While organizational communication in school management has become vital and complicated along with an increasing emphasis on collaboration and teamwork in lesson preparation and performances in local secondary schools, it largely lies on the capability and the role of middle managers such as department heads and committee heads, who constitute a layer of management between the senior management team and subordinate classroom teachers. Despite that effective communication can be seen as the foundation of modern organizations, there are very few local studies on how organizational communication among members of a school management organization in Hong Kong is carried out, particularly on the roles of middle managers in schools in the process of organizational communication. This study aimed to examine the functional roles of middle managers in a Band One Hong Kong secondary school in the process of organizational communication. The research was conducted on members from three sectors of the organizational hierarchy: senior managers, middle managers and non-administrative teachers, with reference to previous overseas and local studies in the area of organizational communication and the roles of middle managers. The study reported in this paper identified that middle managers generally appeared to fulfil three major functions, although which might not be seen as successful by other members, namely transmitting, bridging and buffering. Apart from these desirable functions of middle managers, it was found that there was another side of their function – some interviewed middle managers reflected that they were the sandwiching class in the school’s organizational communication process. Challenges and variables influencing their roles were summarised in this paper: the extent to which the nature and expectations of the role have been clearly and comprehensively defined, the structure of organizational communication, as well as middle managers’ perception and attitude. The findings of this study will help the school, and perhaps other local schools, to assess the communicating roles of middle managers and thus to enhance the communication flow within and beyond each organization branch. Moreover, the analysis of the study will provide the school with some groundwork for reviewing the organizational communication structure and offering relevant training for teaching members where applicable. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

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This study investigated what helps and what hinders RCMP officers in being meaningfully engaged in their work. Experiencing workplace engagement is becoming increasingly meaningful and important for both workers and employers in the new economy. The study is important to the field of counselling, and related fields such as organizational psychology, in terms of both theory and practice, as it concretely expands our understanding of the experience of workplace engagement for workers. In this study, the participants consisted of 14 male RCMP officers and 11 female RCMP officers. Participants were all posted in the Greater Vancouver area at the time of the study, although officers had previously been posted at a variety o f locations throughout Canada. Officers were individually interviewed using a semi-structured, open-ended interview consistent with Flanagan's (1954) Critical Incident Technique. In total, 370 critical incidents were elicited from the 25 participants. Critical incidents helping officers experience meaningful engagement in their work totaled 197. Critical incidents hindering officers in experiencing meaningful engagement in their work totaled 173. The critical incidents were then grouped into 19 categories based on the nature of the incident and the meaning the incident held for the officer. To address reliability in categorizing incidents, two independent judges categorized a sampling o f incidents. In both cases judges agreed with the researcher's categorization in over 90% of incidents. Four participants were also presented with their own critical incidents, and asked to categorize them. Again participants agreed with the researcher's categorization in over 90% of incidents. The main categories identified in this the study were supervision, police incidents, perceived organizational support, transfer, personal circumstances, and peers. In each of these categories both helping and hindering critical incidents were identified by participants. This study provides a detailed description and analysis of the critical incidents that help or hinder RCMP officers in being meaningfully engaged in their work.

Distributed cognition has been emerging as a new research direction in cognitive science over the last two decades and is gaining momentum. In a recent study Hollan, Hutchins and Kirsch argue that the distributed cognition framework enables the study of interaction between people and artifacts. This thesis views tools as an integral part of cognition, and focuses on the complex interaction between brain, body and environment, which complements automatic internal processing in the brain and assists with individual and group problem solving. The thesis analyses some existing research about teams working in high-pressure environments and their complex interactions with their external environment, cognitive tools and each other.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Hons.) Social Ecology) -- University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, 1995. / "Submitted for examination in the Master of Science (Hons) Social Ecology, University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury" Bibliography : leaves 164-168.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, 2004. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Fielding Institute, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 240-249).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Australia, 2006.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Villanova University, 2009. / Communication Dept. Includes bibliographical references.