Jeanine Warisse Turner

The Business Communicator as Presence Allocator: Multicommunicating, Equivocality, and Status at Work

Conceptualizing the contemporary business communicator as a presence allocator, this article introduces the concept of multicommunicating and reports two exploratory studies. The authors used qualitative and quantitative data to explore factors that influence multicommunicating behavior, an increasingly common form of polychronic behavior and multitasking. The analysis builds on the concepts of social presence and media richness to describe the contemporary worker as seeking to economize in the allocation of personal presence across multiple, interleaved interactions. In the authors’ exploratory qualitative study, they identified message equivocality and interlocutor status as two factors that seem to encourage (or discourage) multicommunicating. In the quantitative study (a 2 × 2 posttest design), the authors evaluated two hypotheses, confirming that equivocality and status influence the perceived likelihood of multicommunicating. The discussion section includes several suggestions for future research.

Impersonal, Interpersonal, and Hyperpersonal Social Support: Cancer and Older Adults

Although cancer occurs throughout the life span, many of the most frequently occurring types of cancer increase as we grow older. In fact, only cardiovascular disease accounts for more deaths in adults 65 years of age and older. One of the ways that cancer patients cope or adapt to their illness is through socially supportive communicative interactions and relationships. Cutrona and Russell (1990) argued that social support is multidimensional and suggested that social support is most effective when the support needs of the individual are consistent with the type of social support being offered by the support provider. From the communicative perspective, the notion of optimal matching between the types of social support desired and the type of social support offered is extended to include the type of relationship between the communicants. In addition, it is argued that computer-mediated social support can be superior to face-to-face social support. This article attempts to identify some of the conditions under which this is true.

Exploring the Dominant Media How Does Media Use Reflect Organizational Norms and Affect Performance

This research provides strong support for the existence of dominant media norms within organizations and describes their influence on employees’ (a) perceptions of organizational norms, (b) reported media use, and (c) performance evaluations. Survey results demonstrate the presence of strong organizational norms for instant messaging (IM) and e-mail use within a large, high-tech organization. These norms, as well as supervisory behavior, may influence employees’ use of IM and e-mail and even more so when employees have strong polychronic orientations. In addition, employees who reportedly followed organizational norms by using IM and e-mail were awarded higher performance ratings by their supervisors, with 30% of the variance explained. The authors support the survey findings with in-depth interviews with participants exploring media use.

Ari, R U There? Reorienting Business Communication for a Technological Era

As technology changes business practices, it becomes even more important that our students—and we ourselves—think rhetorically. Our pedagogy should help students look at (not just through) new media to understand how new media reshape the rhetorical situation (audience, exigency, constraints) and to use them effectively. Furthermore, new digital technologies that capture and preserve business messages create opportunities and raise new research questions. Viewing business practices through the lens of rhetoric can provide a valuable perspective for research and emphasize the community-shaping aspects (and thus an ethical dimension) of business. Therefore, in this commentary, the authors call for a reorientation of the field of business communication.

Successful and unsuccessful multicommunication episodes: Engaging in dialogue or juggling messages?

This paper describes instances of multicommunicating—or engaging in more than one conversation at a time. It uses a critical incident technique to explore successful and unsuccessful incidents of multicommunicating from the perspective of 201 MBA students. Additionally, we asked which media individuals pair together when multicommunicating. We found very frequent pairing of the telephone (which provides partial compartmentalization but no flexibility of tempo) with electroric text (which provides both compartmentalization and flexibility of tempo). We also found that respondents provide a variety of reasons for labeling a particular episode as “unsuccessful.” In many cases the person seemed to describe an episode as unsuccessful when the person or a communicating partner had exceeded his or her ability to juggle multiple conversations as demonstrated by communication errors.

Willingness to Try a New Communication Technology Perceptual Factors and Task Situations in a Health Care Context

The study uses data from a study of telemedicine in two rural, Ohio (United States) counties to test predictions about individuals’stated intent to receive medical care through videoconferencing. The authors follow communication scholars in predicting that the perceived attributes of a new technology will significantly affect willingness to try the technology. They draw on the work of marketing scholars to argue that task situations (e.g., routine, emergency, and specialist medical care) will affect the relative importance of the perceived attributes. Results supported both predictions. The authors believe that the results have practical value for those seeking to encourage the use of telemedicine and, furthermore, that the results have both theoretical and practical implications for business communication scholars and professionals.

Expanding the Walls of the Health Care Encounter: Support and Outcomes for Patients Online

This paper assesses the relationship between patient–health care provider (HCP) interaction and health behaviors. In total, 109 Native American patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus were enrolled in a Web-based diabetes monitoring system. The system tracks patient–HCP interaction, and in total 924 personal messages were exchanged. These 924 messages contained 6,411 message units that were content analyzed using a nine-category scheme. Patient blood glucose monitoring was found to be related to the frequency of phatic communication, informational social support, and tangible social support messages, as well as messages containing references to personal contact. Finally, person-centered messages proved to be the single best predictor of patient involvement with the telemedicine system (as measured by the number of times the patient logged into the system).

Communication plays a critical role in web-based monitoring.

Background: Patient-health care practitioner (HCP) interaction via a Web-based diabetes management system may increase patient monitoring of their blood glucose (BG) levels. Methods: A three-center, nonrandomized, prospective feasibility study of 109 Native Americans with poorly controlled type 1 diabetes mellitus and type 2 diabetes mellitus were recruited from Alabama, Idaho, and Arizona. The study intervention included the use of a Web-based diabetes management application (MyCareTeam®) that allowed timely interaction between patients and HCPs. Information about diabetes, nutrition, and exercise was also available. Finally, patients were able to provide BG readings to their HCP via the MyCareTeam system. Results: As a result, 59.6% of the patients sent one or more messages to their HCP, 92.67% received one or more messages from their HCP, and 78.89% received one or more person-centered messages from their HCP. Additionally, the number of times a patient logged into the system and the frequency with which they tested their blood sugar were correlated with (a) the number of messages sent to their HCP, (b) the total number of messages received from their HCP, and (c) the number of person-centered messages received from their HCP. Thus patients who sent more messages also tested their BG more frequently, as measured by the number of BG readings uploaded from their meter to the MyCareTeam database. Person-centered messages seem to be particularly important to motivating the patient to monitor their BG levels and use the Web-based system. Conclusions: These results suggest that patient—HCP interaction and, in particular, more personalized interactions increases patient frequency of BG monitoring.

Developing a patient-centered ISHAPED handoff with patient/family and parent advisory councils.

Our hospital system used Lean strategies to develop a new process for the change-of-shift bedside handoff titled ISHAPED (I = Introduce, S = Story, H = History, A = Assessment, P = Plan, E = Error Prevention, and D = Dialogue). Several teams collaborated with a Parent Advisory Council and a Patient/Family Advisory Council to design a study to explore patient perceptions of the handoff. The findings from the study along with recommendations from the councils were used to develop education modules on implementing patient-centered handoffs.

Media attitudes vs. use: the contribution of context to the communication environment in telemedicine.

Media attitudes and media use have been the focus of considerable academic research. This article uses this research to explore patient and health care practitioner attitudes toward telemedicine interactions via videoconferencing technology.