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Full-Text Articles in Communication

Tied Together, Eiko Nishida May 2023

Tied Together, Eiko Nishida

Theses and Dissertations

The paper is about a site-specific installation that questions a viewer’s norms and perspectives, through the use of multilingual newspapers as a sculptural material.


A Measure Of Social Behavior In Team-Based, Multiplayer Online Games: The Sociality In Multiplayer Online Games Scale (Smog), Chelsea M. Hughes Jan 2015

A Measure Of Social Behavior In Team-Based, Multiplayer Online Games: The Sociality In Multiplayer Online Games Scale (Smog), Chelsea M. Hughes

Theses and Dissertations

Video games have become a new platform for social interaction. I review the sociality of video games and the relationship between virtual- and real-world behaviors. I review and address the pros and cons of methods of measuring social behavior. Finally, I present two studies drawn from internet populations. In Study 1 (N = 250), I develop a scale, The Sociality in Multiplayer Online Games Scale (SMOG), which measures the frequency of social gaming behaviors in team-based, multiplayer online games. I hypothesized these to align on dominance and affiliation dimensions of social interaction (Kiesler, 1982). In Study 2 (N …


The Positive Impact Of Negative Feedback, Mark B. Richey Mar 2011

The Positive Impact Of Negative Feedback, Mark B. Richey

Theses and Dissertations

While feedback is an essential element of performance, there is little theory explaining the effects of negative feedback. Disagreement exists as to whether negative feedback is good or bad and this impacts its use. Fortunately, control theory provides scholars with an opportunity to better understand negative feedback and the conditions necessary to support its intended function. This study examined the relationship between negative feedback and task performance in a leadership development environment. This work asserts that performance is contingent on perceived feedback usefulness, such that the relationship is stronger when feedback usefulness is high and weaker when it is low. …


Analysis Of Layered Social Networks, Jonathan T. Hamill Oct 2006

Analysis Of Layered Social Networks, Jonathan T. Hamill

Theses and Dissertations

Prevention of near-term terrorist attacks requires an understanding of current terrorist organizations to include their composition, the actors involved, and how they operate to achieve their objectives. To aid this understanding, operations research, sociological, and behavioral theory relevant to the study of social networks are applied, thereby providing theoretical foundations for new methodologies to analyze non-cooperative organizations, defined as those trying to hide their structure or are unwilling to provide information regarding their operations. Techniques applying information regarding multiple dimensions of interpersonal relationships, inferring from them the strengths of interpersonal ties, are explored. A layered network construct is offered that …


The Effects Of Ability Homophily On Individual Performance, Michael J. Gray Mar 2006

The Effects Of Ability Homophily On Individual Performance, Michael J. Gray

Theses and Dissertations

Homophily is the sociological term for a principle that is easily observed and understood: similar people tend to associate with one another (or the well-known saying "Birds of a feather flock together"). Homophily creates divides among people with numerous demographic characteristics and causes people to surround themselves with others who are similar to themselves (McPherson et al., 2001). Race and ethnicity have the greatest influence on relationship choices followed by age, religion, education, occupation, and gender (McPherson et al., 2001). While studies of homophily of race and gender are quite common, few studies have examined homophily based on instrumental attributes …


The Longitudinal Effect Of Self-Monitoring And Locus Of Control On Social Network Position In Friendship Networks, Gary J. Moore Mar 2006

The Longitudinal Effect Of Self-Monitoring And Locus Of Control On Social Network Position In Friendship Networks, Gary J. Moore

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to identify how enduring personality characteristics predict a person's location in a network, locations which in turn affect outcomes such as performance. Specifically, this thesis examines how self-monitoring and locus of control influence an individual's location in a friendship social network over time. Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) was used to analyze 28 groups of students and instructors at a military training course over six and one half weeks. Self-monitoring predicted betweenness centrality in five of six time periods while locus of control predicted betweenness centrality in three of six time periods. The moderation of …


Leadership In Groups: Social Networks And Perceptions Of Formal And Informal Leaders, Mitchell D. Stratton Mar 2006

Leadership In Groups: Social Networks And Perceptions Of Formal And Informal Leaders, Mitchell D. Stratton

Theses and Dissertations

The labors of organizational and behavioral science researchers have resulted in a literature robust in the study of leadership and social networks. Empirical examination of both topics has shown significant organizational outcomes, but breadth is lacking both within and between the disciplines. Studies of leadership have seen the preponderance of the effort focused on formal leaders, while most social network studies examine only one informal structure. Moreover, there exists a paucity of studies, which have sought to examine the interrelationships between leadership and social networks. In an effort to address these voids, this thesis investigated: 1) The concurrent existence of …


A Graph Theoretic Analysis Of The Effects Of Organizational Structure On Employee Social Networks, John R. Hutzel Mar 2006

A Graph Theoretic Analysis Of The Effects Of Organizational Structure On Employee Social Networks, John R. Hutzel

Theses and Dissertations

A simulation technique was used to investigate the impacts of organizational structure on an organization's social network. By simulating personnel in an organization as vertices in a graph and the aging of the corporation as the aging of the same graph, the maturation of an organization was realized. The characteristic path length of the graph was measured after each year returning an optimistic average organizational distance. Results include the finding that, per this model, an organization's characteristic path length can drop over 50% in a 20 year period with consideration of edges of all strengths. Next a series of random …


Formal And Informal Work Group Relationships With Performance: A Moderation Model Using Social Network Analysis, Benjamin R. Knost Mar 2006

Formal And Informal Work Group Relationships With Performance: A Moderation Model Using Social Network Analysis, Benjamin R. Knost

Theses and Dissertations

Social networks have recently emerged in the management discipline as a unique way of studying individuals groups in organizations. While traditionally used in the analysis of un-bounded networks, applying social network analysis techniques to bounded work groups and organizational teams has become increasingly popular. Past research has established relationships between in-degree social network centrality and individual performance as well as social network density and overall group performance. This field study, conducted at a military training course, attempted to further refine this social network-performance relationship by modeling characteristics of both the formal and informal work group networks in relation to performance …


Gauging The Commitment Of Clandestine Group Members, Doneda D. Downs Mar 2006

Gauging The Commitment Of Clandestine Group Members, Doneda D. Downs

Theses and Dissertations

Since the attacks of September 11th, 2001, there has been a great deal of attention given to understanding the inner workings of terrorist organizations in order for the United States to be successful in the Global War on Terrorism. Group dynamics has been one area of interest pursued to gain more insight into a terrorist's cognitive battlespace. Until a few years ago, most research on individual commitment and organizational cohesion has been based primarily on questionnaires and open observations on groups that desire to be understood. However, terrorist organizations are clandestine; they constantly employ operations security (OPSEC) to ensure protection …


Aggregation Techniques To Characterize Social Networks, Sara E. Sterling Mar 2004

Aggregation Techniques To Characterize Social Networks, Sara E. Sterling

Theses and Dissertations

Social network analysis focuses on modeling and understanding individuals of interest and their relationships. Aggregation of social networks can be used both to make analysis computationally easier on large networks, and to gain insight in subgroup interactions. Aggregation requires determining appropriate closely knit subgroups as well as choosing a measure or measures to represent the network data. This thesis provides the analyst with several techniques for using aggregation to analyze the characteristics of social networks. The contribution of this research lies in its ability to analyze a wide variety of social network structures and available data through two methods for …


Analysis Of Factors Influencing Tolerance Of Fraternization, George J. Matusak Iii Mar 2001

Analysis Of Factors Influencing Tolerance Of Fraternization, George J. Matusak Iii

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores several factors that might explain discrepancies in the tolerance level of fraternization among company grade officers within the Air Force. Factors that may influence implementation may include the nature of the relationship (platonic or sexual), the sex of the participants (same or different gender or gender of the senior person), whether the incident occurred between people in the same chain of command, and whether the survey respondent was ever stationed at a remote location. This research used a survey sent out to a population of company grade officers and comprising of scenarios that varied the combination of …


Factors Affecting Exchange Relationships Among Subordinates And Supervisors: A Study Of Military Officers, Laurie K. Richter Mar 2001

Factors Affecting Exchange Relationships Among Subordinates And Supervisors: A Study Of Military Officers, Laurie K. Richter

Theses and Dissertations

This research examined the effect of organizational structure on the relationships between subordinates and their supervisors using measures of leader-member exchange (LMX), mentoring effectiveness, perceived organizational support (POS), perceived opportunities for promotion, job satisfaction, affective commitment, and intent to remain. The sample obtained included 147 subordinate Air Force traditional Civil Engineer officers, Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) officers, Bioenvironmental Engineer officers, and 27 squadron commanders at 19 Air Force bases. The methods of multiple analysis of variance and structural equation modeling were used to evaluate five research questions and nineteen hypotheses. Overall, no differences were found between the types of subordinate …


Factors Influencing Air Force Members' Tolerance Of Fraternization, Amanda G. Brandau Mar 2001

Factors Influencing Air Force Members' Tolerance Of Fraternization, Amanda G. Brandau

Theses and Dissertations

AFI 36-2909, provides the current policy on acceptable and unacceptable social interactions between Air Force members. The intent of distinguishing relationships as professional or unprofessional is to preserve proper respect for authority and maintain focus on the mission through professional relationships while avoiding the negative effects of unprofessional relationships. Fraternization is one unacceptable type, which governs relationships between officers and enlisted members. There have long been differences between official policy and actual practice in the area of fraternization. These differences likely influence the acceptance of existing policy, and the amount of tolerance toward behaviors that Air Force policy would consider …


Moderating Effects Of Station Isolation On Antecedents And Consequences Of Fraternization, Tonya M. Luther Sep 1999

Moderating Effects Of Station Isolation On Antecedents And Consequences Of Fraternization, Tonya M. Luther

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to analyze any differences in reported incidents of fraternization based on relative isolation of location. To fulfill this purpose, a variety of types of fraternization cases were reviewed and analyzed. All data extracted was coded across five factors of fraternization and punishment. Statistical tests determined whether differences in fraternization factors were due to common error or to true differences based on relative isolation of location. Seven different hypotheses relating fraternization and location were tested. Statistical analysis showed that reported fraternization incidents are more likely to be of a sexual nature and involve people of …


Family-Of-Origin Distress And Intimacy In Later-Life Couples, Paul James Birch Jan 1999

Family-Of-Origin Distress And Intimacy In Later-Life Couples, Paul James Birch

Theses and Dissertations

Married couples aged 55-98 were surveyed regarding their perceptions of family-of-origin distress, their affective communication and problem solving communication skills, and their emotional intimacy. Two 2-way ANOVAs were performed with husbands' (model 1) and wives' (model 2) emotional intimacy scores as dependent measures and family-of-origin distress scores as the independent measures. Then both models were re-analyzed with affective communication and problem solving communication entered as co-variates. Results suggested that for both husbands and wives, emotional intimacy was affected by family-of-origin distress. Additionally, intimacy was affected by the distress in their spouses' family-of-origin in both models. Post-hoc analyses suggested that as …


A Study In Social Distance In A Typical Mormon Community, Anthon Steffensen Cannon Jan 1934

A Study In Social Distance In A Typical Mormon Community, Anthon Steffensen Cannon

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to measure the amount of social distance found in a typical Mormon community, and to investigate the influence of the so-called "Mormon Church" upon the prejudices of its members towards other races and religions. It also aims to experiment with a techique for re-conditioning social distance in order to increase the degree of sympathetic understanding of persons for other groups of people.