Predicting Employee Turnover from Friendship Networks

Employees (n=40) at a fast-food restaurant were surveyed about characteristics of their position and their level of satisfaction. Employees were then asked to report with whom they regularly communicated inside and outside the workplace and to indicate how close they were to employees with whom they were linked. Employee turnover was measured after three months had elapsed. A goal of the research was to replicate a model of employee turnover that predicts employees more central in their social network to be less likely to leave, and to test a social support explanation of the centrality model. The results indicated that employees who reported a greater number of out-degree links with friends were less likely to leave. The number of in-degree links with friends did not significantly predict turnover, and neither did network links with peers. Friendship prestige, measured by the number of in-degree links, was strongly correlated with relational closeness and amount of time spent with employees outside the workplace.     

Predicting Employee Turnover from Friendship Networks

Employees (n=40) at a fast-food restaurant were surveyed about characteristics of their position and their level of satisfaction. Employees were then asked to report with whom they regularly communicated inside and outside the workplace and to indicate how close they were to employees with whom they were linked. Employee turnover was measured after three months had elapsed. A goal of the research was to replicate a model of employee turnover that predicts employees more central in their social network to be less likely to leave, and to test a social support explanation of the centrality model. The results indicated that employees who reported a greater number of out-degree links with friends were less likely to leave. The number of in-degree links with friends did not significantly predict turnover, and neither did network links with peers. Friendship prestige, measured by the number of in-degree links, was strongly correlated with relational closeness and amount of time spent with employees outside the workplace.     

The persuasive force of similarity in cognitive style between advocate and audience

Prior research indicates that when a bargaining representative is held accountable by a constituency, tough, distributive bargaining is often the result and deadlocks become more probable. This study focuses upon two variables that have been hypothesized to mitigate against such debilitating effects: authority to reach agreements and self‐monitoring. The results confirmed the debilitating effects of accountability. Bargainers held accountable made more extreme initial offers, thought they were perceived to be less cooperative, took more time to negotiate, were more likely to deadlock, and were less satisfied with the outcomes than bargainers not held accountable. Authority interacted with accountability to influence straying from the group's aspiration level on initial and final offers. When accountable, bargainers with authority initially strayed further from the group's position but deviated less on their final offer than bargainers without authority. Delegated authority significantly reduced the number of deadlocks experienced by accountable bargainers but the level of deadlocks remained greater than when accountability was absent. Correlations involving self‐monitoring usually were significant only within the accountability conditions and indicated that high self‐monitors initially strayed less from the group's position but deviated more on their final offer than low self‐monitors.     

Communication message cues and opinions about people with depression: an investigation of discussion on Weibo

A content analysis was conducted of the posts generated by mass media organizations and public opinion leaders on the Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo to investigate the associations between several communication message cues and opinions about people with depression (N = 102). The study revealed that the posts of the influential users were more likely to be stigmatizing when they communicated stereotypes, but less likely to be stigmatizing or more likely to be supportive when they made personal, genetic and medical, and social and environmental cause and responsibility claims. The posts were also more likely to be supportive if the influential users presented treatment and recovery information. In addition to finding out what communication cues activate the influential users' stigmatizing or supportive opinions, the study also examined and found the impact of the influential users' opinions on their followers' opinions on this issue (N = 8261). The findings showed that the public opinion leaders were more likely than the mass media to express support for people with depression. This support then translated into supportive responses among their followers toward those living with the disease.     

Help between disabled and ablebodied persons: An exploratory observational study of a feedback system

Because of concern among both disabled and ablebodied individuals about the issue of helping behavior, an exploratory observational study of helping in three settings was undertaken. Previous research had examined the frequency with which the disabled are helped, but had not examined the communication accompanying that help. The present study was interested in investigating the behaviors which actually occur in regard to helping, rather than what people say they do. The settings included a sheltered workshop, a social activity group, and a university with a large population of disabled students. The results indicate that much helping behavior occurred, but little verbal communication accompanied that help. There were few requests for or offers of help. In the three settings studied, helping did not appear to be a serious problem. No negative reactions to offers of or requests for help were observed. There were some instances, however, when those apparently needing help did not receive it. On the basis of the observations reported in this study, seventeen tentative “rules” based on our findings have been generated.     

“Not now,maybe later”: The influence of relationship type,request persistence,and alcohol consumption on women's refusal strategies

This study examines strategies employed by women when refusing an unwanted request for increased intimacy. Women (N = 76) orally produced refusal messages to unwanted requests from hypothetical dating partners and friends. The influence of relationship type, request persistence, and alcohol consumption on refusal strategies was examined. Approximately half of the participants (N = 37) drank alcohol before encoding the refusal messages. The results indicate that relationship type influenced women's refusal strategy selection and that request persistence had a more pronounced influence on the refusals to dates’ requests than to friends’ requests. Alcohol consumption did not significantly affect the encoding of refusal strategies. Results suggest that the influence of alcohol consumption on refusals should be examined within the context of the whole message production process.     

Still Too Much of a Good Thing? The Replication of Tong,Van Der Heide,Langwell, and Walther (2008)

Tong, Van Der Heide, Langwell, and Walther (2008) tested the relationship between the number of Facebook friends and impressions of the profile owner. They found the number of Facebook friends a person had influenced impressions of social attractiveness and extraversion, but not physical attractiveness, of the profile owner. The current study replicates their original study by experimentally testing for differences when the Facebook profile owner has 102, 302, 502, 702, or 902 friends. Results of the replication indicated no significant effect of the number of Facebook friends and impressions of social attractiveness or physical attractiveness. However, results did indicate significant differences in impressions of extraversion. Warranting theory is applied to aid in interpretation of results.     

Sex and persuasibility

The audio and videotapes of actual employment screening interviews conducted at a university placement center were analyzed in order to determine the relationships among certain interviewer verbal behaviors, applicants’ perceptions of their interviewers as empathic listeners, and actual interview outcomes (receiving/not receiving a second interview offer). Analyses revealed the frequency with which interviewers made interruptive statements to be significantly and negatively associated with applicants’ perceptions of empathic listening. However, screening interviews from which second interview offers were eventually made were not differentiated either by applicants’ empathie listening perceptions or interviewers’ empathie listening behaviors from interviews from which no offers were forthcoming.     

JOURNALISTS' MORAL JUDGMENT ABOUT CHILDREN

This study used a controlled experiment to examine the ethical decision-making of 99 professional journalists in the United States to see if they held different attitudes, made different decisions, and used different levels of moral judgment when stories involved children than when they involved adults. It found that these journalists were significantly more concerned with protecting children's privacy, keeping them from harm, and ensuring informed consent than they were for adults. But they did not use significantly higher levels of moral judgment for children than adults, nor did they withhold children's photographs significantly more often than adults'. The journalists in this study believed they were protecting children from harm but did not carry through with those beliefs. It is important that the news media treat children well because having children's voices in news stories is vital to understanding their worlds and reporting on injustices against them.     

Pillow Talk and Cognitive Decision-making Processes: Exploring the Influence of Orgasm and Alcohol on Communication after Sexual Activity

This study explores individuals' postcoital disclosures by investigating the role of orgasm and alcohol on communication after sexual activity over a two-week period. Assessments of the risks and benefits of disclosing were expected to influence the associations among orgasm, alcohol, and postcoital communication. The results revealed that individuals who orgasmed perceived greater benefits to disclosing to their partners after sexual activity. They also disclosed more positively valenced information and information of greater magnitude compared to those who did not orgasm, although risk–benefit assessments did not mediate this relationship. Additionally, the more alcohol individuals consumed, the fewer benefits they assessed to disclosing, the less deep and positively valenced their disclosures were, and the more unintentional they were in their disclosures. Similarly, the relationship between alcohol and the dimensions of disclosure was not mediated by risk–benefit assessments. Finally, individuals who consumed more alcohol and did not orgasm disclosed less positively valenced information than individuals who consumed less alcohol and did not orgasm across occasions. The implications of these findings for couples' communication and future research on the postcoital time interval are discussed.     

“Friend” or Foe? Why People Friend Disliked Others on Facebook

This study explores the disconnection that exists between the number of friends and relationships people maintain in their face-to-face interactions and the number of connections people establish on social networking sites. Specifically, we examined the extent to which Facebook users “friend” people they dislike and find annoying on Facebook and the reasons people offer for engaging in these seemingly nonintuitive behaviors. The results indicate that, in a sample of college students (N = 305), the majority of Facebook users are friends with people they dislike on Facebook (61%) and actively read the postings of individuals even though they find their postings annoying (85%). Participants’ sex, intensity of Facebook use, and general relational anxiety all independently predicted the occurrence of friending disliked others and actively reading annoying postings. A uses and gratifications framework was adopted to develop a typology of reasons why people engage in these behaviors. Monitoring, surveillance, downward social comparison, and other explanations were provided by participants to account for their behavior on Facebook. How engaging in these online behaviors might affect the psychological well-being of individuals and quality of interpersonal relationships is discussed, and future directions for research are offered.     

Seeking and resisting compliance: Selection and evaluation of tactics in a simulated college student drinking context

A laboratory study was conducted to determine the types of compliance‐gaining and compliance‐resisting strategies selected and subsequently judged for effectiveness by college students in a simulated casual drinking context. 96 participants in the study were assigned one of two conditions in the study: compliance‐gaining (attempting to induce drinking by the partner) and compliance‐resisting (resisting offers of alcohol). Results indicated that participants in both conditions utilized direct forms of social influence most often (simple offer, direct refusal). Resistance strategies were rated more effective than compliance strategies and compliance‐gaining strategies were differentially rated as effective. Heavy drinkers and moderate drinkers rated the effectiveness of compliance‐gaining strategies differently from non‐drinkers. Theoretical implications were advanced for the compliance‐gaining/resisting area, and practical implications were suggested for those interested in developing programs for campus alcohol awareness.     

基于SNS的信息共享授权代理机制研究

提出两种基于SNS好友关系的信息共享授权代理机制,解决SNS用户给好友或好友的好友共享外部受保护资源的问题。与传统授权代理不同,提出的授权代理机制采用SNS网络中所特有的关系网络,使用第三方用户的身份信息临时访问受保护资源。通过授权代理机制,用户可以在一种受控方式下与好友共享更多的信息;同时,也可以在社会网络关系的帮助下获取所需的信息或文档。     

Dialogic voices in talk about drinking and pregnancy

Alcohol use during pregnancy poses a significant risk of fetal alcohol syndrome. This study presents the interpretive findings of the formative research phase of a funded grant to develop a community-based public health media campaign on the topic of drinking during pregnancy. In the initial wave of data collection, 50 rural women were recruited from four Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) clinics in southeastern Iowa to participate in semi-structured interviews. In the second wave, 10 additional WIC clients were interviewed for member-checking purposes. Findings revealed two competing discourses that organized these women's attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors surrounding drinking and pregnancy: the discourse of individualism and the discourse of responsible motherhood. These two discourses offer opposing normative guidelines for talk among their close female relatives and friends. The implications of these findings for designing a community-based media campaign are discussed.     

Dialogic voices in talk about drinking and pregnancy

Alcohol use during pregnancy poses a significant risk of fetal alcohol syndrome. This study presents the interpretive findings of the formative research phase of a funded grant to develop a community‐based public health media campaign on the topic of drinking during pregnancy. In the initial wave of data collection, 50 rural women were recruited from four Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) clinics in southeastern Iowa to participate in semi‐structured interviews. In the second wave, 10 additional WIC clients were interviewed for member‐checking purposes. Findings revealed two competing discourses that organized these women's attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors surrounding drinking and pregnancy: the discourse of individualism and the discourse of responsible motherhood. These two discourses offer opposing normative guidelines for talk among their close female relatives and friends. The implications of these findings for designing a community‐based media campaign are discussed.     

Secrets and secretive behaviours: Exploring the hidden through harmful gambling

While information science researchers have for some time examined sharing, non-sharing behaviours have received less attention. This study explored the role and impact of secretive information behaviours in the context of gambling activities and social interactions around harmful gambling. The study followed a qualitative approach, involving in-depth interviews with recovering gamblers and gamblers' families and friends in Ireland. Findings revealed that secretive information behaviours, such as self-concealment, were characteristic of gamblers' and their families' experiences of gambling harm. While self-concealing information behaviours facilitated the gambler's secret participation in gambling, the negative financial and social outcomes had a further serious impact on family members and their coping strategies. Understanding how and why people adopt secretive information behaviours can facilitate positive navigation of information in risky and stressful circumstances. Findings offer a more holistic view of information use, sharing, and decision making, by including negative as well as positive information outcomes in modeling of information behaviour.     

Constructing Gender Stereotypes Through Social Roles in Prime-Time Television

Using a sample of 124 prime-time television programs airing on the 6 broadcast networks during the 2005–06 season, this study examined the social roles enacted by female and male characters. The findings confirm that female characters continue to inhabit interpersonal roles involved with romance, family, and friends. In contrast, male characters are more likely to enact work-related roles. Moreover, programs employing one or more women writers or creators are more likely to feature both female and male characters in interpersonal roles whereas programs employing all-male writers and creators are more likely to feature both female and male characters in work roles.     

Communicating Dislike of Close Friends' Romantic Partners

The present study investigated individuals' disclosure of dislike for their friends' romantic partners. Of the 205 participants, 121 communicated their feelings to their friends. Based on qualitative and quantitative analyses, results indicated that individuals who expressed their dislike did so primarily to protect their friends' well-being or because of a perceived obligation for honesty. Non-disclosure appeared motivated by concern over upsetting the friend, perceptions the friend was not bothered, or conflict avoidance. Individuals were most likely to communicate dislike when it involved partner infidelity or upon seeing their friends experiencing emotional distress. Finally, expressing dislike had significant effects on both friendship quality and romantic relationship outcomes.     

A model for understanding new media literacy: Epistemological beliefs and social media use

New media literacy (NML) skills are regarded as crucial for the 21st century. However, there is limited research on the factors affecting NML skills. A robust model was built for exploring the antecedents of NML. The model incorporated epistemological beliefs and social media use purposes. Individuals` purposes of social media use were found to have an effect on beliefs about information. Further, interactional and communicational use of social media makes epistemological beliefs more sophisticated. However, it is more likely to have naïve beliefs with the use of social media for making new friends. Also, the purposes of social media use and epistemological beliefs affect NML skills. Accordingly, interactional use of social media might contribute to justifying information, in turn, increasing NML skills. This study indicates that knowledge of social media use and epistemological beliefs enables us to largely understand the NML skills.