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Engaging with stakeholders in “a personal, intimate way” (Men and Tsai, 2016, p. 932) or “includ[ing] the ‘personal touch’” (Kent and Taylor, 1998, p. 323) is often seen as desirable in internal communication management. While the importance of personal communication is undisputed from the perspectives of internal communication, its communicators, and from internal stakeholders, this is not true when it comes to the dimensions and characteristics that constitute an experience of communication as feeling personal. The present study aims to explore what makes communication personal from the employees' perspective.

The study used the Q methodology and Q method, thus focusing on an individual's subjective perspective. The Q methodology was implemented in the form of a Q-sort survey exploring the perceptions of 32 German employees (selected from a representative cross-section of 400 employees in Germany, using a balanced-block design to maximize heterogeneity).

The results show that while direct and dyadic communication is often perceived as personal, many other dimensions and characteristics are also considered “personal” in both the literature and based on stakeholder perceptions. The Q-sort survey revealed four perception types whose perceptions of communication as “personal” vary widely, with all these types rejecting non-human communicators.

This study contributes to the limited understanding of employees' perceptions of internal communication as “personal.” It shows how the Q methodology and Q method—a rarely used perspective—can complement existing theoretical and empirical research on internal communication. For internal communication management, the findings show that a “one-size-fits-all” approach must be questioned and that a communication team's involvement in personal communication can have negative consequences.

The purpose of the present study is to evaluate chocolate consumption effects with a non invasive metodology. There is evidence that the consumption of dark chocolate and cocoa with high flavonoid content could have positive effects on blood pressure (BP) and weight management (WM); however, there are complications at the moment of obtaining blood samples to evaluate on children at a primary school level.

A total of 54 healthy scholars were included; consumption of 70 per cent cacao dark chocolate was integrated into the daily snack during a 30-day period. Blood pressure, body fat, total content of polyphenols in urine and total antioxidant capacity of saliva were measured. The results obtained were divided in relation of two groups of students, A and B, with lesser or higher difficulties to WM in a self-assessment test; variables were then statistically evaluated.

Consumption of chocolate produced changes in the total content of polyphenols (from 5.6 to 6.8 µg/mL, p < 0.016) and salivary antioxidant capacity [(14.76 ± 5.4 and 16.14 ± 3.9) TEU nmol versus. t = 0; p < 0.029 and p < 0.001 at 15 and 30 days, respectively]. Group B, which presented higher difficulties concerning WM, presented a body fat reduction of about 0.63 per cent after chocolate consumption (p = 0.045) and a diastolic blood pressure reduction of −2.8 mm Hg in average (p < 0.025). A significant weight gain (p < 0.023) was observed only in Group A.

Despite the reduced sensitivity of the non-invasive methodology, differences in urine and salivary content of polyphenols and antioxidant capacity suggest that the design used could be feasible, although extended studies are needed to corroborate it.

A non-invasive study for screening the potential health benefits of dark chocolate was assayed. The results suggest that dark chocolate consumption in children as part of the daily snack could be a complementary element in weight management and in prevention of future risk factors to chronic diseases.