Communication

Abstract This study describes an approach to track groups over time as they participate in larger networks of groups. Groups were tracked in a Massive Multi-Player Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG), a context typical of many online venues and similar to some situations in the real world. Based on social scientific theories the study identified possible avenues to detect groups, explored game logs to identify relevant variables for group detection, and developed an algorithm to detect groups from individual level data.

Background Scholars in diverse research areas (eg, Braman, 2002; Melkote, 2002) have acknowledged that an examination of regimes and networks inclusive of NGOs is important in addressing complex social issues. Increased collaboration between governments, businesses, and NGOs reflect a growing interdependence between civil society organizations and governmental organizations (Kim & Barnett, 2007), and between civil society organizations and businesses (Austin, 2000).

Abstract Developing an algorithm for group identification from a collection of individuals without grouping data has been getting significant attention because of the need for increased understanding of groups and teams in online environments. This study used space, time, task, and players' virtual behavioral indicators from a game database to develop an algorithm to detect groups over time.

The health care system in the United States has changed dramatically in the last 30 years. Health organizations are under pressure from patients for access to high quality, affordable care. Employers, insurance companies, and federal agencies want lower costs, accountability, and safety. Hospitals and medical groups, as well as insurance companies and government agencies, are adopting management methods that emphasize efficiency, predictability, calculability, and control (Ritzer, 2004). Despite the efforts to more tightly ...

Institutional messages provide a conceptual and empirical link between the predominantly macro world of institutions and the micro world of organizational communication. The concept of the institutional message is used colloquially but has not been developed theoretically.The conception that emerges from a review of the scholarly and primitive uses is that institutional messages are collations of thoughts that take on lives independent of senders and recipients. They may have the force of rules, spread intentionally or unintentionally via multiple channels to narrow or wider audiences. This essay considers the institutionality of messages in terms of their endurance, reach, encumbency, and intentionality. Institutional messages carry institutional logics—patterns of beliefs and rules. They are collations of thoughts that are intentional, enduring, have a wide reach, and encumber organizational participants to engage in certain behaviors or to take performative responses. It is argue...

Recent scholarship has argued that the concept of profession is undertheorized and accepted uncritically. The authors address this issue by summarizing the characteristics of professions and articulating professions as institutionalized occupations. Their study of a veterinary call center suggests that profession influences the workplace through (a) knowledge providing, seeking, and sharing; (b) self-management of behavior, emotions, and productivity; (c) internal sources of motivation; (d) a service orientation; (e) the invocation of field standards; and (f) participation in a knowledge community beyond the workplace. Although these features may be distinguishable analytically, they are unified in the experience of work. Moreover, the close match in this case between the service orientations of the profession and of the organization strengthened the workers' commitment and thus the legitimacy of the organization.