No description available.

Abstract A useful tool for companies to use in their differentiation process is proposed to be employee branding. Employee branding is developed and put forth by the management with the main task to formulate the brands vision and values, and communicate them to the employees. To promote the employee engagement and their relationship with the company, corporate storytelling can be applied, with is an internal communication that strengthens the internal rumour and values that represent the brand. Since engagement and motivation is important factors when creating a strong employee brand, there is a need for further research on how corporate storytelling is used by companies to influence employee engagement and motivation, as corporate storytelling leads to deeper commitment among employees. Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how companies use corporate storytelling to influence their employee branding. Methodology The authors conducted a qualitative case study on how the retail organization Boomerang. The empirical material was collected thru semi-structured interviews with Boomerangs management and employees. Conclusion The conclusion shows that the employees prefers when corporate storytelling and various communication is put in context, this because it’s easier for the employees to understand. Boomerang seems to understand the importance of working with images and texts to develop an understanding of the brand and the corporate story they represent. It can be concluded that the informal internal sources have greater impact on the employees, this may be because the informal internal sources is put more in context to their work, rather the more formal internal sources. There is a need for better balance in the use of corporate storytelling, between the sources and what is stated in the information. Keywords: Branding, Employee branding, Corporate storytelling, Formal internal messages, Informal internal messages, Psychological contract, Brand commitment.

Physical activity guidelines have become a focal point of mass media messages promoting physical activity to the adult population. Messages regarding sedentary behaviour have also emerged. Further, Chapter 3 identified knowledge of just 18% within a large sample of highly educated and employed UK adults. Of concern is the further finding that knowledge is likely to be higher within this group than within the general population and many groups within society may therefore have even lower knowledge. As many individuals are seemingly not likely to know the current physical activity guidelines, disseminating messages to promote them appears to be a reasonable strategy. However, Chapter 1 of this thesis highlighted the lack of research investigating the efficacy of messages designed around physical activity guidelines. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 began to explore some of the possible motivational implications of messages prominent in mass media campaigns promoting physical activity guidelines. Chapter 4 describes a cross-sectional study which compared the effects of messages using the threshold of 150 minutes a week with a generic message on perceived benefits of physical activity. Messages were representative of those found in mass media campaigns. Those receiving a threshold message held significantly less positive views of the benefits of physical activity at durations below 150 minutes a week. While a threshold message may be motivationally damaging in certain contexts, they tend not to be provided in isolation. Intensity of physical activity i.e. moderate-to-vigorous (MVPA) is another key aspect of physical activity guidelines featured in mass media campaigns. Subsequently, Chapter 5 employed an online survey of highly educated adults to investigate associations between threshold and generic messages describing MVPA as either walking or using a physiological description, with motivational constructs. Interestingly, the message incorporating a threshold was motivationally advantageous when MVPA was described as walking. On the other hand, inactive adults tend to overestimate their physical activity with walking behaviour being serially overestimated. This could result in reduced motivation to engage in MVPA. The influence of regular walking speed on misperceptions was therefore investigated in Chapter 6. Further, accurate knowledge of physical activity requirements has been theorised to reduce misperceptions. Chapter 6 reports findings that regularly slow walkers are more likely to overestimate their physical activity levels while knowledge of guidelines has no effect. This leaves a complex picture of the motivational qualities of messages promoting physical activity guidelines. Finally, Chapter 7 describes a content analysis which broadens the investigation of mass media messages by scrutinising the introduction of messages promoting reductions in sedentary behaviour. Sticking closely to guidelines, combining messages on sedentary behaviour with those on physical activity, the relative omission of standing and the demonisation of sitting emerged as common themes. This thesis highlights the problem of low knowledge of physical activity guidelines within a sample of UK adults and points towards a lack of evidence-based messaging. With knowledge being low, the provision of a threshold is desirable on an informational level. The provision of walking as an exemplar appears to make the threshold more amenable, however, for inactive adults the use of this exemplar in messages may lead to overestimation of physical activity and decrease motivation. Clearly, the motivational implications of these messages are complex and require further investigation.

Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Louise Benjamin / This experimental research builds upon the health communications study completed by Rustam Haydarov in 2010, with a similar approach to ascertain how an individual’s age might influence their reaction to political messages. Using a typology of frames by Levin, Schneider and Gaeth (1998), the study utilizes an older demographic (ages 55-70) and a younger comparison group (ages 18-33) to determine a) if both groups find positive advertising messages more favorable than negative advertising messages and b) if the older demographic is more wary than younger counterparts when discussing current events and the future of America. The study used a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to determine reactions to goal-oriented and loss-oriented message framing in four mock print political campaign advertisements focusing on the topics of healthcare and college education financing. There was greater prevalence of strongly negative and strongly positive reactions among the younger demographic, except in the case of the loss-framed healthcare ad. The older group reacted more strongly to that particular ad, concerning an issue which had great relevance to them. Of the two age groups, the older demographic registered a more even-keeled reaction across the four ads. Overall, this study has focused on how message frame, topic and age of the message receiver combine to affect message resonance in the context of political communications.

This study has two major purposes: (1) to investigate if and how punctuation conventions have been rewritten in text messages to compensate for lack of paralinguistic cues and (2) the sociolinguistic implications of these findings. Data for this study was collected through an online, anonymous questionnaire in which participants gave their judgments about the meanings and function of punctuation used in sample text messages. The results show that punctuation is used to convey differences in meaning in direct and indirect ways and most are dependent on the context. Furthermore, age showed to be a factor in punctuation style and interpretation. The results here challenge the notion that texting is detrimental to one’s literacy skills and is in fact a site of linguistic innovation.

Background- Communication messages today are all about influencing and persuading people. Two main types of messages can be seen when studying the healthy food trend on Instagram and how it is impacting attitude formation and change; these two are positive and negative messages. However, different communication messages are not the only deciders of attitude formation and change. There is one more significant factor that impacts attitude formation and change; this factor is identification with the message sender. Purpose- The purpose of this thesis is to identify whether positively or negatively themed messages on Instagram have a stronger impact on a person's attitudes regarding healthy food consumption. We will further examine if identification with the message sender additionally impacts attitude formation and change. Method- In order to fulfill the purpose of the thesis we used a qualitative research approach. We conducted interviews with 40 respondents that belonged to our main target group. Furthermore we conducted a robustness check with six respondents. All 46 respondents included in the qualitative study were Instagram users, and all the respondents in the main target group were students. Findings and Conclusion- After analyzing the empirical results together with suitable theories, some main conclusions could be drawn. The study demonstrated that positive communication messages are the preferred message type on Instagram. We further conclude that identification with the message sender does indeed have an additional impact on attitude formation and change. Based on this study we can say that communication messages and identification with the message sender work together in forming and changing attitudes regarding healthy food on Instagram. Practical Implications- This thesis gives valuable indications to companies, organizations and decision makers in order to direct marketing practices in terms of communication messages on social media, particularly Instagram. Moreover it gives insights for managers to be able to create communication messages that correspond to the expectations of the society. Keywords- Communication messages, attitude formation and change, identification with the message sender.

Text communication is often perceived as lacking some components of communication that are essential in sustaining interaction or conversation. This interaction incoherency tends to make text communication plastic. It is traditionally devoid of intonation, pitch, gesture, facial expression and visual or auditory cues. Nevertheless, Instant Messaging (IM), a form of text communication is on the upward uptake both on PCs and on mobile handhelds. There is a need to rubberise this plastic text messaging to improve co-presence for text communications thereby improving synchronous textual discussion, especially on handheld devices. <br /> <br /> One element of interaction is gesture, seen as a natural way of conversing. Attaining some level of interaction naturalism requires improving synchronous communication spontaneity, partly achieved by enhancing input mechanisms. To enhance input mechanisms for interactive text-based chat on mobile devices, there is a need to facilitate gesture input. Enhancement is achievable in a number of ways, such as input mechanism redesigning and input offering adaptation. This thesis explores affective gesture mode on interface redesign as an input offering adaptation. This is done without a major physical reconstruction of handheld devices.<br /> <br /> This thesis presents a text only IM system built on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE). It was developed with a novel user-defined hotkey implemented as a one-click context menu to &ldquo / fast-track&rdquo / text-gestures and emoticons.<br /> <br /> A hybrid quantitative and qualitative approach was taken to enable data triangulation. Results from experimental trials show that an Affective Gesture (AG) approach improved IM chat spontaneity/response. Feedback from the user trials affirms that AG hotkey improves chat responsiveness, thus enhancing chat spontaneity.

Background: Tobacco use remains a major public health issue. Population-level efforts to curb tobacco use include media to promote smoking cessation. However, these campaigns (including tobacco package warning labels) commonly emphasize the addictiveness of nicotine and the difficulty of quitting with statements like ?nicotine is as addictive as heroin and cocaine?. Addiction oriented messages may have an iatrogenic effect on cessation by undermining behavioural precursors such as self-efficacy, cessation outcome expectations, behavioural control, and quit-aid efficacy. <br /><br /> Objectives: First, to determine the effects of addiction focused messages in comparison to efficacy enhanced messages and control messages on smokers? self-efficacy, cessation outcome expectations, behavioural control, and quit-aid efficacy. Second, to determine if the impact of addiction focused messages differ according to participant nicotine dependency level. <br /><br /> Methods: A sample of adult smokers (n>101) from Kitchener/Waterloo and Owen Sound were randomly assigned into one of three intervention conditions: addiction focused (M1), efficacy enhanced (M2), and control (M3). Outcome measures were collected at baseline, post intervention and 30-day follow-up and included: self-efficacy, outcome expectations, behavioural control, quit-aid efficacy, and outcome expectancies. The 30-day follow-up also included measures of smoking consumption, quit attempts and use of a quit-aid. <br /><br /> Results: Majority of the participants were males and between 18-25 years of age. Mean number of cigarettes smoked ranged from 12 to 15 across groups whereas the mean number of years smoked ranged from 12 to 17. General linear analyses revealed no significant effect of message type or nicotine dependence (as measured by the Fagerstrome Test for Nicotine Dependence) on the outcome variables of interest. However, when perceived addiction was substituted as the measure of nicotine dependence, the analysis revealed a main effect for nicotine dependence on self-efficacy post intervention and on cessation outcome expectations at follow-up. An interaction effect was found for outcome expectancy at post intervention. <br /><br /> Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that acute addiction oriented messages may not negatively impact smokers? self-efficacy, outcomes expectations, behavioural control, quit-aid efficacy, and outcome expectancies. However, this does mean that message orientation should be ignored when constructing smoking cessation messages. In fact, program designers are encouraged to employ messages that limit the use of addiction oriented statements such as ?nicotine is as addictive as heroin and cocaine?. Further research is required to examine the potential cumulative impact of addiction oriented messages on quitting behaviour and its precursors.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, School of Human and Community Development, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts by coursework and research report in the field of in Organisational Psychology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg September 2017 / Emails have become a fundamental computer application and business tool, in organisations across the global. This is because of the accessibility and convenience of emails which have generated an array of benefits to both employees and their organisations. However, this accessibility has led to an over-reliance on emails, which often has the negative consequence of email overload. Email overload continues to be a recurring issues experienced by employees universally, which research has found to have negative implications on employees’ wellbeing and productivity. Yet there has been limited research, particularly in South Africa, that aims to reduce email overload among employees. Thus, this research report investigated how the role of providing employees with a job resource (training intervention) could increase perceived productivity and eliminate email overload and change caused by the job demands (emails) on employees .In order to examine this effect, this research utilised a pretest post-test control group design on order to compare the impact of a training intervention in reducing email overload and increasing productivity. The quantitative results revealed that the training intervention contributed to a decrease in feelings of email overload among the participants. Additionally, focus groups were administered to determine participants’ experience with emails both prior to the training and after the training, to gain a clearer understanding of the best practices used to eliminate email overload. These findings observed that the participants transferred learnt contents from training into their working lives. Thus research both further contributes to other research currently associated with email and email overload, and also provides a greater understanding of the need to provide employees with job resources much like training intervention in order to counteract those job demands like emails, that are often ignored. / XL2018

The diploma thesis deals with the influence which the advertising messages have on the target audience. In the theoretical part I analyze the way in which people are deciding. I emphasize the growing role of emotions. Furthermore I describe recommendations how to create textual and visual parts of the advertising messages. In the practical part I verify how these recommendations actually influence the selected group. For this purpose I use the group interview. In addition I make interviews with professionals to clarify if the early mentioned recommendations are applicable in practise.