Deconstruction-analysis-explanation:contextualization in professional digital discourse

It is already a truism that emerging communication technologies have changed the landscape of communication in every aspect of our lives, but this is specifically true for how we communicate at work. Advances in communication technologies have enabled a wide range of digital communication modes to be utilized for both internal and external business communication; including audio and visual communication and voice-over protocols, as well as text-based channels, such as email, forums, instant messaging and social media. In spite of the wide range of available audio-visual channels, and despite the ever-increasing popularity of email, real-time text-based communication technologies (instant messaging or IM) are also on the rise (see Mak, 2014; Pazos et al., 2013; Radicati & Levenstein, 2013; and Markman in this volume). The prominence of IM is evident in the rise of this mode of communication, not only as a tool for internal business communication, but as a front-stage channel, particularly for customer service encounters or professional-client conversations (Makarem et al., 2009; Pearce et al., 2013; L. Zhang et al., 2011).

Writing online:a guide to effective digital communication at work

Online writing plays a complex and increasingly prominent role in the life of organizations. From newsletters to press releases, social media marketing and advertising, to virtual presentations and interactions via e-mail and instant messaging, digital writing intertwines and affects the day-to-day running of the company - yet we rarely pay enough attention to it. Typing on the screen can become particularly problematic because digital text-based communication increases the opportunities for misunderstanding: it lacks the direct audio-visual contact and the norms and conventions that would normally help people to understand each other. Providing a clear, convincing and approachable discussion, this book addresses arenas of online writing: virtual teamwork, instant messaging, emails, corporate communication channels, and social media. Instead of offering do and don’t lists, however, it teaches the reader to develop a practice that is observant, reflective, and grounded in the understanding of the basic principles of language and communication. Through real-life examples and case studies, it helps the reader to notice previously unnoticed small details, question previously unchallenged assumptions and practices, and become a competent digital communicator in a wide range of professional contexts.

Az egyetemi hallgatók véleménye a kommunikációs készség fejlesztésének fontosságáról = Importance of communication skills according to bachelor and master students

Kutatásomban arra a kérdésre kerestem a választ, hogy a Budapesti Corvinus Egyetemen a hallgatók miként vélekednek a képességek, készségek fejlesztésének fontosságáról az egyetemi képzésen belül. Ennek érdekében 2015 februárjában kérdőíves felmérést végeztem 106 hallgató megkérdezésével. A hallgatók 90%-a egyetértett azzal az állítással, hogy a szakmai ismeretek átadása mellett a képességek, készségek fejlesztésére is hangsúlyt kell helyezni az egyetemi oktatásban. A jövőbeli sikerességük szempontjából a három legfontosabbnak tartott képességek: a problémamegoldó képesség, a gondolkodási képesség és a jó kommunikációs készség. A hallgatók tisztába vannak a jó kommunikációs készség fontosságával az élet számos területén, viszont szembe kell nézni az egyetemi oktatás korlátozott lehetőségeivel. Az oktatók gyakran kényszerülnek választás elé, mire helyezzék az oktatásba elsődlegesen a hangsúlyt, milyen módszertant alkalmazzanak. Ezt a döntést segíti, ha ismerjük hallgatóink preferenciáit, céljait, viszonyukat az egyes módszertani eszközökhöz. Jelen tanulmány ebben kíván segítséget nyújtani. _______ The purpose of this study was to investigate students’ opinion about the importance of skills and abilities development within university. In February 2015 a survey was conducted by interviewing 106 students. More than 90% of students agreed with the statement that beside professional skill transfer, skills and abilities development should be emphasized as well. According to students’ opinion the three most important skills for their future success are: problem-solving, creative thinking and communication skills. Students are aware of the importance of good communication skills in many areas of life but the opportunity of its development is restricted. Lecturers are often forced to make a choice about teaching goals, priorities and teaching methods. Knowledge about students’ goals, preferences and feelings about teaching methods supports this decision. This study intends to provide assistance in this.

The spiritual and professional impact of stillbirth

Stillbirth is without question one of the most devastating experiences of grief for parents and families. The death of a baby is also a distressing experience for healthcare professionals who share hopes of a live healthy baby at the end of pregnancy. It is a sad reality however, that in Ireland one in 238 babies will die before birth. The creation and nurture of new life in pregnancy is a spiritual experience as a new baby is at the same time experienced and anticipated. There is little in the published literature concerning the spiritual impact of stillbirth on healthcare chaplains who are the main providers of spiritual care for parents and staff colleagues in Irish maternity units. In addition there are few qualitative studies that explore the impact of stillbirth on consultant obstetricians and no published studies on the spiritual impact of stillbirth on bereaved parents. This study explored the spiritual and professional impact of stillbirth on Irish maternity healthcare chaplains, consultant obstetricians and bereaved parents. Following an overall review of spiritual care provision following stillbirth in the Irish maternity services, thematic analysis was used in the first phase of the study following in-depth interviews with maternity healthcare chaplains. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used in the second and third phases with consultant obstetricians and bereaved parents respectively. The data from both maternity healthcare chaplains and consultant obstetricians revealed that stillbirth posed immense personal, spiritual and professional challenges. Chaplains expressed the spiritual and professional impact of stillbirth in terms of perception of their role, suffering, doubt and presence as they provided care for bereaved parents. A review of spiritual care provision in the Irish maternity services revealed a diversity of practice. The data from consultant obstetricians identified considerable personal, professional and spiritual impact following stillbirth that was identified in superordinate themes of human response to stillbirth, weight of professional responsibility, conflict of personal faith and incongruence between personal faith and professional practice. Data from bereaved parents revealed that stillbirth was spiritually challenging and all parents expressed that stillbirth posed considerable challenge to their faith/ belief structure. The parents of only three babies felt that their spiritual needs were adequately addressed while in hospital. The data had six superordinate themes of searching for meaning, maintaining hope, importance of personhood, protective care, questioning core beliefs and relationships. Other findings from the data from bereaved parents outlined the importance of environment of care and communication. This study has revealed the immense impact of stillbirth on healthcare chaplains, consultant obstetricians and most especially the spiritual impact for bereaved parents. Recommendations are made for improvements in clinical and spiritual care for bereaved parents following stillbirth and for staff wellbeing and support initiatives. Further research areas are recommended in the areas of spiritual care, theological reflection, bereavement care, post-mortem consent procedures and staff wellbeing.

Culture in Transfer: Translation and Transcultural Communication International Conference

It is widely acknowledged that interpreters need to have knowledge of the cultures represented by the languages they work with (e.g. Roy 2002, Angelelli 2004, Wadensjŏ 2008). However, it is not clear what interpreters are expected to do with this knowledge. Some scholars recommend that interpreters be cultural mediators (e.g. Katan 2004 & 2014). As an attempt to examine existing guidelines on interpreters’ roles in the face of cultures/cultural issues, the research reported in this paper compares and contrasts the codes of conduct for interpreters from a number of associations and institutions in the UK, the US and China. The research has collected three different sets of data and has sought to investigate (1) in what ways interpreters are expected to do with their knowledge of cultures; (2) to what extent interpreters’ role as cultural mediators is referred to or defined in these codes of conduct; and (3) whether or not relevant guidelines are practically helpful for interpreters to deal with the range of cultural issues they may encounter in interpreting. Data analysis suggests that while cultural knowledge is a requisite for interpreters, the expectation for them to be cultural mediators may depend on the types of interpreting setting they work with and further guidelines are needed so that interpreters are clear on what they are required to do in dealing with cultural issues. The paper then discusses the implications of these findings and points to some directions for future research. Key references Brunette, L., G Bastin, I. Hemlin and H. Clarke (ed.). The Critical Link 3: Interpreters in the Community. Amsterdam/Philadephia: John Benjamins. Hale, S. 2007. Community Interpreting. Hampshire, New York: Palgrave Macmillan. The International Association of Conference Interpreting, 2015. Interpreting Explained. Available from: http://aiic.net/; accessed on 24 June 2015 Katan, David, --- 2004. Translating Cultures: An Introduction for Translators, Interpreters and Mediators. St Jerome. --- 2014. Workshop: Translation at the cross-roads: time for the transcreational turn? University College London. Martín, Mayte C. & Mary Phelan, 2009. Interpreters and Cultural Mediators – different but complementary roles. In: Translocations: Migration and Social Change. ISSN Number: 2009-0420 (online) McDonough Dolmaya, Julie, (2011. Moral ambiguity: Some shortcomings of professional codes of ethics for translators. In: The Journal of Specialised Translation. Issue 15, January 2011 (online). Pöchhacker, F., 2008. Interpreting as Mediation. In: (ed.) Valero Garcés, C. and Martin, A, Crossing Borders in Community Interpreting: definitions and dilemmas, pp. 9-26. John Benjamins Amsterdam and Philadelphia. Roy, Cynthia B., 2002. The Problem with Definitions, Descriptions, and the Role Metaphors of Interpreters. In: (ed.) Pöchhacker, Franz & Miriam Shlesinger, The Interpreting Studies Reader. Routledge. Wadensjö 1998. Interpreting as Interaction. New York: Addison Wesley Longman Inc.

Questioning the merits and demerits of electronic communication in Social Work

This paper examines the social dynamics of electronic exchanges in the human services, particularly in social work. It focuses on the observable effects that email and texting have on the linguistic, relational and clinical rather than managerial aspects of the profession. It highlights how electronic communication is affecting professionals in their practice and learners as they become acculturated to social work. What are the gains and losses of the broad use of electronic devices in daily lay and professional, verbal and non-verbal communication? Will our current situation be seriously detrimental to the demeanor of future practitioners, their use of language, and their ability to establish close personal relationships? The paper analyzes social work linguistic and behavioral changes in light of the growth of electronic communication and offers a summary of merits and demerits viewed through a prism emerging from Baron’s (2000) analysis of human communication.

Journalistic organisations with regard to training and professional changes. Parallelisms with academic discourse

The present paper analyses the parallelism existing between academic and professional discourse regarding three interrelated subjects: journalists´ training needs, their adaptation to multimedia profile changes and recognition of University graduates via professional regulation. This study relies on a bibliographical review and brings together the opinion of five professional groups by means of an interview using an openended questionnaire. The results show a coincidence in both discourses regarding the need for firmly grounded training of the journalists with study plans which integrate the new profiles. At the same time, it reflects the discrepancy of the journalistic groups with regard to professional regulation based on the University degree, whose vindication does not appear to be a priority in academic circles.

Chemotherapy patient perception regarding communication with the healthcare staff

Purpose: To qualitatively explore the communication between healthcare professionals and oncology patients based on the perception of patients undergoing chemotherapy.Method: Qualitative and exploratory design. Participants were 14 adult patients undergoing chemotherapy at different stages of the disease. A socio-demographic and clinical data form was utilized along with semi-structured interviews. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and content analysis was performed. Two independent judges evaluated the interview content in regards to emerging categories and obtained a Kappa index of 0.834.Results: Three categories emerged from the data: 1) Technical communication without emotional support, in which the information provided is composed of strictly technical information regarding the diagnosis, treatment and/or prognosis; 2) Technical communication, in which the information provided is oriented towards the technical aspects of the patient’s physical condition, while also providing psychological support for the patients’ subjective needs; and 3) Insufficient technical communication, win which there are gaps in the information provided causing confusion and suffering to the patient.Conclusions: Communication with emotional support contributes to greater satisfaction of chemotherapy patients. Practical implications: the results provide elements for the training of healthcare professionals regarding the importance of the emotional support that can be offered to cancer patients during their treatment.

The Narrative Value of Dance Communication: "habitus", musicality and emotion

The richness of dance comes from the need to work with an individual body. Still, the body of the dancer belongs to plural context, crossed by artistic and social traditions, which locate the artists in a given field. We claim that role conflict is an essential component of the structure of collective artistic creativity. We address the production of discourse in a British dance company, with data that spawns from the ethnography ‘Dance and Cognition’, directed by David Kirsh at the University of California, together with WayneMcGregor-Random Dance. Our Critical Discourse Analysis is based on multiple interviews to the dancers and choreographer. Our findings show how creativity in dance seems to be empirically observable, and thus embodied and distributed shaped by the dance habitus of the particular social context.

College radio as coaching professional. Analysis of the relationship between the degrees and Spanish university radio

College radio is subject to constant transformation. The rise of information and communications technologies has allowed its development and modernization as well as the proliferation of new professional profiles. This research aims to analyze the connection of the Spanish university stations with the relevant qualifications. To do this, we use a comparative methodology based on examination of descriptors and specific principal subjects of degrees such as Audiovisual Communication and Journalism, although we will be using other degrees that are acquiring more responsibilities in a radio station, such as the degree in Information and Documentation. In conclusion, structural weaknesses in the university environment are observed, but future possibilities are detected as well: A college radio station is a place of convergence between the training of students from different degrees and reality itself, a versatile medium that provides the relevance of being the first professional contact of college students with the labor market.

Communication and behavior in high reliability organizations: An Analysis of Communication in Civil Aviation

Communication can be seen as one of the most important features to manage conflicts and the stress of the work teams that operate in environments with strong pressure, complex operations and continuous risk, which are aspects that characterize a high reliability organization. This article aims to highlight the importance of communication in high-reliability organizations, having as object of study the accidents and incidents in civil aviation area. It refers to a qualitative research, outlined by documental analysis based on investigations conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration and the Center of Investigation and Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents. The results point out that human errors account for 60 to 80 percent of accidents and incidents. Most of these occurrences are attributed to miscommunication between the professionals involved with the air and ground operation, such as pilots, crewmembers and maintenance staff, and flight controllers. Inappropriate tone of voice usage, difficulties to understand different accents between the issuer and the receiver or even difficulty to perceive red flags between the lines of verbal and non-verbal communication, are elements that contribute to the fata of understanding between people involved in the operation. As a research limitation this present research pointed out a lack of a special category of "interpersonal communications failures" in the official agency reports. So, the researchers must take the conceptual definition of "social ability", communication implied, to classify behaviors and communication matters accordingly. Other research finding indicates that communication is superficially approached in the contents of air operations courses what could mitigate the lack of communications skills as a social ability. Part of the research findings refers to the contents of communication skills development into the program to train professional involved in air flight and ground operations. So, it is expected that this present article gives an appropriate highlight towards the improvement of flight operations training programs. Developing communication skills among work teams in high reliability organizations can contribute to mitigate stress, accidents and incidents in Civil Aviation Field. The original contribution of this article is the proposal of the main contents that should be developed in a Communication Skills Training Program, specially addressed to Civil Aviation operations.

Myths and Realities of Inter-professional Working

Introduction: Childhood cancers are rare and community based health care professionals have limited experience in caring for these children and often even less experience in providing their palliative care. It is well recognised that the provision of palliative care falls beyond the remit of any one profession, thus inter professional working is the standard model. This qualitative study aims to examine the experiences of the range of health care professionals involved in providing palliative care at home for children with cancer, focusing on how knowledge is exchanged; the level of communication and support both interprofessionally and at the community/specialist interface. It also aims to examine interprofessional collaboration in palliative care; identifying healthcare professional's perceptions of problems involved, interprofessional boundaries, specific areas of the organisation or provision of care that could be enhanced through changes in practice, support issues and the educational needs of health professionals. Methods The study involves three types of data collection; in-depth interviews, facilitated case discussion (FCD) and field notes from up to 20 cases (a "case" refers to the provision of palliative care to one child). Cases are selected from children who were treated at one regional childhood caner centre. For each case the community based health care professionals (for example the GP, community nurse or health visitor) involved in the care of the child at home are invited to participate in a one-to-one tape recorded in-depth interview followed by a group discussion in the form of a FCD. Field notes are completed following each interview. Data analysis follows a grounded theory approach. The term "social worlds theory" (SWT) his used to define a type of social organisation with no fixed or formal boundaries (such as membership boundaries), for example the range of health professionals that work together to provide palliative care. The boundaries of SW's are determined by the interaction and communication between recognised organisations, such as community nursing teams and general practitioners. SWT examines encounters between different professional groups and can be used to extend knowledge in both the organisation (for example general practice) and the content of what is being provisioned (for example, palliative care). The use of SWT in the analysis of the data is through examining the ethos of the different professions and the associated individual approaches to palliative care, exploring how this determines their roles in the provision of palliative care. Results 10 cases have so far been completed: 47 1:1 interviews (with a range of between 2-7 health care professionals being involved in each case): ( 9 x GP, 19 x CCN, 4 x DN, 3 x HV, 1 x HV assistant 7 x paediatric palliative care nurses, 1 x home support worker, 1 x OT, 1 x physiotherapist, 1 x community paediatrician) and 5 x FCD. The range of participants in the FCDs reflected that of the individual interview sampler. Data obtained to date gives clear insight into the personal experience of the individual health care professional in providing palliative care. Two themes emerging from the data will be focused upon: the continuity of care provision throughout treatment and palliation and the emotional burden experiences by the health care professional. Conclusions SWT can provide a useful framework in examining the social worlds of a disparate group of health care professionals working together for the first and maybe, the only time. A wide variation in the continuity of care provision has been found not only between professions, but also within professions. The emotional burden is evident across the professions.

Analysis of a socio-professional group underestimated: officials of notaries in Southern Spain according to the cadastre of Ensenada.

This paper tries to show the reality of one of the trades more important for historians, the officials of the notaries. The work of these officials has allowed us to have great historical sources; we refer to the notarial documentation and documenta-tion of the City Council. They were the executive arm of the pub-lic notaries. Nevertheless, the approach to this figure seems diffi-cult, since we do not find lavish allusions of them or any of their obligations in the documentation preserved. However, we have one of the most important historical sources by middle of Eight-eenth century; this is known as the Cadastre of Ensenada. We have been able to approach this type of job through analysis and study of the Cadastre, so we know who were those men who did this huge undertaking and what was his salary for performing their tasks. In addition, we proceeded to the consultation of doc-umentation kept in local files to have a more accurate understand-ing of the real situation of those officials.

Professional service productization and its implications to knowledge transfer in internationalization processes –Case: Company X in Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian markets

As a result of globalization, two thirds of the world’s business takes place nowadays in the service sector. In line, professional service firms are growing their share of the global service production. However, saturation of the professional service sector has forced professional service firms to search for more heuristic ways to conduct business in the international markets. By leveraging effectively the firm’s professionals, a professional service firm can lower its costs to clients and simultaneously generate additional value for the company and thus gain competitive advantage. Even though the academic field has shown growing interest towards services for decades, the fields of service productization and service internationalization are heavily understudied even today. Hence, the objective of this study was to contribute to the research on professional service internationalization and productization. The study concentrated on examining the impact that productization has on knowledge sharing and leveraging in professional service firms operating internationally. The research question focused on examining what implications productization has on knowledge transfer and leveraging during professional service internationalization by leaning on the existing research and on an empirical research. The empirical research was conducted as a single case study within a professional service firm operating in debt-related administrative service business. The case company is one of the leading operators in its field of business and therefore offered a fruitful environment to observe and analyze the topics in question. Additionally, the case company has a strong international presence and a large scale of operations in the selected markets, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Based on the previous literature and on the empirical research, this study found that for professional service firms to efficiently utilize individual, tacit knowledge, in its internationalization processes, it must be shared with the whole organization. By exploiting productization as a knowledge leveraging mechanism, a PSF can apply and transfer knowledge profoundly during its internationalization processes that would otherwise be difficult to tap into. Productization might not be sufficient alone, but by complementing it with a favorable organizational structure and culture, and by encouraging open communication, a PSF may take advantage of the whole potential that productization has to offer.

Nurses’ clinical communication skills

Abstract Background: Providing nursing care involves an interpersonal relationship between the nurse and the patient which is created through communication. The importance of clinical communication skills is a current priority when it comes to health care workers’ education and training and has been attracting more and more attention. As a consequence clinical communication skills are now present in more and more academic programmes. Objectives: To assess nurses’ clinical communication skills; to identify the variables that might inluence the clinical communication skills; to analyse nurses’ perspective regarding the training in the clinical communication ield. Material and methods: Quantitative, non-experimental, descriptive and correlational and crosssectional study. We used the questionnaire to collect socio-demographic and professional data, and the Clinical Communication Skills Scale based on the Kalamazoo Consensus Statement (KCS)1,2 and which had already been used in Portugal.3 The sample was formed by 275 practitioner nurses who have been working in health care institutions located in the center of Portugal. Results: The Scale we used presents 5 factors that explain 64.33% of the total variation: To in‑ volve the patient; To facilitate dialogue; To understand concerns; To communicate in an asser‑ tive way; To carry out the interview. The majority of the nurses consider that the training they had in the communication skills ield during their nursing course was good or very good, however we could see that 23.3% think it was mediocre. Almost all of them (98.9%) agree that there should be a better and more speciic training in the ield of clinical communication skills as far, as nurses as concerned. Nurses who had training in this area, older nurses, those who work directly with patients and those who have been working for a longer period of time show better communication skills. Conclusion: Although they think that the training they has was good, we could conirm that there was a deicit in nurses’ clinical communication skills and that nurses themselves refer they need more training in this area. Data point out to a more signiicant investment in clinical communication as far as nurses’ training is concerned and they suggest the promotion of lifelong learning opportunities in this area.