Surveillance of Electronic Communications in the Workplace and the Protection of Employees' Privacy

The use of Information and Communication Technologies in the workplace is constantly increasing, but also the use of surveillance technology. Electronic monitoring of employees becomes an integral part of information systems in the workplace. The specific software which is used for monitoring electronic communications is, however, intrusive and infringes upon the employees' right to privacy. The issue of surveillance of employees' electronic communications is subject to different approaches in various jurisdictions. The most comprehensive protection to employees is afforded in the EU, and it would be enhanced once the General Data Protection Regulation is passed.

The Link between Communicative Intelligence and Procedural Justice

The public's perception of police legitimacy is viewed through the lens of procedural justice (Tyler, 2003). Legitimacy it is a perception held by an audience (Tankebe & Liebling, 2013). Tyler (2006, p. 375) defines legitimacy as “a psychological property of an authority, institution, or social arrangement that leads those connected to it to believe that it is appropriate, proper, and just.” Four aspects of the police contact that affects a citizen's view: active participation in the decision-making, the decision-making is neutral and objective, trustworthy motives, and being treated with dignity and respect (Tyler, 2004). Accordingly an officer should act in a way that supports citizen's active participation, conveys an air of neutrality, and enhances dignity and respect. One way an officer can transmit his intent is through communicative intelligence. Communicative intelligence is a communication theory based on five capabilities (Zoller, 2015). These authors intend to link communicative intelligence to behaviors officers should engage in to enhance PJ and improve PL.

Engineering Students' Communication Apprehension and Competence in Technical Oral Presentations

The demand for 21st century engineering graduates to be communicatively competent, particularly in English language, is increasing. Effective communication skills are one of the main competencies listed by the Malaysian Engineering Accreditation Council Policy with the expectation that all Malaysian engineering graduates will master it upon graduation. This involves skills in presenting information to technical and non technical audience through oral presentations. This chapter aims to examine engineering students' communication competence and their level of apprehension in delivering a technical oral presentation. Questionnaires, adapted from McCroskey's (1988) Self-Perceived Communication Competence and Richmond & McCroskey's (1988) Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety, were distributed to 193 final year Universiti Malaysia Pahang engineering students who were preparing for their Undergraduate Research presentation. The results of the study have direct and indirect implications to the teaching and learning of oral presentation skills among engineering undergraduates.

Dataveillance and Information Privacy Concerns

Information privacy research historically focuses on exploring individuals' concerns in the transaction environment. However, the recent growth of technology-enabled workplace surveillance is raising many concerns over employees' privacy. Employee surveillance practices are becoming increasingly prevalent, ranging from monitoring internet and email activities to capturing employees' interactions with customers and employees' personal health and fitness data using wearable health devices. Individuals may understand that employers can monitor their activities, but may not the potential uses or the repercussions of such monitoring. Moreover, employees may not feel they have the ability to opt-out of this monitoring. This chapter explores the privacy and ethical issues surrounding emerging means of workplace surveillance. The chapter considers both employee and employer perspectives and poses many questions to consider when deciding when does legitimate monitoring become an invasion of employee privacy?

The Role of Leadership and Communication

This chapter explores concerns and challenges associated with the transition to online graduate instruction from the traditional face-to-face format. The author discusses several catalysts for the transition to virtual teaching; the ethics of being present; impediments to learning and communication online; and participant concerns. The chapter also considers online knowledge and meaning-making, online communities and associated uncertainties. Finally, considerations for leadership and communication moving forward are addressed.

Developing Trust within International Teams

The widespread use of international teams has been driven by an unprecedented need to draw upon varied talents of employees from around the globe in a manner that is both organizationally and financially feasible. Despite the importance of technologies to enable such teams, their success depends largely on the levels of intra-team trust and collaboration they are able to establish throughout the life of their projects. Team members on international teams may differ substantially on a number of cultural dimensions including preferences for individualistic versus collective teamwork, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and contextual communication. This chapter will investigate how these four cultural dimensions are likely to impact trust within an international team. Suggestions that team leaders can utilize to address these cultural dimensions are also presented.

A Unified Framework of Organizational Perspectives and Knowledge Management and Their Impact on Job Performance

This chapter introduces the framework and causal model of organizational culture, organizational climate, knowledge management, and job performance related to business process orientation. It argues that dimensions of organizational culture, organizational climate, and knowledge management have mediated positive effect on job performance. Knowledge management positively mediates the relationships between organizational culture and job performance and between organizational climate and job performance. Organizational culture is positively related to organizational climate. Furthermore, the author hopes that understanding the theoretical constructs of organizational culture, organizational climate, knowledge management, and job performance through the use of the framework and causal model will not only inform researchers of a better design for studying organizational culture, organizational climate, knowledge management, and job performance, but also assist in the understanding of intricate relationships between different factors.

CAMES

The majority of IT Projects are not successful and fail for non-technical reasons, despite the fact that numerous project management methodologies exist in the marketplace and are now in common use in organisations. As the CHAOS report from Standish Group documents, this remains an important and current issue (Dominguez, 2009; The Standish Group International Inc., 2013). The fact is that for more than 20 years the majority of IT projects have failed; largely as a result of human factors and communication issues. This leads to enormous economic issues for organisations in the public and private sector. This chapter proposes a new approach to project management which addresses the human factor and issues of communication. The proposed approach is novel and applies principles drawn from philosophy and action research to produce an approach which has the potential to radically change the way in which projects are managed. The approach is discussed in terms of practice and the academic literature and is applied to two project simulations.

Effective Engagement and Communication between First-Line Police Supervisors and Police Officers

Leadership is the act of influencing others whereby power comes from things such as referent and reward bases and “have an ethical responsibility to attend to the needs and concerns of followers” (Northouse, 2010, p. 4). In this chapter, the authors highlight the extant literature on organizational leadership and its role in effective communication and engagement processes. The authors focus on first-line supervisors and the impact of communication and engagement on people under their supervision. Employee trait, state, and behavioral constructs coupled with the culture of emotional connection between police officers and the police organization are explored. Further, the authors examine the principles of empowerment including meaningfulness, competence, choice, and impact and its applicability to police leadership. The outcome of the relationship between effective leadership and employee engagement is directly linked to innovation, participation, teamwork, accountability, and the ability to face challenges. Conclusions and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Developing Instructional Leadership and Communication Skills through Online Professional Development

Principals and school leaders play a pivotal role in teacher satisfaction, retention, and learning; thus, they are uniquely positioned to help teachers improve their practice. Principals face many of the same challenges that teachers do, especially in schools serving low-income, low-performing, and ethnically diverse students. This chapter examines the extant literature concerning online professional development (OPD) and how it may hold particular promise for principals and other school leaders who work in these challenging settings, with a focus on attending to principal instructional leadership. A corollary purpose centers on how effective online communication (and the use of digital modalities) can create greater access and flexibility for participants. Establishing lines of communication and building online community may help overcome the professional isolation experienced by principals. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.