Des verrous technologiques et sociaux importants sont identifiés lors du soutien de la collaboration entre acteurs d’une crise : en particulier, souvent la conception de systèmes informatiques dans ce but ne répond pas aux besoins des utilisateurs et les systèmes trop rigides ne permettent pas de supporter des situations dynamiques où les évènements sont imprévus et font appel à des mesures émergentes. Pour s’affranchir de ces verrous, notre travail se positionne dans le domaine du travail collaboratif assisté par ordinateur (TCAO) focalisé sur les systèmes sociotechniques. Cette recherche s’inscrit dans la problématique d’un système flexible d’information et de communication qui supporte l’awareness informationnelle dans un contexte précis : la collaboration inter-organisationnelle dans des situations émergentes et complexes. Celles-ci ajoutent au travail collaboratif plusieurs contraintes, notamment le stress, l’imprévision, la multitude des acteurs et les frontières organisationnelles. Dans ce contexte, les différentes organisations – SAMU, pompiers, gendarmerie et autres - doivent acquérir et percevoir les informations qui leur sont utiles pour accomplir leurs activités inter-organisationnelles. Certes, les acteurs rencontrent des problèmes qui entravent l’atteinte de leurs objectifs. Avec l’aide des sciences sociales, cette étude apporte une contribution de recherche en informatique ouverte sur l’interdisciplinarité. Un apport important en est l’étude de l’aspect organisationnel et de l’aspect informationnel à partir des pratiques réelles des utilisateurs / In order to overcome the technological and social locks that are identified in supporting collaboration - for instance, the computer systems design problems that do not meet the needs of users and/or systems that are rigid and do not allow to deal with dynamic situations where events are unexpected and appeal to emerging measures - our work is positioned in the field of Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) characterized by the dualistic social and technical aspects.This research proposes flexible information and communication system that supports the information awareness in the inter-agency collaboration in emerging and complex situations as crisis. These situations add to a collaborative work several constraints such as stress, lack of foresight, the multitude of actors and organizational boundaries. In crisis management, the various organizations – emergency medical service, firefighters, police and others - need to perceive useful information to them to complete their inter-agency activities. However, actors encounter problems that prevent them to reach their goals. This study brings to its scale, a contribution in computer sciences opened to interdisciplinary with the help of social sciences which rely on study of current practices to understand and analyze the users, their activities and the work environment

Même si le capital immatériel représente une part de plus en plus importante de la valeur de nos organisations, il n’est pas toujours possible de stocker, tracer ou capturer les connaissances et les expertises, par exemple dans des projets de taille moyenne. Le courrier électronique est encore largement utilisé dans les projets d’entreprise en particulier entre les équipes géographiquement dispersées. Dans cette étude, nous présentons une nouvelle approche pour détecter les zones à l'intérieur de courriels professionnels où des éléments de connaissances sont susceptibles de se trouver. Nous définissons un contexte étendu en tenant compte non seulement du contenu du courrier électronique et de ses métadonnées, mais également des compétences et des rôles des utilisateurs. Également l’analyse pragmatique linguistique est mêlée aux techniques usuelles du traitement de langage naturel. Après avoir décrit notre méthode KTR et notre modèle, nous l'appliquons à un corpus réel d’entreprise et évaluons les résultats en fonction des algorithmes d’apprentissage, de filtrage et de recherche / Even if intangible capital represents an increasingly important part of the value of our enterprises, it’s not always possible to store, trace or capture knowledge and expertise, for instance in middle sized projects. Email it still widely used in professional projects especially among geographically distributed teams. In this study we present a novel approach to detect zones inside business emails where elements of knowledge are likely to be found. We define an enhanced context taking into account not only the email content and metadata but also the competencies of the users and their roles. Also linguistic pragmatic analysis is added to usual natural language processing techniques. After describing our model and method KTR, we apply it to a real life corpus and evaluate the results based on machine learning, filtering and information retrieval algorithms

This study attempted to investigate whether there were differences in the conflict behaviors chosen for members of the same culture versus members of a different culture when accounting for Chinese cultural value conservation.

This project presents the cultural significance of establishing and maintaining business relationships with Chinese counterparts. It includes sample training modules to provide intercultural training for all firms engaged in business with China.

ABSTRACT The researcher set out to gain an in-depth understanding of the possible influence of a reality-altering event on interaction behaviour (communication). The alteration in interaction behaviour referred to within the context of this study, is the communication phenomenon identified, explained and labelled as part of the study, which the researcher termed “re-communication”. This study partly aims at developing a re-communication conceptual framework that explains the re-communication phenomenon. In order to explain this unexplored communication phenomenon and develop a re-communication conceptual framework for it, the study focuses on how either strategic or spontaneous communication could be utilised in any reality-altering event to disclose information that would alter the co-constructed social reality between people. This information could be communicated either by the individual, who experienced a reality-altering event, or by persons or forms of communication external to the individual. Within the context of this study, the disclosure becomes the reality-altering event. Therefore, the proposed re-communication conceptual framework firstly addresses the elements that influence disclosure or non-disclosure. Secondly, it focusses on self-preservation communication strategies used to avoid disclosing or concealing the reality-altering event. Thirdly, the framework focuses on the actual reality-altering event, which, in this case, occurs when a gay individual’s sexual identity is disclosed to colleagues. Lastly, the framework looks at re-communication, which involves a perceived alteration in communication post-disclosure due to the altered reality. It is argued that the co-constructed social reality between a gay individual and a colleague is altered from a position of being unaware of the individual being gay to becoming aware. It is further argued that, because heterosexuality is regarded as the norm and the language and meaning ascribed to dominant symbols in society support heteronormativity, people often assume that a colleague is heterosexual and construct their reality based on this notion. Going into an interaction, both the gay individuals and their colleagues have their own social reality, which they have constructed through their experiences, as well as the co-constructed social reality they share with each colleague with whom they interact. This study was conducted within an interpretivist research paradigm and from the position of the theoretical foundation of symbolic interactionism, social constructionism and constructivism. A qualitative, exploratory research design was selected to collect the data by means of in-depth semi-structured interviews and narratives. Based on the insights provided by the participants, re-communication as a communication phenomenon was identified, explained and labelled and the resultant re-communication framework was developed. The re-communication conceptual framework was synergised by means of a thematic textual analysis and was guided by a number of assumptions and postulations arising from a strong theoretical foundation and a comprehensive literature review, which were supported by the findings. In this study, it was found that a reality-altering event is complex and multiple elements influence the way in which gay individuals’ sexual identity are disclosed or not disclosed within the organisational context. However, it has been discovered that communication is the vehicle for self-preservation and for disclosing information that will lead to a reality-altering event. Regardless of how small the influence or how limited the time, post the reality-altering event, the disclosure influences interaction behaviour (communication) and alters the co-constructed social reality between gay individuals and their colleagues. The colleagues go from a position of not knowing an individual was gay to knowing. It is noted that disclosure of a sexual identity and/or any other reality-altering event is not a once off reality-altering event, but rather a continuous process for gay individuals, because each time a new colleague enters the organisational contexts of gay individuals, they need to consider if – and if so, how – they want to disclose. In some cases, disclosure take places by others and the gay individual needs to decide how to deal with colleagues now knowing s/he is gay. The most significant contribution of the study is the identification, explanation and labelling of a previously unexplored communication phenomenon – that of re-communication – and the development of a re-communication conceptual framework that could contribute to the organisational reality in a two-fold manner. Firstly, such a framework will provide insights into and possible sense making of the disclosure experiences of gay individuals in the organisational context. Secondly, the outcome illustrates the importance of inclusive and positive organisational climates and/or cultures and the concomitant impact of positive engagements on organisational practices such as inclusive climates and cultures for sharing, employee loyalty, better team cooperation, trust among employees, increased employee wellbeing and more effective communication processes within organisations. / Communication Science / D. Phil. (Communication)

The desire to attract an increasing number of minorities is pushing institutions of higher learning to brand themselves and communicate with students in ways that ensure their identification with the institution. Students' identification with an institution is one way to increase their enrollment numbers at the institution. This study was interested in determining whether NDSU's Graduate School and Office of Multicultural Programs used Cheney's (1983a) organizational identification inducement strategies in their recruitment and retention material that targeted multicultural graduate students. A closed coding textual analysis was used to analyze the material. Three of the four strategies were present in the analyzed communication material. Results are discussed in terms of key findings and practical implications for NDSU and other institutions that are interested in increasing their enrollment numbers of multicultural graduate students.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The author employs Hoffman and Ford’s method for analyzing organizational rhetoric to examine the discourse of Google, Inc. Employing a hybrid method, built on rhetorical criticism which incorporates elements of organizational communication theory, the analysis examines identity rhetoric present in Google’s discourse regarding its operations in China. Using this approach, the author leverages the method to critically examine hegemonic aspects of the discourse in order to examine how Google constructs its Western consumer based audience regarding online privacy and free speech.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In order to help individuals feel more engaged within work organizations and more satisfied with their jobs, employers have started to administer stay interviews within organizations, with the end goal being to retain organizational members. Stay interviews have become a proactive solution to the retention problem and have been seen as an alternative to the exit interview. This study proposes that through the use of stay interviews, organizational members will feel more engaged, satisfied, and committed to an organization, which will ultimately result in the retention of organizational members.

Crisis communication has emerged as a specialised study field for public relations scholars and practitioners in the past 17 years. It is suggested that several gaps in current crisis communication literature exist. A notable focus has been given to the planning, prevention and recovery stages with lesser attention placed on the crisis response stage. A comprehensive conceptual framework to guide communication decision-makers during this critical period has not yet been developed. In addition, crisis communication studies appear to be predominantly Western based. This qualitative study attempts to address these gaps. The focus is on the crisis response stage, with particular emphasis on communication with the journalists who work for media organisations. It is acknowledged that the success of a crisis management effort is profoundly affected by what an organisation says and does during a crisis - termed the crisis response (Benoit 1997; Coombs 2004). Literature and data drawn from South African case studies is translated into a conceptual framework which acknowledges the importance of context, flexibility and constant feedback/monitoring of the environment on crisis communications. The findings of this qualitative study are in line with the current post-modern organisational values that are increasingly emphasised in national and international literature. The study especially makes a unique contribution by applying these values to a conceptual model of communication between the organisation and the media during times of crisis. The model is designed to assist an organisation to protect its image during a crisis in the following ways: * Convince the media that there is no crisis (in the case of unfounded rumours); * Encourage them to view the crisis in a less negative light by acknowledging the organisation's interpretation of events. * Influence the media to see the organisation more positively through the effective management of the crisis. / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)

Crisis communication has emerged as a specialised study field for public relations scholars and practitioners in the past 17 years. It is suggested that several gaps in current crisis communication literature exist. A notable focus has been given to the planning, prevention and recovery stages with lesser attention placed on the crisis response stage. A comprehensive conceptual framework to guide communication decision-makers during this critical period has not yet been developed. In addition, crisis communication studies appear to be predominantly Western based. This qualitative study attempts to address these gaps. The focus is on the crisis response stage, with particular emphasis on communication with the journalists who work for media organisations. It is acknowledged that the success of a crisis management effort is profoundly affected by what an organisation says and does during a crisis - termed the crisis response (Benoit 1997; Coombs 2004). Literature and data drawn from South African case studies is translated into a conceptual framework which acknowledges the importance of context, flexibility and constant feedback/monitoring of the environment on crisis communications. The findings of this qualitative study are in line with the current post-modern organisational values that are increasingly emphasised in national and international literature. The study especially makes a unique contribution by applying these values to a conceptual model of communication between the organisation and the media during times of crisis. The model is designed to assist an organisation to protect its image during a crisis in the following ways: * Convince the media that there is no crisis (in the case of unfounded rumours); * Encourage them to view the crisis in a less negative light by acknowledging the organisation's interpretation of events. * Influence the media to see the organisation more positively through the effective management of the crisis. / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)