Collegial Peers Research Articles

Group Peer Review

Invitation to review a manuscript for publication marks an exciting milestone in graduate and postgraduate students’ training. Yet, peer reviewing is seldom explicitly taught. First-time reviewers approaching this task often lack mentorship, guidelines, and confidence. The ongoing debate about how to judge the quality of qualitative research can further complicate the task. In this article, we introduce an innovative model for conducting group peer reviews in the context of qualitative research training. After setting out the model's principles and process, we discuss its merits and reflect on our experiences as trainees and supervisor using the approach. In addition to providing opportunities for mentorship in appraisal methods, writing strategies, and approaches for framing constructive feedback, we suggest the model has the potential to advance trainees’ development as collegial peers and their overall learning as qualitative researchers. Finally, we discuss potential ways forward to extend the model in other contexts.

Collaborative Action Research for Preparing Teachers as Reflective Practitioners

The study focuses on using collaborative action research projects to promote reflective practice of pre-service teachers during the internship. Research groups were composed by school tutors and pre-service teachers, assisted by the teacher educator. Twelve pre-service teachers and six school tutors were organized in three groups, two tutors and four pre-service teachers per group. Each group worked with a topic coming from problems found in the internship experience. Pre-service teachers conducted classroom observation of their tutors and classmates as well as classroom teaching by themselves. They also wrote reflective diaries of these observations and their own teaching, and participated in a learning community which was a nurturing collaborative atmosphere that provided time, space and collegial peers to share experiences and solve problems. By examining the research experience, there are some important results: a) Collaborative action research helped pre-service teachers to study and develop reflective practice abilities while participating in a learning community which somewhat filled the gaps left by the lack of some tutors’ good role modeling; b) The role of the teacher educator for improving relationships between school tutors and pre-service teachers seemed crucial in both the preventive role and remedial role; c) There is still room for improvement, especially concerning tutors’ modeling and scaffolding high quality reflective teaching practices; d) Therefore, the training of competent internship tutors is significant, and relevant incentive policies should be formulated to motivate middle school teachers to act as internship tutors.

Differences in Information Seeking Among Organizational Peers: Perceptions of Appropriateness, Importance, and Frequency

The purpose of this study was to explore the differences that may exist among employees when they are seeking different types of information (i.e., technical, referent, social, appraisal, normative, organizational, and political) from their peers in the workplace. Specifically, this study examined whether employees differed in the perceived appropriateness, importance, and frequency of seeking information from information, collegial, and special peers. Participants were 229 working adults who completed one of three versions (reporting on an information peer, a collegial peer, or a special peer) of a survey packet containing a series of measures. Results indicate that employees generally report that they seek information from special peers rather than from collegial peers or information peers.

Peer Coworker Relationships: Influences on the Expression of Lateral Dissent

Peer coworkers exchange a variety of messages in their organizational experiences. However, little is known about how peer coworker relationship quality affects expression of organizational dissent. This study utilized Kram and Isabella's (1985) typology of peer coworker relationships to examine their impact on lateral dissent expression and dissent messages. The results revealed that special and collegial peers engage in greater amounts of lateral dissent expression than information peers. No differences emerged between the types of peer coworkers relationships in their use of dissent messages. The study lends support to the notion that organizational dissent is influenced by peer coworker relationships.

Peer relationships and information sharing between LIS doctoral students

ABSTRACTDoctoral students rely on their peers as important information sources. However, information behavior studies in academic settings most often describe peers as intermediaries who simply assist individuals’ information seeking for academic resources. To address this issue, the authors interviewed six LIS doctoral students at Florida State University in order to explore the types of peer relationships and information sharing between LIS doctoral students. The preliminary findings confirmed the existence of close, social/academic, and other peers that can be categorized as special, collegial, and information peers using Kram and Isabella's continuum of peer relationships. In addition, it was found that work‐related and everyday life information is shared in all three types of peer relationships, while relational strength influences the scope and depth of information sharing. Future work will investigate the role of peers as mentors and agents of socialization in academic settings, and will further address the types of information shared as part of such mentoring relationships.

Students' Perceptions of College Classroom Connectedness, Assimilation, and Peer Relationships

In this study, we explored peer relationships in the college classroom and how they affected students' perceptions of classroom connectedness and organizational assimilation. Participants were 170 students enrolled in a variety of classes at a large mid-Atlantic university. Students enrolled in a course with information peers reported lower levels of classroom connectedness, familiarity with coworkers, and job competency than students enrolled in a course with either collegial peers or special peers. No differences were found between special and collegial peers on any outcome variable. Results indicated that students with higher-quality peer relationships experience greater feelings of connection with their classmates and are knowledgeable about the tasks they need to perform in the classroom.

Assessing the Role of Peer Relationships in the Small Group Communication Course

Based on the typology posited by Kram and Isabella (1985) that identifies three peer relationships present in organizations (i.e., information, collegial, and special), this assessment examined the association between students' perceptions of their in-class group members and six group outcomes (i.e., grouphate, cohesion, relational satisfaction, consensus, affective learning, and cognitive learning). Participants included 248 undergraduate students enrolled in two sections of an introductory small group communication course. Results revealed that students who rated group members to be information peers, rather than collegial peers or special peers, reported higher levels of grouphate and lower levels of cohesion, relational satisfaction, consensus, and cognitive learning.

Affinity-Seeking Strategies and Open Communication in Peer Workplace Relationships

This study examines peer relationships in the workplace in relation to open communication and the use of affinity-seeking strategies. Findings indicate that special peers use affinity-seeking strategies significantly more often than do informational peers but not significantly more often than collegial peers. Open communication strategies are used significantly more often by special peers than informational peers. Discussion includes why these concepts are critical to understanding friendships in the workplace.

Disclosure of a Cancer Diagnosis in Organizational Peer Relationships

The purpose of this study was to explore types of message content received by peers of cancer survivors (N = 126) during cancer disclosure in the workplace. Coworkers reported cancer disclosure interactions with female (65.5%) and male (34.5%) cancer patients. Based on organizational peer types reported in the literature, coworkers reported differences in specific message content received by informational (36.5%), collegial (52.3%), and special peers (11.1%). Coworker relationships were also examined for perceived interpersonal solidarity based on peer type. Results reveal that messages with a treatment focus were most common with all peer types, followed by nondisclosure. Nondisclosure of a cancer diagnosis between coworkers reinforces cancer patients' needs for privacy boundaries, even within close workplace relationships. Of the three peer types, special peers had the most perceived interpersonal solidarity after a cancer disclosure.

Perceived solidarity, self‐disclosure, and trust in organizational peer relationships

The purpose of this study was to examine how perceived solidarity, self‐disclosure, and trust differ in organizational members’ interactions between information peers and both collegial and special peers. Participants were 392 members of various organizations who completed the Interpersonal Solidarity Scale (Wheeless, 1978), the Revised Self‐Disclosure Scale (Wheeless & Grotz, 1976), and the Individualized Trust Scale (Wheeless & Grotz, 1977) in regard to either an information, a collegial, or a special peer. Results indicate that perceived solidarity and trust, but not self‐disclosure, were found to be lower with information peers than with either collegial peers or special peers. Additionally, perceived solidarity was found to be higher with special peers than with collegial peers. Future research should examine whether participation in an information, collegial, or special peer relationship has an impact on organizational citizenship behaviors.

Special peers’ perceived use of communication openness and functional communication skills in specific organizational contexts

Myers, Knox, Palowski and Ropog's (1999) study evaluated communication openness and affective and non‐affective functional communication skills of information, collegial, and special peers in various organizations. In order to further explore the perceived communication behaviors of special peers, important persons in the work environment who have exceptionally close relationships with co‐workers, the present study focused only on the nature of these relationships within the specific context of two business, two government, and one non‐profit organizations. This study's findings reveal that there were no significant differences in the perceived communication openness of special peers regardless of the organizational context. However, data indicate that there was a significant difference in two affective and three non‐affective functional communication skills of government co‐workers as compared to business and non‐profit employees.

Perceived communication openness and functional communication skills among organizational peers

This study investigated how organizational peer types (information, collegial, special) differ in the act of communication openness and the use of functional communication skills. Participants were 138 members of various organizations who completed the Communication Openness Measure and the Communication Functions Questionnaire regarding either an information, collegial, or special peer. Results indicate that (a) information peers are less open, and engage in a lower usage of functional communication skills, than either coUegial or special peers, and (b) collegial and special peers are not perceived to differ in either the act of communication openness or the use of functional communication skills. Future research should consider exploring the additional differences in communication behaviors that exist among organizational peers.