The Structuration of Information and Communication Technologies and Work–Life Interrelationships: Shared Organizational and Family Rules and Resources and Implications for Work in a High-Technology Organization

Research is equivocal about whether, in the context of work–life interrelationships, newer information and communication technologies (ICTs) primarily increase individuals' control over work and mitigate work–life conflict or help organizations extend the work-day and their control over employees. Informed by social theory and empirical research that views employees and their families as dynamic shapers of technological practices, this study presents empirical evidence of these practices in relation to ICT-mediated work–life management. Using a structurationally informed technologies-in-practice perspective as a boundary spanning framework, the study approaches ICTs as emergent from the interconnected practices and values of employing organizations, employees, and their families. Five forms of recursive structuring are identified that describe ways in which technologically mediated work-at-home and home-at-work (re)produce and transform rules and resources from both home and work at both home and work. Implications for employing organizations, employees, and family members are discussed.     

Optimizing library's organizational climate through improvement of the weak scales identified by ClimateQUAL™ surveys: A case study of Nanjing Agricultural University Library

Nanjing Agricultural University Library (NAU Library) performed an organizational climate assessment in 2011 with a revised ClimateQUAL™ scales and implemented some measures to optimize the weak areas identified. The second and third rounds of assessment were carried out in 2014 and in 2017 to examine the effects of such optimization measures. The results showed the scores increased overall. Data from the three rounds of assessments revealed that team work was markedly improved. Interpersonal conflict and task conflict decreased in the work place. However, the pattern of all the scales kept almost the same. Justice, Deep Diversity, Continual Learning, Stimulate & Competition, Organizational Commitment and Psychological Empowerment in the Workplace are in the bottoms of the curves of the survey results of 2011 and 2017. Librarians thought they were qualified for the job but they did not have a large impact on or a great deal of control over what happens in the library. Innate problems that influence the library climate have not been solved yet. Such issues need to be addressed at a societal level before changes are seen at an organizational level.     

Museums and the shaping of contemporary artworks

In the museum context, curators and conservators often play a role in shaping the nature of contemporary artworks. Before, during and after the acquisition of an art object, curators and conservators engage in dialogue with the artist about how the object should be exhibited and conserved. As a part of this dialogue, the artist may express specifications for the display and conservation of the object, thereby fixing characteristics of the artwork that were previously left open. This process can make a significant difference to the visual appearance of the work, the nature of the audience's experience, and how the work should be interpreted. I present several case studies in which the nature of the artwork has been shaped by such dialogues, and discuss principles for resolving cases in which there is a conflict between instructions specified by the artist and those adopted by the museum.     

The everyday accomplishment of work and family: Exploring practical actions in daily routines

Research investigating the challenges of managing work and family responsibilities has been rife across many social science disciplines over the past 30 years. The following study contributes to the growing body of communication scholarship by problematizing the everyday routine; in doing so, it explores the micro‐practices of navigating work and family life. Through the analysis of 35 women's accounts of their daily work and family routines and conflict scenarios, results are reported including the detailing of three superordinate practical action clusters: routinizing, improvising, and restructuring, along with related commonsense rules. Results are then discussed in terms of the relational nature of work and family routines. Findings argue for examining how work and family balance and conflict get played out in daily practice. Finally, limitations and future directions are discussed.     

Curating in the Open: A Case for Iteratively and Openly Publishing Curatorial Research on the Web

Through a case study of using social media tools to open up part of the curatorial research process for an online exhibit on the history of astronomy at the Library of Congress, I offer some initial ideas about how an open approach to sharing curatorial research could significantly expand the impact and reach of such work. Drawing on three distinct emerging conceptions and frameworks for the idea of “open” (open notebook science, linked open data, and open innovation) I suggest how this case study can be used to guide work with existing simple and inexpensive tools and how it could also inform the development of future tools, services and exhibit development methods. This work builds on an ongoing discussion of open data in libraries, archives, and museums. To date, most of that dialog is about object records and not about the stories and narratives cultural heritage institutions tell about them. I suggest ways to make the production of cultural heritage data, as well as the final outputs, part of an open and transparent process.     

Post-trauma: healthcare practitioners use social media during times of political tension

The approach of context collapse and the notion of unintentional context collisions are of importance to scholars of social media. Israeli public hospitals are a particularly suitable venue for studying these topics, as they employ both Jewish and Arab practitioners, who care for both Jewish and Arab patients amid an ongoing violent conflict. In-depth interviews were conducted with 50 managers and healthcare practitioners (physicians and nurses), both Jewish and Arab, employed at 11 public hospitals in Israel. We found that despite hospitals managements’ instructions to avoid political discourse, it erupts nonetheless whenever the conflict escalates. Fearing damage to professional relations and care of patients, political discourse spills over into social media, where political opinions are expressed mostly by Arab practitioners and stereotypical attitudes against Arabs are expressed mostly by Jewish ones. Our study exemplifies the usefulness of the context collapse approach—and specifically unintentional context collisions—to work organizations and all the more so to healthcare organizations.     

Narrative and Deliberation in Small Group Forums

In a videotape analysis of five National Issues Forums, I investigate the nature of deliberative talk in small group deliberative settings. I show that deliberative talk in these forums mostly takes the form of storytelling. I argue that storytelling helps participants overcome barriers to deliberation, such as lack of knowledge and the need to manage one's public face in a context that privileges open conflict. Moreover, I show that storytelling also plays an important collective function for groups, allowing them to build a sense of moral community around issues without much explicit conflict or argument. I conclude that greater understanding of storytelling's role in small group deliberation is of benefit both to practitioners who initiate such forums and to the growing number of researchers who study the practice of deliberative democracy.     

Social media use for work during non-work hours and work engagement: Effects of work-family conflict and public service motivation

Social media is widely used for work by civil servants in China at present. In Chinese cultural context, social media use for work during non-work hours (SMUNW) has many different effects on civil servants from those in Western countries. However, we have little understanding about how social media use for work during non-work hours could affect the psychological state of civil servants at work. Drawing upon conservation of resources theory and work-family border theory, this study utilized a moderated mediation model to investigate the relationship between SMUNW and employee work engagement. Based on data collected from 423 Chinese civil servants, the results demonstrated that SMUNW was negatively associated with work engagement. The work-family conflict played a mediating role between SMUNW and work engagement and public service motivation (PSM) moderated the negative effect between work-family conflict and work engagement. More importantly, our findings showed that the indirect relationship between SMUNW and work engagement through work-family conflict was more pronounced for civil servants with higher PSM rather than lower. Finally, theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Narrative and Deliberation in Small Group Forums

In a videotape analysis of five National Issues Forums, I investigate the nature of deliberative talk in small group deliberative settings. I show that deliberative talk in these forums mostly takes the form of storytelling. I argue that storytelling helps participants overcome barriers to deliberation, such as lack of knowledge and the need to manage one's public face in a context that privileges open conflict. Moreover, I show that storytelling also plays an important collective function for groups, allowing them to build a sense of moral community around issues without much explicit conflict or argument. I conclude that greater understanding of storytelling's role in small group deliberation is of benefit both to practitioners who initiate such forums and to the growing number of researchers who study the practice of deliberative democracy.     

Putative Secrets and Conflict in Romantic Relationships over Time

When people discover their romantic partner is keeping a secret from them but allow their partner to believe the secret is still unknown (creating what Caughlin, Scott, Miller, and Hefner referred to as a putative secret), this can have negative implications for their relationship. This study examined how putative secrets influence conflict in romantic relationships over time and whether certain factors (including perceived reasons for the secrecy, use of deception, and relationship satisfaction) moderate this association. The sample consisted of 305 dating individuals. Participants reported on a current putative secret, a putative secret kept in the past, or no secret, and then completed 3-week online diary entries tracking their conflict. The results revealed that individuals who were currently managing a putative secret had higher levels of conflict and more changes in conflict in their relationship over time than individuals who experienced a putative secret in the past or no putative secrets at all. Although individuals' attributions for their partner's secret keeping were important, they often depended on relationship satisfaction and currency of the putative secret. Relationship satisfaction significantly moderated the association between putative secrets and conflict, such that individuals who reported current putative secrets and were more dissatisfied reported the most intense conflict and the greatest changes in conflict over time.     

Analyzing the Spell of War: A War/Peace Framing Analysis of the 2009 Visual Coverage of the Sri Lankan Civil War in Western Newswires

The goal of this study was to analyze the extent to which the visual coverage of the final stages (April/May 2009) of the long-lasting Sri Lankan Civil War relied on war and peace frames. Based on the revolutionary conceptual work of Norwegian scholar Johan Galtung, who viewed war and peace journalism as two competing frames in covering conflicts and wars, we examined news photographs available from Associated Press (AP), Reuters, and Getty/Agence France-Press (AFP). To date, this topic has been discussed from mostly normative viewpoints, and only little research combined the peace journalism concept with visual framing and/or the role of newswires as gatekeeper of information. We tested this concept empirically by using content analysis of editorial news photographs of the conflict in the three leading Western newswires. By and large, our results suggest that overall visual coverage of the conflict waxed and waned over time, but was primarily driven by visuals originated in the Sinhalese-dominated regions of Sri Lanka. Further, newswires are serving very different purposes and news markets: the AP–and to a lesser extent also Getty/AFP–with their focus on external events (therefore qualifying for peace journalism) and Reuters with a stronger focus on the conflict itself (thus qualifying for war journalism). Overall, the stock photo agency Getty/AFP was found to be the newswire that is most likely to provide media outlets with photographs highlighting peace frames, with the most balanced coverage between the two conflict parties and a particular emphasis on peace demonstrations worldwide, negotiations and summit meetings.     

Building Relationships through Communities of Practice: Museums and Indigenous People

Abstract This paper explores the theory of “communities of practice” and how the ideas contained in it could be applied to museums, by demonstrating how a key stakeholder group, Indigenous people, have been involved with and engaged in the work of the Australian Museum, Sydney, over the past 30 years. It is suggested that the processes museums have developed in building relationships with Indigenous people, particularly at the practitioner level, could form a template for how museums make themselves relevant to broader communities through active engagement with multiple communities of practice.     

Work–family conflict,relational turbulence mechanisms,conflict tactics and marital satisfaction*

ABSTRACT

This study examined how work–family conflict (WFC) is associated with mechanisms of relational turbulence, conflict tactics, and marital satisfaction. Six hundred and thirty-three married workers completed an online survey. Family interference with work and spouses’ work interfering with one’s family predicted greater relational uncertainty and interference from partners, whereas one’s own work interfering with family did not predict these mechanisms of turbulence. All three sources of relational uncertainty, and interference from partners, predicted increased avoidance and distributive tactic use. Facilitation from partners predicted increased use of integrative tactics. Finally, relational uncertainty, interference from partners, and distributive conflict tactics partially mediated the associations of WFC with marital satisfaction.     

Inappropriate Parental Divorce Disclosures,the Factors that Prompt them,and their Impact on Parents’ and Adolescents’ Well-Being

Recent research has shown that parents’ inappropriate disclosures about the divorce process can be stressful for adolescents. However, little is known about the conditions that prompt parents to disclose inappropriate information about the divorce to them. The current study examines factors (a lack of social support, a lack of control over divorce stressors, and the severity of the divorce stressors) that potentially influence parents to reveal inappropriate information about the divorce to their adolescents. It also explores the impact that these inappropriate disclosures have on parents’ and adolescents’ well-being. Surveys were gathered from 118 custodial parent–adolescent dyads. The results suggest that a lack of social support and the severity of the stressors did not influence parents’ inappropriate disclosures. Custodial parents’ lack of control over their divorce-related stressors was the only factor associated with their inappropriate disclosures. When a lack of control over divorced-related stressors was considered, parents with less stressful interparental conflict were likely to be distressed by their inappropriate disclosures, whereas parents who had a strained relationship with their former spouse were not. Adolescents’ perceptions of the inappropriate disclosures were also a stronger predictor of adolescents’ well-being than the parents’ perceptions of their own disclosures.     

The ethics of scholarly peer review: a review of the literature

This review summarizes the literature of a subset of the published research and commentary on peer review – the ethics of peer review. It attempts to track the various ethical issues that arise among the key participants in peer‐review systems: authors, editors, referees, and readers. These issues include: bias, courtesy, conflict of interest, redundant publication, honesty, transparency, and training. It concludes that debates over such issues as open vs. blind reviews continue unresolved but that new technologies offer some prospects for resolving old issues while they also may create new challenges.     

面向学术资源集成的真值发现算法

在构建多渠道元数据资源建设体系时,往往存在着大量的元数据冲突的问题,即对同一对象的属性存在多种描述,造成了元数据的组织与揭示的困难。本文处理的原则是遵从原文,优先选取原文的值作为唯一的真值,将数据冲突问题视为单真值冲突问题。考虑到数据提供商均需要加工数据,将数据源之间的关系视为相互独立。根据以上,本文提出了一种面向学术资源集成的真值发现算法。该算法基于贝叶斯算法,考虑了有关联关系的属性。实验证明本文方法所构造的真值发现算法在保证准确率的同时,大大节省了人力的工作时间。     

Why Teleworkers are More Satisfied with Their Jobs than are Office-Based Workers: When Less Contact is Beneficial

This study challenges assumptions regarding the value and necessity of frequent face-to-face workplace interaction by building upon a theoretical framework for the consequences of telecommuting. Using a multiple mediation approach and path analysis, the study examines the extent to which telework affects job satisfaction through the experiences of work–life conflict, stress due to meetings and interruptions, perceived organizational politics, and information exchange. Results reveal that high-intensity teleworkers (n=89) are more satisfied than office-based employees (n=103) and achieve significant benefits from their work arrangement, with work–life conflict most influential toward job satisfaction. The path model reveals more complex indirect paths linking telework and job satisfaction.     

News Media Landscape in a Fragile State: Professional Ethics Perceptions in a Post-Ba'athist Iraq

During the years of Ba'athist dictator Saddam Hussein, media personnel were under tight control and tortured or executed when they strayed from the government line. In the decade following the fall of the Ba'athist regime, thousands of Iraqi journalists were trained in liberal democratic professional norms, and hundreds of news outlets opened even as some of the old patronage practices and violence continued. This study utilized Shoemaker and Reese's hierarchy of influences model to examine factors influencing a proxy indicator for professional ethics, the value of conflict of interest avoidance among a purposive sample of Iraqi journalists (N = 588). We found that the news media routines and ideological levels, though not strong, had the greatest influences on this conflict of interest avoidance perception criterion indicator, the proxy for professional ethics. The findings suggest a tension between liberal democratic journalism training at the routines level and ideological aspects, in some cases, such as ethnic identity and political ideology. Strong influences on perceptions of conflict of interest avoidance were the type of media platform/Western journalism training, Arab ethnicity over Kurdish ethnicity, ideology of “democrat” over Kurdish nationalist or Islamist. No influence was apparent for Internet use frequency or state versus nonstate media.     

The Expression of Dominance and Perceptions of Supervisor Credibility in Supervisor/Employee Relationships

In the workplace, a supervisor’s communication of dominance can be used to help accomplish tasks and complete work. Further, perceptions of credibility can be integral in influencing employees and creating an open work climate. The goal of this investigation was to understand how supervisors’ messages of dominance were related to perceptions of supervisor credibility. In this study, 303 participants working in various industries completed measures of interpersonal dominance and credibility about their direct supervisor. As hypothesized, influence and focus/poise were positively related to competence, goodwill, and trustworthiness, whereas conversational control was negatively related to goodwill and trustworthiness. Further, self-assurance was negatively related to goodwill. Regression analyses determined that influence and focus/poise had the strongest relationship to all three dimensions of credibility.