The Assessment of Interpersonal Attraction and Group Identification in Virtual Group Network

This study investigates the measurement of social identification, interpersonal attraction, and cohesiveness in virtual groups. Different theoretical claims about relationships in computer-mediated groups rely on measurement strategies that are shown to reflect dramatically inconsistent semantic and administration features. A review of conceptual approaches and definitions for these constructs is presented. Data were collected from groups working asynchronously via the Internet under different geographic distributions, whose members completed a variety of measures related to these constructs. Analyses generated three likely dimensions of attraction. The research highlights the need for greater specificity in reports of the actual measures used in group research, and additional conceptual concerns regarding the contested relationships among these constructs.

Group control for procedural rules:parameterized complexity and consecutive domains

We consider GROUP CONTROL BY ADDING INDIVIDUALS(GCAI)in the setting of group identification for two procedural rules-the consensus-start-respecting rule and the liberal-start-respecting rule.It is known that GCAI for both rules are NP-hard,but whether they are fixed-parameter tractable with respect to the number of distinguished individuals remained open.We resolve both open problems in the affirmative.In addition,we strengthen the NP-hardness of GCAI by showing that,with respect to the natural parameter the number of added individuals,GCAI for both rules are W[2]-hard.Notably,the W[2]-hardness for the liberal-startrespecting rule holds even when restricted to a very special case where the qualifications of individuals satisfy the so-called consecutive ones property.However,for the consensus-startrespecting rule,the problem becomes polynomial-time solvable in this special case.We also study a dual restriction where the disqualifications of individuals fulfill the consecutive ones property,and show that under this restriction GCAI for both rules turn out to be polynomial-time solvable.Our reductions for showing W[2]-hardness also imply several algorithmic lowerbounds.

Intra-Organizational Social Media and Employee Idea Generation:Analysis based on the Spanning-Relevance Framework

Intra-organizational social media platforms are expected to help build a flexible corporate stage that facilitates employees'communication and leverages creative idea generation.However,whether and how these systems can expedite the creativity of employees remains unclear.This paper attempts to address the impacts of employees'social relationships on intra-organizational social media on their idea generation quantity and quality.Drawn upon the extant literature in the fields of information systems and organizational behavior,a theoretical model is postulated on the basis of analyzing the attributes of social ties and exchanged information content in light of a two-dimensional framework that juxtaposes boundary spanning and work relevance.The model is empirically tested using data obtained from two internal application systems of a large telecommunications company.Test results validate that employees'online social relationships with different attributes are discriminably associated with their group identification and proactive creativity.Meanwhile,proactive creativity and group identification both show the positive impacts on idea generation quantity,whereas only proactive creativity has a significant positive impact on idea generation quality.These findings contribute to the literature on intra-organizational social media and employee idea generation,by uncovering the links among employees'online social relationships,mental processes,and idea generation.