Browsing by Author "Williams, Elizabeth, committee member"
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Item Open Access A listening theory story: an analysis of key themes, traditions, and actors in a community of practice of international listening theory scholars, 1987-2021(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Shanks, Brandon, author; Parks, Elizabeth S., advisor; Williams, Elizabeth, committee member; Humphrey, Michael, committee memberIn any field of research, specific theory drives discovery, inquiry, and production of knowledge. Looking at the field of listening research, listening theory can be seen to impact how scholars view results of their studies. Additionally, listening theory is summarized to be an unorganized and undefined field of listening research. To begin to remedy this disorganization, I aim to create both a broad outline of listening theory as well as a spark to ignite dialogue and discourse surrounding listening theory. To accomplish the goal of creating broad understanding of listening theory, I use a tried and true method of conveying information that has been used for centuries, I tell a story. Predominantly, I tell a story of listening theory located in the International Journal of Listening (IJL). This story is made up of genres (metatheoretical traditions), tropes (themes and topics), and main characters (authors). To understand these three aspects, I utilize a mixed method approach of both a qualitative thematic analysis and a descriptive quantitative semantic analysis to analyze a corpus of 42 IJL articles published from 1987-2021 related to listening theory. Finally, I use the story that is woven from the results as a jumping off point for future research and scholars to join the production and discussion of listening theory. In my thesis I conceptualize IJL as a community of practice, or a group of people that all pursue a similar goal. This goal is to create knowledge, discussion, and practical application of listening research. Each aspect of the story will indicate how the community of practice advances research. It will also reveal potentially where specific traditions might be more prominent than others. These traditions that I analyze come from the widely cited work of Craig (1999) who provides a metamodel for both understanding how different approaches to theory support and contradict each other. The primary goal of his metamodel is to create discourse surrounding the practices and methods of research surrounding communication theory. I adopt this metamodel to serve both those functions in my analysis of listening theory in the community of practice of IJL. I use the metamodel to describe which traditions are present within listening theory work, but also to serve as an encouragement for future research and continuation of discourse. To uncover themes in the story of listening theory, I utilize a semantic analysis as utilized by Arasaratnam and Doerfel (2005). Using the textual analysis software Wordstat conducts a frequency, cooccurrence, and topical analysis of all text in the 42 articles. This reveals themes surrounding the development of listening theory and research within the community of practice. Lastly, in combination of the two methods I draw out key moments and actors to indicate where scholars have perpetuated listening theory and the discourse surrounding its development. Understanding all these story elements (traditions, themes, actors) I construct a review of how listening theory has been established in IJL. Then, to fulfill the goals of creating a story of listening theory and continuation of the conversation, I tell a story of listening theory from 1987-2021 in the community of practice of IJL: in my own words.Item Open Access Am I ugly or do I have BDD?: personal disclosure and social support on a body dysmorphic disorder online forum(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Fisher, Eva E., author; Hallahan, Kirk, advisor; Rouner, Donna, committee member; Long, Marilee, committee member; Ogle, Jennifer, committee member; Williams, Elizabeth, committee memberThe current study used an emergent research design that employed qualitative content analysis to understand how individuals with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) communicate with their peers in an online support forum (psychforum.com/body-dysmorphic-disorder). The purpose was to explore (a) the communication activities on the forum, (b) the personal experiences with BDD disclosed by participants, (c) the categories of social support sought and shared, and (d) the social support provided and roles performed by the most frequent posters to the forum. The data sample consisted of 911 messages posted by 225 participants during 2012. The primary communication activities on the forum were asking about other members’ personal experiences and seeking support, disclosing personal experiences and providing support, engaging in conversations, and storytelling. Personal disclosures included appearance concerns (feeling ugly, depressed, guilty, ashamed, angry, and suicidal), compulsive behaviors (plastic surgery, mirror/photograph checking, and social comparison), the impact on one’s personal life, and recovery from BDD (treatment, diagnosis, coping, and overcoming symptoms). Social support sought and shared included informational, emotional, and social network support. Informational support topics included diagnosis, treatment, overcoming symptoms, and recovery. Emotional support took the form of empathy, caring/concern, gratitude, encouragement, sympathy, compliments, and validation. Social network support reinforced that people who understand the disorder were present on the forum and could provide companionship. Although not common, unsupportive comments (disagreement, disapproval, criticism/sarcasm, and flaming) were also present. The five most frequent posters were emergent leaders whose supportive roles supplemented those of the two forum moderators. The most frequent poster was a male who played a lead role in providing informational and social network support, along with four frequent female posters whose primary contribution was providing emotional support. The five emergent leaders and moderators also performed functional roles, including greeter, advocate, arbiter, mediator/harmonizer, corroborator/validator, information/opinion giver, evaluator/critic, and encourager/cheerleader, that were critical to the successful functioning of the forum. The study discusses five key conclusions (themes) that offer valuable insight into how members communicated on the forum: (a) personal disclosure facilitated social support in initial posts and responses, (b) group members served primarily as support providers or support seekers whose behaviors were complementary and essential to the successful functioning of the forum, (c) contributions to the forum varied by gender with females providing more personal disclosure and social support than males, (d) the forum served as a coping mechanism where members shared coping strategies and coping assistance, and (e) the forum offered members peer support within an online community that supplemented the support received from other online and in-person sources. The study underscores the growing importance of peer-to-peer communication and contributes to the limited research on online support groups for individuals coping with serious mental illness. As a result of this investigation, health communication scholars will have an increased understanding of why individuals with stigmatized health conditions turn to their peers to find the support they need online. In addition, this study provides BDD researchers and clinicians with an increased awareness about the resources and support needed by those suffering from the disorder.Item Open Access An examination of decision-making during organizational crises: a case study of the 2017 Northern California Firestorm(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2019) Thomas, Cliff, author; Korte, Russell, advisor; Chermack, Thomas, committee member; Folkestad, James, committee member; Williams, Elizabeth, committee memberOrganizations experiencing crises are subject to harm that can involve injuries, fatalities, financial losses, reputational damage, losses of assets, and others. This study examined a phenomenon central to minimizing crisis-related harm: decision-making. More specifically, this study examined the ways in which decision elements interact to influence decision processes and behaviors during crises. The significance of this study stems from a steady increase in the frequency and intensity of organizational crises, and the claim that novel research and insights into the phenomenon can promote harm reduction. Research in this domain has been predominantly grounded in post-positivist perspectives, suggesting that new insights and understandings can be found through alternate perspectives. This inquiry adopted a constructivist and holistic view of crisis decision-making, recognizing that the construction of meaning, or "sensemaking", is an important aspect of decision-making. As such, this study sought to investigate how people make decisions during organizational crises, how and why some factors influence sensemaking and decision-making in the ways they do, how and why some decision factors are ascribed more significance than others, and the ways in which decision consequences influence ongoing decision-making. The conceptual framework guiding this study involved organizational crises, contextual decision factors, sensemaking frameworks, decision-making strategies, and decision consequences. The results of this study are intended to enlighten an area that some researchers and practitioners believe is growing in importance, and to provide insights that will foster improved practitioner capabilities. The study's findings suggest that in some contexts, organizational crisis decision-making can be appropriately described as a complex adaptive system. The findings also yielded insights related to several decision factors: past experiences, time influences, situational control, group member trust, and decision-maker self-perceptions. Among the various decision factors studied, decision-maker self-perceptions were found to be the most influential. Finally, implications for research, theory, and practice are presented.Item Open Access Breaking down the gates with participatory journalism: leveraging user-generated content for today's journalistic practices(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Kellerhals, Blair, author; Wolfgang, J. David, advisor; Williams, Elizabeth, committee member; Champ, Joseph G., committee memberWith the increase in user-generated content (UGC) with today's information communication technologies (ICTs), there is ample opportunity for journalists to leverage UGC in their reporting. Because media organizations are continuously looking for creative and innovative ways to harness UGC to keep pace with today's ever-changing digital environment, there is a considerable amount of room to explore the effects on what this type of content has on journalistic practices. In an effort to understand how UGC fits into journalists' everyday work routines, this study seeks to understand how UGG encourages or impedes journalists' professional norms and values. This study revealed that journalists experience a considerable amount of internal conflict in leveraging UGC. Journalists expressed that they use UGC as a supplement to their existing reporting practices and avoid engaging with audiences for fear of challenging their journalistic ethics and norms.Item Open Access Broadening the lens: a pilot study of student cognitive flexibility and intercultural sensitivity in short-term study abroad experiences(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Gantt, Jessica, author; Aoki, Eric, advisor; Williams, Elizabeth, committee member; Macdonald, Bradley, committee memberStudy abroad has emerged as an essential element in many U.S. students' college careers, as many degree programs have implemented study abroad as a degree requirement and globalization has fostered a flourishing globalized economy and society. Over half of these students are choosing to go abroad for short-term programs of six weeks or less, and thus this pilot study considered the effects short programs can have on participants. The study included a study abroad participant group who went abroad for one month or less and a control group of students who did not go abroad. The study utilized a pre-posttest design, and participants in both groups were sent online surveys before and after the one month study period. The study utilized Martin and Rubin's (1995) Cognitive Flexibility Scale and Chen and Starosta's (2000) Intercultural Sensitivity Scale to measure changes in participant intercultural personhood, to which both cognitive flexibility and intercultural sensitivity contribute. The study also used open-ended questions in the posttest to gather study abroad participant narratives and add qualitative depth to the findings. The data analysis found the study abroad students did exhibit an increase in cognitive flexibility after their trips abroad (M = 5.00, SD = 0.65) when compared with the longitudinal data for control group participants who stayed in country (M = 4.72, SD = 0.32); however, due to the size of the small pilot study, these findings were not statistically significant: F (1, 1) = 0.867, p > .05. The study encountered an unexpected trend when study abroad students exhibited lower intercultural sensitivity after their trips (M = 3.55, SD = 0.54) than control group students who stayed in country (M = 4.00, SD = 0.45), though also not a statistically significant finding: F (1, 1) = 1.14, p > .05. Interestingly, a data analysis considering changes in cognitive flexibility when controlling for second language fluency did approach significance: F (1, 1) = 13.262, p = .068. The difference in level of cognitive flexibility in study abroad participants (M = 4.92, SD = 0.65) and control group participants (M = 4.80, SD = 0.32) when controlling for second language fluency also continued to trend in the expected direction. While I provide insight into potential explanations for the three trends, the findings and conclusions from this pilot study are used to posit questions and ideas for future research. The findings of this pilot study not only contribute holistically to the field of study abroad research, but can also be applied to future short-term study abroad research and even to the actual design of study abroad program support structures.Item Open Access Communicating the COVID-19 pandemic: a case study of a K-12 school district website and Twitter account(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Jones, Olivia E., author; Knobloch, Katie, advisor; Williams, Elizabeth, committee member; Bradbury, Kelly, committee memberThe COVID-19 pandemic was not a linear crisis, and this thesis seeks to explore the potential for liminal spaces throughout crisis cycles by analyzing a public K-12 school district's communication of the COVID-19 pandemic across their website and Twitter account. Using thematic iterative analysis, this research specifically explores the moments when the school district was still in crisis but also attempting to return to a state of normalcy. The analysis and findings yield practical recommendations for organizations that must balance stakeholder tensions, especially during repetitive crises.Item Embargo Donor decision-making, motivations, and meaning-making in the context of a historic fashion and textiles museum on a university campus: a case study(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Benjamin, Brooklyn, author; Paff, Jennifer, advisor; Hyllegard, Karen, committee member; Williams, Elizabeth, committee member; Alaszkiewicz, Paula, committee memberThis study explored the decision-making processes, motives, and meaning-making experiences of individuals who enacted a passive donation of objects to a historic fashion and textiles museum on a university campus. The work was informed by theory on the extended self and extended object. I adopted an exploratory, qualitative case study methodology to collect in- depth interviews from 13 donors. The major contribution of this study is a grounded theory model illuminating the Decision-Making Process to Donate Objects to a University Historic Fashion and Textiles Museum. Unique to the decision-making model developed for the present study are the incorporation of the meaning of the object to the overall decision-making process and the identification of motives specific to the donation of historic fashion and textiles objects (e.g., Educational and Relational Motives). The work also highlights the way in which participants extended their sense of self and identity through object donations to the Museum.Item Open Access Impact of the identifiable victim effect on audience willingness to donate to healthcare organizations via Instagram(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Konkel, Abby Nicole, author; Tham, Samuel, advisor; Sivakumar, Gaya, committee member; Williams, Elizabeth, committee memberThe landscape of healthcare fundraising has changed dramatically in recent years due to a rise in online and social media fundraising. As fundraising itself adapts to advancing technology, this study examined how a tried and true traditional fundraising strategy known as the Identifiable Victim Effect impacts audience willingness to donate to healthcare organizations on Instagram. By conducting a 2 x 2 factorial design experimental survey in which photos and captions of Instagram posts were manipulated, the emotional response elicited from different IVE conditions, demographics that may play a role in donating on social media and the ways in which IVE impacts willingness to donate were all examined. This study found that emotional response, measured through Distress and Sympathy positively impacts willingness to donate. This research adds to the existing literature on IVE and starts to bridge the gap that exists at the intersection of healthcare and IVE in social media contexts.Item Open Access Liquid communication: how FC Barcelona is spreading Sentiment Blaugrana one drop at a time(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Zapata, Andrea D. Dájer, author; Diffrient, David Scott, advisor; Williams, Elizabeth, committee member; Pedrós-Gascón, Antonio Francisco, committee memberThis thesis explores the digital strategy of the Catalan sports club FC Barcelona. The club has gained global popularity in the last several years due to its success in league and international competitions. FC Barcelona's digital strategy has created a communicative network that allows for the establishment of a global community of fans. Within this strategy, a new form of communication between organizations and a worldwide audience has developed, one that I call "liquid communication." This term refers to a type of communication that can easily go back and forth between the participants involved. It is communication that is neither restricted by time or space, nor dictated by any type of social status. Liquid communication is needed in the new globalized arena where the Internet and social networks are frequently employed, because it is able to fully capture and analyze the bivalent flows of information, feedback and messages that are being deployed throughout the world into a single communicative channel. Taking Paul M. Pederson, Kimberly S. Miloch, and Pamela C. Laucella's Strategic Sports Communication Model as a source of inspiration, I propose a new, more dynamic and up-to-date communication model that can be adapted to different types of organizations and which takes into account the new technologies that have emerged in recent years.Item Open Access Made you laugh: the interpretation of interactive laughter within friendships(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) Matter, Michelle M., author; Faw, Meara, advisor; Williams, Elizabeth, committee member; Lucas-Thompson, Rachel, committee memberAlthough past scholars have studied laughter as a form of communication, prior research is scarce on how laughter is perceived by interactants. This mixed methods study deepens scholarly understandings of laughter as both a communicative act and a form of affection by investigating how friends in dyadic interactions make meaning of the laughter they share during those interactions. Pairs of friends were video-recorded having a short, light-hearted conversation. Following the conversation, each individual watched the video, explaining at each instance of laughter what they were feeling and why they believed laughter occurred at that point in the conversation. Data from both interactants was then compared to examine the types of laughter that were manifested in conversations as well as patterns regarding participants' perceptions and communication of laughter. In general, previous laughter categories were supported by the data, but new categories were also identified, including laughing out of relatability (show understanding), lighten (decrease stress or negative feelings), memory (remember the situation being discussed), reactionary (because the other person laughed first), anticipation (expecting something funny to happen), cue (indicate that the other person should laugh), common joke (previously shared and recognized humor), mental image (picturing the event or story), and endearing (out of love) laughter. A new categorization system is proposed which assesses laughter in terms of its relational effects along the spectrums of prosocial-antisocial and basic-complex; in particular, prosocial laughter is examined as an affectionate behavior according to the definitions from Floyd's Affection Exchange Theory. This study offers a deeper understanding of laughter as a crucial yet understudied form of nonverbal communication by highlighting the relational meanings and implications of laughter among friends.Item Open Access Maintaining employment in turbulent times: the bridging of resilience and resistance in hotel employees(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Wagner-Kinyon, Eliza Amy, author; Long, Ziyu, advisor; Williams, Elizabeth, committee member; Conroy, Samantha, committee memberPrevious communication scholarship has studied resilience and resistance separately, but researchers had not often studied them in tandem, especially in the organizational change context. Specifically, this study uses Buzzanell's (2010, 2018a) five resilience processes and Mumby's (2005) dialectical approach to resistance to complicate organizational communication scholarship and current understandings of resilience and resistance in the workplace. This research utilizes a case study approach to examine employees' communication and experience in the face of multifaceted change—the changes including a new corporate company, on-site leadership turnover, and a full renovation. Using semi-structured interviews, the study implicates connections between resilience processes and types of resistance. The findings in this study encourage organizational communication scholars to further develop and explore how resilience and resistance are enacted in unique, meaningful ways that enliven employee experiences in a turbulent workplace.Item Open Access Residence hall directors' conflict style(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Propes, Rebecca, author; Pendell, Sue, advisor; Williams, Elizabeth, committee member; Engelke, Terri, committee memberThis study investigated how experience, personality and culture influence a residence hall director's conflict management style by having RHDs complete self-assessments that were administered through the website Survey Monkey. The participants were RHDs from various colleges and universities from across the United States who were chosen by both purposive and snowball sampling methods. The study hypothesized that RHDs would employ a collaborating approach to conflicts. The results supported the hypothesis, and RHDs predominately do employ a collaborating approach to conflicts. The results show that experience is significantly and negatively related to Avoiding; only Conscientiousness is significantly related to the Dominating conflict style with Neuroticism approaching a significant correlation to Dominating. Finally, culture was shown not to be significantly related to any conflict style. The results are important because they will help in the development of conflict management trainings for university housing employees--particularly RHDs. The more information hall directors have regarding how they are influenced when it comes to conflict the more effective conflict managers they can be. Additional research should look at how RHDs utilize their conflict management styles within their professional relationships as well as with their student staff members.Item Open Access Risky photography in national parks: an examination of the role of online identity management in wildlife risk perceptions(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Evans, Caitlin, author; Abrams, Katie, advisor; Sivakumar, Gayathri, committee member; Long, Marilee, committee member; Williams, Elizabeth, committee member; Teel, Tara, committee memberTechnology and an ever-growing online culture have created a new space to display, modify, and maintain personal identity. These spaces can often perpetuate risky behaviors offline by creating a need to share, comment, and like photographs and status updates. This need for online spaces is blurring our online and offline identities. Previous research has indicated a motivating factor for social interaction as the need for social capital. Social capital is defined by the resources we gain from our connections with others and online spaces might be creating a new space to foster and maintain these connections with others. Research has also indicated multiple types of social norms as a factors in the human decision-making process. This is true for both risk communication and environmental communication research. This research examined the relationship between online identity management and risk perceptions pertaining to approaching wildlife in national parks to take photos. It proposed a theoretical model of wildlife risk perceptions and identity that investigated relationships between online wildlife photography social norms, online social capital, online identity management, wildlife risk perceptions, wildlife risk social norms and the likelihood of taking risky wildlife photographs. Utilizing survey methodology, college students were asked a series of Likert-style question. Pearson's correlations were conducted to investigate the relationships among some of the independent variables. A multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to investigate the impact the independent variables (online wildlife photography social norms, wildlife risk social norms, wildlife risk perceptions, interest in online identity management, and social capital) have on the dependent variable (likelihood of taking risky wildlife photographs). Finally, a multiple linear regression with interaction effect was conducted in order to investigate a connection between wildlife risk perceptions and interest in online identity management. Participants were also asked open-ended questions in order to get a more in-depth analysis of motivating factors for risky wildlife photography. Findings indicate that social norms impact the likelihood to take risky wildlife photographs both directly and indirectly through their correlation with wildlife risk perceptions. Online social capital and social norms both influence online identity management. Wildlife risk perceptions, wildlife risk social norms, and park familiarity significantly predict the likelihood of taking risky wildlife photographs. The qualitative data indicated a difference in individual's beliefs about the risk level of certain wildlife. Risk perceptions and what influences those perceptions seem to be the factors most influential in the likelihood of taking risky wildlife photographs. Social norms, risk perceptions, and online identity play a small part in the decision to take risky wildlife photographs. Participants also seemed to think that education about wildlife or illustrating negative experiences might increase risk perceptions and cause people to think twice about getting too close to wildlife in a national park. The complicated nature of risk perceptions poses a problem when it comes to message design. Different people have different perceptions about certain types of wildlife. However, increasing awareness about the dangers of wildlife, pointing out how getting close to wildlife is dangerous for the wildlife themselves, creating social norms about behavior around wildlife all might be potential avenues that communication practitioners and park staff could use to help reduce human-wildlife interactions in parks.Item Open Access Tensions in service-oriented temporary organizations: the emergence and management of tensions in student organizing(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Patton, Mellissa, author; Long, Ziyu, advisor; Williams, Elizabeth, committee member; Conroy, Samantha, committee memberPrevious communication scholarship has focused on tension as a component of everyday organizing. However, minimal research has explored it in tandem with temporary organizing and servant leadership. This case study explores the discursive enactment of servant leadership and how it contributes to tension emergence and management as presented by Putnam, Fairhurst, and Banghart (2016) and Baxter & Montgomery's (1996) in the context of a temporary organization and organizing during COVID-19. Through the use of semi-structured interviews and a focus group, the study theorizes a tension-filled and tension-centered conceptualization of servant leadership. Furthermore, this research identifies how disruptions to everyday organizing, such as a global pandemic, can urge tensions to the forefront of organizations. The findings in this study also encourage scholars to interrogate popular leadership enactments, question the role of tension in the discursive enactment of leadership, and explore the implications of temporary organizing in term-limited organizations.Item Open Access "The season from hell": the genre of corporate sports apologia(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Jarvis, Caitlyn, author; Burgchardt, Carl, advisor; Williams, Elizabeth, committee member; Hallahan, Kirk, committee memberIn the fall of 2014 the National Football League (NFL) experienced a drastic rise in the publicity of player arrests for domestic violence. Not only did the case of Ray Rice, who was video taped brutally assaulting his fiancé, receive public attention, but this case was quickly followed up with arrests of Greg Hardy, Ray McDonald, and Adrian Peterson. Suddenly, domestic violence was a serious problem in discord with public values. This project examines the NFL's response to the domestic violence crisis during the 2014 to 2015 football season and its efforts to regain public legitimacy. Through combining the genre of apologia with research on organizational communication tactics, I present five theoretical ways in which sports corporations, like the NFL, can begin to rebuild their public image in the wake of a crisis. These five strategies help to inform the salience of apologia theory as well as the light it can shed on corporate communication when combined with studies on organizational discourse.Item Open Access Wicked problems, complexity, and mid-level leadership in higher education: an action learning research project(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Ferris, Sean, author; Barone, Ryan, advisor; Poon, OiYan, committee member; Williams, Elizabeth, committee member; Johnson, Jennifer, committee memberPublic research universities in the United States face myriad problems, many of which result in inequitable outcomes and experiences for people from marginalized populations. How stakeholders understand, value, and pursue solutions within the complex organizational context of public higher education further complicates problems of inequity and injustice. Challenges of this type can be understood as wicked problems (Rittel & Webber, 1973) and the organizational setting of public higher education a complex adaptive system (Lohmann, 2006; Mandviwalla & Schuff, 2014). A significant gap exists in the scholarship informing how higher education leaders understand and pursue solutions to the wicked problems they face within the complex adaptive systems of public universities. For this research, I used action learning methodology to explore leadership with a small group of midlevel professionals from public universities working to address challenges of inequity and injustice. Through the action learning methodology, the research process catalyzed learning and impact for participants in their local settings. Together, the participants and I generated knowledge on leadership to address wicked problems in public universities and share the research experience through the participants' accounts of practice and our practitioner learning.