William A. Donohue

Comparing the influence of parents and peers on the choice to use drugs: a meta-analytic summary of the literature

This literature summary, using meta-analysis, compares the influence of parents versus peers on substance use. The data indicated that the average relationship for peer effects on substance use was larger than the effect for parental influence. Several moderating influences (such as youth age and type of substance) are considered. The findings indicate that the relative size of parental and peer influence varies with the age of the adolescent and the type of substance. The results indicate that both parents and peers influence decisions about substance use. Future educational interventions concerning substance use should consider how best to combine these two sources of influence.

Meta‐analysis of self‐report data on the effectiveness of public speaking anxiety treatment techniques

(1989). Meta‐analysis of self‐report data on the effectiveness of public speaking anxiety treatment techniques. Communication Education: Vol. 38, No. 1, pp. 54-76.

Differences Between Formal and Informal Communication Channels

This research compares formal and informal organizational communication structures, specifically focusing on salience, channel factors, and channel usage. The major hypotheses of this research were partially supported with data collected from a large, technically oriented governmental agency (n = 380).

Communicative Framing Theory in Conflict Resolution

This article evaluates the framing concept and its utility for communication research in conflict resolution. The framing concept holds potential heuristic value that has not been realized. The authors take three rehabilitative steps: (a) define frames as communicative, rather than cognitive, constructions, (b) provide a theoretical framework for explicating the communicative framing process and its potential impact in conflict, and (c) explore the effects of particular framing patterns on actual conflict interaction. The framing concept is enhanced through alignment with negotiated order theory, speech act theory, and speech accommodation theory. It is argued that disputants and the professionals who work with them “frame” issues, using language choices to highlight some aspects of an issue, while ignoring others. Linguistic choices function as verbal cues to other participants, who may respond by converging or diverging on frames. As expected, the results of the study found a positive relationship between frame convergence and frequency of agreements. Negotiators and mediators who guided disputant discussion toward frame convergence increased focus, control, positive social attributions, and integrativeness.

A Comprehensive Model of Information Seeking Tests Focusing on a Technical Organization

Individual information seeking has become increasingly a critical determinant of the success of individual organizational members and of an organization as a whole. This study tests a Comprehensive Model of Information Seeking (CMIS) that contains three primary classes of variables: Antecedents, which provide the underlying imperatives to seek information; Information Carrier Characteristics, which shape the nature of specific intentions to seek information from particular carriers; and Information Seeking Actions, which reflect the nature of the search itself and are the outcomes of the preceding classes. The CMIS was tested and refined in tests related to the informal channel in a large, technically oriented governmental agency (N = 380), then the refined model was confirmed by tests on the formal channel. Both tests of the revised model were supportive, suggesting that the most important variables were those related to an individuals existing information base, those associated with an individuals need for programmed information seeking, and those dealing with information carrier characteristics.

Development of a model of rule use in negotiation interaction

The purpose of this paper is to develop a model of negotiation rule use that incorporates both content and relational dimensions of communication and focuses upon interaction as the dependent variable. Fourteen negotiation rules are hypothesized to structure the negotiation interaction. From these rules fourteen interaction analysis categories are developed—with seven assessing how negotiators respond to one another and seven assessing how negotiators cue or constrain the opponents next utterance. Interactions in mock negotiations are coded using this category scheme and placed into cue‐response transition matrices. The differences in interaction patterns among winners and losers are used to assess the extent to which the rules structure the negotiation interaction.

Managing equivocality and relational paradox in the Oslo peace negotiations

The purpose of this article is to more clearly understand the role of equivocality in the conflict and negotiation setting. 7b accomplish this goal, Relational Order Theory was described and used to plot communication strategies of intermediaries in the 1992-1993 Oslo peace negotiations between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Israelis. The analysis discovered that parties, including the intermediaries, constructed their relational parameters slowly to move them away from a position of isolationist peace to a position of unconditional peace in which they were able to forge an agreement. Several lessons about Relational Order Theory, equivocality, and managing disputes are also discussed in concluding this article.

Communication, Involvement, and Perceived Innovativeness Tests of a Model with Two Contrasting Innovations

Increasingly, how well organizations innovate is becoming the single most important issue in determining their ultimate success. Two separate samples focusing on different innovations, one community based (n = 80) and the other technical (n = 116), were drawn from the same organization to test a model of the effects of communication and involvement on perceived innovativeness. In general, the revised model, which was developed in the technical innovation test and confirmed in the community-based innovation test, provided an excellent fit to the data. The results clearly indicated that communication variables have both direct and indirect effects on perceived innovativeness, although the pattern of individual paths appears to be contingent on the type of innovation. The results suggested that contrary to recent trends in the literature, mediated channels can play a critical role in implementing management-initiated innovations.

Mediator communicative competence

In this paper we report on a research program investigating a model of mediator communicative competence in a divorce mediation context. The theory holds that more successful mediators quickly define specific role relationships during mediation through the use of distance, coherence and structuring mediation strategies, and they use these strategies at times that encourage constructive, and discourage destructive, interaction patterns. Data from sessions of actual divorce mediations (in ten of which agreement was reached and in ten of which no agreement was reached) indicated that structuring and reframing strategies and tactics discriminated most between the two conditions, particularly in response to disputant bolstering and integrating negotiation strategies.

Gender-Based Perceptual Biases in Mediation

The questions posed in this article are related to gender stereotyping in a simulated mediation context: Do disputants perceive the role effectiveness of men and women mediators differently, and do men and women mediators enact intervention strategies differently during highly control-oriented mediation sessions? To answer these questions one mixed-sex group of subjects was trained to mediate roommate conflicts using an interventionist model of mediation (i.e., highly control oriented), whereas another mixed-sex group received no training. The data revealed that, although the trained mediators used equally controlling strategies, the males were perceived by the disputants as more controlling. In contrast, untrained female mediators were more controlling but they were perceived as less controlling. These results are related to current research in gender stereotyping.