Keri K. Stephens

If the Organizations Won't Give Us Information…: The Use of Multiple New Media for Crisis Technical Translation and Dialogue

This study expands crisis message strategies to include those used to communicate technical details and examines them across multiple new media. A content analysis of blogs, Web sites, news articles, and press releases from the 2007 pet food recall crisis reveals that when stakeholders affected by the crisis desire emotional support—most frequently found in blogs—they do not include any types of technical explanations in their messages. Yet when they want rectification—assurance that the crisis will not happen again—they use more elaborate forms of technical translation explanations. Organizational use of technical translation explanations differ between media with Web sites and news articles containing more elaborate technical translation than press releases. When technical translation details are used, dialogic links, such as Web site links, are included.

It Depends on Who You're Talking To…: Predictors and Outcomes of Situated Measures of Organizational Identification

Scholars have researched organizational identification extensively in recent years. Only occasionally, however, has this research examined multiple targets simultaneously and almost never has it examined variations that occur as individuals interact with others during different activities. The research reported here draws on Scott, Corman, and Cheneys (1998) communicative model of situated identification to investigate identification with various organizational targets across three communication-based situations. Situated scores based on communication partner and identification target were related to several predictor and outcome variables.

Discrete, Sequential, and Follow-Up Use of Information and Communication Technology by Experienced ICT Users

Most prior media use research has assumed that people use information and communication technologies (ICTs) independently of other ICTs, that is, as discrete media. This study uses cross-organizational, in-depth interview data to uncover the important role that ICT sequences play in persuasion, information exchange, and documentation. The primary occasions for sequential ICT use were (a) preparing for meetings, (b) performing daily tasks, and (c) following up to persuade. When people need to follow up initial communication episodes, the overall groupings of ICTs represent two underlying attributes: degree of connection with others and extent of synchroneity. These findings support an expanded perspective on media richness theory and information theory by illustrating that ICT sequences can expand cues and channels and provide error-reducing redundancy for equivocal and uncertain tasks.

The reflexivity between ICTs and business culture: Applying Hofstede's theory to compare Norway and the United States

This study compares how workers in Norway and the United States use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Our data—72 in-depth interviews of advanced ICT users – were coded, analyzed, and placed into Hofstede’s four dimensional framework (power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, and masculinity). We proposed that ICT use comparisons between the two countries are congruent to Hofstede’s findings. We find partial support for these propositions. As expected, Norway and the US are similar on two dimensions (power distance and uncertainty avoidance), but contrary to expectations, they are also similar on the two dimensions where we expected differences (individualism and masculinity). We suggest possible explanations for these findings, including our focus on an expert-user subculture, external triggering events, and technical codes inscribed in Internet applications and software.

R U Able to Meat Me: The Impact of Students' Overly Casual Email Messages to Instructors.

Out-of-classroom communication (OCC) in the form of email has increased considerably in the past few years. This study uses Interaction Adaptation Theory (IAT) to inform and frame the impact of using overly casual email messages with instructors. Study one used an experimental method to determine that message quality (casual vs. formal messages) accounted for between 48% and 64% of the variance explained in affect toward the student, student credibility, and message attitude. Message quality also significantly impacted on an instructors willingness to comply with a simple request for a face-to-face meeting. Study two further examined these findings using a comparative analysis of both instructors and students. Findings reveal that instructors are bothered more than students by overly casual email messages. Instructors attribute students’ use of overly casual emails more heavily to training issues, while students attribute this to technology use. Two specific email violations that bother instructors more than students are emails not signed by the message sender and messages that include shortcuts like “RU” instead of “are you”. Finally, it appears that instructor generational differences have little impact on these descriptive findings.

Interactivity in a Web Conference Training Context: Effects on Trainers and Trainees

Organizations continue to use technology to train and share information. This study focused specifically on how trainers and trainees interact in the mediated Web conference training context. Using the rhetorical and relational goal theory of instructional communication, this 2×2 experimental study tested the effects of trainer-controlled and trainee-controlled interactivity on instructional outcomes that benefit trainers and trainees. It was hypothesized that trainer and trainee-initiated and controlled interactivity would enhance trainee learning (H1) and satisfaction with the Web conference training program (H2). These hypotheses were not supported. It was also hypothesized that trainer-controlled interactivity would enhance trainee perceptions of the trainers credibility (H3). This hypothesis was supported with the caring dimension of credibility being most impacted when trainers allowed their trainees to interact with one another.

Information and Communication Technology Sequences and Message Repetition in Interpersonal Interaction

This study examines the impact of using different sequences of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to deliver repeated messages in the context of an interpersonal influence attempt. Supporting portions of ICT succession theory (Stephens, 2007), the findings suggest that, compared to using the same ICT, using complementary ICTs to deliver a repeated message increases perceptions of information effectiveness and behavioral intentions. A path model was tested to further explore the influence of complementary ICT use.The results suggest that the use of complementary ICTs functions by mitigating perceptions of overload and, in turn, increasing perceived information effectiveness, attitudes, and behavioral intentions.

Multiple Conversations During Organizational Meetings: Development of the Multicommunicating Scale

People are increasingly using their mobile devices to multitask and carry on multiple conversations in organizations. This study contributes to the growing work in multicommunication—communication practices involving technology where people conduct multiple, nearly simultaneous conversations. Through quantification of the communicative behaviors involved in the practice of multicommunicating, this study helps to operationalize this construct and, by refining measurement, contributes directly to theory development. The resulting model suggests that multicommunication in meetings consists of five major factors. While the factors of Informing, Influencing, and Supporting Others might be the most obvious functions of multicommunicating, the other two factors, Participating In Parallel Meetings and Being Available, provide additional insight into the influential role that others have in the practice of multicommunicating. Future directions and implications for using this scale are also discussed.

Sharing Health Information and Influencing Behavioral Intentions: The Role of Health Literacy, Information Overload, and the Internet in the Diffusion of Healthy Heart Information

Low health literacy remains an extremely common and problematic issue, given that individuals with lower health literacy are more likely to experience health challenges and negative health outcomes. In this study, we use the first three stages of the innovation-decision process found in the theory of diffusion of innovations (Rogers, 2003). We incorporate health literacy into a model explaining how perceived health knowledge, information sharing, attitudes, and behavior are related. Results show that health information sharing explains 33% of the variance in behavioral intentions, indicating that the communicative practice of sharing information can positively impact health outcomes. Further, individuals with high health literacy tend to share less information about heart health than those with lower health literacy. Findings also reveal that perceived heart-health knowledge operates differently than health literacy to predict health outcomes.

Situated Organizational Identification in Newcomers Impacts of Preentry Organizational Exposure

When employees enter organizations, they bring their life experiences with them, and those experiences may influence their organizational identification. The current study provides evidence for how Scott, Corman, and Cheney’s perspective on situated identification explains varying degrees of organization identification before and after newcomer orientation. Using a pretest, posttest survey design, these findings suggest that identification is changed by attending new employee orientation. Furthermore, prior non-work-related experiences with the hiring organization are explained as a type of membership negotiation that influences preorientation identification. The interaction effects are further examined to advance a more comprehensive view of how newcomers both individualize and adapt during new employee orientation and the role that multiple personal exposures to the organization can have.