Virtuality at work and social media use among dispersed workers: promoting network ties, shared vision and trust

Purpose: Technology and globalization of services have facilitated the digitalization of many processes at work. However, their impact on social capital is unknown. Thus, the goal of the current study was to examine the relationships between virtuality in the workplace and social capital. Design: Using an online survey, we recruited 152 female student workers using an opportunity sampling approach. Findings: Participants who used social media at work (n = 112) reported higher social capital overall than participants who did not use any social media to communicate with colleagues at work (n = 40). This difference also presented itself in terms of the social capital subscales (network ties, shared vision, and trust). Mediation analysis conducted with users of social media at work (n = 112) revealed that social media use was a significant mediator in the relationship between virtuality at work and social capital overall (partial mediation). Subsequent analyses with the subscales for virtuality and social capital suggested full mediation of the relationship in most instances (with the exception of work practices). Originality/value: This is the first study to examine the relationship between virtuality, social media, and social capital at work. The result of this study suggests that social media use at work between colleagues can play a significant role in promoting social capital in workplaces that are heavily reliant on technological application to support interactions at work and feature geographical and temporal dispersion

European training requirements in vascular surgery

The Union Europénne des Médecins Spécialistes (UEMS) is a non-governmental organization representing national associations of medical specialists (over 1.6 million) at the European level. It has strong links and relations with European institutions (Commission and Parliament), the other independent European medical or-ganizations and the European medical/scientific societies. With a current membership of 40 national associations and 43 specialist sections and European boards, the UEMS promotes the free movement of medical specialists across Europe while ensuring the highest level of training which will pave the way to the improvement of quality of care for the benefit of all European citizens. The UEMS areas of expertise notably encompass Continuing Medical Education, Post-Graduate Training and Quality Assurance. It is the UEMS conviction that the quality of medical care and expertise is directly linked to the quality of train-ing provided to the medical professionals. Therefore, the UEMS committed itself to contribute to the improvement of medical training at the European level through the de-velopment of European standards in the different medical disciplines. One of the added values of the UEMS is the development of new harmonized models for the training of the next generation of medical specialists, and of high standards of clinical practice, hence improved care for pa-tients throughout Europe. It is not important where doc-tors are trained, they should have at least the same core competencies.peer-reviewe