Public Trust in Nonprofit Organizations (NPOs): Aggregation levels of NPO trust at stakeholder side and conceptual objects of trust at NPO side

Public trust in nonprofit organizations (NPOs) is the extent that stakeholders consider nonprofit organizations reliable and truthful to what they do and communicate. Concretely, this means that stakeholders believe that nonprofits’ acts conform to their goals, including that these nonprofit organizations do not produce profit for personal and/or private gains (Hansmann, 1987). The public aspect of public trust in nonprofit organizations focuses on the aggregated trust perceptions – or shared cognition – from several relevant stakeholder groups, like beneficiaries, donors, funders, volunteers, employees, and collaboration partners, such as government agencies, businesses, and other nonprofit organizations. Hence, individual stakeholders can trust NPOs to a different extent, depending on various factors, such as their concrete stakeholder role towards the organization, earlier experiences, personal needs and preferences, and access to information about the nonprofit organization (Becker et al., 2020). The aggregated concept of public trust in nonprofits is the extent to which these individual trust perceptions are shared within larger stakeholder groups.

Enhancing online protocols through design-based research to improve cognitive presence in a large enrolment course

Instructors face challenges in facilitating higher levels of shared cognition in large enrolment classes. One strategy to foster shared cognition is the use of asynchronous discussions; however, these can be difficult to support with large numbers of students. Online protocols have been found to help students take more ownership of the discussion, reducing the workload of instructors and thus may be helpful in this context. The purpose of this study was to determine the most effective design of online protocols in large enrolment classes. The study used a design-based research methodology to iteratively design, assess and refine the online protocols and the design principles of its underlying protocol pedagogy. Participants for this study were 1,286 students enrolled in a blended undergraduate class in business that used online protocols for discussions over three semesters. The paper describes how iterative changes in the design of protocol-based discussions influenced students' cognitive presence. Students’ perceptions of cognitive presence were significantly higher in the second and third iterations, and the concepts shared by group members were significantly more integrated by the third iteration. Findings suggest that with careful design, these enhanced protocols are a potentially useful strategy to facilitate asynchronous online discussions in large classes. Implications for practice or policy: Students need additional incentives to actively participate in large enrolment courses. Instructors can use peer questioning to increase shared cognition in large enrolment courses. Instructors should create concise directions with modelling of exemplary posts to help reduce confusion. Students in large enrolment courses benefit from additional scaffolding of norms to foster a sense of trust. Design-based research provides an effective methodology to examine both theoretical and practical implications of online protocols on cognitive presence.

Healthcare Professionals’ Perceptions of Function-Focused Care Education for Nursing Home Practitioners

A nursing home (NH) care environment necessitates a shared cognition-based education model that maintains effective function-focused care (FFC). This study’s aim was to explore healthcare professionals’ perceptions of function-focused care education for the development of an education model using a shared mental model (SMM) in NHs. Semi-structured interviews with 30 interdisciplinary practitioners from four different professions (nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and social workers) and focus group interviews with 12 experts were conducted. Data were analyzed using content analysis, and the education model development was guided by the shared mental models for data interpretation and formation. Our FFC interdisciplinary educational model incorporates four key learning components: learning contents, educational activities, educational goals/outcome, and environment, and four types of SMMs: team, task, team interaction, and equipment. As for educational contents, a team’s competencies with FFC were found to be team knowledge (physical and psychosocial functional care), team skills to perform FFC successfully (motivation, coaching and supporting, managing discomfort), and team attitude (possessing philosophy perceptions regarding FFC). As for learning outcomes, the shared cognition-based education model suggests not only the evaluation of practitioners, but also the assessment of residents’ aspects.

The Effect of a Concept Mapping Intervention on Shared Cognition and Adaptive Team Performance Over Time

Research has demonstrated the value of team adaptation for organizational teams. However, empirical work on interventions that teams can take to increase adaptive team performance is scarce. In response, this study proposes a concept mapping intervention as a way to increase teams’ ability to adapt following a task change. Particularly, this study examines the effect of a concept mapping intervention on team transition adaptation (the drop in performance after a change) and reacquisition adaptation (the slope of performance after the change) via its effect on task mental models and transactive memory systems. We conducted a longitudinal experimental study of 44 three-person teams working on an emergency management simulation. Findings suggest that the concept mapping intervention promotes reacquisition adaptation, task mental models, and transactive memory systems. Results also suggest that task mental models mediate the effect of the concept mapping intervention on reacquisition adaptation. A post hoc analysis suggests that the concept mapping intervention is only effective if it leads to high task mental model accuracy. Our study presents concept mapping as a practical intervention to promote shared cognition and reacquisition adaptation.

A Theory of Strategic Uncertainty and Cultural Diversity

We identify a new mechanism through which cultural diversity affects economic outcomes, based on a model of culture as shared cognition. Under this view, cultural diversity matters because it increases strategic uncertainty. The model can help better understand a variety of disparate evidence, including why homogeneous societies can be more conformist, why diverse societies may get stuck in a low-trust trap, why companies with a strong culture may fail to adopt superior work practices, and why autocratic rulers in diverse societies may overinvest in state capacity.

Shared cognition in intercultural teams: collaborating without understanding each other

Purpose Severe misunderstandings have been proved to cause significant delays and financial overruns in large engineering projects with teams consisting of people from Western and Asian cultures. The purpose of this study was to determine if differences in shared cognition may explain some of the crucial misunderstandings in intercultural production teams. Design/methodology/approach The study has used systematizing the person–group relationship (SPGR) survey methodology, supported by interviews, to study mental models in six South Korean teams that also includes Norwegian engineers (52 individuals). In so doing, the study uses the theoretical framework of Healey et al. (2015), where X-mental representations involve actions that are automated and subconscious and C-mental representations involve actions that are verbalized reasonings and conscious. People may share mental models on the X-level without sharing on the C-level, depicting a situation where teams are coordinated without understanding why (surface discordance). Findings The findings of the study are that people with different cultural backgrounds in an intercultural team may learn to adapt to each other when the context is standardized, without necessarily understanding underlying meanings and intentions behind actions (surface discordance). This may create a perception about team members not needing to explicate opinions (sharing at the C-level). This in turn may create challenges in anomalous situations, where deliberate sharing of C-mental models is required to find new solutions and/or admit errors so that they may be adjusted. The findings indicate that the non-sharing of explicated reasonings (C-mental models) between Norwegians and Koreans contributed in sharing C-mental models, despite having an implicit agreement on how to perform standard tasks (sharing X-mental models). Research limitations/implications The study is limited to Norwegians and Koreans working in production teams. Future studies could benefit from more cultures and/or different team contexts. The authors’ believe that the findings may also concern other standardized environments and corroborate previous perspectives on intercultural teams needing to both train (develop similar X-mental representations) and reflect together (develop similar C-mental representations). Practical implications Based on our findings we suggest the using of cross-cultural training at a deeper level than previously suggested, training in both social interaction patterns as well as verbalizing logical reasoning together. This entails reaching a shared and joint understanding of not only actions but also values, feelings and teamwork functions. This can be enabled by group conversations and training in dynamic team patterns. Important is, however, that standardized contexts may dampen the perception of the need to do both. Originality/value The study contributes to current research on intercultural teams by focusing on a dual-mode perspective on shared cognition, relating these to contextual factors. In this, the authors’ answer the call in previous research for more information on contextual matters and a focus on interaction in intercultural teams. The study also shows how the differences between X-mental and C-mental shared mental models play out in a practical setting.

FACILITATING COLLABORATION IN ONLINE LEARNING

Collaboration entails working together toward a common goal, but what is the common goal we want students to work toward in classes? What kinds of interactions and outcomes do we value as collaboration, and how do we facilitate them? This paper addresses these questions, beginning with an examination of research on groups, community, and shared cognition that inform collaboration, and then addressing what we mean when by collaboration. Three questions define the discussion: Why do we emphasize collaboration and try to engage students in collaborative activities and collaborative learning? What outcomes do we expect from collaboration in terms of how students interact, tasks are conducted, learning accomplished, and knowledge created? How does communication differ online from offline, and how does the difference affect collaboration? Each section ends with some recommendations on how to facilitate collaboration, and the paper concludes with a brief summary and some key concepts for facilitating collaborative activity.