Going Virtual

2001 ◽  
pp. 9-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magid Igbaria ◽  
Conrad Shayo ◽  
Lorne Olfman

In this chapter we examine the driving forces behind the growth of virtual societies and discuss existing arrangements and practices at the individual, group, organization, and community levels. We also examine the implications of how people will live and work in societies where these arrangements and practices are widespread and mixed with face-to-face relationships. Our discussion follows the model of virtual society presented in Figure 1. Figure 1 describes an evolutionary model conceptualizing an entire hierarchy for studying the virtual society and summarizes both the driving forces and arrangements that are critical components of this proposed framework. Specifically, this chapter is organized as follows: We first discuss the driving forces which include global economics, policies and politics, enlightened population, and information technology; second we describe existing arrangements and practices at the individual, group, organization, and community levels. Finally, we examine the dilemmas and implications of the virtual society on peoples’ lives and work.

Author(s):  
Huei-Chen Hsu

The main points of this chapter are probing for the combination of information technology and virtual work, and how to change the distribution of different types of knowledge across individuals, teams, and even the organization. The discussion in the chapter will assess the dynamics between the individual, the organization, and information technology in the context of teams that vary in their virtualness. Information technology can make convenient spread of knowledge across the organization; even the point of making virtual teams a viable alternative to face-to-face work. However, unless managed, information technology may destabilize the relationship between organizations and their employees when it comes to the transform of knowledge. Therefore, this chapter advances theory and informs practice by illustrating the dynamics of knowledge development and transfer in more and less virtual teams.


2010 ◽  
pp. 1643-1662
Author(s):  
Huei-Chen Hsu

The main points of this chapter are probing for the combination of information technology and virtual work, and how to change the distribution of different types of knowledge across individuals, teams, and even the organization. The discussion in the chapter will assess the dynamics between the individual, the organization, and information technology in the context of teams that vary in their virtualness. Information technology can make convenient spread of knowledge across the organization; even the point of making virtual teams a viable alternative to face-to-face work. However, unless managed, information technology may destabilize the relationship between organizations and their employees when it comes to the transform of knowledge. Therefore, this chapter advances theory and informs practice by illustrating the dynamics of knowledge development and transfer in more and less virtual teams.


2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgia N. L. Johnston

Working with faith communities in health promotion is widely acclaimed and yet not readily practiced. This article describes a study conducted among four faith communities to determine the process required for sustainable faith-based programs. Face-to-face interviews were conducted among 12 community volunteers who participated to identify their perceptions of the project. Two staff members were also interviewed to identify the process from their perspectives. Project-related documents were also analyzed to provide details and triangulate the data from the interviews. The study followed the project for 2 ½ years. Several factors were identified as significant influences on participation and project sustainability. These included value, active pastoral support, program success, and volunteer commitment. The results of this study indicate that pastoral support and faith community ownership are critical components that should be included in faith-based community building efforts.


Author(s):  
Ursula Renz

This chapter discusses the implications of Spinoza’s concept of individual bodies, as introduced in the definition of individuum in the physical digression. It begins by showing that this definition allows for an extremely wide application of the term; accordingly, very different sorts of physical entities can be described as Spinozistic individuals. Given the quite distinct use of the terms divisibilis and indivisibilis in his metaphysics, however, the chapter argues that the physical concept of individuality is not universally applied in the Ethics but reserved for physical or natural-philosophical considerations. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the problem of collective individuals. It is argued that, while societies or states are described as individual bodies, they do not constitute individual group minds in the strict sense of the term for Spinoza. This in turn indicates that minds are not individuated in the same way as bodies.


Author(s):  
Jennifer Lackey

Groups are often said to bear responsibility for their actions, many of which have enormous moral, legal, and social significance. The Trump Administration, for instance, is said to be responsible for the U.S.’s inept and deceptive handling of COVID-19 and the harms that American citizens have suffered as a result. But are groups subject to normative assessment simply in virtue of their individual members being so, or are they somehow agents in their own right? Answering this question depends on understanding key concepts in the epistemology of groups, as we cannot hold the Trump Administration responsible without first determining what it believed, knew, and said. Deflationary theorists hold that group phenomena can be understood entirely in terms of individual members and their states. Inflationary theorists maintain that group phenomena are importantly over and above, or otherwise distinct from, individual members and their states. It is argued that neither approach is satisfactory. Groups are more than their members, but not because they have “minds of their own,” as the inflationists hold. Instead, this book shows how group phenomena—like belief, justification, and knowledge—depend on what the individual group members do or are capable of doing while being subject to group-level normative requirements. This framework, it is argued, allows for the correct distribution of responsibility across groups and their individual members.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 3887
Author(s):  
María Luisa Sein-Echaluce ◽  
Angel Fidalgo-Blanco ◽  
Francisco José García-Peñalvo ◽  
David Fonseca

Active educational methodologies promote students to take an active role in their own learning, enhance cooperative work, and develop a collective understanding of the subject as a common learning area. Cloud Computing enables the learning space to be supported while also revolutionizing it by allowing it to be used as a link between active methodology and students’ learning activities. A Cloud Computing system is used in conjunction with an active methodology to recognize and manage individual, group, and collective evidence of the students’ work in this research. The key hypothesis shown in this work is that if evidence management is made clear and evidence is consistently and gradually presented to students, their level of involvement will increase, and their learning outcomes will improve. The model was implemented in a university subject of a first academic year using the active Flipped Classroom methodology, and the individual, group and collective evidence is constantly worked with throughout the implementation of a teamwork method.


Author(s):  
Alicja Niedźwiecka

AbstractEye contact is a crucial aspect of social interactions that may enhance an individual’s cognitive performance (i.e. the eye contact effect) or hinder it (i.e. face-to-face interference effect). In this paper, I focus on the influence of eye contact on cognitive performance in tasks engaging executive functions. I present a hypothesis as to why some individuals benefit from eye contact while others do not. I propose that the relations between eye contact and executive functioning are modulated by an individual’s autonomic regulation and reactivity and self-regulation of attention. In particular, I propose that individuals with more optimal autonomic regulation and reactivity, and more effective self-regulation of attention benefit from eye contact. Individuals who are less well regulated and over- or under-reactive and who do not employ effective strategies of self-regulation of attention may not benefit from eye contact and may perform better when eye contact is absent. I present some studies that justify the proposed hypothesis and point to a method that could be employed to test them. This approach could help to better understand the complex mechanisms underlying the individual differences in participant’s cognitive performance during tasks engaging executive functions.


2021 ◽  
pp. 053331642199231
Author(s):  
Anne Aiyegbusi

Group analysis privileges the social and political, aiming to address individual distress and ‘disturbance’ within a representation of the context it developed and persists in. Reproducing the presence and impact of racism in groups comes easily while creating conditions for reparation can be complicated. This is despite considerable contributions to the subject of racism by group analysts. By focusing on an unconscious, defensive manoeuvre I have observed in groups when black people describe racism in their lives, I hope to build upon the existing body of work. I will discuss the manoeuvre which I call the white mirror. I aim to theoretically elucidate the white mirror. I will argue that it can be understood as a vestigial trauma response with roots as far back as the invention of ‘race’. Through racialized sedimentation in the social unconscious, it has been generationally transmitted into the present day. It emerges in an exacerbated way within the amplified space of analytic groups when there is ethnically-diverse membership. I argue it is inevitable and even essential that racism emerges in groups as a manifestation of members’ racialized social unconscious including that of the conductor(s). This potentially offers opportunities for individual, group and societal reparation and healing. However, when narratives of racism are instead pushed to one side, regarded as a peripheral issue of concern only to minority black or other members of colour, I ask whether systems of segregation, ghettoization or colonization are replicated in analytic groups. This is the first of two articles about the white mirror. The second article which is also published in this issue highlights practice implications.


2021 ◽  
pp. 69-70
Author(s):  
Pakanati Sujana ◽  
Venkata Mahesh Gandhavalla ◽  
K. Prabhakara Rao

Introduction: COVID19 is caused by SARS-CoV-2 which is primarily transmitted through respiratory droplets and contact routes. WHO recommended the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) for prevention and N95 respirators are critical components of PPE. Breathing through N95 respirator will impart stress in the individual and that can be assessed by heart rate variability (HRV). HRV measures the variation in time between each heartbeat controlled by autonomic nervous system (ANS), which is a non invasive reliable index to identify the ANS imbalances. Aims And Objectives: This study is aimed at assessing the HRV of Interns working in COVID19 wards using N95 respirators. Methodology: This study included 100 interns in whom short term HRV was recorded using the standard protocol. Lead II of ECG was recorded using AD instruments (ADI) 8channel polygraph and HRV was analysed using Labchart 8pro software. The recordings were taken before and 1hour after wearing N95 respirator. Results: Overall HRV (SDRR) was found to decrease signicantly after wearing N95 respirator for 1hr (p=0.000). Similarly, indices representing the parasympathetic component ( RMSSD and HF ) were also found to decrease signicantly with the use of N95 respirator. Low frequency (LF) power and LF/HF ratio increased signicantly with N95 respirator use (p=0.000). Conclusion: We conclude that using N95 respirator increased sympathetic activity reecting decreased HRV in our subjects Hence we recommend that it is better to change the duty pattern for interns.


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