Engagement In Social Interactions Research Articles

The experience of social (in)visibility in narratives about ostracism

Abstract This work involves a comprehensive review of qualitative research focused on analysing the experience of social ostracism. The voices of the ostracized are essential for uncovering that subtle, small, invisible, and silent practices of social exclusion, such as not paying attention, treating someone like air, lack of interest, or being left out, are sufficiently real and painful enough for those who have to deal with them. The term “social (in)visibility” allows us to openly name feelings that are an internal response to external ostracism, but which remain unexpressed in everyday interactions. The article focuses on understanding the role of social attention and social recognition in social encounters. As the social challenges described document a set of practices that prevent engagement in social interactions and reinforce cultural otherness, the construct of “social (in)visibility” may thus provide a framework for explaining how the lack of acknowledgment of someone’s presence in an appropriate manner in a given situation initiates the process of excluding those with so-called ‘spoiled identities’ and may help reveal mechanisms of escalating negativity. The work concludes with reflections on future research areas and the practical implications of social (in)visibility within the context of social relationships, co-presence, and social encounters.

Marital Satisfaction, Gender, and Active Social Engagement in Older Adults: Longitudinal Evidence From South Korea.

This study investigated the longitudinal association between marital satisfaction and active social engagement among older adults, while also considering potential gender differences in these associations. Seven waves of data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging from 2006 to 2019 were utilized (N = 2,568, aged 65 or older). Fixed-effects Poisson regression models were employed to account for unobserved individual-level confounders. To capture active social engagement comprehensively, multiple activity types including social interaction, physical activity, travel activity, and volunteer activity were considered. An interaction model was used to examine potential gender differences. The results of this study suggested that an individual's marital satisfaction is associated with an increase in their active social engagement. A one-standard deviation increase in marital satisfaction was associated with a 1.9%, 2.9%, 5.8%, and 18.1% higher incidence rate of engagement in social interaction, physical activity, travel activity, and volunteer activity, respectively, after accounting for individual-specific factors. The associations for social interaction and travel activity were largely driven by older men. In contrast, the associations for physical activity and volunteer activity were similar for older men and older women. Marital satisfaction plays a crucial role in fostering active social engagement among older adults. Interventions designed to address social and financial obstacles within marital relationships among older adults could effectively improve their health and well-being by promoting various types of activities. The impact of these interventions may differ based on gender and the specific types of activities involved.

Apathy Symptoms, Physical and Cognitive Function, Health-Related Quality of Life, and Mortality in Older Patients With CKD: A Longitudinal Observational Study

Apathy reflects diminished motivation, goal-directed behavior, and emotions, as well as less engagement in social interactions. Apathy overlaps with depression and is associated with cognitive decline. In the older individuals with chronic kidney disease (CKD), both depression and cognitive impairments are common, but apathy symptoms have been underreported. We investigated the occurrence of apathy symptoms and their associations with physical and cognitive functioning, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and mortality in older patients with CKD. Prospective observational cohort study. 180 outpatients aged≥65 years with estimated glomerular filtration rate≤20mL/min/1.73m2 from 5 Dutch nephrology centers. Apathy symptoms at baseline were considered present when a Geriatric Depression Scale's 3-item apathy subscale score was≥2 points. Physical and cognitive functioning, HRQoL (assessed in annual geriatric assessments), and 4-year mortality. Linear regression for cross-sectional associations, linear regression models for longitudinal associations, and Cox regression models for mortality over 4 years of observation. Apathy symptoms were present in 64 patients (36%; 67% men; median age 75.5 years), of whom 32 (50%) had no depressive symptoms. At baseline, the presence of apathy symptoms was associated with significantly more frailty, more functional dependence, less physical capacity, lower visuoconstructive performance, worse delayed recall, and lower HRQoL scores. The presence of apathy symptoms at baseline was also associated with a higher mortality risk (hazard ratio, 2.3 [95% CI, 1.3-4.2], P=0.005 adjusted for age, sex, and high education level), but not with changes in physical and cognitive functioning or HRQoL during the follow-up period. Risk of selection bias and residual confounding. Apathy symptoms were highly prevalent and associated with concurrent lower physical and cognitive status, lower HRQoL, and increased mortality. These findings highlight apathy as a potentially important clinical phenotype in older CKD patients. We observed that older kidney patients often present apathy symptoms, such as less motivation, fewer goal-directed behaviors, fewer emotions, and less social engagement. Prior research has not extensively described apathy in kidney disease. We investigated the link between apathy symptoms and poor outcomes. We measured physical functioning, cognitive functioning, and quality of life. We learned that one-third of our older kidney patients showed symptoms of apathy, only half of whom had symptoms of depression. Patients with apathy symptoms showed lower quality of life and lower physical and cognitive performance. They also had a higher risk of death. These findings highlight the need for awareness of apathy symptoms in older kidney patients.

Reciprocal Associations Between Language Ability and Social Functioning Development in Pre-verbal Autistic Children.

Longitudinal research on language abilities and social functioning in young children suggests that gains in one domain affect gains in the other. However, few studies have examined inter-relations of language and social functioning jointly among young children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Pre-verbal toddlers with ASD are a group of particular clinical relevance, given that greater language abilities at school entry have been associated with positive long-term adjustment in many areas, including adaptive and social functioning. Reduced attention to and engagement in social interactions among autistic toddlers who are not yet speaking may interfere with language development concurrently and over time. The present study examined reciprocal associations between language ability and social functioning over a 2-year period across three time points in a sample of 90 pre-verbal autistic toddlers using cross-lagged panel analyses conducted in MPlus. Cross-lagged panel analyses revealed significant within-timepoint synchronous correlations, within-domain autoregressive paths over time, and as hypothesized, reciprocal significance in all cross-lagged paths. For very young pre-verbal children with ASD, language ability and social functioning appear to exert concurrent and cascading developmental influences on one another. Targeting both language and social functioning simultaneously may enhance intervention efficacy for very young pre-verbal children with ASD.

Evaluating Engagement in Technology-Supported Social Interaction by People Living with Dementia in Residential Care

Technologies can support the well-being of people living with dementia in residential care by fostering meaningful interactions through multimodal and playful features. This article presents the evaluation of A Better Visit, an app that aims at engaging residents and visitors in shared activities. We define engagement in terms of dyadic interactions with the interface of the device, and interactions within the social context of the care home. We generated two Motivational Models that describe different perspectives of how people engaged with the system: the first was built with the design team, and the second was built using the first Motivational Model as a sensitising concept for the analysis of data from four care homes that used the app for periods of three months. Our findings show that the facilitation of activities plays a relevant role for engaging in social interaction. We discuss how technologies can contribute to engaging people living with dementia in social interaction: firstly, facilitation can be understood as a concept that is supported by people and technology. Secondly, we discuss the influence of the social context of the setting and the understandings of the individual in how people assess the engagement of the residents in social interaction.

The relationship between sensory experiences and social functioning in children with autism spectrum disorder

Objective: This study was undertaken to substantiate the connection between sensory experiences and social functioning among 142 children ages 4–10 years with autism spectrum disorder. Methods: Using an online cross-sectional survey, mothers’ perceptions of sensory and social characteristics of their children on parent-reported measures of sensory experiences and social functioning were collected. Findings: Using SPSS software to follow the related descriptive statistics and correlational analysis, the results indicated that children had different levels of challenging sensory experiences and social interaction difficulties. It was revealed that higher intensities of sensory issues were associated with lower levels of functioning and greater social interaction difficulties. Further analysis revealed that less awkward, unpleasant experiences in the auditory and tactile sensory functioning correlated with less social difficulties. Conclusions: Given that no causal relationship could be drawn in this study, the findings complemented those of earlier studies, which suggest engagement in social interactions may be correlated with sensory response patterns.

“How Do You See Your Life Now?” A Photo-Elicitation Study Focused on Depression and Social Skills in Adolescence

Previous studies have reported associations between low levels of social skills and the prevalence of depressive symptoms in adolescents. Although substantial quantitative research has been carried out on this association, there have been few qualitative investigations into this topic. This study explores the association of depression symptoms and social skills repertoires in adolescence qualitatively, using photo-elicitation. Eight Brazilian adolescents were divided into two groups considering the presence or absence of depression symptoms, gender and socio-economic conditions. Participants were asked to take six pictures regarding a specific question. Individual interviews about their images were conducted. Visual and textual data were analysed using Thematic Analysis and four guidance questions. Socially skilled behaviours were associated with adolescents' perceived support and considered a protective factor for depression during stressful life events. Relationships with parents and new school colleagues were the primary sources of social skills challenges. Parents’ lack of social skills seemed to be associated with adolescents’ low social skills repertories. Hobbies were found to facilitate adolescents’ engagement in social interactions. The study extends our knowledge of how adolescents experience the association of depression and social skills in their daily lives, contributing to inform adolescents' and parents' social skills training focused on decreasing adolescents’ depression symptoms. Limitations and implications for practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.

SOCIAL INTERACTION AMID COVID-19 AND RESPONSES TO THE PANDEMIC IN SARAWAK

This article documents social interaction among rural and urban indigenous communities in Sarawak during the COVID-19 pandemic and their responses to the outbreak at individual, household and community levels. The study on social interaction is crucial to shed light on larger social institutions and to examine how social actions are organized across space and time. The study framed within the symbolic interactionist perspective - emphasize the role of symbols and language as the core elements of social interaction. Research methods used in the study are participant observation and interviews to understand relevant context and process. In participant observation, researchers took part in socio-cultural activities of the community in the villages and their dwellings places in urban areas and participated in social media platforms. Data from observation and interactions (face-to-face or mediated by technology) analysed based on themes and contents. The findings show that social interaction among community members significantly altered during the pandemic in terms of the mode of interactions, frequencies, locations, reasons, duration, types and topics of interactions. These include the shift of face-to-face interactions to digital interactions, reduced numbers of interactions, significant more home-based interactions, and then unequal access to digital interactions. Other findings highlight that cultural themes related to communalism, supernaturalism and family and/or children influenced the community members’ engagement in social interactions. The community responses towards the outbreak varied according to the socio-economic background of individuals and households. Through these data the study shed light on how community members interacted during the pandemic; the exchanged of ideas and information, conflict during interactions, responses to the pandemic and the issues surround inequality of access to information and communication technologies.

Phonetic entrainment of Cantonese-speaking children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) typically show less engagement in social interactions. Previous studies in verbal communication found that they are less able to entrain the phonetic features to their interlocutors, compared to their Typically Developing (TD) counterparts. In this study, we examined the phonetic adjustment of 15 Cantonese-speaking ASD children (mean age = 8.5 years, range = 6–10.8) and 9 Cantonese-speaking TD children (mean age = 7.9 years, range = 6.4–9.6) when using the designed sentences to answer questions raised by the same experimenter. There are three main findings: (1) ASD children tended to disentrain the minimum f0 from the experimenter while TD children showed consistent minimum f0 through the experiment, possibly because TD children noticed the convergence made by the experimenter; (2) TD children significantly entrained the intensity towards the experimenter, but no entrainment was found in ASD children; and (3) both groups demonstrated an increase of speech rate, catching up with the speech rate of the experimenter. Although children at this age range might not fully acquire entrainment skills, our results suggested that compared to TD children, ASD children started to show atypicality of phonetic adjustment in conversations. This study of Cantonese speakers makes cross-linguistic contribution to the literature of ASD children's language acquisition.

Mechanisms of impact and contextual aspects of a dementia special care unit in long-term care: a process evaluation

BackgroundIn long-term care, persons with dementia are often cared for in specialised facilities, which are rather heterogeneous in regard to care concepts. Little information is available on how these facilities and care concepts bring about changes in the targeted outcomes. Such knowledge is needed to understand the effects of care concepts and to consciously shape further developments. This study aimed to explore the mechanisms of impact of a specific care concept from a dementia special care unit and the contextual aspects that influence its implementation or outcomes.MethodsUsing a qualitative approach to process evaluation of complex interventions, we conducted participating observations and focus groups with nurses and single interviews with ward and nursing home managers. Data were collected from two identical dementia special care units to enhance the contrasts in the analysis of two non-specialised nursing homes. We analysed the data thematically. We conducted 16 observations, three group interviews and eleven individual interviews.ResultsWe identified seven themes in three domains related to mechanisms that lead to outcomes regarding residents’ and nurses’ behaviour and well-being. The themes include the development of nurses’ skills and knowledge, the promotion of a positive work climate, adjusted spatial structures, adjusted personnel deployment strategy “dedicated time for activities”, promotion of relaxation, of engagement in activities and of engagement in social interaction of residents. The implementation and outcomes of the care concept are influenced by contextual aspects relating to the (target) population and cultural, organisational and financial features.ConclusionsThe study found expected and unexpected mechanisms of impact and contextual aspects. The care concept of the dementia special care unit results in higher levels of relaxation, activities, and social interaction of residents. Its implementation highly depends on the shared understanding of nursing and the skills of the nursing team. Changes in residents’ characteristics result in altered effects of the concept.Trial registrationDRKS00011513.

Engagement in purposeful activities and social interactions amongst persons with dementia in special care units compared to traditional nursing homes: An observational study.

BackgroundPersons with dementia spend most time of their day not engaging in activities or social interactions. A care concept of a dementia special care unit that promotes activities and social interaction through a household‐like design and individualised stimuli is studied.AimTo evaluate the main outcomes of the care concept of a dementia special care unit, namely, engagement in activities and social interactions.MethodsWe conducted an observational study as part of a theory‐driven evaluation. The Maastricht Daily Life Observation Tool was used to collect momentary assessments multiple times per participant, including engagement in activity, type of activity, engagement in social interaction, interaction partners, location, agitation and mood. Thirty‐three residents of the dementia special care units that implemented the care concept and 54 residents with dementia of two traditional nursing homes participated in the study, resulting in 2989 momentary assessments.ResultsResidents of both settings did not engage in activities or social interaction in approximately half of the observations. Compared to residents of traditional nursing homes, residents of special care units had a significantly higher chance for engagement in activities and social interaction in the afternoon but not in the morning or evening.ConclusionThe care concept of the special care unit facilitated engagement but had its limitations. Further research is needed to develop and evaluate appropriate interventions to enhance engagement of persons with dementia.

VAIKŲ, TURINČIŲ NEGALIŲ, SAVARANKIŠKUMO FORMAVIMAS DELFINŲ TERAPIJOS CENTRE: DIDESNIŲ GALIMYBIŲ LINK

The article analyses the independence of children with mental and behavioural disorders, and the importance of its development and background, which creates the preconditions for a better quality of life. Psychomotor development and building up the independence of children with disabilities basically predetermine better conditions for the child’s integration into the community, the reduction of stress and dependence on family members, and better harmony in the family. The child’s psychomotor development covers major areas of child development: gross motor skills, fine motor skills, cognition, perception of language, verbal expression, self-regulation, and social and emotional development. But in terms of mental and behavioural disorders, the formation of skills proceeds in a more complex way. This disorder often manifests itself together with sensory problems: too high/low response, high stress felt, anxiety, and detachment from specific activities/measures, which may result in the delayed formation of independence skills. The development of the independence of a child with a disability is very important when individually selecting a suitable environment and factors that increase the motivation to learn, seek and interiorise newly acquired skills. These skills predetermine the possibilities for a person with a disability to feel independent in their daily activities in the future. Engagement in social interaction is an inevitable and important element of a high-quality daily life. Children with a disability face increased difficulties in their daily routines. Children with poorer social skills undergo social exclusion, and experience more difficulties in perceiving the feelings of other people, recognising and expressing emotions, complying with regulations and norms, and respecting themselves and others.

The role of state feelings of loneliness in the situational regulation of social affiliative behavior: Exploring the regulatory relations within a multilevel framework.

Previous empirical evidence suggests that the engagement in social interactions across different everyday contexts occurs in a manner highly responsive to a person's social affiliation needs. As has been shown repeatedly, social engagement (as well as disengagement) can be predicted from earlier situational need states, implying that homeostatic principles underlie a person's social affiliative behaviors. However, little is known about the role of emotion in these regulative processes. For this reason, the present exploratory study investigated the predictive role of state feelings of loneliness in subsequent engagement in social interaction. Since loneliness is conceptually associated with both the need to reaffiliate as well as self-protecting tendencies potentially hindering engagement in social contact, the study investigated the possibility of both increases and decreases in social contacts resulting from state feelings of loneliness. Adopting an experience sampling methodology (ESM), a sample of 65 participants was recruited from a local university and was followed for 14 days. Subjects were prompted several times a day to rate their feeling states and the quantity of social interactions, using a fixed interval assessment schedule. Statistical analyses using multilevel analysis indicated that state feelings of loneliness had complex quadratic effects upon subsequent social interaction, leading to both increases and decreases in subsequent social interaction. Moreover, these effects were contingent upon previous engagement in social interaction, implying spillover effects across social contexts that are conditionally mediated by feelings of loneliness. These findings clearly imply an important, albeit complex role of state feelings of loneliness in the regulation of social affiliation, both as a predictor and a consequence of social interaction. These exploratory findings are discussed against the background of methodological and conceptual limitations, and several recommendations for future studies are made.

Music Connects Us: Development of a Music-Based Group Activity Intervention to Engage People Living with Dementia and Address Loneliness.

There is a need for intervention research to understand how music-based group activities foster engagement in social interactions and relationship-building among care home residents living with moderate to severe dementia. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to describe the design of ‘Music Connects Us’, a music-based group activity intervention. Music Connects Us primarily aims to promote social connectedness and quality of life among care home residents living with moderate to severe dementia through engagement in music-making, supporting positive social interactions to develop intimate connections with others. To develop Music Connects Us, we adapted the ‘Music for Life’ program offered by Wigmore Hall in the United Kingdom, applying an intervention mapping framework and principles of engaged scholarship. This paper describes in detail the Music Connects Us program, our adaptation approach, and key adaptations made, which included: framing the project to focus on the engagement of the person living with dementia to ameliorate loneliness; inclusion of student and other community-based musicians; reduced requirements for care staff participation; and the development of a detailed musician training approach to prepare musicians to deliver the program in Canada. Description of the development, features, and rationale for Music Connects Us will support its replication in future research aimed to tests its effects and its use in clinical practice.

Development of a Novel Multimodal Social Reward Task for Neurobiological Adult and Late-life Depression Studies

Exposure to social rewards protects against depression. Positive social interactions elicit activation in reward regions, which are hypoactive in depression especially in late life. Psychotherapy can increase engagement in social interactions and in turn increase activity in the reward system. We developed a paradigm to assess changes in social reward processing using EEG and MRI during psychotherapy for late life depression.

Eye contact during joint attention with a humanoid robot modulates oscillatory brain activity.

Eye contact established by a human partner has been shown to affect various cognitive processes of the receiver. However, little is known about humans’ responses to eye contact established by a humanoid robot. Here, we aimed at examining humans’ oscillatory brain response to eye contact with a humanoid robot. Eye contact (or lack thereof) was embedded in a gaze-cueing task and preceded the phase of gaze-related attentional orienting. In addition to examining the effect of eye contact on the recipient, we also tested its impact on gaze-cueing effects (GCEs). Results showed that participants rated eye contact as more engaging and responded with higher desynchronization of alpha-band activity in left fronto-central and central electrode clusters when the robot established eye contact with them, compared to no eye contact condition. However, eye contact did not modulate GCEs. The results are interpreted in terms of the functional roles involved in alpha central rhythms (potentially interpretable also as mu rhythm), including joint attention and engagement in social interaction.

Increased Social Interactions Reduce the Association Between Constricted Life-Space and Lower Daily Happiness in Older Adults With and Without HIV: A GPS and Ecological Momentary Assessment Study

Older persons with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (PWH) are particularly susceptible to life-space restrictions. The aims of this study included: 1) using global positioning system (GPS) derived indicators as an assessment of time spent at home among older adults with and without HIV; 2) using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to examine real-time relationships between life-space, mood (happiness, sadness, anxious), fatigue, and pain; and 3) determining if number of daily social interactions moderated the effect of life-space on mood. Eighty-eight older adults (PWH n = 54, HIV-negative n = 34) completed smartphone-based EMA surveys assessing mood, fatigue, pain, and social interactions four times per day for two weeks. Participants' smartphones were GPS enabled throughout the study. Mixed-effects regression models analyzed concurrent and lagged associations among life-space and behavioral indicators of health. PWH spent more of their time at home (79% versus 70%, z = -2.08; p = 0.04) and reported lower mean happiness (3.2 versus 3.7; z = 2.63; p = 0.007) compared to HIV-negative participants. Controlling for covariates, more daily social interactions were associated with higher ratings of real-time happiness (b = 0.12; t = 5.61; df = 1087.9; p< 0.001). Similar findings were seen in lagged analyses: prior day social interactions (b = 0.15; t = 7.3; df = 1024.9; p < 0.0001) and HIV status (b = -0.48; t = -2.56; df = 1026.8; p = 0.01) attenuated the effect of prior day time spent at home on happiness. Accounting for engagement in social interactions reduced the significant effect of time spent at home and lower happiness. Interventions targeting social isolation within the context of constricted life-space may be beneficial for increasing positive mood in older adults, and especially relevant to older PWH.

Behavioral Cues of Humanness in Complex Environments: How People Engage With Human and Artificially Intelligent Agents in a Multiplayer Videogame.

The development of AI that can socially engage with humans is exciting to imagine, but such advanced algorithms might prove harmful if people are no longer able to detect when they are interacting with non-humans in online environments. Because we cannot fully predict how socially intelligent AI will be applied, it is important to conduct research into how sensitive humans are to behaviors of humans compared to those produced by AI. This paper presents results from a behavioral Turing Test, in which participants interacted with a human, or a simple or “social” AI within a complex videogame environment. Participants (66 total) played an open world, interactive videogame with one of these co-players and were instructed that they could interact non-verbally however they desired for 30 min, after which time they would indicate their beliefs about the agent, including three Likert measures of how much participants trusted and liked the co-player, the extent to which they perceived them as a “real person,” and an interview about the overall perception and what cues participants used to determine humanness. T-tests, Analysis of Variance and Tukey's HSD was used to analyze quantitative data, and Cohen's Kappa and χ2 was used to analyze interview data. Our results suggest that it was difficult for participants to distinguish between humans and the social AI on the basis of behavior. An analysis of in-game behaviors, survey data and qualitative responses suggest that participants associated engagement in social interactions with humanness within the game.

Psychophysiological and Visual Behavioral Responses to Faces Associated with Affective and Non-affective Touch in Four-month-old Infants

Affective touch (gentle, caress-like touch) carries a rewarding meaning, which may represent a neurophysiological foundation for the development of social interactions from the earliest stages of life. Developmental studies have shown evidence of infants’ sensitivity to affective touch as reflected by a decrease in heart rate and activation of the insular cortex. Moreover, affective touch has been shown to regulate infants’ emotional state, reinforce eye contact and facilitate learning of facial information, suggesting that affective touch may promote social functioning from the earliest stages of development. The present study aims to investigate the role of affective touch in enhancing engagement with social stimuli, exploring sustained attention and cardiac responses to faces as signatures of the underlying psychophysiological mechanism. Four-months-old infants (N = 40) were repeatedly presented with a female face paired with touch (hand stroking vs tapping with a brush in two different blocks) alternating with a face presented without tactile stimulation (familiarization phase), followed by a visual preference test between the two faces. Our results revealed an attenuated cardiac response in the affective compared to the non-affective condition during the familiarization phase. During the test phase infants looked longer at both the faces presented in the affective touch condition, compared to the faces in the non-affective condition. These findings suggest that affective touch might promote engagement in social interactions by facilitating physiological state regulation during processing of multisensory social information.

Perceived training opportunities and knowledge sharing: the case of the United Arab Emirates

PurposeThe authors seek to explore the interplay between perceived training opportunities (PTOs) and knowledge sharing in the context of the emerging economic setting of the United Arab Emirates. The authors also examined the moderating role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and engagement in social interaction on the relationship between PTOs and knowledge sharing.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed a survey method to collect the data and tested the proposed hypotheses by using the partial structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique. Data is based on 815 responses across all sectors in the country context of the UAE.FindingsThe study findings indicate that PTOs are positively related to knowledge sharing. Notably, the results show that the proposed relationship between PTOs and knowledge sharing is negatively and significantly moderated by intrinsic motivation. Moreover, the moderating roles of extrinsic motivation and engagement in social interaction were insignificant.Originality/valueAt a theoretical level, this article provides an individual-level analysis, which indicates that PTOs pave the way for intraorganizational knowledge sharing; hence, they offer insights into the mechanisms in which PTOs impact on knowledge sharing. This article also contributes to our general understanding on human resource management (HRM) practices and knowledge sharing in the context of the emerging economy of the UAE; the latter has a number of implications for both theory and practice as delineated in this study.