Pernilla Nilsson and Jesper Lund
This study aims to investigate how primary teachers, when taking part in digital didactic design (D3) workshops at the Digital Laboratory Centre at the university, develop their…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate how primary teachers, when taking part in digital didactic design (D3) workshops at the Digital Laboratory Centre at the university, develop their insights about how digital tools can be designed and further used in their teaching of science. The research question addresses how D3 can be used to develop primary teachers’ knowledge about teaching science with digital technologies.
Design/methodology/approach
During two semesters, 14 primary science teachers from three different schools participated in an in-service course at the university. Five D3 workshops lasting 4 h each were conducted with the aim to analyze, design and implement digital tools based on the needs of teachers and students. This includes discussions about the technological, pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) framework and further recommendations about how to choose, design, implement and evaluate digital tools for different teaching and learning situations. In between the workshops, the teachers were told to reflect on their experiences with colleagues and students and share their ideas and reflections to support collegial learning.
Findings
The results indicate that D3 has an opportunity to promote deep learning experiences with a framework that encourages teachers and researchers to study, explore and analyze the applied designs-in-practice, where teachers take part in the design process. This study further indicates that having teachers explicitly articulates their reasoning about designing digital applications to engage students’ learning that seems important for exploring the types of knowledge used in these design practices and reflecting on aspects of their teaching with digital technologies likely to influence their TPACK.
Research limitations/implications
This research indicates that the increasing prevalence of information communication technology offers challenges and opportunities to the teaching and learning of science and to the scientific practice teachers might encounter. It offers solutions by investigating how primary teachers can design their own digital technology to meet students’ science learning needs. One limitation might be that the group of 14 teachers cannot be generalized to represent all teachers. However, this study gives implications for how to work with and for teachers to develop their knowledge of digital technologies in teaching.
Practical implications
As this project shows teachers can take an active part in the digital school development and as such become producer of knowledge and ideas and not only become consumers in the jungle of technical applications that are implemented on a school level. Therefore, it might well be argued that in science teaching, paying more careful attention to how teachers and researchers work together in collaborative settings, offers one way of better valuing science teachers’ professional knowledge of practice. As such, an implication is that digital applications are not made “for” teachers but instead “with” and “by” teachers.
Social implications
The society puts high demands om teachers’ knowledge and competencies to integrate digital technologies into their daily practices. Building on teachers’ own needs and concerns, this project addresses the challenge for teachers as a community to be better prepared for and meet the societal challenge that digitalization means for schools.
Originality/value
Across the field of science education, knowledge about the relation between teachers’ use of digital technology and how it might (or might not) promote students’ learning offers access to ideas of how to design and implement teacher professional development programs. This offers enhanced communication opportunities between schools and universities regarding school facilities and expectations of technology to improve teachers’ experiences with integrating technology into their learning and teaching. This pragmatic approach to research creates theory and interventions that serve school practice but also produces challenges for design-based researchers.
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This study aims at establishing if the use of change agency aides can have an effect on a specific target group in a public information campaign. The target group is elderly…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims at establishing if the use of change agency aides can have an effect on a specific target group in a public information campaign. The target group is elderly citizens.
Design/methodology/approach
Using both diffusion theory and social network theory the theoretical concept for the interpersonal network communication campaign is presented. The object of this study is the analogue terrestrial television (ATT) switch-off in Denmark. The units of analysis are the whole Danish population and elderly Danish citizens. The rate of awareness-knowledge of the ATT switch-off among all Danish households and the rate of awareness-knowledge of the ATT switch-off among elderly citizens aged 65+ were measured.
Findings
In the 3 month campaign period the double-digit gab (12 percent) was reduced to a two percent gap. It appears that interpersonal network communication can have an effect, with respect to elderly citizens who are targeted by change agent aides.
Research limitations/implications
It is a limitation of this study that the change agent aides were not monitored and surveyed systematically to document their effort.
Practical implications
It is likely that the use of change agent aides can make sense with respect to other target groups. However, the use of change agent aides will not necessarily work with any subject matter. Who can benefit from using change agent aides, can vary from subject matter to subject matter, and with the complexity of the subject matter.
Originality/value
Little research appears to have been carried out in recent years. One can only speculate as to why apparently no research has been carried out in recent years, but if practitioners are unsure of the effect of using change agent aides, for instance, they may refrain from using them, and consequently there may not be many cases to study.
Margaret Ann Brunton and Christopher James Galloway
To explore the applicability of the organic theory of public relations to address “wicked” problems in public health systems.
Abstract
Purpose
To explore the applicability of the organic theory of public relations to address “wicked” problems in public health systems.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual paper, based on critical assessment and application of relevant theory.
Findings
The organic approach to public relations practice is more likely to succeed than largely organisation–centric models as advocated in the work of J.E.Grunig and others. The rationale is that addressing wicked problems involves recruiting a wide range of insights and facilitating collaborative action. The broad, inclusive orientation of the organic theory is expected to be more effective than familiar, but more narrowly organisation-focused strategies.
Research limitations/implications
The organic theory advocated here has potential heuristic value for future research in communication related to the delivery of social services.
Practical implications
Public health system managers and policy makers who adopt an organic approach to communicating system issues, especially adverse events, are more likely to build public support for their work than if they seek to address only “strategic” publics (Grunig & Hunt, 1984) who are seen as potential threats to the organisation’s ability to fulfill its mission.
Originality/value
Applying the organic theory of public relations to address wicked problems in public health management and communication breaks new ground. It contrasts with the managerialist orientation not only of public health systems in many western countries, but also the organisation-centric communication strategies often adopted to attempt to mitigate the effects of “wickedness” shown in recurrent adverse events. Such strategies may neglect the interest society as a whole has in public health outcomes.
Lorena Blasco-Arcas, Jesper Falkheimer and Mats Heide
The purpose of this article is to offer new insights into crisis communication in service ecosystems. The authors present a framework to conceptually categorize service crises and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to offer new insights into crisis communication in service ecosystems. The authors present a framework to conceptually categorize service crises and then analyze key aspects of crisis communication among different stakeholders in a service ecosystem.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on crisis communication and service ecosystems research, we propose a framework to better understand crisis communication during service crises in service ecosystems. In doing so, we propose a typology of service crisis in service ecosystems and identify the main factors of crisis communication under the lens of the Rhetorical Arena Theory (RAT).
Findings
This article integrates communication theory and service research in the area and identifies different key dimensions to gain a deeper understanding of crisis communication in service ecosystems. Moreover, and building on RAT, several research lines are recommended in order to explore further macro (i.e. the role and interactions between different stakeholders in the event of a crisis) and micro (i.e. individual aspects related to the context, media, genre and text) dimensions, and their importance during the communication process.
Originality/value
Our framework offers a typology of service crises and suggests the importance of considering a multi-actor, multi-channel perspective in communication when a crisis occurs in order to monitor and avoid the potential negative impact for both the organization's recovery and the service ecosystem evolution afterward.
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Jesper Clement, Viktor Smith, Jordan Zlatev, Kerstin Gidlöf and Joost van de Weijer
The purpose of this paper is to present an experimental study which aims at assessing the potentially misleading effect of graphic elements on food packaging. The authors call…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present an experimental study which aims at assessing the potentially misleading effect of graphic elements on food packaging. The authors call these elements potentially misleading elements (PMEs) as they can give customers false expectations. They are either highlighted numerical information (30 per cent fibre, 8 per cent fat, 100 per cent natural […]) or pictorial information with no relation to the product (e.g. images of happy people).
Design/methodology/approach
In a combined decision task monitored by eye-tracking and a subsequence survey, the authors tested the impact of PMEs on common products. Combining different pairs of products, where one product had a PME, whereas the other did not, the authors could evaluate if preference correlated with the presence of a PME.
Findings
The authors found both types of PMEs to have analogous effects on participants’ preferences and correlate with participants’ visual attention. The authors also found evidence for a positive influence on a later explicit justification for the specific choice.
Research limitations/implications
This study was conducted in a lab environment and solely related to health-related decisions. The authors still need to know if these findings are transferable to real in-store decisions and other needs such as high quality or low price. This calls for further research.
Practical implications
The topic is important for food companies, and it might become a priority in managing brand equity, combining consumer preferences, loyalty and communicative fairness.
Originality/value
Using eye-tracking and retrospective interviews brings new insights to consumer’s decision-making and how misleading potentially occurs.
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Jesper Falkheimer, Mats Heide, Charlotte Simonsson and Rickard Andersson
This study aims, first, to explore and analyze if and how organizational members’ professions or occupations influence perceptions of internal crisis communication. The second…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims, first, to explore and analyze if and how organizational members’ professions or occupations influence perceptions of internal crisis communication. The second, related, aim is to discuss the role of internal communication in creating a strong organizational identity during a prolonged crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is mainly conceptual but uses quantitative data from a survey conducted in a health-care organization in late 2020 to illustrate the theoretical reasoning.
Findings
The results show that the administrative groups perceive factors in the internal crisis communication more favorably than the professional groups. The study suggests that organizational members perceive internal crisis communication differently depending on which intra-organizational group they belong to. This further points to the absence of a “rally-around-the-flag” effect and highlights the importance of working proactively with professionals and in internal crisis communication.
Originality/value
This study highlights the role of professionals in crisis communication, which is an aspect that so far has been ignored. The internal professionalization processes and an intriguing power struggle between professions have obvious consequences for crisis communication. As shown in the overview of earlier research on internal communication, leadership and professional organizations, the prerequisites for creating an increased organizational unity among coworkers are challenging. The idea that a crisis may, as in certain political situations in society, create a “rally-around-the-flag” effect is still relevant, even if the case study is an example of how this did not happen.
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Jesper Falkheimer and Katarina Gentzel Sandberg
The purpose of this paper is to describe strategic improvisation, a contemporary concept and approach based on the creative arts and organizational crisis theory, as a valuable…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe strategic improvisation, a contemporary concept and approach based on the creative arts and organizational crisis theory, as a valuable approach for communication professionals. Strategic improvisation combines the need for planning and structure with creative action, and is a normative idea of how to work in an efficient way.
Design/methodology/approach
The concept is developed in a collaborative project between a major Swedish communications agency and a university scholar. The empirical foundation consists of 25 qualitative interviews with a strategic selection of successful communication professionals, identified as typical strategic improvisers.
Findings
An analysis of the interviews led to 11 defining patterns or themes typical for strategic improvisation and strategic improvisers. The interviews and the theoretical framework is the foundation of a communication model. Strategic improvisation is defined as a situational interpretation within a given framework. The model has three interconnected parts: a clear framework (composition), a professional interpretation (interpretation) and a situational adaptation based on given possibilities and conditions (improvisation).
Research limitations/implications
This is not a peer reviewed paper, but a paper in the section “In Practice,” directed toward communication professionals.
Originality/value
The ideas and model are connected to theories of improvisation, especially in music, which is rare in the field of communication management, and developed in a collaborative project between practice and research.
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Bengt-Åke Lundvall and Jesper Lindgaard Christensen
The aim of this book is to contribute to the understanding of product innovation – how it takes place and how it affects the economy. Our analysis of product innovation links it…
Abstract
The aim of this book is to contribute to the understanding of product innovation – how it takes place and how it affects the economy. Our analysis of product innovation links it to interactive learning and to the performance of firms. On the basis of unique data sets and detailed case studies we study the interconnections between these three elements from different angles. We believe that the book will prove helpful for managers, employees and policy makers as well as for all those in academia who wants to understand the role of product innovation in the economy.