Goal-oriented Communication Research Articles

BmmW: A DNN-based joint BLE and mmWave radar system for accurate 3D localization with goal-oriented communication

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) has emerged as one of the reference technologies for the development of indoor localization systems, due to its increasing ubiquity, low-cost hardware, and to the introduction of direction-finding enhancements improving its ranging performance. However, the intrinsic narrowband nature of BLE makes this technology susceptible to multipath and channel interference. As a result, it is still challenging to achieve decimetre-level localization accuracy, which is necessary when developing location-based services for smart factories and workspaces. To address this challenge, we present BmmW, an indoor localization system that augments the ranging estimates obtained with BLE5.1’s constant tone extension feature with mmWave radar measurements to provide 3D localization of a mobile tag with decimetre-level accuracy. Specifically, BmmW embeds a deep neural network (DNN) that is jointly trained with both BLE and mmWave measurements, practically leveraging the strengths of both technologies. In fact, mmWave radars can locate objects and people with decimetre-level accuracy, but their effectiveness in monitoring stationary targets and multiple objects is limited, and they also suffer from a fast signal attenuation limiting the usable range to a few meters. We evaluate BmmW’s performance experimentally, and show that its joint DNN training scheme allows to track mobile tags with a mean 3D localization accuracy of 10 cm when combining angle-of-arrival BLE measurements with mmWave radar data. We further assess two variations of BmmW: BmmW-Lite and BmmW-Lite+, both tailored for single-antenna BLE devices, which eliminates the necessity for bulky and expensive multi-antenna arrays and represents a cost-effective solution that is easy to integrate into compact IoT devices. In contrast to classic BmmW (which utilizes angle-of-arrival info), BmmW-Lite uses raw in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) measurements, and achieves a mean localization accuracy of 36 cm, thus facilitating precise object tracking in indoor environments even when using budget-friendly single-antenna BLE devices. BmmW-Lite+ extends BmmW-Lite by allowing the localization task to be transferred from the edge to the cloud due to device memory and power constraints. To this end, BmmW-Lite+ employs a goal-oriented communication paradigm that compresses initial BLE features into a more compact semantic format at the edge device, which allows to minimize the amount of data that needs to be sent to the cloud. Our experimental results show that BmmW-Lite+ can compress raw BLE features by up to 12% of their initial size (hence allowing to save network bandwidth and minimize energy consumption), with negligible impact on the localization accuracy.

Goal-Oriented Communication, Estimation, and Control over Bidirectional Wireless Links

Goal-Oriented Communication, Estimation, and Control over Bidirectional Wireless Links

Factors influencing communication between parents and early childhood educators in multilingual Luxembourg

The collaboration between educators of early childhood education and care (ECEC) and parents has a significant positive impact on children's development, particularly for young immigrant children. However, research in multilingual and multicultural contexts is scarce. Therefore, the aim of the present study conducted in multilingual ECEC context in Luxembourg was twofold: (1) to identify the significant predictors that influence goal-oriented communication between parents and educators, and (2) to showcase a dynamic interplay between these factors in practice through observations and interviews. To address the first aim, we conducted two regression analyses, one involving parents (N = 323) and the other educators (N = 289). The analysis with parents showed that the most significant factor that influenced goal-oriented communication was parent satisfaction, while for educators it was educators’ professional attitudes towards parents and parent involvement. Furthermore, the results from interviews and observations of parent involvement in literacy activities in two multilingual centres showed that these factors are closely linked. When educators have positive attitudes, they will communicate more frequently and purposefully, and offer opportunities for parents to be involved, which will then lead to parent satisfaction. This study has important implications for policymakers, practitioners, and parents especially in multilingual contexts.

Exploring the Effectiveness of Implementing the Action Oriented Approach in Improving English Language Skills Among ESL Learners: Teachers’ Perception

A Communicative approach to language instruction emphasises real-life communication acts combined with vocabulary and grammatical constructions about a particular theme or context. The system now has a sociocultural element that motivates students to actively participate in their education. The technique has changed into the Action-Oriented Approach, which views pupils as social actors who must perform tasks in a wider social context in addition to linguistic ones. This study aims to ascertain how well an Action-Oriented strategy would be useful in enhancing English language proficiency among tertiary-level students in India. A sample of 70 English language instructors from various Indian institutions participated in the study and a 5-point Likert scale was employed to collect and analyse the data. The findings of the study reveal that the majority of ESL teachers agreed with the use of the Action-Oriented Approach to improve language learning inside and outside the classroom. Most of the respondents (91.4%) gave the statement "Practising English-speaking skills outside the classroom is essential for the learners' development" with the maximum rating (x=4.5857) and 95.7% of participants responded that English language teaching approaches should emphasize the use of tasks and activities that involve learners in practical, interactive, and goal-oriented communication through tasks and activities. The conclusions of this research would shed light on the efficacy of using an Action-Oriented strategy to improve English language proficiency among tertiary-level students in India. Most ESL teachers had positive opinions about implementing the Action-Oriented Approach, especially while imparting English language skills.

Guest Editorial Special Issue on Beyond Transmitting Bits: Context, Semantics, and Task-Oriented Communications

It is our pleasure to share with you this Special Issue, which brings together a diverse set of articles dealing with various aspects of semantic and goal-oriented communications, providing a snapshot of research activities in this highly active research area. Wireless communications and networking research has traditionally focused on improving the capacity and throughput of the underlying wireless network. However, recent explosion in data-driven machine learning applications and their reliance on huge datasets collected by edge devices have raised legitimate concerns that the increasing data traffic might soon overwhelm the capacity of current networks despite ongoing efforts to increase their capacity and efficiency. Also, most of the edge intelligence applications impose stringent delay constraints, which cannot be met by naive forwarding of data samples for processing at the receiver end. This made it obvious to researchers in both academia and industry that it is essential to analyze the “value” or “relevance” of collected data, and filter and prioritize the delivery of data based on its value/relevance as well as the wireless channel and network conditions. In this context, data value will be closely connected to the underlying signals and processes that generate the data, e.g., text, image, video, or sensor data, and what the receiver intends to do with the received data. This subjectivity of data value makes semantic and goal-oriented communication a rather elusive research topic, which has led to both an increasingly rich and active area of investigation, but also a controversial one, mainly due to the lack of clear and widely agreed-upon definitions of some of the core concepts and formulations. Despite these disagreements, there is almost unanimous consensus on the importance and potential impact of this line of investigation for the design of future communication systems and networks.

Engineering Semantic Communication: A Survey

As the global demand for data has continued to rise exponentially, some have begun turning to the idea of semantic communication as a means of efficiently meeting this demand. Pushing beyond the boundaries of conventional communication systems, semantic communication focuses on the accurate recovery of the <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">meaning</i> conveyed from source to receiver, as opposed to the accurate recovery of transmitted symbols. In this survey, we aim to provide a comprehensive view of the history and current state of semantic communication and the techniques for engineering this higher level of communication. A survey of the current literature reveals four broad approaches to engineering semantic communication. We term the earliest of these approaches classical semantic information, which seeks to extend information-theoretic results to include semantic information. A second approach makes use of knowledge graphs to achieve semantic communication, and a third utilizes the power of modern deep learning techniques to facilitate this communication. The fourth approach focuses on the significance of information, rather than its meaning, to achieve efficient, goal-oriented communication. We discuss each of these four approaches and their corresponding studies in detail, and provide some challenges and opportunities that pertain to each approach. Finally, we introduce a novel approach to semantic communication, which we term context-based semantic communication. Inspired by the way in which humans naturally communicate with one another, this context-based approach provides a general, optimization-based design framework for semantic communication systems. Together, this survey provides a useful guide for the design and implementation of semantic communication systems.

Semantic Communications for Future Internet: Fundamentals, Applications, and Challenges

With the increasing demand for intelligent services, the sixth-generation (6G) wireless networks will shift from a traditional architecture that focuses solely on a high transmission rate to a new architecture that is based on the intelligent connection of everything. Semantic communication (SemCom), a revolutionary architecture that integrates user as well as application requirements and the meaning of information into data processing and transmission, is predicted to become a new core paradigm in 6G. While SemCom is expected to progress beyond the classical Shannon paradigm, several obstacles need to be overcome on the way to a SemCom-enabled smart Internet. In this paper, we first highlight the motivations and compelling reasons for SemCom in 6G. Then, we provide an overview of SemCom-related theory development. After that, we introduce three types of SemCom, i.e., semantic-oriented communication, goal-oriented communication, and semantic-aware communication. Following that, we organize the design of the communication system into three dimensions, i.e., semantic information (SI) extraction, SI transmission, and SI metrics. For each dimension, we review existing techniques and discuss their benefits and limitations, as well as the remaining challenges. Then, we introduce the potential applications of SemCom in 6G and portray the vision of future SemCom-empowered network architecture. Finally, we outline future research opportunities. In a nutshell, this paper provides a holistic review of the fundamentals of SemCom, its applications in 6G networks, and the existing challenges and open issues with insights for further in-depth investigations.

Making Sense of Meaning: A Survey on Metrics for Semantic and Goal-Oriented Communication

Semantic communication (SemCom) aims to convey the meaning behind a transmitted message by transmitting only semantically-relevant information. This semantic-centric design helps to minimize power usage, bandwidth consumption, and transmission delay. SemCom and goal-oriented SemCom (or effectiveness-level SemCom) are therefore promising enablers of 6G and developing rapidly. Despite the surge in their swift development, the design, analysis, optimization, and realization of robust and intelligent SemCom as well as goal-oriented SemCom are fraught with many fundamental challenges. One of the challenges is that the lack of unified/universal metrics of SemCom and goal-oriented SemCom can stifle research progress on their respective algorithmic, theoretical, and implementation frontiers. Consequently, this survey paper documents the existing metrics – scattered in many references – of wireless SemCom, optical SemCom, quantum SemCom, and goal-oriented wireless SemCom. By doing so, this paper aims to inspire the design, analysis, and optimization of a wide variety of SemCom and goal-oriented SemCom systems. This article also stimulates the development of unified/universal performance assessment metrics of SemCom and goal-oriented SemCom, as the existing metrics are purely statistical and hardly applicable to reasoning-type tasks that constitute the heart of 6G and beyond.

A Survey on Semantic Communications for Intelligent Wireless Networks

With deployment of 6G technology, it is envisioned that competitive edge of wireless networks will be sustained and next decade's communication requirements will be stratified. Also 6G will aim to aid development of a human society which is ubiquitous and mobile, simultaneously providing solutions to key challenges such as, coverage, capacity, etc. In addition, 6G will focus on providing intelligent use-cases and applications using higher data-rates over mill-meter waves and Tera-Hertz frequency. However, at higher frequencies multiple non-desired phenomena such as atmospheric absorption, blocking, etc., occur which create a bottleneck owing to resource (spectrum and energy) scarcity. Hence, following same trend of making efforts towards reproducing at receiver, exact information which was sent by transmitter, will result in a never ending need for higher bandwidth. A possible solution to such a challenge lies in semantic communications which focuses on meaning (context) of received data as opposed to only reproducing correct transmitted data. This in turn will require less bandwidth, and will reduce bottleneck due to various undesired phenomenon. In this respect, current article presents a detailed survey on recent technological trends in regard to semantic communications for intelligent wireless networks. We focus on semantic communications architecture including model, and source and channel coding. Next, we detail cross-layer interaction, and various goal-oriented communication applications. We also present overall semantic communications trends in detail, and identify challenges which need timely solutions before practical implementation of semantic communications within 6G wireless technology. Our survey article is an attempt to significantly contribute towards initiating future research directions in area of semantic communications for intelligent 6G wireless networks.

Identifying characteristics of a skilled communicator in the clinical encounter.

In medical communication research, there has been a shift from 'communication skills' towards 'skilled communication', the latter implying the development of flexibility and creativity to tailor communication to authentic clinical situations. However, a lack of consensus currently exists what skilled communication entails. This study therefore aims to identify characteristics of a skilled communicator, hereby contributing to theory building in communication research and informing medical training. In 2020, six nominal group technique (NGT) sessions were conducted in the context of the general practitioner (GP) training programme engaging 34 stakeholders (i.e. GPs, GP residents, faculty members and researchers) based on their experience and expertise in doctor-patient communication. Participants in each NGT session rank-ordered a 'Top 7' of characteristics of a skilled communicator. The output of the NGT sessions was analysed using mixed methods, including descriptive statistics and thematic content analysis during an iterative process. Rankings of the six sessions consisted of 191 items in total, which were organised into 41 clusters. Thematic content analysis of the identified 41 clusters revealed nine themes describing characteristics of a skilled communicator: (A) being sensitive and adapting to the patient; (B) being proficient in applying interpersonal communication; (C) self-awareness, learning ability and reflective capacity; (D) being genuinely interested; (E) being proficient in applying patient-centred communication; (F) goal-oriented communication; (G) being authentic; (H) active listening; and (I) collaborating with the patient. We conceptualise a skilled communication approach based on the identified characteristics in the present study to support learning in medical training. In a conceptual model, two parallel processes are key in developing adaptive expertise in communication: (1) being sensitive and adapting communication to the patient and (2) monitoring communication performance in terms of self-awareness and reflective capacity. The identified characteristics and the conceptual model provide a base to develop a learner-centred programme, facilitating repeated practice and reflection. Further research should investigate how learners can be optimally supported in becoming skilled communicators during workplace learning.

Strengthening the Impact of Digital Cognitive Behavioral Interventions Through a Dual Intervention: Proficient Motivational Interviewing-Based Health Coaching Plus In-Application Techniques.

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital tools to support individuals struggling with their mental health. The use of a digital intervention plus human coaching (“dual” intervention) is gaining momentum in increasing overall engagement in digital cognitive behavioral interventions (dCBIs). However, there is limited insight into the methodologies and coaching models used by those deploying dual interventions. To achieve a deeper understanding, we need to identify and promote effective engagement that leads to clinical outcomes versus simply monitoring engagement metrics. Motivational interviewing (MI) is a collaborative, goal-oriented communication approach that pays particular attention to the language of change and is an effective engagement approach to help people manage mental health issues. However, this approach has been traditionally used for in-person or telephonic interventions, and less is known about the application of MI to digital interventions.ObjectiveWe sought to provide a dual intervention approach and address multiple factors across two levels of engagement to operationalize a dCBI that combined cognitive behavioral therapy–based techniques and MI-based interactions between the digital health coach (DHC) and user.MethodsWe reviewed hundreds of digital exchanges between DHCs and users to identify and improve training and quality assurance activities for digital interventions.ResultsWe tested five hypotheses and found that: (1) users of a dual digital behavioral health intervention had greater engagement levels than users of a noncoached intervention (P<.001); (2) DHCs with a demonstrated competency in applying MI to digital messages had more engaged users, as measured by the DHC-to-user message exchange ratio (P<.001); (3) the DHC-to-user message exchange ratio was correlated with more engagement in app activities (r=0.28, 95% CI 0.23-0.33); (4) DHCs with demonstrated MI proficiency elicited a greater amount of “change talk” from users than did DHCs without MI proficiency (H=25.12, P<.001); and (5) users who were engaged by DHCs with MI proficiency had better clinical outcomes compared to users engaged by DHCs without MI proficiency (P=.02).ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this pilot was the first of its kind to test the application of MI to digital coaching protocols, and it demonstrated the value of MI proficiency in digital health coaching for enhanced engagement and health improvement. Further research is needed to establish coaching models in dCBIs that incorporate MI to promote effective engagement and optimize positive behavioral outcomes.

The teamwork structure, process, and context of a paediatric cardiac surgery team in Mongolia: A mixed‐methods approach

IntroductionEffective teamwork in paediatric cardiac surgery is known to improve team performance and surgical outcomes. However, teamwork in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs), including Mongolia, is understudied. We examined multiple dimensions of teamwork to inform a team‐based training programme to strengthen paediatric cardiac surgical care in Mongolia.MethodsWe used a mixed‐methods approach, combining social network analysis and in‐depth interviews with medical staff, to explore the structure, process, quality, and context of teamwork at a single medical centre. We conceptualised the team's structure based on communication frequency among the members (n = 24) and explored the process, quality, and context of teamwork via in‐depth interviews with select medical staff (n = 9).ResultsThe team structure was highly dense and decentralised, but the intensive care unit nurses showed high betweenness‐centrality. In the quality and process domain of teamwork, we did not find a regular joint decision‐making process, leading to the absence of common goals among the team members. Although role assignment among the medical staff was explicit, those strictly defined roles hindered active communication about patient information and responsibility‐sharing. Most interviewees did not agree with the organisational policies that limited discussions among team members; therefore, medical staff continued to share training and work experiences with each other, leading to strong and trustworthy relationships.ConclusionThe findings of this study underscore the importance of well‐structured and goal‐oriented communication between medical staff, as well as the management of the quality of collaboration within a team to increase teamwork effectiveness in paediatric cardiac surgery teams in LMICs.

Pediatricians’ Communication about Medical Uncertainty: Goal-Oriented Communication and Uncertainty Management

ABSTRACT Despite the prevalence of uncertainty in medicine, many physicians experience anxiety as a result of medical uncertainty and are reluctant to discuss uncertainty with others. When pediatricians do disclose uncertainty to parents, they are managing both the parents’ and their own feelings of uncertainty. The current study applies uncertainty management theory and multiple goals theory to explore pediatricians’ communication about uncertainty. We collected data using in-depth semi-structured interviews with 18 pediatricians. The results suggest that pediatricians prioritize task and relational goals with parents and task and identity goals with fellow physicians. Though, their appraisal of uncertainty influences their goal-oriented communication. The results highlight the relationship between uncertainty management theory and a multiple goals framework. These frameworks provide a valuable approach for gaining a more thorough understanding of pediatrician communication in the context of uncertainty.

Gen Y and Gen Z Communication Style

Communication style plays a crucial role in managing the multigenerational ecosystem of the present world. This study examined the communication style of Gen Y and Gen Z. The participants were 311 youth (Gen Y, 68; Gen Z, 243). The questionnaire on communication style was developed based on Hartman and McCambridge (2011). The online survey was conducted from 6 April 2020 to 11 May 2020 by distributing the questionnaire link to people who were in the Gen Y and Gen Z age groups. The results showed that both groups were similar in their general characteristics, which included preferences for group-work, affirmation, clear rules, and for their opinions to be valued. They liked face-to-face communication, and using visuals for online communication. There were significant differences in some of their study and work habits, that is, the Gen Y are better than Gen Z at analysing information obtained from the Internet, and handling a lot of work at one time, whereas Gen Z expected more instantaneous feedback than Gen Y. As for communication style, they were amiable communicators who were low on assertiveness, prioritised relationship over task in task completion, and had a slow-paced communication style. The results showed that Gen Y and Gen Z had some style-typing ability, whereby they compared their communication style with their peers. More practised style-flexing, as in fitting their communication to the target group but Gen Y had a stronger information-focus. Their demographic background (gender, ethnic group, socio-economic status) did not influence their communication style, indicating the stronger influence of their generational cohort. The study suggests that employers who require goal-oriented communication need to make their expectations clear to Gen Y and Gen Z employees.

Effectiveness of a minimal virtual motivational interviewing training for first years medical students: differentiating between pre-test and then-test

BackgroundShifting towards patient-centeredness, medical doctors need patient-centered communication skills. Motivational Interviewing (MI) is an evidence-based, collaborative, goal-oriented communication technique to strengthen a person’s own motivation and commitment to change. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a brief virtual role-play MI-training program on MI-knowledge and skills in first-year undergraduate medical students, making use of both a pre-test and a then-test (retrospective pre-test) to check for response shift in evaluating the educational intervention. MethodsFour 10–15 min MI-game-based training conversations embedded in the Kognito Conversation Platform™ were offered to the students using a single-group Interrupted Time Series design. ResultsParticipants included 339 undergraduate medical students (RR= 83.1%). The one-hour MI virtual training proved effective in two ways: participants gained knowledge and skills, and increased awareness of the existing intrinsic knowledge and skill they already possess to communicate with future patients in a patient-centered way. ConclusionA brief one-hour MI-training simulation can be effective even if offered at an early stage during medical education. Furthermore, response shift varied and was not present in all students. Practice ImplicationThe addition of a then-test to the study design reveals results that otherwise would not have been found.

"A real eye opener" - development, implementation and evaluation of a seminar on interprofessional teamwork in GP specialty training.

Introduction: The successful treatment of a multitude of chronic diseases is largely dependent on effective interprofessional collaboration. In Germany, many healthcare employees feel unprepared for the challenges of interprofessional teamwork. Can a seminar designed by an interprofessional team for an interprofessional target group improve mutual understanding and provide the basis for successful interprofessional collaboration?Methodological approach: For the development of the seminar, Kern’s model for curriculum development was used, which includes the following six steps: problem identification, needs analysis, goal definition (learning objectives and learning content), educational strategies, implementation and evaluation. The all-day event brought together physiotherapists, pharmacists, medical assistants and doctors undergoing specialist training in family medicine. Representatives of the various professions were recruited through multiple channels (associations, pharmacist societies, alumni-networks, etc.). Practical examples and role-play were used to develop a better understanding of each other’s professions and to support goal-oriented and appreciative communication among them. The seminar belongs to the curriculum provided by the Hesse Competence Center for Specialist Training in General Practice and has so far taken place three times. The evaluation was carried out by means of a detailed, self-designed questionnaire with five open and 20 closed questions. The statistical analysis was mainly descriptive (mean value, minimum, maximum and SD).Results: Overall, 29 persons have participated in the workshops (eleven doctors undergoing specialist training, six physiotherapists, six pharmacists, six medical assistants). Overall, the seminar was rated very highly. Individual aspects of the seminar’s design, such as relevance and practice-orientation, as well as an assessment of whether the seminar contributed towards increasing participants’ ability to collaborate with other professionals, were rated positively. In addition, a pre-post comparison of self-assessed ability to collaborate interprofessionally showed significant improvement.Discussion: This highly interactive one-day seminar design contributed towards improving understanding for other professions and communication skills. In order to achieve a broad-based improvement in interprofessional collaboration over the long term, this or similar concepts should be employed more extensively.Conclusions: The results suggest that participants in interprofessional seminars consider them to improve interprofessional collaboration.

Solution-focused approach in higher education: a scoping review

ABSTRACT As students populating higher education (HE) are becoming increasingly diverse, there is a growing need to equip educators with learner-centred communication skills. A solution-focused (SF) approach represents one attractive option to equip HE instructors and supervisors with strengths-based, goal-oriented communication techniques. This scoping review maps the current use of SF approaches in HE, explores key SF tenets and techniques compatible to HE, identifies knowledge gaps, and suggests recommendations for future research and professional development. From an initial yield of 7941 citations, 17 peer-reviewed articles published between 2001 and 2018 were included in the review. The majority of reviewed articles embraced strengths-based tenet of the SF approach as conducive to enhancing learners’ engagement and self-efficacy, and improving learner–educator collaboration. SF techniques such as scaling and goal settings were used to support learners in setting individualized goals and actionable steps toward the goals. The pragmatic focus of the SF approach on solutions and multiple pathways to goal attainment was also considered helpful for academic and clinical supervisors facing time constraints. More rigorous empirical research is needed on appropriate application of the SF approach in diverse HE contexts, and on evaluation of potential mediators of change between the approach and learner/educator outcomes.

The Relationship Between Turn-taking, Vocal Pitch Synchrony, and Rapport in Creative Problem-Solving Communication

Previous studies have suggested that in emotionally-oriented communication such as counseling and casual conversation, non-verbal communication characteristics such as turn-taking and vocal pitch synchrony were related to formation of rapport. However, in cognitive goal-oriented communication such as group problem-solving, there are few studies investigating whether the features of non-verbal communication cues correlate with rapport. In this research, we focused on the turn-taking and vocal pitch synchrony during creative problem-solving communication, and investigated their possible relationship with rapport. We adopted the Alternative Uses Tasks (AUT) as the case of cognitive goal-oriented communication, which measures individual creativity, and reorganized it to a group communication task. In the experiment, groups of three people each with the same gender discussed ideas for unusual uses of daily necessities for 20 minutes. The number of utterances which were responsive to the utterance of other speaker was used as an indicator of turn-taking, and the mean value of difference of the vocal pitch between the participant's was used as an indicator of vocal pitch synchrony. Multiple regression analysis showed that turn-taking, rather than total utterances, were significantly positively correlated with rapport, while vocal pitch synchrony did not contribute to rapport explanations. The results suggest that in the creative problem-solving discussion, the more turn-taking the conversation has, the more you feel rapport. The discrepancy with the previous study may suggest that the vocal pitch synchrony contribute to rapport in emotionally-oriented communication, but the vocal pitch synchrony would be not so relevant in forming rapport in more cognitive goal-oriented communication. In conclusion, the amount of turn-taking is a reliable non-verbal predictor of rapport, even in cognitive goal-oriented communication.

Unternehmensentwicklung durch Veränderungsmanagement

Change management covers the design, planning, organisation, implementation, control and stabilisation of changes and the necessary change processes within the company. Based on the phase models of Lewin and Kottler, three case studies are analyzed regarding the change processes in the company situations growth after foundation, reorganization after insolvency and company succession before departure of the managing partner. The case studies show that the essential success factor for effective and efficient change is the greatest possible acceptance of managers and employees. In particular, they show that change processes are generally more successful if employees are involved from the outset through transparent information and goal-oriented communication. A further success factor is the quality of the management personnel, which is essential for employee motivation and satisfaction.

Social capital and the voluntary provision of public goods

Individual contributions to public good investments are subject to the problem of free riding. We investigate the possibility of overcoming the free-riding problem through creating social capital via communication. Using data from a public goods experiment, we empirically test the effectiveness of two commonly used types of communication interventions in various organizations—structured, goal-oriented communication and unstructured, free-form communication—in creating social capital. Although both types of communication are found to reduce free-riding, when players stay in the same groups before and after communication, unstructured communication brings voluntary contributions closer to the efficient level persistently; structured communication is less successful. In contrast, structured communication is more successful when players are allocated to different groups after communication; unstructured communication has a smaller impact on voluntary contributions in this case.