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This paper sought to understand the communication activities of employees who were required to work from home because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors examined the relationship between these individuals' efficient and interrupting communication with their peers in other locations and with individuals who were colocated with them at home. The authors also investigated these workers' job engagement and willingness to speak out about organizational issues.

This paper drew upon a survey of 579 employees via an online panel.

Efficient communication positively predicted employees' job engagement, whereas interruptions negatively predicted job engagement. Additional analyses showed that efficient communication was positively associated with job engagement, which in predicted a higher level of employee voice. Managers showed significantly higher levels of job engagement and voice than nonmanagers.

Recommendations are made for communication managers to cultivate job engagement and to manage interruptions with home-based employees.

Scholars with an interest in job demands and resources have not fully examined how interpersonal communication shapes job engagement and voice scholars have often overlooked teleworkers' communication needs. This study adds depth to the communication management literature in both areas.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how public relations practitioners view their role in guiding their organizations’ frontline (nonnominated) employees’ social media use and the tensions that organizations must navigate when they interact with their employees online.

This study utilizes in-depth interviews with 24 PR practitioners in the USA. Data were analyzed via grounded theory’s approach to open, axial, and select coding.

PR practitioners engage in three activities to guide employees’ social media use: serving as a reactive-technical resource; supporting employee communities; and responding to incidental monitoring of social media posts.

The study extends stakeholder theory by describing the normative expectations that are placed on employees when it comes to discussing the organization online.

Recommendations are offered for PR practitioners regarding the boundary-respecting management of nonnominated employees’ social media use.

Findings point to a greater understanding about frontline workers’ roles in supporting their organizations and the need for organizations to carefully explain social media policies.

Scholars have not fully explored the challenges that firms face when they seek to influence employees’ personal social networking activities. There is new insight about the ways in which organization can ethically engage with employees in digitally mediated spaces.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the motivations behind teleworkers’ role transitions in a coworking office and how these motivations shape role communication between independent workers in a shared office.

This paper draws upon observation, in-depth interviews (n=23) and temporary membership in the organization.

Self-enhancement and self-validation motivations work in concert to prompt individuals to capitalize on the networking opportunities that come with membership in this office and individuals strategically position an occupation-framed version of their identity in these networks.

Only one coworking office was studied. However, this is countered by the richness of the data.

Communication managers whose organizations employ teleworkers are encouraged to provide ongoing social and task-related support to their teleworkers; coworking site proprietors are encouraged to ensure members understand what is expected of them when they join a coworking office.

As teleworking is a widely-used flexible work arrangement, this study advances knowledge of teleworker management.

Scholars have not yet explored how individuals use coworking spaces and what motivates teleworkers to establish their role identities in mixed offices.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak thrust a spotlight on organizational leaders and the challenges that employees face during periods of organizational change. The purpose of the current study is to examine the influence of empathetic supervisor communication on employee turnover intention and the mediating role of affective trust toward supervisors and employee–organization relationship (EOR) quality. Informed by the social exchange theory and EOR literature, the authors develop a model in which affective trust toward supervisors and EOR quality mediates the relationship between empathetic supervisor communication and employee turnover intention.

This study recruited 417 employees based in the USA through an online panel operated by a professional survey company. Data collection that followed a quota sampling procedure lasted for about three weeks in October 2020. The authors used structural equation modeling to test the study hypotheses.

The findings of this study indicated that the extent to which supervisors adopted empathetic communication during organizational change had considerable repercussions on their supervisees' affective trust toward supervisors, relationship perception toward their organizations, and ultimately, their turnover intention.

This study is among the first that identifies empathetic communication as a pivotal force in driving employees' positive relational and behavioral reactions, reinforcing the growing expectation of supervisors in fulfilling communication functions during organizational change. Moreover, the authors contribute to understanding change management as an activity rooted in and enacted through communication between supervisors and subordinates. In addition, this study contributes to the organizational research of empathy during change.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how a change to a US policy about product testimonials affected bloggers and to understand bloggers’ perceptions of the organization-blogger relationship (OBR).

This study utilizes a survey (n=173) with closed and open-ended questions, and both quantitative and qualitative data are analyzed.

Bloggers’ decisions to accept compensation for a review may influence how much control they feel they have over the OBR. Qualitative data indicate that even as bloggers seek access to products to review, they prefer to maintain editorial control over the review process.

The study extends the transparency literature in public relations and relationship management theory by exploring the relationship between bloggers and public relations professionals through the lens of a disclosure policy.

Recommendations are offered for public relations professionals in how to maintain transparent relationships with bloggers.

Qualitative data reveal concern among bloggers about efforts to persuade them and what they should disclose; this may impact the trust that consumers have in reviews at blogs.

The study demonstrates the effects of review behaviors on the OBR and offers an organic explanation of how this relationship evolves. This is important as consumers are increasingly consulting blogs for product information. This issue also has relevance to public relations professionals, who are encouraged to broach the issue of transparency with bloggers.

Postneonatal mortality (PNM), which differs from infant and perinatal mortality, has been observed in the past 25 years with respect to the health outcomes of children. While infant and perinatal mortality have been well-evaluated regarding racial differentials, there are no substantial data on PNM in this perspective. The purpose of this study was to assess whether or not social determinants of health adversely affect racial/ethnic PNM differentials in the USA.

A cross-sectional, nonexperimental epidemiologic study design was used to assess race as an exposure function of PNM using Cohort Linked Birth/Infant Death Data (2013). The outcome variable assessed PNM, while the main independent variables were race, social demographic variables (i.e. sex and age) and social determinants of health (i.e. marital status and maternal education). The chi-square statistic was used to assess the independence of variables by race, while the logistic regression model was used to assess the odds of PNM by race and other confounding variables.

During 2013, there were 4,451 children with PNM experience. The cumulative incidence of PNM was 23.6% (n = 2,795) among white infants, 24.3% (n = 1,298) among Black/African-Americans (AA) and 39.5% (n = 88) were American-Indian infants (AI), while 21.3% (n = 270) were multiracial, χ² (3) = 35.7, p < 0.001. Racial differentials in PNM were observed. Relative to White infants, PNM was two times as likely among AI, odds ratio (OR) 2.11 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.61, 2.78). After controlling for the confounding variables, the burden of PNM persisted among AI, although slightly marginalized, adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 1.70, (99% CI 1.10, 2.65).

In a representative sample of US children, there were racial disparities in PNM infants who are AI compared to their white counterparts, illustrating excess mortality. These findings suggest the need to allocate social and health resources in transforming health equity in this direction.

This article examines the impact of three leadership styles as a predictor of job satisfaction in a state university system. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire was used to identify the leadership style of an administrator as perceived by faculty members. Spector’s Job Satisfaction Survey was used to assess a faculty member’s level of job satisfaction. The population consisted of 567 full-time faculty members, and 104 participants completed the survey. The results of logistic regression analysis revealed that (a) faculty members who identified transformational leadership as dominant had increased job satisfaction, (b) faculty members who identified transactional leadership as dominant had increased job satisfaction, and (c) faculty members who identified passive/avoidant leadership as dominant had decreased job satisfaction. Demographics did not appear to predict satisfaction. Using this model, academic leaders can take further action by refining their leadership styles on the basis of their faculty members’ indicated preferences. The study results may contribute to social change at the departmental level by making academic administrators aware of effective leadership models that promote higher job satisfaction among faculty in universities.

As we approach the millennium, we find ourselves in a world that places ever greater weight and significance on the outcome of polls, surveys, and market research. The advent of modern polling began with the use of scientific sampling in the mid‐1930s and has progressed vastly beyond the initial techniques and purposes of the early practitioners such as George Gallup, Elmo Roper, and Archibald Crossley. In today's environment, the computer is an integral part of most commercial survey work, as are the efforts by academic and nonprofit enterprises. It should be noted that the distinction between the use of the words “poll” and “survey” is somewhat arbitrary, with the mass media seeming to prefer “polling,” and with academia selecting “survey research.” However, searching online systems will yield differing results, hence this author's inclusion of both terms in the title of this article.

This study looked at how Vietnam, a developing country, in South East Asia has systemically dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic on a national level with remarkable success. This study delved into the approaches taken by Vietnam in pre-mediating the influx of COVID-19 from interlopers into the country and controlling its spread within the confines of the nation. This study examined the steps taken by Vietnam. The quick actions of the government have instilled confidence in their citizens and promoted greater internal travel mobility within the Vietnam, thus helping the local tourism industry to remain vibrant and competitive. Unlike other countries, which have been severely affected by the COVID-19 virus, Vietnam is poised for a head start in its recovery.

Gender, race, and class-based meanings inform longstanding divisions and status hierarchies within the culinary profession, such as those between public and private and amateur and professional cooking. Private and personal chefs’ work in homes disrupts these divisions and hierarchies. Given their precarious position, how do these chefs negotiate their standing within the profession?

This chapter draws on interviews with 41 private/personal chefs. Eight were primarily private household employees, while all others were primarily self-employed.

The chefs negotiated their status by making distinctions between themselves and commercial chefs, along with other private/personal chefs. The chefs both challenge and reinforce the dichotomies and criteria shaping status evaluations within the culinary profession. Similarly, they both contest and reinforce gender, race, and class hierarchies.

The chefs’ conceptual distinctions can potentially (re)produce or challenge material inequalities. Moreover, while the fields of private/personal cheffing create opportunities for more adults to cook for a living, the traditional status hierarchies remain largely the same. It is likely that as long as those hierarchies persist, the chefs’ conceptual distinctions will continue to challenge and reinforce them.

Research on private/personal chefs has been minimal, so this chapter fills this gap. It also adds to scholarship connecting workers’ status struggles and gender, race, and class inequalities. The case of private and personal chefs sheds new light on how gender, race, and class intersect to inform status evaluations within the culinary profession.