The interaction of generic structure and interpersonal relations in two-party e-chat discourse

On the basis of a corpus of e-chat IRC exchanges (approximately 10,000 words in total) between Greek- and English-speaking speakers, the paper establishes a typical generic structure for two-party IRC exchanges, by focusing on how participants are oriented towards an ideal schema of phases and acts, as well as on how their interpersonal concerns contribute to the shaping of this schema. It is found that IRC interlocutors are primarily concerned with establishing contact with each other, while the (ideational) development of topic seems to be a less pressing need. The signaling of interpersonal relations is pervasive throughout e-chat discourse, as seen both in the range of devices developed and the two free elements of the generic schema, that is conversation play and channel check. It is also found that the accomplishment of the generic schema in each IRC exchange crucially depends on the acts of negotiation performed by the initiator and the responder.

Knowledge Exchange in Intra-Organizational Innovation Communities: The Role of Cognitive and Affective States

Many aspects in the area of designing platforms for intra-organizational innovation communities are not well understood. In this article, we examine the impact of technologically induced psychological factors on knowledge exchange in such communities. Using two experimental pretest-posttest experiments, we find that the implementation of (i) technologically induced self-efficacy (expressed by a ‘hurray’ message) and (ii) technologically induced positive affect (expressed by playing some 30 seconds of rock-‘n’-roll music) in the design of the platform results in an influential increase of knowledge exchange. Importantly, the studies suggest that the integration of technologically induced self-efficacy leads to a higher extent of knowledge exchange than technologically induced positive affect. The implications of these results for future research and practice as well as for the design of a platform for such communities are discussed.