Michael Sollitto

Sport Support: Received Social Support as a Predictor of Athlete Satisfaction

Researchers have advocated for the exploration of communicative and psychological aspects of athlete-coach relationships associated with positive outcomes for athletes such as satisfaction. A particularly salient construct within literature that leads to satisfaction across contexts is receiving social support. This study examined 216 athletes’ reports of social support (i.e., tangible, informational, emotional, and esteem) received from head coaches, as well as their satisfaction with coaches and sport experiences. Results indicated that linear combinations of social support received from head coaches predicted athletes’ satisfaction with coaches and sport experiences. Specifically, informational, emotional, and esteem support accounted for unique variance in athletes’ satisfaction with coaches, whereas informational and emotional support accounted for unique variance in athletes’ satisfaction with sport experiences. Mediation tests revealed that the relationships between receiving social support and satisfaction with sport experiences were mediated by athletes’ satisfaction with coaches. These findings have implications for the continued examination of prosocial athlete-coach communication.

What do college students want? A prioritization of instructional behaviors and characteristics

ABSTRACT Guided by Rhetorical and Relational Goals Theory, this study examined college students’ preferences for effective teaching behaviors and characteristics. Students (n = 209) articulated qualities in their ideal instructor by prioritizing 10 instructional behaviors and characteristics from the rhetorical and relational traditions (assertive, responsive, clear, relevant, competent, trustworthy, caring, immediate, humorous, disclosure). When forced to prioritize, students preferred teacher clarity, competence, and relevance from their instructors, while self-disclosure and immediacy were considered to be luxury behaviors rather than necessities. Lastly, academic entitlement significantly influenced students’ prioritization of effective instructional behaviors.

College student misbehaviors: an exploration of instructor perceptions

ABSTRACT Student incivilities such as challenging, dissent, and excuse making have been examined by a variety of disciplines. However, the more encompassing idea of student misbehaviors has been somewhat understudied within instructional communication. The current study inductively arrived at a set of 12 distinct college student misbehaviors identified by collegiate instructors, which are relevant to the contemporary college classroom. When examined through the lens of instructional communication and student development frameworks, the researchers concluded that mindfulness of these misbehaviors might afford instructors the ability to enhance student success.

Assessing the Supervisor-Subordinate Relationship Involving Part-Time Employees:

Many college students have part-time jobs for a variety of reasons, including finances, skill enhancement, networking, personal satisfaction, and confidence. Part-time employees often differ from full-time employees on their organizational knowledge, involvement, and satisfaction. This study explored communication between college student part-time employees and their supervisors through the use of leader-member exchange theory. According to this theory, there are many personal and professional benefits for employees when they have quality relationships with their supervisors. Participants included 210 undergraduate students from a large mid-Atlantic university. College student part-time employees’ leader-member exchange was significantly and positively related to their organizational assimilation, organizational identification, work motivation, and career relevancy.

Peer Coworker Relationships: Influences on the Expression of Lateral Dissent

Peer coworkers exchange a variety of messages in their organizational experiences. However, little is known about how peer coworker relationship quality affects expression of organizational dissent. This study utilized Kram and Isabellas (1985) typology of peer coworker relationships to examine their impact on lateral dissent expression and dissent messages. The results revealed that special and collegial peers engage in greater amounts of lateral dissent expression than information peers. No differences emerged between the types of peer coworkers relationships in their use of dissent messages. The study lends support to the notion that organizational dissent is influenced by peer coworker relationships.

Memorable Messages of Social Support That Former High School Athletes Received From Their Head Coaches

Social support is an important resource that coaches provide to athletes. However, the specific messages that coaches utilize to support athletes have remained overlooked. This study examines the memorable messages (i.e., enduring and influential messages) of informational, esteem, and emotional support that former high school athletes recall receiving from their head coaches. To accomplish this purpose, messages were inductively derived from 102 former high school athletes via open-ended questionnaires. These data were subjected to open and axial coding. Results indicate that athletes recall informational support messages that tell them how to play, be successful, and relate to others; esteem support messages that emphasize their abilities to succeed, encourage intangible qualities, and reinforce relationships with others; and emotional support messages that improve their well-being, praise them, help improve their performances, and deal with their poor performances. This study ultimately reinforces the use of message-based approaches for understanding athlete–coach interactions as well as highlights the specific types of prosocial messages that coaches can utilize to support athletes and improve their coaching effectiveness.

Differences in Information Seeking Among Organizational Peers Perceptions of Appropriateness, Importance, and Frequency

The purpose of this study was to explore the differences that may exist among employees when they are seeking different types of information (i.e., technical, referent, social, appraisal, normative, organizational, and political) from their peers in the workplace. Specifically, this study examined whether employees differed in the perceived appropriateness, importance, and frequency of seeking information from information, collegial, and special peers. Participants were 229 working adults who completed one of three versions (reporting on an information peer, a collegial peer, or a special peer) of a survey packet containing a series of measures. Results indicate that employees generally report that they seek information from special peers rather than from collegial peers or information peers.

Students’ uncertainty management in the college classroom

ABSTRACT The uncertainty experienced by college students can have serious repercussions for their success and subsequent retention. Drawing parallels between instructional context and organizational context will enrich theory and research about students’ experiences of uncertainty in their college courses. Therefore, this study used Uncertainty Management Theory to explore how students manage their uncertainty about college courses with their classmates. Overall, the results suggest that although students experience uncertainty mostly related to their academic needs, their uncertainty management focuses more on their socioemotional needs. In managing their uncertainty, students rely on direct communication with their peers, which suggests the importance of considering uncertainty management as a relational activity as opposed to an independent activity. Given this, instructors can facilitate classroom climates and activities that allow students to establish relationships with one another and work interdependently to achieve their academic goals.

Comparing Hispanic-To-White Co-Cultural Communication at Four-Year, Public Hispanic Serving and Predominately White Institutions

This study explores two relatively untapped areas of instructional communication scholarship: Hispanic students’ communicative behaviors and the influence of context in student-to-student communication. Specifically, we utilize Co-Cultural Theory (CCT) to explore what, if any, differences exist in Hispanic students’ reports of their co-cultural communication when interacting with White students based on their enrollment in either a 4-year, public Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) or 4-year, public Predominately White Institution (PWI). We found that Hispanic students’ communicative approaches did not differ based on their institutional context. However, Hispanic students in the PWI group scored higher on accommodation as their preferred outcome than their Hispanic HSI counterparts. We argue the findings highlight both theoretical and pedagogical implications for researchers and instructors.

The Relationship Between Aggressive Communication Traits and Organizational Assimilation

This study used theory of independent mindedness as a framework to examine the role of aggressive communication traits in organizational assimilation. Both employee traits and their perception of supervisor traits were examined. Results indicated that employees who are indirect verbally aggressive report lower levels of familiarity with coworkers, acculturation, involvement, job competence, and role negotiation. Additionally, employees who perceive their supervisors as higher in argumentativeness, low in verbal aggressiveness, and low in indirect interpersonal aggressiveness report higher levels of familiarity with coworkers, familiarity with supervisors, acculturation, recognition, involvement, and role negotiation.