Technology and communication skills simultaneously increase organizational productivity and decision-making. However, excessive use of technology to make decisions can diminish the added benefits that nonverbal communication can bring. The interpersonal sensitivity effects on perception of service quality model, face-to-face communication versus teleconferencing, the technology acceptance model, and decision-making were the conceptual framework of the study. The research questions examined how excessive use of technology to make decisions can diminish the added benefits that nonverbal communication can bring to organizational leadership decision-making. Employing an exploratory multiple case study design, organizational leaders from the Southern California region, ranging in seniority from team-leader through executive, completed 25 member-checked interviews and 15 qualitative questionnaires. Using Yin's 5-step approach to analyzing the data, 8 themes remerged. From these themes, I developed 5 findings regarding technology, non-verbal communication, and decision-making. My study affects positive social change by educating organizational leaders on the importance of distancing themselves from work during nonwork hours, encouraging organizational leaders to develop guidelines around the use of teleconference software, promoting organizational learning with an emphasis on soft-skill training, and acknowledging when there is a misunderstanding in nonverbal communication. Organizational leaders can improve decision-making by using the favorable traits associated with both electronic and nonverbal behavioral communications.

Are mobile phones the best vehicle for reducing gender inequality in the developing world? ICT experts champion the use of mobile phones to improve women’s lives, and various stakeholders have invested millions of dollars to launch mobile phone programs for women. Yet, given high female illiteracy rates, patriarchal societies, and other structural and cultural barriers in developing countries, many scholars contend that limited access to ICTs can perpetuate gender inequality. Rooted in the theory that women’s empowerment and equality are inseparable and necessary components for the realization of sustainable economic and social development, this paper aims to determine if stakeholders are jumping on the mobile phone bandwagon too soon by using a multivariate regression of cross national data to demonstrate whether or not mobile phones fall short of advancing women at the same rate that men develop.

This dissertation explores whether and how alternative media in El Salvador incorporated information communication technologies (ICTs) for social change, and whether incorporating said technologies changed citizen participation not only in the media process itself, but also in a broader discursive sphere as well as civic and political life. Within the context of a digitally divided region, this project employed ethnographic methods—including in-depth interviews, participant-observation, and a content analysis—to interrogate the perceived potential value of ICTs in alternative media for contesting power, contributing to social change, and opening spaces for citizen participation in technology and through technology. This research is merely a beginning stage in learning how digital communication tools influence alternative media practices, and what that means for participation, mobilization and empowerment. This study contributes to burgeoning literature focused on communication for social change and technologies by adding an international focus, and by furthering our understanding of under what circumstances alternative media can (or cannot) employ new technologies in liberating ways, especially in a region where use of and access to these technologies is far from universal. Ultimately this dissertation advances existing literature with two main contributions: extending our understanding of the digital divide to include inequalities of social media and whether it is used in liberating or frivolous ways, and including technology use—whether liberating or not¬—as a fundamental approach to the study of alternative media. / text

Šiuolaikiniam pasauliui įžengus į žinių amžių kiekvienas žmogus susiduria su vis naujomis, greitai besikeičiančiomis situacijomis, reikalaujančiomis greito ir efektyvaus sprendimo priėmimo. Nauja mūsų laikų valiuta tampa ne gamybinis meistriškumas, o informacija ir mokėjimas tinkamai ja pasinaudoti. Pastaroji situacija tapo aktuali dėl nuolat tobulėjančių informacinių technologijų, kurios siūlo naujus problemų sprendimo būdus, lemia naują ugdymo turinį, atveria naujus mokymo ir mokymosi metodus. Moderniu tampa ne tik ugdymas, bet ir įmonių valdymas, kuris glaudžiai siejasi su šiuolaikinėmis informacinėmis komunikacinėmis technologijomis. Efektyvus jų pritaikomumas edukacinėje ir vadybinėje veikloje priklauso nuo vadovo ir pedagogo informacinės komunikacinės kompetencijos. Suvokiant, kad viena svarbiausių šiuolaikinių vadovo ir pedagogo charakteristikų tampa gebėjimas efektyviai pritaikyti informacines komunikacines technologijas (IKT) praktinėje veikloje, buvo suformuluota tyrimo problema: kokios yra bendrojo lavinimo mokyklų vadovų ir pedagogų informacinės komunikacinės kompetencijos. Norint ištirti šią problemą buvo atliktas bendrojo lavinimo mokyklų vadovų ir pedagogų informacinių komunikacinių kompetencijų tyrimas, kurio tikslas – ištirti bendrojo lavinimo mokyklų vadovų ir pedagogų informacines komunikacines kompetencijas bei numatyti jų tobulinimo galimybes. Atlikus šį tyrimą buvo suformuluotos išvados, kuriuose teigiama, kad mokyklų vadovų informacinė komunikacinė... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / As the modern world has stepped into a new age, each individual encounters still new, fast changing situations that require a fast and efficient decision making. Not an industrial mastership, but information and command in adequate benefiting from it becomes a new currency in our time. The latter situation has become an urgent one due to constantly improving information technologies that offer new ways of problem solution, determine new contents of education, open new training and learning methods. Not only education, but also enterprise management, which closely relates to the state-of-art information communication technologies, becomes up-to-date. Their efficient adaptation in educational and managerial activities depends upon information communication competence of a manager and teacher. Perceiving that one of the most important characteristics of a modern manager and teacher becomes the ability to efficiently adapt information communication technologies (ICT) in practice, the research problem has been formulated: what are the information communication competencies of managers and teachers of comprehensive schools. In order to examine this problem, a research on competencies of the managers and teachers of comprehensive schools has been conducted, the purpose of which is to examine competencies of managers and teachers of comprehensive schools and to envisage the possibilities for their improvement. Having conducted the aforementioned research, the conclusions have been... [to full text]

Šiuolaikinis paauglys yra veikiamas dabartinio informacijos amžiaus, kuris greitai keičiasi bei atveria informacinių komunikacinių technologijų vartotojams daugybę pasirinkimų. Paaugliai, dėl šiuolaikinio gyvenimo tempo suformuotų savybių (smalsumo, savarankiškumo, impulsyvumo, aktyvumo ir pan.) susiduria su įvairiomis naudojimosi informacinėmis komunikacinėmis technologijomis problemomis. Tyrimo objektas – jaunesniųjų paauglių naudojimo(si) informacinėmis komunikacinėmis technologijomis problemų identifikacija ir sprendimo būdai. Tyrimo tikslas – išanalizuoti kylančias problemas naudojantis informacinėmis komunikacinėmis technologijomis ir pateikti galimus šių problemų sprendimo būdus. Tyrimo tikslui įgyvendinti buvo atlikta apklausa Šiaulių apskrities, Akmenės rajono vidurinėje mokykloje bei Šiaulių miesto dienos centre. Tyrimo tikslams įgyvendinti buvo atlikta 59 anketų kiekybinė ir kokybinė analizė. Anketą sudaro 4 blokai pusiau uždaro tipo klausimų (demografiniai klausimai, respondento naudojimosi mobiliuoju telefonu patirtis, naudojimosi televizijos paslaugomis ypatumai, respondento naudojimosi kompiuteriu ir internetu patirtis) ir blokas klausimų apie informacinių komunikacinių technologijų naudą bei žalą, remiantis nebaigtų sakinių metodika bei blokas klausimų, orientuotų į situacijos sprendimo modelio kūrimą. Nustatyta, kad iš problemų, su kuriomis susiduria šiuolaikinis paauglys, tiriamieji labiausiai pabrėžia žalingo turinio informacijos prieinamumą bei gausumą... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / A modern teenager is influenced by the age of information, which is rapidly changing and opening up many choices of information and communication technology for consumers. Teens on the pace of modern life formed properties (curiosity, independence, impulsivity, activity, etc.) are confronted with a variety of use of information communication technology issues. The research is focused on young adolescents use of information communication technologies, identification of problems and solutions. The research is focused on young adolescents use of information communication technologies, identification of problems and solutions. The aims of the survey was conducted in secondary school, Akmene district, Siauliai County and in Day Centre of Siauliai town. Objectives of the study was carried out in 59 questionnaire quantitative and qualitative analysis. The questionnaire consists of four blocks of semi-closed type of questions (demographic questions, respondents using the mobile phone experience, the use of television service features, the respondent's computer and Internet experience) and blocks of questions on information communication technology benefits and damages on the basis of incomplete sentences technique as well as a block of questions that focus on the situation in the decision model. It was found that out of the problems facing the modern teenager subjects stress the availability and abundance of the harmful content on cyberspace and user physiology injury by... [to full text]

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, Centre for European Studies and General Linguistics, 2004? / Title from opening screen; viewed 19 May 2005. "May 2004" Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print format.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, Centre for European Studies and General Linguistics, 2004? / "May 2004" Includes bibliographical references (p. 264-284). Also available electronically via the Australian Digital Theses Program.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business, December 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Students' use of technology for the purpose of academic and leisure pursuits is ever increasing. Technology access, and its subsequent use for the many varied forms of digital reading, is particularly timely and relevant for high school aged students that will likely interact with digital reading for years to come. The relationship between academic technology use, non-academic technology use, and students' scores on the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) supplemental Digital Reading Assessment (DRA) as they related to gross domestic product (GDP) were explored in this study. Research questions were answered using extant data collected from the DRA and Information Communication Technology (ICT) survey portions of the 2009 PISA. Results indicated that academic and non-academic technology use ICT survey items were moderately correlated, however the academic and non-academic survey items were only weakly correlated to the DRA score. Moreover, the non-academic mean score was significantly higher than the academic mean score survey items. Finally, a regression analysis showed that GDP accounted for 3.28% of the variance; the non-academic survey explained 0.27% of the variance, while the academic technology use survey items only accounted for .05% of variance in the DRA. The relationship between academic and non-academic technology use as well as countries' overall DRA and GDP is further explored in the discussion.

This diploma thesis dealt with the issue of awareness of a patient and his or her opportunity to co-decide during hospitalization at an internal department. There were set three targets. The first one was to find out the level of the awareness of the patient during hospitalization about a care plan. From the result of a research is evident that patients feel lack of clear information about the care plan. The second target was to find out whether the patient has a chance to co-decide about a provided care during hospitalization. Comparing results from particular investigations there was a contrary between opinions of patients and medics. Patients think that the opportunity to co-decide is given to them. However, medics think that the opportunity of the patient to co-decide is limited. The third target was to find out, which questions in connection with a process of hospitalization patients ask nurses. Results of the investigation show that the most frequent questions are about the length of hospitalization. The diploma thesis is divided into two parts-theoretical and empirical. The theoretical part describes issues of the process of hospitalization of the patient since his/her income until his/her discharge from hospital. The investigative part was implemented by combination of a quantitative and a qualitative research. For the quantitative part of the investigation there was chosen the method questionnaire with a technique of half-structured interview offering open questions. Into the research file was involved 15 patients hospitalized at the internal department involved. There were set three investigatory questions. 1. What obstacles do exist in order to provide clear information during hospitalization of the patient? The research found out that the most frequent obstacle of intelligibility is a large amount of given information and frequent usage of terminology. 2. What obstacles do exist in order to make the patient an active participant when giving information? The investigation surprisingly resulted that that is not a misunderstanding or lack of empathy from the medic?s position or lack of interest from patient?s position. The main problem to make the patient the active participant during giving information is lack of medic?s time on patients. 3. Does the level of awareness of the patient saturate his or her need of certainty and security? The investigation showed that by the level of awareness is saturated the need of certainty and security. To gain data for the chosen issue of the quantitative research we used the method of questioning by a questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of 17 questions, 14 closed questions, 2 half-opened questions and 1 open question which offered to show a personal opinion. Respondents that were asked were students of paramedic assistant, nursing and paramedic resque worker, furthermore working nurses from both ambulant and bed sector, nurses from management and teacher of praxis. For the quantitative research we had two hypotheses: 1. Frequency of asking questions about the length of hospitalization equals to asking about the health condition. From the research was found out, that frequency of asking about the length of hospitalization is much higher than questions about the health condition. The first hypothesis was not verified. 2. During giving information nurses take for granted to include needs of the patient. The investigation showed that nurses during the hospitalization take for granted to include also patient?s opinions expressing his or her needs. The second hypothesis was verified. Results of our investigation gained in this diploma thesis will be used as sources for a distribution of informative materials for patients. We also think that it would be useful to inform nurses working at internal departments about the results. The results could also be interesting for students of high schools or universities preparing themselves for jobs of medical workers.