Pediatric nurses’ communication of role expectations to parents of hospitalized children

This study examines the role performance of pediatric nurses and parents in relation to hospitalized children. The ambiguity associated with role behaviors for both groups is considered in terms of rules that might be formally adopted to define nurses’ and parents’ roles. Pediatric nurses were interviewed to identify behaviors appropriately performed by parents for their hospitalized children, and formal rules were drafted. These rules were communicated by nurses in writing, orally, or both and were compared to no formal communication for impact on nurses’ job satisfaction, parents’ satisfaction with nursing care, and both nurses’ and parents’ role ambiguity. The formal rules were found to enhance both nurses’ job satisfaction and parents’ satisfaction with the technical‐professional competence component of nursing care. Moreover, both nurses and parents perceived a reduction in role ambiguity as measured by the information that nurses give and the communication of expectations.     

Collaborative knowledge construction in digital environments: Politics, policy, and communities

How individuals share information with respect to politics and policy in networked research environments is an area ripe for interdisciplinary study. In this analysis, I explore some of the more current and salient research findings from several disciplinary literatures (communications, computer science, organizational behavior, information science, and public policy) to examine how current research perceives the influence of technology-aided communications on policy-making conversations. I suggest that a community-centric view, which takes into account online and offline group affiliations and their related power dynamics, is just as important as an individual-based unit of analysis. This understanding points to directions for the thoughtful creation of digital resources that appropriately reflect and support inter- and intra-group knowledge-sharing behavior.     

The value of therapeutic reading groups organized by public libraries

This research examines the benefits of therapeutic reading groups that are run by public libraries, and explores their value from the perspective of the participants. Narrative interviews were conducted with 14 members of one of three therapeutic reading groups in order to gather empirical evidence on their experiences in the groups and to develop an understanding of their perceptions of its benefits. Participants were very positive about the value of the groups and the way that they were facilitated. The 11 benefits they discussed were clustered into two groups associated with reading and access to books, and group interaction. Many of these benefits had a positive impact on participants’ individual assurance and self-esteem; the groups also had positive consequences for social inclusion and involvement in the local community and economic activity. Benefits were shown to stem from the social nature of the groups, the texts read, and from the unique experience of shared reading as a creative, collaborative, and interpretive act. This is the first study to gather evidence from the participants of therapeutic reading groups on their perceptions of benefits. The findings support the value of therapeutic reading groups, and support the case for the further development of these groups, and further studies into their benefits.     

E-parliament: Opening the door

Parliaments around the world are becoming aware that they, and the individual members of the parliament, can use digital technologies to support greater engagement with citizens and their communities. This article reports on communication patterns of the Parliament of Australia and the community, the potential of Web 2.0 to increase engagement and accountability and research with the Australian community and members of the parliament on information needs for a new website implementing interactivity.     

e-Government readiness: Does national culture matter?

e-Government readiness varies significantly across nations. This research explored the relationship of national culture values and practice to e-Government readiness. Eighteen hypotheses were formulated and tested. With the exception of performance orientation and assertiveness, national culture values and practices correlated negatively and positively with e-Government readiness. In addition, gender egalitarianism, institutional collectivism, performance orientation, and uncertainty avoidance values were found to be key determinants of e-Government readiness. The findings of this research provide a foundation for culturally-based policies and strategies aiming at enhancing e-Government readiness across nations.     

Benchmarking e-Government: A comparison of frameworks for computing e-Government index and ranking

Countries are often benchmarked and ranked according to economic, human, and technological development. Benchmarking and ranking tools, such as the United Nation's e-Government index (UNDPEPA, 2002), are used by decision makers when devising information and communication policies and allocating resources to implement those policies. Despite their widespread use, current benchmarking and ranking tools have limitations. For instance, they do not differentiate between static websites and highly integrated and interactive portals. In this paper, the strengths and limitations of six frameworks for computing e-Government indexes are assessed using both hypothetical data and data collected from 582 e-Government websites sponsored by 53 African countries. The frameworks compared include West's (2007a) foundational work and several variations designed to address its limitations. The alternative frameworks respond, in part, to the need for continuous assessment and reconsideration of generally recognized and regularly used frameworks.     

Empathy and social support for the terminally ill: Implications for recruiting and retaining hospice and hospital volunteers

Hospice care is a growing alternative for terminally ill patients, and hospice volunteers provide needed services to patients and their families. Few communication studies have investigated the contributions that hospice volunteers make to the overall experience and philosophy of the hospice system, although such studies have the potential to guide volunteer recruitment, selection, and training. Hospice (n = 48) and hospital volunteers (n = 69) completed surveys measuring trait empathy, and after reading a hypothetical situation involving a terminally ill patient, reported how likely and easy it would he for them to provide a) instrumental support and b) emotional support. The results suggest that hospice volunteers may he qualitatively different from their counterparts who volunteered for more conventional health care organizations, both in their individual characteristics, as well as in their propensity for the type of social support they offer. The findings afford the opportunity to derive some potential guidelines for recruiting and retaining volunteers in hospice and hospital volunteer programs.     

Effects of e-CRM on customer–bank relationship quality and outcomes: The case of Thailand

This research examines and measures the outcomes of electronic customer relationship management (e-CRM) system implementation in the Thai banking industry from customers' perspectives.Because most e-CRM implementations cannot be directly seen or recognised by customers, a literature review and interviews with experts in the Thai banking industry were used to develop a new construct called ‘customer-based service attributes’ to measure e-CRM outcomes from customers' perspectives. A full-scale field survey of 684 customers of Thai commercial banks was then conducted. A service attribute model and a model that combined relationship quality and outcome were constructed, and their validity and reliability was confirmed. Analysis of the results by using structural equation modelling (SEM) illustrated that e-CRM implementation has a statistically significant positive relationship with customer-based service attributes and with the quality and outcome of customer–bank relationships as well as an indirect effect on relationship quality and outcome through customer-based service attributes.     

Web-enabled supply chain management: Key antecedents and performance impacts

Despite increased interest and growing investments in web-based supply chain management (SCM) applications, firms face numerous challenges in successfully web-enabling their SCM activities. In this research, we focus on two main objectives – (i) to understand the key antecedents that affect the web-enablement of SCM activities; (ii) to document the performance impacts of web-enabled SCM efforts. Based on a large-scale, questionnaire survey of North American organizations, we assessed the influence of six factors namely – supplier synergy, information intensity, managerial IT knowledge, interoperable IT infrastructure, perceived IT returns on investments (ROI) and formal governance mechanisms – on the extent of web-enabled SCM. Our results revealed a strong positive influence of supplier synergy, information intensity, managerial IT knowledge, inter-operability and formal governance mechanisms on the extent of web-enabled SCM. We also found a negative association between relative cost–benefit perceptions and the extent of web-enabled SCM. Further, we also found strong positive association between extent of web-enabled SCM and the benefits realized from SCM efforts. We discuss the implications of our results for research and practice.     

A meta-analysis of the impact of trust on technology acceptance model: Investigation of moderating influence of subject and context type

The technology acceptance model (TAM) has proven to be one of the most powerful theories to explain user's technology adoption. Among many external variables incorporated into TAM, trust is considered to be an important factor that influences the user's online behavior, especially in the e-commerce context. This study conducts a meta-analysis based on the previous TAM studies in an attempt to make well-grounded statements on the role of trust. Furthermore, the paper examines those TAM studies by considering moderating effects of subject type (students or non-students) and context type (commercial or non-commercial). Results indicate a significant influence of trust on TAM constructs. Moderating effects are found for most pair-wise relationships. The findings yield implications for both researchers and service providers.