CROWDING,TASK PERFORMANCE,AND COMMUNICATIVE INTERACTION IN YOUTH AND OLD AGE

Following Altman's privacy regulation model, this research was based on the assumption that the relationship between achieved and desired levels of privacy is a major determinant of the experience of crowding in small groups. Further, on the basis of evidence that advancing age is associated with a chronic lack of communicative interaction, it was assumed that the achieved level of privacy among elderly persons generally is greater than that experienced by young adults. Given these assumptions, it was predicted that the crowding threshold of young adults would be significantly lower than that of older persons. To test this hypothesis, the research varied conversation distance (close, far) and density (small room, large room) and assessed the quality of communicative interaction and task performance among small groups of college-age females and retired women over 60 years of age. Results showed that task performance among younger subjects deteriorated in close interaction conditions, whereas the performance of older subjects was improved by spatial intrusion. Further, older subjects exhibited positive communication behaviors in response to close conversation, high-density conditions, while younger subjects responded either with negative communication behaviors or were unaffected by spatial restriction. Finally, the research confirmed previous findings that conversation distance is a more important determinant of the experience of crowding in small groups than physical density. The significance of the results for Altman's privacy regulation model and their implications for the study of human communication behaviors were discussed.     

Workplace Friendship in the Electronically Connected Organization

This study examined information communication technologies and workplace friendship dynamics. Employees reported factors that influenced their initiation of friendship with a coworker and reported patterns and perceptions of communication with their workplace friend via different communication methods. Results indicated that personality, shared tasks, and perceived similarity are the most important factors to coworker friendship initiation, and the importance of physical proximity to workplace friendship is diminishing in the electronically connected workplace. Results confirm the primacy of face‐to‐face interaction for workplace friendship initiation and maintenance. E‐mail, phone, and texting were also central to communication among workplace friends. The amount of time spent telecommuting affected workplace friendship initiation and communication. Finally, generational differences were identified with respect to Internet‐based communication methods.     

The Convergent Validity of Four Burnout Measures in a Chinese Sample: A Confirmatory Factor‐Analytic Approach

The purpose of this paper is to study the convergent validity of the four most widely used burnout measures in a sample of Chinese nurses (N= 717). First, Structural Equation Modeling was used to investigate the factor structure of scores produced by the Maslach Burnout Inventory‐General Survey (MBI‐GS), the Burnout Measure (BM), the Shirom‐Melamed Burnout Measure (SMBM), and the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI). Next, several competing models were tested to investigate the convergent validity of these four burnout instruments. The final results suggest that burnout is best conceived of as a multidimensional construct consisting of exhaustion and withdrawal, which are two related but conceptually distinct aspects. In addition, positively phrased items should be dropped from burnout measures for they constitute a separate factor that is considered to be an artifact.