Lori Foster Thompson

Computer-mediated cross-cultural collaboration: Attributing communication errors to the person versus the situation.

Computer-mediated communication, such as e-mail, facilitates cross-cultural interactions by enabling convenient communication. During these exchanges, the absence of contextual or situational information may cause e-mail recipients to form dispositional explanations for behavior that might in fact be driven by unseen situational constraints. To gain insight into the manner in which e-mail recipients explain behavior, the authors conducted an experiment examining how technical language violations (i.e., spelling and grammatical errors) and deviations from etiquette norms (i.e., short messages lacking a conversational tone) affect a recipients perceptions of an e-mail senders conscientiousness, intelligence, agreeableness, extraversion, affective trustworthiness, and cognitive trustworthiness. This study also investigated whether the effects of technical and etiquette language violations depend on the availability of information indicating the e-mail sender is from a foreign culture. Results reveal that participants formed negative perceptions of the sender of an e-mail containing technical language violations. However, most of these negative perceptions were reduced when participants had situational information indicating that the e-mail sender was from a different culture. Conversely, negative attributions stemming from etiquette violations were not significantly mitigated by knowledge that the e-mail sender was from a foreign culture.

Payback time: the associations of debt and income with medical student career choice.

Medical Education 2012: 46: 983–991

Employee Surveys Administered Online Attitudes Toward the Medium, Nonresponse, and Data Representativeness

This field study of military and civilian workers offers a multimethod approach for studying nonrespondents while investigating (a) how employees feel about taking surveys online, (b) whether dissatisfaction with Web-based survey media discourages response, and (c) the representativeness of attitudinal data produced by workers who opt to complete an online climate survey. Results suggested that employees were not as comfortable with Web-based surveys as suggested in previous research. Moreover, issues pertaining to the online medium discouraged workers from completing the Web-based climate survey. Additional factors driving active and passive nonresponse were also uncovered. Overall, those who did and did not complete the survey held similar views of organizational climate. Results are discussed in terms of the factors driving nonresponse bias.

The recruitment value of work/life benefits

Purpose – This study sets out to investigate the influence of four work/life benefits on job choice and to examine individual differences that moderate the effects of work/life benefits during recruitment.Design/methodology/approach – Participants (n=125) completed an internet self‐efficacy survey measuring their sense of competence in being able to use the internet effectively. They also filled out a demographic questionnaire and a policy‐capturing survey which asked them to read numerous job descriptions and rate how likely it was that they would accept each job. The levels of four benefits (childcare, telecommuting, eldercare, flextime benefits) varied across job advertisements. Analyses examined the degree to which these four independent variables affected the willingness to accept a job offer.Findings – Childcare benefits influenced the job choices of 58 per cent of the sample. This exceeded the influence of flextime (33 per cent), telecommuting (26 per cent), and eldercare benefits (33 per cent). Ch...

Electronic Helping Behavior: The Virtual Presence of Others Makes a Difference

Years of research have demonstrated that the physical presence of others can reduce the tendency to help individuals needing assistance. This study examined whether the diffusion of responsibility phenomenon extends beyond face-to-face environments and helps explain the lack of responsiveness often demonstrated by Internet users who receive e-mail requests sent to multiple people simultaneously. Participants were sent an e-mail message requesting assistance with an online library search task. Each person received the message along with an indication that 0, 1, 14, or 49 others were also contacted. The results demonstrated partial support for the study hypothesis. As expected, the virtual presence of many others significantly reduced e-mail responsiveness; however, nonresponse did not directly increase in proportion with group size.

Money, Lifestyle, or Values? Why Medical Students Choose Subspecialty Versus General Pediatric Careers

Although there are many published studies on factors associated with medical student career choice, few are specific to pediatric careers, and even fewer address the choice between general and subspecialty pediatric training. Fourth-year medical students surveyed at 2 schools reported their demographics, anticipated future income, the factors influencing their career choice, and their anticipated career. This study included the subset of 337 students planning pediatric careers. Results indicated that marital status, anticipated income, and career values are associated with pediatric career plans. Specifically, married students were more likely than unmarried students to pursue general pediatric careers (P < .01). Compared with students planning subspecialties, those intending to pursue general pediatric careers anticipated lower incomes (

Using Animated Agents in Learner‐Controlled Training: The Effects of Design Control

110 906 vs

When big brother is watching: goal orientation shapes reactions to electronic monitoring during online training.

135 984; P < .001) and rated lifestyle, comprehensive patient care, and working with the poor as more important (P < .05) when choosing a career. Students planning subspecialty pediatric careers placed more value (P < .05) on prestige, income, and research opportunities.

Measurement Invariance in Careers Research Using IRT to Study Gender Differences in Medical Students' Specialization Decisions

Animated agents have the potential to increase engagement and learning during online training by acting as personalized tutors. However, little is known about the conditions that make these agents most effective. In this study, 183 e‐learners completed a Microsoft Excel training course. Approximately half were assigned an agent with predetermined features. The others were allowed to choose their agents appearance, personality, feedback style or all of the above features. Offering multiple choices increased learning. Unexpectedly, choice of feedback style alone decreased self‐efficacy. Choosing the agents appearance increased self‐efficacy and the number of training modules completed. Overall, this study expands the learner control literature, identifying a new form of learner control that has some beneficial effects on knowledge acquisition.

Technology, Mobility, and Poverty Reduction

Web-based training is frequently used by organizations as a convenient and low-cost way to teach employees new knowledge and skills. As web-based training is typically unproctored, employees may be held accountable to the organization by computer software that monitors their behaviors. The current study examines how the introduction of electronic performance monitoring may provoke negative emotional reactions and decrease learning among certain types of e-learners. Through motivated action theory and trait activation theory, we examine the role of performance goal orientation when e-learners are exposed to asynchronous and synchronous monitoring. We show that some e-learners are more susceptible than others to evaluation apprehension when they perceive their activities are being monitored electronically. Specifically, e-learners higher in avoid performance goal orientation exhibited increased evaluation apprehension if they believed asynchronous monitoring was present, and they showed decreased skill attainment as a result. E-learners higher on prove performance goal orientation showed greater evaluation apprehension if they believed real-time monitoring was occurring, resulting in decreased skill attainment.