Shared Meaning Research Articles

Translating agile management practices into a traditional industry context

AbstractThis study explores the translation of agile management practices (agile) into a traditional industry context. Using a case study of agile adoption in a development project in a large traditional company of the aerospace and defense industry, this research investigates how the translation process unfolds by studying how both idea and context are adapted to create shared meaning. This research makes two main contributions. First, this research introduces translation theory to the innovation management literature and details its applicability in explaining variations in outcomes of applying management practices in new organizational contexts. Our research suggests that this constitutes a complementary theoretical lens to diffusion theory, enabling the explanation of the process to create shared meaning when idea and recipient context have a low level of compatibility. Second, this research shows the process of translating agile into a traditional context through a non‐linear joint creation of meaning. The process was shaped largely by the experience and resolution of project‐external (i.e., with the surrounding organization) and project‐internal conflicts, which in turn motivated the idea or context to adapt. The study identifies two central concepts, namely isolation, and shielding, which determine how the translation process unfolds and how meaning is created. Managerial implications based on these contributions are presented and discussed.

Institutionally crafted Amhara-domination narrative: an existential threat to Amhara people

ABSTRACT Political narrative is an instrument for political actors to construct a shared meaning, and it can be harnessed to harm political opponents. The Italian invaders, the Ethiopian Student Movement, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the Oromo Liberation Front, and the incumbent regime contributed in varying degrees to the Amhara domination narrative. TPLF, in its political manifesto and later in the 1995 FDRE constitution, institutionally crafted an anti-Amhara narrative, reaching a crescendo after Abiy Ahmed assumed office in 2018. Thus, this research article tried to scrutinise and weigh the discourse of institutionally crafted Amhara existential threats. The study employed a qualitative research tradition and an exploratory research design approach that involved a political-economic analysis. The study finds that the century-old Amhara domination narrative, coupled with institutionally supported recurrent mass killings and expulsion, especially in Oromia, Benishangul-Gumuz, and Amhara regional states, posed a real and perceived existential threat that gave birth to the Amhara Fano armed struggle.

Mathematical discussion in classrooms as a technologically-supported activity fostering participation and inclusion

AbstractWhole-class mathematical discussion in a problem-solving activity is recognized as a powerful pedagogical activity but also a challenge for teachers who must consider several difficulties that learners might face, particularly in terms of an overload of Working Memory and Executive Functions. This study investigates how the use of a digital platform (Padlet) can support participatory and inclusive mathematical classroom discussion. We proposed a teaching experiment based on graphical tasks anticipating integral calculus to grade 13 students, and we examined how the use of the digital platform plays a role in the construction and interpretation of new mathematical objects emerging from the activity. The use of Instrumental Genesis and Double Instrumental Genesis frameworks allowed us to make the affordances of the tool emerge. As a result, we got evidence of how mathematical discussion may develop as a network of interactions, feedback, and connection of input and discuss examples of how active participation and inclusion are enhanced by the tool affordances. Indeed, the digital platform allowed easy interaction, with many ways to represent and express the ongoing evolution of personal and shared meanings and the possibility to manage the time of the activity. This fostered students’ participation and students which did not participate in previous discussions were actively engaged in it.

Gottman's sound relationship house and relational resilience through infertility for couples.

Some couples report that their relationship satisfaction increases through the experience of infertility. Few studies exist which explain how this phenomenon occurs through specific variables. We hypothesized that John Gottman's constructs of friendship and intimacy as well as shared meaning could explain how couples can achieve increased relationship satisfaction. We examined a regression analysis of cross-sectional retrospective individual data for couples who are either experiencing infertility currently or have done so in the recent past. In our nonclinical sample (n = 903), mediation analyses indicated significant influencing pathways for the Gottman shared meaning system, indicating that this construct may explain how couples achieve greater emotional bonding and couple satisfaction through infertility. These findings provide couple therapists with potential areas of focus for couples navigating infertility through the lens of Gottman Method Couple Therapy, including ways to encourage deeper mutual shared meaning amidst the infertility experience.

Latinate Loan-Cognate Word Pairs in English and Italian: Patterns of Meaning Variation and Change

The aim of this paper is to show the existence of regularities in word meaning variation and change between Latinate borrowings in present-day English and their cognates in Italian, such as gross/grosso, lecture/lettura and rumour/rumore. Starting from an original and shared meaning core, the semantics of these etymologically related words has evolved in different directions in the two languages, often producing what are commonly known as ‘false friends’. Despite their ‘false-friendship’, however, there appear to be some recurrent patterns in meaning evolution: through a qualitative analysis of 30 pairs of English and Italian cognate words, five main processes have been identified, namely meaning bifurcation, original meaning retention, non-figurative meaning extension, figurative meaning extension (via metaphor and metonymy) and meaning inversion.

Patients, Peers, and Personal Identity: A Longitudinal Qualitative Study Exploring the Transformative Potential of the Arts and Humanities in Intern Training.

Medical education initiatives incorporate arts and humanities (AHs) to foster physician competence and professionalism. However, the full potential of these initiatives is unclear. A recent conceptual framework attempts to clarify this potential but was constructed primarily from undergraduate medical education studies. To explore AHs instruction in graduate medical education, the authors asked: What is the potential of a longitudinal curriculum incorporating AHs for the personal and professional development of internal medicine interns throughout the intern year? From September 2021 to June 2022, 14 internal medicine interns at a large internal medical residency program participated in a longitudinal qualitative study, recording longitudinal audio-diaries (LADs) and participating in semistructured interviews. The LAD response rate was 91%, and the interview completion rate was 96%. The authors identified 3 themes that reflected shared meaning on the transformative potential of AHs: reclaiming personal sense of self, building community, and surfacing empathy. They constructed stories from 2 interns whose trajectories resonated most with AHs instruction's potential for personal and professional development. Interns valued the abstract over the concrete benefits of AHs. Interns detailed valuable abstract benefits, with reclaiming sense of self, building community, and surfacing empathy apparent across time, pointing to long-term effects of AHs interventions. The intern stories revealed a steady appreciation for AHs and difficulty with the practical utility of AHs midyear before a return to recognition of its value by year's end. Despite varying AHs experience levels, interns consistently appreciated AHs instruction. These findings extend a prior conceptual model to a graduate medical education population by highlighting AHs instruction's potential for reclaiming interns' senses of self, building community, and surfacing empathy. Future curricula can leverage this ability to create meaningful connections with one's purpose, peers, and patients to maximize the potential of AHs instruction for graduate medical education learners.

Communication Without Shared Meanings

Communication Without Shared Meanings

A Psychometric Evaluation of the Couples’ Financial Communication Scale: Findings and Implications from Two Large, Diverse Samples

AbstractCommunicating about finances is essential to develop shared meaning and goals within couple relationships. When couples struggle to discuss finances, they can experience poor couple outcomes. For researchers and clinicians to effectively study and promote healthy couple communication patterns regarding finances, a parsimonious, reliable, and valid measure of couples’ financial communication is needed. This study examined the psychometric utility of the 5-item Couples’ Financial Communication Scale (originally developed for the Flourishing Families Project; Day, R. D., Bean, R., Coyne, S., Dyer, J., Harper, J., & Walker, L. (2017). Flourishing families project: Survey of family life [codebook].) using two large, diverse samples—one of emerging adult individuals in a romantic relationship (N = 1,950) and another of dyads in a romantic relationship (N = 1,252; 69.9% beyond emerging adulthood). Similar findings emerged across both samples. Inter-item correlations, skewness, and kurtosis of the five items were within acceptable ranges. The five items loaded onto a latent construct with robust standardized factor loadings (ranging from 0.63 to 0.90) and sound model fit. Cronbach’s alpha revealed sound reliability (α = between 0.85 and 0.89). Multiple tests of measurement equivalence suggest the measure appears to be reasonably useful across theoretically meaningful groups (gender, age, income, marital status, and joint banking behaviors). Couples’ financial communication and couples’ relationship quality were positively correlated with large effect sizes—showing initial evidence of predictive validity. The parsimonious Couples’ Financial Communication Scale has sound evidence of reliability, validity, and measurement equivalence across two diverse samples, which positions it to be a useful measure in future scholarship to assess the degree to which couples engage in ongoing healthy and cooperative financial communication.

Spare or transform? Agency frames in transition intermediaries

Climate emergency is widely acknowledged. However, our institutions are struggling to find new intervention types to accelerate the transition. This paper analyses this struggle by combining agency theories and discursive approaches to study transition intermediaries, i.e, organizations seeking to foster the transition activities of others. The internal meaning structures of intermediaries are described as interlocking shared action frames, i.e., beliefs and meanings underpining their activities. These frames are characterized through the definition of pairs of contrasting frame elements along eleven framing dimensions. This conceptualization allows for a semi-quantitative mapping of internal structures. The method is developped and illustrated with the in-depth case study of a Swiss regional utility department running an energy efficiency programme. Analysing a series of exploratory workshops, we find that established frames revolve around technology-oriented, managerial approaches to the transition, ultimately narrowing the range of imaginable interventions. While these are well-studied shortcomings of energy efficiency centred approaches, further observations suggest that these frames underpin the perception of intervention impacts, helping keep staff and recipients involved. To strike a balance between energy saving targets and transformative ambitions, this paper suggests revising programme evaluation logics and reframing technological solutions as responses, rather than substitutes, to practice changes.

Overcoming organizational fragmentation in environmental education – the networking role of local education offices

Although environmental education (EE) scholars celebrate the diversity of organizations that engage in this work, the challenge remains how to bring these organizations together. Over the last decade, scholars have called for building bridges, but we still know very little about organizational networking and integration processes in EE. In this paper, I analyzed a case study of the first local education office (LEO) to manage an EE network in California. Drawing on institutional theory, I found that the LEO cultivated a local EE organizational field through three complementary strategies of relational work: enabling connections, aligning the field, and holding space. These three strategic tools enabled EE organizations to connect, develop a shared meaning system, and grow their capacity to serve schools. Based on my findings, I propose a model for managing local EE networks, as well as theoretical constructs for understanding organizational processes within the evolving EE landscape.

Hashtagging for Inclusion: Complex Identities in Singaporean Gay Men’s Social Representation on Instagram

Beyond indexing content and creating networks, hashtags can also convey social meanings. From the perspective of social representation, this article investigates how gay men in Singapore use various hashtags to represent their complex identities and create a shared meaning of being gay in Singapore. Through a textual analysis of identity-related posts generated by gay Instagram users in Singapore, we identified two patterns of using gay-related hashtags: habitual and contextual. Both patterns rely on and demonstrate the identity complexity of gay users. The patterns suggest the users’ identity management online while engendering different forms of social representation for Singaporean gay men. By using non-gay hashtags and juxtaposing them with gay ones, the users could disseminate outreach information, establish social connections, and improve the digital inclusion of their group. We also found unusual exclusions of gay hashtags, suggesting the potential conflict between gayness and some traditional values/roles in Singapore.

Personalizing Emoji Meaning and Use in Digital Communication

Communication via digital media is characterized by growing use of graphic elements employed to convey emotions and concepts in a succinct form, especially in interpersonal interactions. Emoji are naturally ambiguous in meaning, which undergoes various modifications. One way of incorporating emoji into interpersonal communication is repurposing their meaning and use, so that a shared personal meaning develops between individual users or within small groups. The article explores novel and unique applications of certain emoji in an independent (conceptual) replication study of Wiseman and Gould’s work (2018). The present study analyzes the data obtained via a web-based survey in a group of 132 respondents aged 17 to 55+ to subsequently get to know their motivations behind the repurposed use of emoji. It is demonstrated how this adaptation of graphic icons helps people express their likes and preferences, romantic feelings, amusement, and, as a result, can aid users in building closer relationships in micro-communities. In essence, the article is intended to contribute to a better understanding of emoji use in multimodal interpersonal communication.

A Mechanism for Ensuring Accountability of Local Government Officials: The Role of Shared Meanings

A Mechanism for Ensuring Accountability of Local Government Officials: The Role of Shared Meanings

MUDHARABAH: SHARIA-BASED FINANCING MECHANISM FOR SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Research findings on Mudharabah have an effect on sustainable economic development. Implications for Islamic financial policymakers and practitioners are important to promote sustainable economic growth. Future research recommendations on Mudharabah are also needed for better policy development. This research contributes significantly to the understanding and development of Mudharabah and sustainable economy. Mudharabah is a sharia financing mechanism based on fundamental principles that include the concepts of profit sharing, shared risk, and sharia compliance. The concept of profit sharing refers to the sharing of profits between investors and entrepreneurs based on prior agreements. Shared risk means that the risk is shared between the investor and the entrepreneur. While sharia compliance refers to the fulfillment of sharia principles in the implementation of Mudharabah, including prohibitions on usury, gharar, and maysir. Mudharabah also encourages sustainable and responsible business growth by motivating those who manage the business to carry out responsible practices, such as creating jobs, paying attention to workers' rights, and contributing to the environment. These practices help maintain economic stability and contribute to sustainable development. These challenges can be overcome through broader education and effective campaigns to increase public understanding of the benefits and mechanisms of Mudharabah. In addition, the opportunity also lies in the potential for economic growth that can be generated through the Mudharabah application. In practice, Mudharabah can encourage entrepreneurship, the growth of small and medium enterprises, and create new, sustainable jobs. By optimizing and overcoming existing challenges, the Mudharabah application can be an effective instrument in achieving sustainable economic development.

Quand mettre en route un traitement systémique dans la dermatite atopique ?

Despite the advent of numerous new treatments for atopic dermatitis, many patients, both adults and children, are still on treatment errands and are not receiving sufficient treatment to control their disease in the long term. It is therefore important to identify patients who need systemic treatment when topical treatments are no longer suitable. The decision to initiate a systemic treatment must be based on several factors that go well beyond the marketing authorisation and reimbursement of a drug. This approach involves a multidimensional assessment of the disease’s severity, in which scores have a place if they are feasible in practice and if they take into account the patient’s perception of their symptoms and the impact of the disease on their quality of life. Shared decision-making means that the expectations of the doctor and the patient (or the patient’s family in the case of children) can be harmonised, and a suitable and realistic therapeutic objective can be defined in a collaborative manner. Identifying a patient eligible for systemic treatment at an early stage requires appropriate training in primary care (general practitioner or paediatrician) and a good city-hospital cooperation for the dermatologist or allergist in order to facilitate the patient pathway and guarantee access to «the right treatment at the right time».

Rethinking organizational culture in intersectoral coordination: the perspective of boundary work

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to rethink the concept of organizational culture as something that emerges bottom-up by using the sociological concepts of boundary object and boundary work as an analytical lens and to show how this approach can help understand and facilitate intersectoral coordination.Design/methodology/approachWe used observations and qualitative interviews to develop “deep” knowledge about processes of intersectoral coordination. The study draws on a conceptual framework of “boundary work” and “boundary objects” to show how a bottom-up perspective on organizational culture can produce better understanding of and pave the way for intersectoral coordination. We use a case of health professionals engaged in two Danish intersectoral programs developing and providing health promotion services for women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).FindingsThe study showed how boundary work revolves around negotiations on how to define, understand and act on the diagnosis of GDM. This diagnosis has the characteristics of a “boundary object”, being more loosely structured in general terms, but strongly structured in local settings. Boundary objects help connect different professionals and facilitate coordination. The analysis showed how the introduction of time and the concept of “lifelong health promotion” helped to transgress existing organizational and professional boundaries.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings contribute to the literature on organizational culture and intersectoral coordination. We highlight the benefits of a practice-oriented, bottom-up perspective for a better understanding of how shared meaning is produced in cross professional coordination and collaboration. While the theoretical implications will be general applicable when studying organizational culture, the implications for practice are sensitive to context and the processes we have described as the outcomes of boundary work are generated from cases that were most likely to provide deep insight into our research topic.Practical implicationsFor practice this can build bridges between organizational and professional boundaries.Originality/valueThe findings contribute to the literature on organizational culture and intersectoral coordination. We highlight the benefits of a practice-oriented, bottom-up perspective for a better understanding of how shared meaning is produced in cross professional coordination. This may build bridges between organizational and professional boundaries in practice settings.

Relational work in an alternative food network: The fundamental role of shared meaning for organising markets differently

AbstractThis article studies the role of shared meaning for organising Alternative Food Networks (AFNs). Extant research shows that organisational elements, such as rules, and hybridisation of conventional and alternative modes of food provisioning are important for AFN organisation. Yet, they might both enable and hinder the aims of AFNs. Complementing this body of research, the article investigates how AFN participants work out the appropriate kind of organisation for realising ‘a promise of difference’. Introducing Zelizer's ‘relational work’, the article investigates how AFN participants foster a shared meaning of participating and thereby identify what practices are appropriate for its organisation. The analysis draws on extensive ethnographic materials from Swedish REKO‐rings (a direct marketing arrangement for local foods). The findings show how the REKO‐ring participants’ relational work negotiates and establishes shared meaning; what practices are appropriate and inappropriate for organising decent food provisioning. The study contributes to extant research by showing the fundamental role of shared (and discordant) meaning for the organisation of market‐based alternatives to the current food system.

Covid stories: A narrative exploration of experiences of the pandemic among members of an academic research group

A narrative longitudinal study of experiences and lessons learnt by an English academic research group during the COVID-19 pandemic. Members of the research group acted as both participants and researchers. Each member of the group wrote their own accounts of academic and personal experiences during the pandemic at two timepoints. Key lessons learnt included, Resilience, Redemption, Self-Discovery, Personal strategies, Academic skills, Realisation, Acceptance, and Resignation. At timepoint one, the stories were generally progressive and were best described as accounts of a journey. Performative aspects of the stories were found to include defended elements experienced as ‘holes’ in the narratives. At timepoint two, narratives were characterised by a sense of heaviness and ‘stuckness’ but a developing openness in the accounts and group discussions emerged. The research process was found to be therapeutic in supporting participants to create shared and personal meaning of events related to the pandemic, but also in developing a group identity, openness and shared bond.

When "more for others, less for self" leads to co-benefits: A tri-MRI dyad-hyperscanning study.

Unselfishness is admired, especially when collaborations between groups of various scales are urgently needed. However, its neural mechanisms remain elusive. In a tri-MRI dyad-hyperscanning experiment involving 26 groups, each containing 4 participants as two rotating pairs in a coordination game, we sought to achieve reciprocity, or "winning in turn by the two interacting players," as the precursor to unselfishness. Due to its critical role in social processing, the right temporal-parietal junction (rTPJ) was the seed for both time domain (connectivity) and frequency domain (i.e., coherence) analyses. For the former, negative connectivity between the rTPJ and the mentalizing network areas (e.g., the right inferior parietal lobule, rIPL) was identified, and such connectivity was further negatively correlated with the individual's final gain, supporting our task design that "rewarded" the reciprocal participants. For the latter, cerebral coherences of the rTPJs emerged between the interacting pairs (i.e., within-group interacting pairs), and the coupling between the rTPJ and the right superior temporal gyrus (rSTG) between the players who were not interacting with each other (i.e., within-group noninteracting pairs). These coherences reinforce the hypotheses that the rTPJ-rTPJ coupling tracks the collaboration processes and the rTPJ-rSTG coupling for the emergence of decontextualized shared meaning. Our results underpin two social roles (inferring others' behavior and interpreting social outcomes) subserved by the rTPJ-related network and highlight its interaction with other-self/other-concerning brain areas in reaching co-benefits among unselfish players.

Translating Person-Centered Care Policy Into Practice: A Pre-Post Study of a Work-Based Learning Intervention for Nurses.

Person-centered care is critical to quality health care, but difficult to implement. This challenge is attributed to cultural factors derived from group values about work practices. Work-based educational interventions allow nurses to develop shared meanings of practice, in this case, promoting the value of person-centered care. A 30-minute, work-based educational intervention incorporating reflection on videorecorded practice scenarios was evaluated with a quasi-experimental pre-post design. Nurses (N = 119) completed a survey, including a subset of 16 items from the Person-Centred Practice Inventory-Staff, before and immediately after the intervention. Nurses' awareness of what patients value about their care, the importance of connecting with the patient, and the value of integrating human elements into actions increased after the intervention. Nurses' perceptions of how they would include patients and their preferences in care decisions did not significantly change. Educational techniques that allow nursing teams to reflect on practice may help with implementation of person-centered care. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2024;55(6):303-308.].