Thorsten Schwetje, Christiane Hauser, Stefan Böschen and Annette Leßmöllmann
The paper reports on a research project exploring the change in the organizational context of communicators and communication units in higher education and research institutions…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper reports on a research project exploring the change in the organizational context of communicators and communication units in higher education and research institutions (HERIs), the importance of informal processes within their daily work and the great diversity of expectations communicators have to tackle.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a literature review, a mixed-methods study combining expert interviews with 54 German HERI heads of communication units, an online-survey and a document analysis of organizational characteristics was conducted. Findings were validated in four focus groups.
Findings
The study illuminates the impact of organizational and operational structures of HERIs on communicators and their boundary spanning activities. Due to varying expectations of stakeholders, communicators constantly have to switch roles. Members of HERIs' executive boards affect status and working conditions for communicators in the organization.
Research limitations/implications
Interviews with other HERI actors, especially members of the executive board, are proposed to get more thorough insights into the organizational context of HERIs and the mutual expectations of different internal stakeholders.
Practical implications
Insights from the project may help HERI actors to reflect their organizational context and to identify potentially contentious structures or processes.
Originality/value
Communicating science sometimes clashes with complex organizational and operational structures. Despite the “organizational turn” in HERI research, there is a lack of data on the relation between communicators, their communication units and the larger organizational context. The exploratory study addresses this gap.
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Mike S. Schäfer and Birte Fähnrich
Research on science communication in organizational contexts is scarce – even though many cases can be found where organizations from science and beyond communicate about…
Abstract
Purpose
Research on science communication in organizational contexts is scarce – even though many cases can be found where organizations from science and beyond communicate about science-related issues, or where organizational contexts have an impact on the communication of individual scientists and scientific organizations. Therefore, it is time for an “organizational turn” in science communication research, and for more scholarly emphasis on the specific cases that science-related communication in, from and about organizations presents. Such an approximation would benefit both science communication research and analyses of strategic and organizational communication.
Design/methodology/approach
This special issue of the “Journal of Communication Management” on “Communicating Science in Organizational Contexts” is a step in this direction: It compiles commentaries from leading scholars in the respective fields as well as research articles coming from various disciplines and conceptual as well as methodological paradigms. In the editorial, we assess overlaps between scholarship on science communication and strategic communication, respectively, based on a meta-analysis of journals in the field(s), develop a guiding heuristic for analyzing science communication in organizational settings, and introduce the contributions to the special issue.
Findings
The meta-analysis shows that overlaps between science communication research and scholarship on strategic communication are scarce. While organizations and their communication appear occasionally, and increasingly often, in science communication research, scholars of strategic communication only rarely analyze science communication.
Research limitations/implications
The meta-analysis is limited to the publications of five scholarly journals over ten years. It still demonstrates the lack of research in the intersection of scholarship on science communication and strategic communication.
Practical implications
Scientific organizations are rapidly extending and professionalizing their strategic communication, and an increasing number of organizations beyond science communicate on science or science-related issues. Understanding science communication in organizational settings, therefore, is crucial for practitioners in both areas.
Originality/value
Analyzing science communication in organizational settings is of increasing importance – yet few studies exist that have done it, and the respective research fields devote not much attention to one another. The special issue is a first foray into this new, intersectional field.
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Maria Gruber, Christiane Mayer and Sabine A. Einwiller
Social media empower individuals to voice their opinions about issues that they perceive to be unacceptable. When many others add their opinions and large quantities of messages…
Abstract
Purpose
Social media empower individuals to voice their opinions about issues that they perceive to be unacceptable. When many others add their opinions and large quantities of messages containing negative word-of-mouth suddenly spread online, an online firestorm occurs. By extending the situational theory of problem solving (Kim and Grunig, 2011) into the domain of online communication, this study aims to identify the drivers for participating in online firestorms.
Design/methodology/approach
With reference to a fictitious online firestorm trigger (i.e. perceived moral misconduct) posted on Facebook, a qualitative pre-study and quantitative online survey were conducted. Based on the responses of 410 participants, an ordinary least squares regression was modeled to examine the factors of participating in the online firestorm. Later, structural equation modeling was applied to test the model and gauge its fit with the data.
Findings
Participants' involvement recognition, perception of being collective actors and approval of slacktivism behaviors positively predicted their participation in the online firestorm, whereas non-anonymity hampered it.
Originality/value
The study's findings not only contribute to the current understandings of online firestorms but are also valuable for developing theory and forms of professional crisis management. Moreover, they offer insights into the factors of online communication environments that encourage users to voice their opinions.
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Elisabeth Götze, Christiane Prange and Iveta Uhrovska
The purpose of the paper is to analyse children's impact on innovation decision making empirically.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to analyse children's impact on innovation decision making empirically.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is a diary study with 14 parents depicting their experiences with regard to the topic of interest over a period of two weeks.
Findings
Children's influence is stronger in earlier stages of the innovation buying process, based on different communication strategies with differing effects on their parents' purchasing behaviour.
Practical implications
This paper helps marketers tailor appropriate marketing and innovation strategies. Special attention is given to the familial dynamics in the innovation decision‐making process. This is to prevent inter‐family conflicts fuelled by the children's requests.
Originality/value
This is one of the first attempts to test Rogers' innovation‐decision process. Moreover, despite its many bonuses, the diary method has rarely been applied in the context of familial purchase decision making.
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To examine how vocabulary instruction can lead toward students connecting the known to the familiar with the unknown.
Abstract
Purpose
To examine how vocabulary instruction can lead toward students connecting the known to the familiar with the unknown.
Design/methodology/approach
Theoretical advances in vocabulary acquisition and utility are discussed in relation to word reading and knowledge formation. Extending theory requires pedagogical planning and reinforcement to promote skill learning first toward preparing students to have the capacity to acquire vocabulary across the content areas and in turn, understand and apply that knowledge toward problem solving.
Findings
Students must be scaffolded toward connecting what they know with that which is familiar and eventually with the unknown; only then can we extend learning beyond our guidance and supervision. Students must be taught how and when to use vocabulary acquisition strategies so they are prepared to overcome difficulties associated with word meanings in independent reading.
Practical implications
It is timely for rich, varied, and complete vocabulary instruction to serve as the basis for learning across the curriculum. Words are the predecessors of tomorrow’s learning and we must consider how to best provide instruction for students who overuse sight words, text shorthand more than they write formally, and even substitute inappropriate language based upon a lack of vocabulary knowledge and ability to articulate their feelings.