Thesis (M.A.T.) -- School for International Training, 2006. / Advisor -- Susan Barduhn Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-76).

This research conducted an interdisciplinary field experiment to identify relationships between productivity, user satisfaction and IS Helpdesk USP's use of effective communication behavior. An experimental group of Helpdesk USPs of a large retail organization were trained by communication professionals in communication effectiveness, with emphasis on the needs of the telephone environment.

Traditional studies of ethnic relations focus on racialization between Whites and Blacks, or ethnic stratification between Whites and people of color. The increasingly integrated world has ensured continued movements of humans and goods and the inevitable contacts between people of different cultural background. This dissertation aims at broadening conventional studies of interethnic relations to examine racial attitudes among people who have internalized more than one culture -- i.e. the biculturals and multiculturals. Social psychological research suggests that bicultural individuals are capable of switching between two cultural meaning frames depending on contextual demands. Bicultural individuals vary in how well they integrate the two cultural identities internalized in them -- i.e., their bicultural identity integration levels (BII levels). Their BII levels lead to either culturally congruent or culturally incongruent behaviors among bicultural individuals. The underlying assumption of linguistic intergroup bias indicates that people tend to describe more abstractly observed positive ingroup behaviors and negative outgroup behaviors and describe more concretely observed negative ingroup behaviors and positive outgroup behaviors. In this study, bicultural Asian American participants are hypothesized to use language of either higher or lower abstraction to describe actions of positive and negative valence performed by either ethnic Asians or European Americans depending on the cultural priming they received and their BII levels. The study results point out the perceived ingroup/outgroup orientation of the bicultural participants towards their coethnics and people of the mainstream culture. Effects of the cultural priming and impact of BII levels are also discussed. / text

The present study examined the relationships among similarity, interpersonal perception and communicative behaviors in marriage. It was hypothesized that greater understanding, feelings of being understood, and realization of understanding would be associated with greater self-disclosure, use of more direct person control strategies, and use of less attention control strategies. It was further hypothesized that measuring feelings of being understood and realization of understanding, in addition to measuring understanding, would improve prediction of behavior. Finally, it was hypothesized that the contextual measure of understanding would better predict self-disclosure and interpersonal control than would global measures of understanding.

This study compared the impacts of actual individual task competence, speaking time and physical expressiveness as indicators of verbal and nonverbal communication behavior, and likability on performance evaluations in a group task. 164 participants who were assigned to 41 groups first solved a problem individually and later solved it as a team. After the group interaction, participants' performance was evaluated by both their team members and qualified external observers. We found that these performance evaluations were significantly affected not only by task competence but even more by speaking time and nonverbal physical expressiveness. Likability also explained additional variance in performance evaluations. The implications of these findings are discussed for both the people being evaluated and the people doing the evaluating.

Background: The persistent Covid-19 pandemic tremendously challenged existing work teams as it drove spatial dispersion among colleagues and greater dependence on virtual communication tools. Consequently, teams were required to adapt proven communication practices that mediate the exchange of social information and the perception of proximity to teammates. Aim: We aim to broaden team studies’ theoretical understanding of communication behavior and proximity in the light of contextual changes by developing an empathic understanding of the contemporary phenomena. This entails identifying arisen communication behavior patterns and assessing the impact of behavioral changes on team members’ perception of proximity. Methodology: By conducting a qualitative case study, we investigated three teams of a medium-sized German fashion corporation. The iterative data collection entailed six semi-structured interviews with individuals and focus groups and complementary quantitative surveys. Findings: We posit that sudden spatial dispersion of familiar teams does not inevitable lead to greater perceived distance, but that a team’s ability to appropriate technology, so social needs are met, is decisive. Further, the new communication practices of all teams were found to maintain high levels of synchronicity and social informational value. Yet, communication quality and social exchange was partially hampered by reduced spontaneity, greater passiveness, and a loss of humor. This was found to be strongly influenced by team members’ attitudes towards used technology.

本研究旨在探討國民中學校長溝通行為、教師組織信任與教師教學效能之關係，並分析不同個人背景變項在校長溝通行為、教師組織信任與教師教學效能的差異情形，進而探討校長溝通行為、教師組織信任與教師教學效能的相關性及校長溝通行為、教師組織信任對教師教學效能的預測力。 透過問卷調查法，以新北市國民中學教師為對象，共發出627份問卷，問卷內容包括背景變項問卷、校長溝通行為問卷、教師組織信任問卷與教師教學效能問卷。回收有效問卷467份，可用率為74.48％。資料統計分析上使用描述性統計、獨立樣本t 檢定、單因子變異數分析、皮爾遜積差相關、逐步多元迴歸分析等方法。 本研究結論如下： 一、國民中學教師對校長溝通行為、教師組織信任與教師教學效能知覺程度皆屬中 上程度。 二、國民中學教師性別、年齡、擔任職務、學校規模在校長溝通行為方面有差異。 三、國民中學教師性別、年齡、學歷、擔任職務、學校規模在教師組織信任方面有 差異。 四、國民中學教師年齡、學歷、學校規模在教師教學效能上有差異。 五、校長溝通行為、教師組織信任與教師教學效能三者之間具有顯著正相關。 六、校長溝通行為、教師組織信任對教師教學效能具有顯著預測力，以教師組織信 任對教師教學效能之預測力最佳。 / This study aims to investigate the current development of the the principals’ communication behavior, teachers’ organizational trust and teachers’ teaching effectiveness in junior high school, and to analyze the differences in teachers of different backgrounds variables are conscious of the principals' communication behavior, teachers’ organizational trust and teachers’ teaching effectiveness, and to explore the relationship among the three variables; finally, to forecast teachers’ teaching effectiveness through the principals' communication behavior, teachers’ organizational trust. Questionnaire survey is adopted and personal background questionnaire, the principals’ communication behavior, teachers’ organizational trust and teachers’ teaching effectiveness questionnaire are included. The questionnaires were distributed to 627 teachers in New Taipei City junior high schools, and 467 valid questionnaires were retrieved, with 74.48% of availability. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson Product-Moment Correlation and multiple stepwise regression analysis. The conclusions are as follows: 1. The overall situation about the perceptions of junior high school teachers toward principals’ communication behavior, teachers’ organizational trust and teachers’ teaching effectiveness is mid-high level. 2. Junior high school teachers’ percept is obvious difference of principals’ communication behavior in sex, age difference, positions and working school scales. 3. Junior high school teachers’ percept is obvious difference of teachers' organizational trust in sex, age difference, positions and working school scales. 4. Junior high school teachers’ percept is obvious difference of teachers’ teaching effectiveness in age difference, academic backgrounds, and working school scales. 5.There are significant positive correlations among principals’ communication behavior, teachers’ organizational trust and teachers’ teaching effectiveness. 6.There are significant predictive power among principals’ communication behavior, teachers’ organizational trust and teachers’ teaching effectiveness, and teachers’ organizational trust is the most reliable predictor to the teachers’ teaching effectiveness.

Ineffective communication behavioral constructs in the workplace that lead to information technology (IT) project failure and in some cases organization failure are increasingly becoming a management concern. Despite this trend, there is little research on the communication behavioral constructs that contribute to IT project failure rates. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of business analysts, programmers, and programmer analysts pertaining to the behavioral constructs associated with effective and ineffective communication. The research questions addressed these behaviors from a conceptual framework based on communication theory, organizational information processing theory, and critical social theory. This framework guided data collection using electronic interviews of a snowball sample of social media participants. Data were coded using open and axial techniques, analyzed for themes and patterns, and member checked to bolster trustworthiness. Findings included 10 communication behavioral constructs that influence communication in IT software development teams. Included in the findings were potential options for improving communication among end users, management, programmers, and other employees. Recommendations to improve communication among stakeholders included involvement of the correct stakeholders, clear project requirements, frequent communication, active listening, and feedback. Other recommendations were stakeholder education and training, and knowledge of goals and processes. Implications for positive social change could be realized by using the findings to improve the way communication is addressed, shared, and implemented to reduce IT project failure for stakeholders.

隨著政治民主化以及公共議題的多元化，政府溝通能力逐漸受到重視。許多政策推動的失敗被歸咎於政策溝通成效不彰外，文官更是被迫到第一線與民眾進行溝通互動以滿足逐漸高漲的溝通需求。然而，對於文官政策溝通行為的規範性及經驗性研究均相當匱乏，本研究從政府與民眾的互動關係、不同政府運作模式的邏輯，釐清並建構文官與民眾溝通的脈絡以及影響其溝通途徑與行為之因素，並試圖解釋文官參與政策溝通對於政治行政二分的意涵。 本研究以原能會為個案，透過訪談17位原能會文官、記者以及社運團體，蒐集原能會在不同溝通場域中的溝通經驗作為歸納與分析的素材。經過經驗資料的堆砌與歸納，建構政策溝通系統用以解釋影響原能會組織溝通途徑的選擇及其文官個人溝通行為的因素。研究發現行政組織有趨於選擇單向溝通的傾向，及趨於偏好使用間接管道溝通的傾向，並提出環境、制度、組織與個人層面對於溝通途徑選擇及溝通行為的影響因素。最後，本研究提出幾項建議，首先，原能會未來應重視記者對於政策資訊的理解；其次，應避免跨途徑溝通；其三，應正視反核態度的民眾，提供適當的溝通途徑；最後，未來應以團隊為政策溝通的行動單位，團隊應涵蓋不同層級的成員，以面對各式樣的問題，進而避免溝通困境的產生。 / In recent years, government communication capacity has become important as political democratization and public issues have diversified. Policy failures are often attributed to the lack of policy communication and force the civil servant to communicate with the public directly. However, some of the communication behavior of civil service policy literature suffer from the lack of attention to the perspective of normative and empirical researches. This research intents to explore the communication context between civil servant and the public, and to find out the determinant factors which affect communication approaches and communication behavior. This research uses the methods of in-depth interviews with key informants to investigate the key factors in the policy communication system that have substantial affected the choice of organizational communication approaches and communication behavior of civil service in Atomic Energy Council. The result indicates that: First, the public sector still has a tendency to choosing one-way communication and using indirect channel to communicate. Second, this research offers critical factors from the level of environment, institution, organization and individual that affect the choice of communication approaches and communication behavior. Finally, this research suggests that: First, Atomic Energy Council should pay more attention to understanding of policy information from reporters. Second, Atomic Energy Council should try to avoid cross-approaches communication. Third, Atomic Energy Council should face up to anti-nuclear groups and provide suitable communication approaches. Finally, Atomic Energy Council should design a policy communication team which concludes different levels of members, in order to build up an effective coordinating channels.