Understanding Preferences in Tourism Email Marketing

Nowadays, advanced tools allow the personalization of email communication with tourism clients or prospects based on explicit (e.g. name, age, language, country) and implicit indicators (e.g. ranking of activity in the opening rate of the newsletter, browsing preferences, online preferences provided by cookies, etc.). However, knowing how audiences react to emails allows Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) to create content clusters for personalized communication. The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the preferences on tourism email marketing of different audiences based on a specific explicit indicator, namely the language chosen by users to receive communications by a DMO. A content analysis on a longitudinal dataset based on 131 newsletter messages sent between 2018 and 2021 to more than 50′000 contacts by a DMO in Switzerland was performed. Results show that content should be adapted to different audiences speaking different languages instead of providing just a translation. Specifically, the German-speaking audience seems to be more inclined to messages that focus on winter sports and hiking, the Italian-speaking audience to news about hiking and information on COVID-19, the French-speaking audience to news about promotions, while the English-speaking audience to contents on discounts and COVID-19-related. These results provide an important contribution to studies on tourism personalization of communication in the context of email marketing, suggesting the role of content adaptation according to the language and cultural background of the audience. DMO managers can also benefit from this research in understanding how to address a similar study on their datasets and compare the emerged content clusters.

EFL learners and English email writing: developing a computerised diagnostic language assessment

Email remains a key mode of communication between faculty and students in higher education institutions. Composing appropriate email texts is an important skill for learners; however, little technological support is available for the pragmatic aspect of email communication – the ways in which social context influences language choices. Furthermore, pragmatics can be undertaught in the language classroom. One approach to providing support for learners while also addressing the issue of giving instruction to large class sizes is via computerisation. In this ongoing research project, we describe the development of a Computerised Diagnostic Language Assessment (C-DLA) of L2 English email writing for Japanese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in Japanese higher education. The C-DLA provides automated feedback to learners on the pragmatic aspects of their draft email texts, with feedback adapting to learners’ success in resolving identified issues. We report on the development phases of the project, challenges encountered, and implications for further research.

Increasing oxygen prescribing during the COVID-19 pandemic

Valid oxygen prescriptions for hospital inpatients have been a long-standing problem and have been described extensively in BMJ Open Quality with numerous quality improvement projects (QIPs) with the aim of improving compliance with oxygen prescribing.The British Thoracic Society recommends that all inpatients should have oxygen target saturation set on admission: this is motivated by risks of both undertreatment and overtreatment with oxygen. The discrepancy between the recommendation and the reality produced a number of interventions studied in QIPs over the past years, all aiming at bringing the local ward teams closer to the target. This has become even more important during the COVID-19 pandemic, where non-standard oxygen saturation targets and oxygen scarcity led hospital systems to rethink their internal guidelines on the subject.We propose three novel interventions to improve compliance: a remote, personally directed email communication to a ward pharmacist, a similar communication to ward nurses, and a remote, personally directed WhatsApp communication to junior ward doctors. We undertake a QIP which compares novel interventions developed in-house with the most successful interventions from oxygen prescribing initiatives that have previously been published by BMJ Open Quality. The main outcome measure was the proportion of patients with valid oxygen prescription on a ward.The series of novel interventions in three plan, do study, act cycles led to improvement in the outcome measure from 0% at baseline to 70% at the end of the QIP. The successful interventions from previous QIPs were ran in parallel on a similar ward and achieved improvement from 17.9% at baseline to 55.6% at the end of the QIP.This QIP demonstrates adapted interventions performed in context of social distancing aimed at members of multidisciplinary team which achieve superiority in increasing proportion of patients with a valid oxygen prescription, when compared with previously described methods from BMJ Open Quality.

An Algorithm for Improving Email Security on the Android Operating System in the Industry 4.0 Era

The world is attesting a tremendous change today, which is remarkably coined as industry 4.0. With several technologies shaping industry 4.0 epoch, notably, its cybersecurity entails the security of communication and network operations activities. The most common form of communication in organisations and business today is electronic mails (email). One of the major threats to email communication is the lack of confidentiality for emails accessed via Android mobile devices due to the weaknesses of the Android operating system (OS) platform. In this study, an algorithm was designed and implemented on an Android application that allows an email sender to compose an email and set the time the email stays in the receiver inbox before it automatically wipes off. Primary data were collected from email users using tightly structured questionnaires and respondents comprised of those with email technical background and typical email users, while secondary data from scholarly journals and articles informed the study design. The designed algorithm was tested and evaluated through expert opinion. The result of the study indicates that the autowipe algorithm addresses the confidentiality issues and threats on Android email clients.

Workplace email communication in New Zealand and Malaysia: Three case studies

<p>This thesis is an analysis of authentic communication between professionals at work in three workplaces (Company NZ1, NZ2 and M). The research involves a contrastive study of internal emails in two different countries (New Zealand and Malaysia) with very distinct cultures. In addition to the email corpus comprising 1745 emails, the analysis is supported by data collected using a mixed-methods approach: fieldwork observations, a questionnaire and interviews. The analysis suggests that workplace culture influences people’s linguistic and non-linguistic behaviours. A Community of Practice (CofP) approach provided insights into characteristics of workplace culture such as the participants' behaviours, language, values and beliefs. This approach also facilitated analysis of how these behaviours were negotiated among the staff members, and how practices were established to signify membership of communities of practice. Using an adapted version of Speech Act Theory, the email messages were coded initially for their main communicative function. The next layer of analysis involved exploring the interpersonal and power dimensions of the communicative function of making requests. To this end, Spencer-Oatey's Rapport Theory was applied as the primary theoretical framework and Halliday's three metafunctions were also used to interpret the emails. The analysis indicated that all three workplaces use email for the same communicative functions, but the proportions of usage differed. In the New Zealand workplaces, providing information is the predominant function, followed by making requests. By contrast, making requests dominates the use of email in the Malaysian workplace. The analysis demonstrates that rapport is managed differently in the three communities of practice. The greater use of informal greetings and closings and various linguistic strategies such as modalised interrogatives and mitigating devices in one New Zealand workplace suggests that participants are attending to rapport, and that they are aware of the importance of maintaining harmonious collegial relationships when making requests of their work colleagues. On the other hand, a greater use of formal greetings and closings, bare imperatives and boosting devices in the Malaysian workplace suggests the converse. Furthermore, the analysis indicates that rapport is managed quite differently even when participants are from the same country (New Zealand) which practises an egalitarian culture. The analysis also demonstrates how superiors and subordinates 'do' power and construct authority through the use of various linguistic strategies, such as imperative mood, use of the personal pronoun ‘I’, and boosting devices. The greater use of these linguistic strategies in the other New Zealand workplace and the Malaysian workplace suggests that more importance was placed on getting the job done than on maintaining rapport. In addition, the analysis identifies different attitudes towards the manifestation of power. In New Zealand where egalitarianism is highly valued, an overt display of power could damage work relationships. By contrast, in Malaysia, inequality in power is accepted as normal. People do not question superiors' authority, rights and entitlement to privileges. Recognising such culturally different values proved important in interpreting the data. To conclude, this research illustrates how the use of a rapport management framework can provide new insights in relation to online workplace communication. Email not only 'does' power and performs transactional work, it also accomplishes relational work. Furthermore, the CofP approach provides insights concerning how each workplace establishes different linguistic and non-linguistic practices which form the basis of a distinct workplace culture. Finally, the analysis makes a contribution to the field of email communication from a cross-cultural perspective.</p>

Workplace email communication in New Zealand and Malaysia: Three case studies

<p>This thesis is an analysis of authentic communication between professionals at work in three workplaces (Company NZ1, NZ2 and M). The research involves a contrastive study of internal emails in two different countries (New Zealand and Malaysia) with very distinct cultures. In addition to the email corpus comprising 1745 emails, the analysis is supported by data collected using a mixed-methods approach: fieldwork observations, a questionnaire and interviews. The analysis suggests that workplace culture influences people’s linguistic and non-linguistic behaviours. A Community of Practice (CofP) approach provided insights into characteristics of workplace culture such as the participants' behaviours, language, values and beliefs. This approach also facilitated analysis of how these behaviours were negotiated among the staff members, and how practices were established to signify membership of communities of practice. Using an adapted version of Speech Act Theory, the email messages were coded initially for their main communicative function. The next layer of analysis involved exploring the interpersonal and power dimensions of the communicative function of making requests. To this end, Spencer-Oatey's Rapport Theory was applied as the primary theoretical framework and Halliday's three metafunctions were also used to interpret the emails. The analysis indicated that all three workplaces use email for the same communicative functions, but the proportions of usage differed. In the New Zealand workplaces, providing information is the predominant function, followed by making requests. By contrast, making requests dominates the use of email in the Malaysian workplace. The analysis demonstrates that rapport is managed differently in the three communities of practice. The greater use of informal greetings and closings and various linguistic strategies such as modalised interrogatives and mitigating devices in one New Zealand workplace suggests that participants are attending to rapport, and that they are aware of the importance of maintaining harmonious collegial relationships when making requests of their work colleagues. On the other hand, a greater use of formal greetings and closings, bare imperatives and boosting devices in the Malaysian workplace suggests the converse. Furthermore, the analysis indicates that rapport is managed quite differently even when participants are from the same country (New Zealand) which practises an egalitarian culture. The analysis also demonstrates how superiors and subordinates 'do' power and construct authority through the use of various linguistic strategies, such as imperative mood, use of the personal pronoun ‘I’, and boosting devices. The greater use of these linguistic strategies in the other New Zealand workplace and the Malaysian workplace suggests that more importance was placed on getting the job done than on maintaining rapport. In addition, the analysis identifies different attitudes towards the manifestation of power. In New Zealand where egalitarianism is highly valued, an overt display of power could damage work relationships. By contrast, in Malaysia, inequality in power is accepted as normal. People do not question superiors' authority, rights and entitlement to privileges. Recognising such culturally different values proved important in interpreting the data. To conclude, this research illustrates how the use of a rapport management framework can provide new insights in relation to online workplace communication. Email not only 'does' power and performs transactional work, it also accomplishes relational work. Furthermore, the CofP approach provides insights concerning how each workplace establishes different linguistic and non-linguistic practices which form the basis of a distinct workplace culture. Finally, the analysis makes a contribution to the field of email communication from a cross-cultural perspective.</p>

The Role, Status and Style of Workplace Email: a Study of Two New Zealand Workplaces

<p>This thesis discusses ethnographic research carried out in two very different workplaces, one a manufacturing plant, the other an educational organisation, to explore the relationship between the organisational or workplace culture and the role, status and style of email. The research was concerned with looking at the specific functions of email alongside other means of communicating at work and how it was perceived by its users and receivers compared to these other means of communication. It also investigated when and why email was the preferred medium of workplace communication and some of its distinctive stylistic features. In addition to relating these latter to the workplace culture, the effect on email style of sociolinguistic variables was also explored. Pragmatic theories provided the framework for analysing the data which was interpreted from a social interactionist, social constructionist perspective. A combined corpora of 515 email messages provided the primary linguistic data. This was supplemented by quantitative survey data and qualitative data from observations, two diaries of reflective practice, interviews, and recordings of four people's communicative interactions over one workday. The messages were coded initially for communicative function and then, in order to explore the affective aspect of email communication, for mitigational and boosting elements. In addition to the above, a qualitative analysis of a thread of email messages was undertaken to demonstrate how email communication is used in knowledge creation. The study found that there was little difference between the two organisations in the communicative functions for which email is used. In both, the transmission and seeking of information is its predominant use followed by the making of requests. However, the two workplaces differed considerably in the use made of email which is shown to be essentially a whitecollar mode of communication. But even in the educational organisation where email is used extensively, face-to-face remains the preferred form of communication and dominates communication time. The type of organisation also seems to affect the way in which email messages are written. Email messages from the manufacturing plant displayed more features of solidarity than those from the educational organisation. There was a much higher use of greetings in these messages and more direct language forms. The messages were also longer. There was also a difference between the two workplaces in male and female style. Women in the educational organisation wrote longer messages and used more affective features in their emails than their male counterparts. The converse was true in the manufacturing plant. Stylistically, email directives were seen, in general, to lie midway between the mainly direct forms of spoken communication and the mainly indirect forms of other types of written communication. The study also found that as part of its communicative functions, email plays an important role in organisational knowledge creation, and that in addition to being a useful communication tool assisting in the functional work of an organisation, it does considerable relational work. This has implications for the way in which email messages are written.</p>

The Role, Status and Style of Workplace Email: a Study of Two New Zealand Workplaces

<p>This thesis discusses ethnographic research carried out in two very different workplaces, one a manufacturing plant, the other an educational organisation, to explore the relationship between the organisational or workplace culture and the role, status and style of email. The research was concerned with looking at the specific functions of email alongside other means of communicating at work and how it was perceived by its users and receivers compared to these other means of communication. It also investigated when and why email was the preferred medium of workplace communication and some of its distinctive stylistic features. In addition to relating these latter to the workplace culture, the effect on email style of sociolinguistic variables was also explored. Pragmatic theories provided the framework for analysing the data which was interpreted from a social interactionist, social constructionist perspective. A combined corpora of 515 email messages provided the primary linguistic data. This was supplemented by quantitative survey data and qualitative data from observations, two diaries of reflective practice, interviews, and recordings of four people's communicative interactions over one workday. The messages were coded initially for communicative function and then, in order to explore the affective aspect of email communication, for mitigational and boosting elements. In addition to the above, a qualitative analysis of a thread of email messages was undertaken to demonstrate how email communication is used in knowledge creation. The study found that there was little difference between the two organisations in the communicative functions for which email is used. In both, the transmission and seeking of information is its predominant use followed by the making of requests. However, the two workplaces differed considerably in the use made of email which is shown to be essentially a whitecollar mode of communication. But even in the educational organisation where email is used extensively, face-to-face remains the preferred form of communication and dominates communication time. The type of organisation also seems to affect the way in which email messages are written. Email messages from the manufacturing plant displayed more features of solidarity than those from the educational organisation. There was a much higher use of greetings in these messages and more direct language forms. The messages were also longer. There was also a difference between the two workplaces in male and female style. Women in the educational organisation wrote longer messages and used more affective features in their emails than their male counterparts. The converse was true in the manufacturing plant. Stylistically, email directives were seen, in general, to lie midway between the mainly direct forms of spoken communication and the mainly indirect forms of other types of written communication. The study also found that as part of its communicative functions, email plays an important role in organisational knowledge creation, and that in addition to being a useful communication tool assisting in the functional work of an organisation, it does considerable relational work. This has implications for the way in which email messages are written.</p>