Assertiveness Schedule (RAS). The results of the factor analysis and reliability testing indicated the dependability of the PRCA-24. This measurement implement also had positive and significant correlations with the variable of predisposition. This research produced implications for use of the PRCA-24 in a variety of different contexts, which will be further discussed in this paper.   Communication apprehension (CA) adalah kecemasan individu yang berasosiasi dengan komunikasi yang nyata atau yang sedang diantisipasi terhadap orang lain. Personal Report of Communication Apprehension-24 items version (PRCA-24) adalah alat ukur yang dikonstruksikan untuk mengukur tingkat CA individu. Penelitian ini bertujuan mengevaluasi penggunaan PRCA-24 pada konteks penelitian di Indonesia. Partisipan penelitian adalah 336 mahasiswa program sarjana di suatu perguruan tinggi di Indonesia. Evaluasi alat ukur menggunakan sumber bukti validitas berdasarkan konsistensi internal (analisis faktor eksploratori dan pengujian reliabilitas), dan hubungan dengan variabel lain, yaitu asertivitas. Asertivitas dipilih sebagai variabel eksternal yang menjadi predisposisi perilaku CA dan diukur dengan menggunakan Rathus Assertiveness Schedule (RAS). Hasil analisis faktor dan pengujian reliabilitas menunjukkan kehandalan PRCA-24. Alat ukur ini juga berkorelasi positif dan signifikan dengan variabel predisposisi. Penelitian ini membawa implikasi berupa penggunaan PRCA-24 dalam berbagai konteks yang berbeda-beda yang akan dibahas lebih lanjut pada tulisan ini.   Received 17 July 2019; Accepted 15 September 2019; Published 25 October 2019