<p> The question is regularly posed within communication academia as to whether computer mediated communication (CMC) is a "richer" form of communication than face-to-face (FtF). Similarly, the necessity of meeting FtF with regard to business has been repeatedly called into question since the downturn of the economy in 2008-2009. One reason professionals gather FtF is for tradeshows. </p><p> This thesis looks at the quality of the communication that takes place at FtF tradeshows, and reveals attitudes and opinions with regard to the importance of the relationship-building and commerce that occurs in person and/or online. The results inform what we can and cannot accomplish in these different environments. </p><p> 331 professionals who have worked in tradeshows as a planner, an exhibitor, an attendee, or an executive took an online survey designed to reveal how they felt about the relationship-building and commerce that occurs in the tradeshow environment. The questions were focused on whether FtF, CMC, or a combination of the two is the solution, exploring the value and necessity of tradeshows. Additionally, an autoethnography highlights some personal experiences, having served within each of the professional roles with regard to tradeshows. </p><p> The results showed the respondents felt that CMC is not a replacement for the FtF communication that occurs at tradeshows, but it is a useful supplement to the FtF experience. The autoethnography echoed these sentiments, in addition to echoing the short answers of many of the respondents.</p>

<p> For global companies to continue to grow, members must work and/or lead virtually. The purpose of my research was based on a two-dimensional model for measuring successful projects among virtual team members: effective communication and cultural intelligence (CQ) for team members working in a global pharmaceutical company. The main focus was on project management team members who work on global virtual teams and their team managers who lead global virtual teams. Currently, there is very limited empirical research that focuses on the relationship between cultural intelligence, effective communication within virtual teams, and successful projects. The researcher used triangulation mixed methods to explore the interrelationship among all three elements. It was hypothesized that all three elements are interrelated. Surveys on all three elements were used to assess both global leaders and project management team members who manage and lead projects virtually, working in collaboration with their global counterparts. Based on both the quantitative and qualitative results of the data, as well as the result of this interrelationship, further training on openness and global identity, adjustment to the current strategy, and education of all project management team members could then be recommended. If no difference in the collaboration level is found based on a high level of CQ, then additional opportunities for CQ would be recommended to the organization leadership. </p>

<p> Anecdotal evidence suggests interdisciplinary ideas receive significant, positive press. The prevailing commentary details the promises and theoretical benefits of interdisciplinarity, yet countervailing viewpoints are noticeably absent from the conversation in major media sources. Moreover, there is a lack of empirical data exploring the values associated with the term, interdisciplinary. The study examined what ideological assertions are supported through interdisciplinarity in undergraduate education discourse published in <i> The Chronicle of Higher Education </i> from 1993-2013. Employing a critical framing, the study utilized document analysis to examine ideological building blocks (i.e. values, assumptions, symbols, and ideographs) in 177 articles over a 20-year period. Exploring the evolution of interdisciplinarity in the discourse provided an opportunity to present a rich, contextualized meaning of an important higher education concept. The findings suggested a positive, solution-orientation are associated with the term, and offered evidence for an emergent micro-ideology in the higher education community.</p>

<p> Nearly two million combat veterans are now in various stages of the process of returning from service and entering higher education using the post-9/11 GI Bill. Who is guiding and advising them in the process of this transition, and how are they doing it? To help answer this question, this qualitative phenomenological study examines the narratives of successful student veterans for ways that mentors played a role in their transition from military service to academia. The study was informed by an examination of relevant literature, including individual mentoring and group mentoring; medical and non-medical readjustment counseling for returning combat veterans; various branches of psychology, communication, social construction, and warrior mythology and storytelling. Narrative data were examined using a composite metatheoretical model drawing on domains of human experience (Shay, 2010), integral theory and the all quadrants, all levels (AQAL) model (Wilber, 2006), and the coordinated management of meaning theory of social construction in communication (Pearce, 2008). This analysis revealed patterns of multiple mentor interaction across various social worlds that helped them to make meaning from their experiences in transition, and bridge between different social contexts of home, military, and school. An unexpected but significant finding was the presence and role of traumatic experiences fitting the description of &ldquo;moral injury&rdquo; (Drescher et al., 2011) or &ldquo;psychic wounding&rdquo; (Malabou, 2012) as linked to the episodes of being mentored while making meaning of these experiences. This suggests the relationship of coordinated mentor communications to the phenomenon of posttraumatic growth, and the particular attunement of adult education (andragogy) as enabling context. Applying these findings to the composite four-quadrant model resulted in an integrated conceptual model of &ldquo;contextual mentoring,&rdquo; which provides a framework to consider the way coordinated mentor influences may act as mediating structures to support the development or transformation of returning veterans during their transition in higher education.</p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> veterans, mentoring, group mentoring, posttraumatic growth, moral injury, phenomenology, communication, coordinated management of meaning (CMM), social construction of reality, adult learning, andragogy, mediating structures.</p>

<p> This research contributes to the literature on evaluation practice, by reflecting on the role of internal evaluation within organizational communication systems as a whole. A systems theory approach is used to reflect upon the role of internal evaluation, as a means to provide and communicate feedback information. In particular, this study represents exploratory research on the topic of "organic evaluation". Organic evaluation activities are defined in this study as properties that emerge spontaneously within feedback communication systems. Evidence of its practice has been identified within nonprofit organizations operating in Los R&iacute;os, Chile. The findings suggest that organic evaluation is conducted to produce and/or communicate feedback information within nonprofit organizations. Findings are also shared regarding needs and constraints that nonprofit organizations face when internally attempting to access, process, and communicate feedback information. Finally, this research highlights the importance in recognizing organic evaluation being conducted within nonprofit organizations in order to formalize its practice and improve feedback communication systems.</p>

<p> "<b>Healthcare organizations rely heavily on communications to deliver services and certify quality treatment outcomes. Specifically, communication and communication processes are critical determinants in whether a dental practice succeeds or fails. There has been a substantial amount of research on communication and its influence on patient satisfaction, employee morale, and work productivity within various organizations. However, limited existing qualitative research examines communication processes and their impact on health institutions. This research study explored the communication process and its influence on employee work performance within a dental practice. The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews to obtain descriptive, information-rich responses from a purposeful sample of 10 participants regarding their perception of the communication process. Utilizing an embedded, exploratory, case study research design, descriptions and experiences from leaders and employees revealed four major gaps within the organization's communication process. Consequently, six themes emerged that identified the four intricacies of an effective communication process within a private dental practice. The following complexities, lack of comprehension, lack of employee awareness, lack of precision and clarification of instruction, and inconsistent exchange of information, are crucial facets of the communication process. From the perspective of study participants, improvement in these areas would foster employee engagement, produce desirable outcomes, and enhance employee work performance</b>"</p>

<p>This dissertation examines the linguistic practices 9&ndash;13 year-old African American students who attended an after school program in Washington, D.C. used to negotiate schooling and achievement. It builds on existing anthropological research on how young people are socialized into their communities, classrooms, and the wider society via language. It renders this process particular to the students&rsquo; lived experiences of race, poverty, and contemporary schooling reform. By focusing on linguistic practice and the language ideologies held by the students, the dissertation explores the difficulties racially identified minority students face in school when they are asked by the wider society&rsquo;s major socializing agents and institutions to exchange cultural identity for academic success. </p><p> The dissertation is based on 8 months of ethnographic fieldwork that was conducted from October 2010&ndash;June 2011. During these months, over 108 hours of data were recorded from 30 preadolescents who served as research subjects. Informal interviews with after school staff and adults from the local community were also conducted. In the third and final phase (April&ndash;June 2011), focus groups were conducted with 12 of the students. </p><p> The dissertation provides evidence that among same- and similar-age peers, the students often repurposed the linguistic practices they learned from adults, and in ways that did not always align with the dominant expectations of the more socially powerful members of either the community or the after school program. It argues that the types of AAVE-based &ldquo;conflict&rdquo; talk students test in peer contexts perform positive socializing functions but that these discourse styles were nevertheless often interpreted, by adults as well as the students themselves, as unpreparedness or unwillingness to achieve in school. </p><p> This study revisits major theorizing of hegemony, critical consciousness, and &ldquo;the Black underclass.&rdquo; It suggests that while preadolescent-age African Americans try to construct &ldquo;achievement&rdquo; on their own terms via linguistic practice, they are not always successful because they are not empowered in the classroom, situationally or in the long term. It concludes by recommending ways in which educational practitioners and theorists can better understand how academically marginalized students engage with schooling and how they can support these students&rsquo; negotiated achievements. </p>

<p> This study examined the listening behaviors of organization development (OD) practitioners that result in client transformation. Interviews conducted with eleven OD consultants with extensive experience in executive coaching pointed to engaged, focused attention as a core characteristic of their listening. OD practitioners regularly use three primary listening approaches (active, empathetic, and expansive listening) to drive insight and help clients transform their perspectives. Practitioners subsequently use two secondary listening approaches (critical and reductive listening) to anchor insight into action and help clients transform their behavior. Transformative listening describes the repeating process of inquiry that blends primary and secondary listening approaches and tends to transform client perspectives and behavior. Conversely, transactional listening describes a listening approach appropriate for the negotiation and execution of agreements in the transaction of routine business. Self-awareness and use of self foster sensitivity to client needs and practitioner agility in blending the listening approaches used in transformative listening. </p>

<p> This thesis explores the utility of using performance, specifically activating theatre, both as a reproductive health intervention and as an ethnographic tool for exploring the reproductive health worldview of 17 adolescent girls, all peer counselors at a state-run all-girl boarding school in Rift Valley Province, Kenya. The study is grounded theoretically in the traditions of action research, critical ethnography, performance theory, and dialogic expression. I facilitated a week-long activating theatre workshop that included warm-ups, bridge work, improvisation, and activating material. The workshop, which was video recorded, was analyzed alongside a reflective journal and audio recorded semi-structured interviews and a post-workshop focus group for core themes and categories using grounded theory. My analysis shows that the use of activating theatre is an effective tool for understanding the reproductive health perceptions of adolescent girls, for encouraging them to openly discuss their reproductive health issues, for increasing their sense of agency, for improving their decision-making skills, and for helping them critically assess the social and historical roots of reproductive health issues. The project web site which includes workshop video clips is at http://purityjerop.wix.com/kapkenda-performance.</p>

<p> Interpersonal communication is essential for developing and maintaining relationships. Strong interpersonal relationships undergird communities by facilitating their formation and supporting their maintenance and growth. This study explores the effect of training in Empathic Dialogue, a system of communication based on Nonviolent Communication, on the interpersonal communication skills of nine participants. The participants were interviewed prior to attending two three-hour training sessions, and again between one month and three months after the sessions.</p><p> Before turning to the empirical study, I make sense of the theoretical strengths of this position. First, in order to argue that Nonviolent Communication constitutes a virtue, I outline Aristotle's definition of virtue and the process by which one develops virtue. I then introduce the theory of McDonaldization, based on Max Weber's theory of rationalization, and apply it to interpersonal communication. Finally, I review Nonviolent Communication based on the dimensions of McDonaldization, the results of which support my contention that Nonviolent Communication opposes McDonaldization.</p><p> I present my finding that Empathic Dialogue had a positive impact on the research participants' communication skills. I then address these findings through the lens of Aristotle's virtues and McDonaldization. Finally, I consider wider implications of these findings on the development of sustainable communities. </p>