Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2019 / The Fourth Industrial Revolution has entrenched the use of communication technologies in the workplace owing to their advantages. However, these same technologies can also present challenges for organisations, especially when employees become too dependent on them, for example, using emails as a sole form of communication. Consequently, this impacts staff interaction, their interpersonal communication, as well as staff cohesion negatively. The main objective of this research study was to establish if faculty staff rely excessively on email communication, resulting in reduced interpersonal communication, staff cohesion, and staff interaction. The researcher used an interpretive phenomenological quantitative research approach in a case study at the Faculty of Business and Management Sciences at UoT X with the aim to understand participants’ email experiences. The sample frame comprised 438 staff members, while the study adopted a non-probability sampling method. The findings revealed that a majority of the employees rely on electronic communication to communicate important information to other staff members in spite of the fact that they did not receive any formal training to use email in a professional business environment. Moreover, the research found that over-reliance on email communication impacted negatively on relationships amongst faculty staff, whilst poor interpersonal communication was a major cause of conflict and misunderstandings, as shown in the literature. Faculty staff should be encouraged to interact with their colleagues on a face-to-face basis, and should only resort to using electronic communication in urgent contexts. Staff relations are built and strengthened by sharing experiences, interacting both formally and informally, resolving disagreements, and encouraging interpersonal dialogue, diversity and tolerance through interactions. Furthermore, faculties should create social environments such as off-campus research retreats, university sports events, conferences, recreational tours, and subject clusters to aid sharing experiences, and staff cohesion.

<div> <div> <div> <p>Mental illness historically has had a stigma surrounding it. For years that was my understanding of mental illness as well. To be able to see mental illness and its treatments in a healthy way, I had to suffer a radical change to my life. The beginning of this paper is my story as to how I came to understand mental illness in a different light. Following that, Ch. 2 explores a brief history of mental illness and how it has been treated in society. Next, it delves into the current social narrative about mental health and what the entertainment industry is doing to either help or hurt the de-stigmatization. Lastly, the personal narrative is analyzed. The story an individual tells themselves is influenced by many different elements. </p> <p>This is something on which more research needs to be done. Individual’s perceptions about mental health impact their likelihood to seek help. To explore this, I surveyed 379 people to address their personal beliefs of mental illness. To analyze the data, I split the respondents into groups of those diagnosed and those that have not been diagnosed. Of the four hypotheses, only one group was supported. After that, I ran a post hoc analysis looking at perceived societal views and that came out much stronger. Additional research needs to be done on perceived societal views and how that impacts an individual’s decision to express concerns or seek help for mental illness. </p> </div> </div> </div>

Today’s globalized world and the internationalization of many companies have put pressure on companies to change their communication patterns, both external and internal. The way of operating has also changed. The technological advancements made during the past decades have allowed employees to have almost unlimited possibilities to communicate with each other, no matter the distance. This has led to a new phenomenon, Virtual Teams. Working virtually has become more common in recent time, while the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many companies and teams to adapt to a virtual environment. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the influence Interpersonal Communication has on the employees’ trust and motivation in Virtual Teams. The research was of a qualitative nature and the collection of primary data was made through semi-structured in-depth interviews with mainly open-ended questions. The participants consisted of five (5) employees and one (1) manager from the same virtual team, with the members located across the globe. The findings showed that Interpersonal Communication has a positive influence on the employees’ motivation and trust, mostly through the establishment of Interpersonal Relations, Sense of Belonging and Level of Involvement. Many of the findings are supported by previous literature and research. The authors argue that the level of influence interpersonal communication has is dependent on the experience and seniority of the members, as well as it having the strongest influence in the beginning of a team. The thesis has contributed to previous and current literature and research, while having implications for future research, managers and virtual teams.

In this era of globalization and internationalization of business, effective interpersonal communication and intercultural relationship among coworkers still poses challenges and differences in an organization. This thesis aims to research and analyse challenges of interpersonal communication and intercultural differences in a multicultural organization and the way it can be solved using a qualitative method and an inductive approach on a single case study of a Swedish based multicultural company, Lyreco. The empirical data consist of ten semi- structured interview with addition of secondary data. Former research has focused on differences of individual’s ways of communication based on their cultural background. On a comprehensive analysis and the usage of existing theories, the findings of this research pinpointed ineffective usage of communication context as one of the challenges of curtailing interpersonal communication in a multicultural organization. Cultural differences like individualism, ethnocentrism, and ambient cultural disharmony are identified as challenges experienced in a multicultural organization. But with the intervention of organizational culture it can be managed. Individual team member’s attitude are curtailed under the rules of the organization. From findings, it is established that to abridge the friction within multicultural teams, the role of an organization is very important. There is need to institute structural intervention which encourages team members to adapt to each other’s culture by acknowledging cultural gaps and working around the differences.

Uno de cuatro peruanos mayores de edad, lleva en marcha un negocio propio, pero no logra exceder los primeros tres años de funcionamiento. Este resultado, se debe a que en el Perú existe una elevada tasa de mortandad y bajos niveles de innovación que originan la discontinuidad del proyecto. Se cree que, para confrontar esta problemática en las organizaciones se debe comprender el ecosistema del emprendimiento y su evolución, el cual destaca al equipo de personas que impulsan y propagan esta actividad innovadora llamada intraemprendimiento. El objetivo de esta investigación es comprender a la comunicación interpersonal asertiva a través del trabajo en equipo como uno de los factores que ayudan a trascender y formar una cultura de intraemprendimiento e innovación en las MYPE consultoras del rubro tecnología. La investigación es de metodología cualitativa. Se entrevistó a 10 colaboradores de cada empresa (Empresa A y Empresa B) pertenecientes al mismo sector. Los resultados indican que la comunicación interpersonal mientras más se practica, crea un espacio de familiarización en la empresa B; mientras que, en la empresa A cuentan con objetivos desalineados y existe poca relación entre los colaboradores, lo cual dificulta el clima laboral e impone obstáculos en el desarrollo de sus ideas. / One of four Peruvians of legal age has a business of its own, but fails to exceed the first three years of operation. This result is due to the fact that in Peru there is a high mortality rate and low levels of innovation that cause the discontinuity of the project. It is believed that, in order to confront this problem in organizations, the entrepreneurial ecosystem and its evolution must be analyzed, which highlights the team of people who promote and propagate this innovative activity called intrapreneurship. The objective of this research is to understand assertive interpersonal communication through teamwork as one of the factors that help to transcend and form a culture of intrapreneurship and innovation in the MYPE consultants of the technology sector. The research is of qualitative methodology. Ten employees of each company (Company A and Company B) belonging to the same sector were interviewed. The results indicate that interpersonal communication, the more it is practiced, creates a familiarization space in company B; while, in company A they have misaligned objectives and there is little relationship between employees, which hinders the work environment and imposes obstacles in the development of their ideas. / Tesis

Successful educational systems are established, maintained, and cultivated on a foundation of trust. Effective communication among colleagues is widely accepted as a characteristic of groups who establish and maintain high levels of trust. Despite the importance of the relationships between interpersonal communication skills and levels of organizational trust in postsecondary educational settings, there is very little published on this topic. Further, no published research was located that examined relationships between measures of mindfulness in communication with levels of organizational trust in postsecondary educational settings. This study examined relationships between measures of competent and mindful communication with levels of organizational trust among coworkers, with supervisors, and with the organization in a postsecondary academic library. Study participants included 116 out of 150 non-student library employees of a postsecondary academic library on a large suburban private university campus. The research survey was comprised of four different instruments: the SocioCommunicative Orientation Scale (SCO; Richmond & McCroskey, 1990); the Cognitive Flexibility Scale (CFS; Martin & Rubin, 1995); the Mindfulness in Communication Scale (MCS; Arendt et al., 2019); and the Workplace Trust Survey (WTS; Ferres & Travaglione, 2003). The functioning of each instrument was examined by confirmatory factor analysis. Satisfactory model fit for each instrument was obtained. Structural equation modeling revealed that self-reported levels of communication responsiveness predicted levels of trust in coworkers (p = .02). Perceived levels of mindfulness in communication of coworkers predicted levels of trust in coworkers (p < .001), and perceived levels of mindfulness in communication of supervisors (p < .001) predicted levels of trust in supervisors. This research suggests that perceptions of mindfulness in communication among coworkers and with supervisors are associated with levels of organizational trust within postsecondary academic settings in important ways. Further research is necessary to increase understanding of the relationships between mindfulness in communication and organizational trust in educational environments.

abstract: College sports in America represent a multibillion dollar industry. Recruiting collegiate student-athletes not only is costly for university teams, but is integral for their long-term success. Universities spend substantial amounts of money to recruit student-athletes, yet relatively little academic work has focused on understanding the athletic recruiting process. While NCAA policy regulates when communication is allowed between coaches and student-athletes, there is a lack of literature investigating what the communicative aspects of athletic recruiting entail. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation is to unpack the student-athlete experience of collegiate athletic recruitment. It builds on theoretical work from organizational and interpersonal communication, as well as management and marketing, to extend existing knowledge of student-athletes’ college choice. Specifically, a conceptual model is presented that includes how student-athletes’ expectations and relationships during athletic recruitment contribute to an overall affinity for the university that, in turn, influences choice. Thirty Division I student-athletes from six different sports participated in focus groups to discuss their recruitment experiences. Taking a grounded theory approach to the focus group transcripts, thematic analysis illuminated what was most memorable for student-athletes about their recruitment, what expectations they had for the process, and what relational benefits they sought when making their college choice decision. Findings reinforced the prominence of communication in the recruitment process, and indicated the importance of interpersonal relationships, authentic communication, and a customized recruiting experience. This work represents the start of a scholarly trajectory which will further conceptualize and test the relational elements of athletic recruiting. Future directions, as well as theoretical and practical implications, are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Communication 2019

This study examines opening and closing segments in instant messaging (IM) and demonstrates how openings and closings differ between oral conversation and instant messaging as well as the factors that account for the difference. Many researchers have discussed the differences and similarities between spoken and written languages. Tannen (1980) claims that spoken and written languages are not distinct categories and there is a continuum between them. She also holds that interpersonal involvement is one of the factors that determine if a particular communication is closer to spoken communication or written communication. I will analyze IM, which is best thought of as a communication mode that resides in the middle of the continuum between spoken and written language. Beißwenger (2008) studied the turn-taking of IM and argued that contributions to instant message dialogues are achieved as individual tasks rather than through interactions between participants. He holds that the nature of the individual tasks provides the most important characteristic which distinguishes IM from oral conversation. Closings in IM were studied by Raclaw (2008), who found two patterns of closing: one is an expanded archetype closing which is similar to oral conversation, and the other is a partially automated closing which is totally different from oral conversation because an automated message terminates the conversation. He did not discuss the characteristics underlying the two patterns of closing in instant messaging. I reanalyzed the argument by Raclaw utilizing a segment of instant messaging from my data, and discovered that what characterize the two patterns of closing in instant messaging are the nature of interpersonal involvement and the nature of the individual tasks. These reflect the characteristics of spoken and written communication respectively. In this study it was found that characteristics of IM communication fluctuate between spoken and written communication. Instant messaging resides in the middle of the spoken and written continuum, but whether it exhibits characteristics of spoken or written communications can vary depending on the way participants contribute to the conversation.

This study investigated the effect of children's prosocial behavior and gender on their abilities to decode and encode facial expressions. Four hypotheses were addressed in this study. The first hypothesis predicted a positive correlation between decoding abilities and pro social behavior of preschool-level children. The second hypothesis made a similar prediction, but between encoding abilities and prosocial behavior. Hypothesis three predicted that female preschoolers would be more accurate in decoding facial affect than would male preschoolers. Finally, hypothesis four predicted that females would have greater success with encoding emotions than would their male counterparts. A total of 132 children from a local private preschool participated in this study. Results showed a non-significant correlation between the decoding abilities of preschoolers and their prosocial behavior. Further analysis of the data revealed a significant negative correlation between the encoding abilities and pro social behavior of preschool children. Support was found for hypothesis three, revealing that females were better decoders of facial affect than were males. Finally, statistical tests indicated that there were no significant differences between females and males and the ability to successfully encode facial expressions. The implications and limitations of the study are discussed and suggestions for future research are offered.

This study explored the correlation between verbal aggression and physical aggression among post-adolescent students, and included demographic factors such as biological sex, socioeconomic status, and the highest education level achieved by parents. The study is predicated on a paucity of evidence regarding the relationship among these factors in young adults. Two-hundred thirty-eight community college students responded to a self-report questionnaire designed to measure individual differences and demographic characteristics. Results indicate that verbal aggression and physical aggression are significantly correlated and that males report higher verbal aggression than females. Gender differences for physical aggression were not significantly different. None of the other demographic variables demonstrated significant differences. Implications are discussed in terms of societal benefits of preventative treatment for verbal aggression and the role that communication scholarship and education might play in intervention.