Relational dimensions, motivation and knowledge-sharing in healthcare: a perspective from relational models theory

This study investigates the relational dimensions that shape clinicians' intentionality and motivation for knowledge-sharing. Qualitative data was collected from 40 clinicians in two hospitals, and relational models theory was used to investigate the impact of different relational models (communal-sharing, authority-ranking, equality-matching and market-pricing) on clinicians' intentionality and motivation to engage in knowledge and learning. While communal-sharing and expert-based authority–ranking relationships predominantly encourage intra-professional knowledge-sharing, equality-matching encourages inter-professional knowledge-sharing. This implies that while the idea is to work together to improve public service quality, each actor has their own interests and is motivated to share knowledge for different collective and/or personal reasons/agendas. In the public sector, formal authority-ranking and market-pricing are the main driving forces of coordination of actions and knowledge flow, through the medium of money and trade. Despite this, power games and a lack of support from those in positions of authority and ignorance of potential conflicts of interest, as well as extrinsic motivators, hamper knowledge-sharing, all of which threaten patient safety. Points for practitioners In pursuit of public service improvement, a focus on fostering an organizational culture that promotes collective behaviour, especially among those in authority, is crucial, given that their lack of support retards knowledge-sharing. For effective knowledge-sharing, both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators are equally important depending on the relational model.

Kama Muta as a Eudaimonic Entertainment Experience

This chapter expands on commonly defined emotional eudaimonic entertainment experiences by introducing the universal emotion of kama muta, which is a Sanskrit term for feeling “moved by love.” The chapter situates kama muta within the larger context of eudaimonic entertainment and explores its antecedents, processes, and effects based on the relational models theory. Theoretical comparisons between the relational models theory and Haidt’s moral emotions model are made with respect to kama muta. Conclusions about the study of kama muta as a self-transcendent entertainment experience within different media contexts (social media, film, news), and its effects for society (connectedness, outgroup humanization) are drawn.

Social Relationships

Chapter 8 explores the ways culture shapes our social relationships. It discusses relational models theory, conditions for forming friendships, culture-specific and cross-cultural studies on friendship, physical attractiveness and beauty, cultural constructions, and culture-specific and cross-cultural studies on physical attractiveness and beauty. It addresses mate choice, love, Sternberg’s triangular theory of love, romantic love across cultures, and love and marriage. Finally, it examines the number of possible marriage partners, social practices for choosing a marriage partner, costs and benefits of marriage, intercultural weddings, migration and marriage, culture-specific studies on marriage and cultural change, marital happiness, and child marriages. This chapter includes a case study, Culture Across Disciplines box, chapter summary, key terms, a What Do Other Disciplines Do? section, thought-provoking questions, and class and experiential activities.

Social status as magnitude: The distance effect and size effect in social hierarchies

Thesis type: Bachelor of Arts, PsychologyAuthor: Jostein HolmgrenSupervisor: Thomas Wolfgang SchubertGrade: A (Highest obtainable)Institution: Department of Psychology, University of OsloSocial status is a core feature of human social life. Recently, researchers have begun exploring a possible link between the processing of social status and physical dimensions. Drawing on several theoretical frameworks, including Relational Models Theory, embodied cognition, and the Analog Magnitude System (AMS), the author argues for social status being a dimension processed similarly to physical magnitudes. The present study replicates previous findings of a distance effect typical of magnitudes in the domain of social status, and offers novel evidence for a size effect. Although with limitations, the evidence suggests that social status is processed as any other dimension in the AMS.

Ideological shift and employees’ relationships: evidence from Ukraine

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the employees’ identities shift in Ukraine based on the relational model theory. The paper concentrates on the role which culture and history play in the use of relational models in firms on different organizational levels. Design/methodology/approach The proposed hypotheses were tested by multivariate analysis of variance and covariance tests with the data from 99 surveys of Ukrainian firms describing 219 intraorganizational relationships. Findings The results showed that culture and history play a significant role for the preference of a certain relational model. Position in the organization and gender influence the choice of the relational model. Research limitations/implications The sample of only Ukrainian employees restricts generalizability of the results. This study applies relational models theory in business domain and provides an alternative explanation of employees’ identities shift due to cultural differences and ideological past. Relational models are investigated on different organizational levels shedding light on models of relationships employees prefer in different settings. Practical implications Managers working in international settings should pay more attention to patterns of relationships in the target country since they are not freely chosen but partially predestined by the cultural background and the historical and ideological past. Relationships in firms are path dependent, whereby employees inherit models from their peers to apply them to their subordinates. Ukrainian female and male employees have different preferences concerning relational models. Originality/value This study is unique in that it applies an anthropological theory to relationships on different organizational levels and tests it in a business domain of a country in an ideological transition.

Assessing the risks and opportunities in corporate art sponsorship arrangements using Fiske’s Relational Models Theory

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address a particular tension in arts marketing, that is, the ongoing search for balance between achieving artistic excellence and financial stability, while keeping work accessible and satisfying a range of stakeholders, public and private. Design/methodology/approach – Using Fiske’s (1992) relational models theory as a framework to categorize different modes of exchange between a sponsor and an arts organization, this paper focusses on the varied nature of interactions between parties. Findings – Drawing on data from a longitudinal case study, the authors evaluate the many opportunities and risks associated with sponsorship arrangements and to explore how these become manifest and potentially resolved within the relational structure over time. Moreover, the authors examine how an arts marketer can employ particular relational models of exchange to mitigate the risks of another model which is operational within the sponsorship. Research limitations/implications – The aim of this paper is to consider the variety of exchange ongoing in long-term sponsorship arrangements, and in using Fiske’s RM theory, to identify the risk and opportunities associated with these exchanges. The case study examined here is, of course, idiosyncratic in terms of people, time and place. However, what is general, and what the authors wish to draw attention to, is how managers can employ different models of exchange to mitigate risks arising out of the dominance of any one model in the sponsorship relationship. Practical implications – For executives involved in the management of sponsorship relationships, a rich understanding of their risks and opportunities is important. For example, rather than assuming that market-based considerations or social bonds to be either wholly positive or negative, in this paper the authors have demonstrated that each can have an important role in the dynamic of sponsorship relationships. Therefore, for example, while strong social bonds will mitigate the risks of market-based mechanisms, the risks of social bonds themselves can be balanced through appropriate intermittent recourse to market-based mechanisms. In any specific sponsorship arrangement it will become a matter of balance, and a development of understanding of the role of market, hierarchical, reciprocal and communal dimensions associated with long-term relationships. Originality/value – In this regard, the authors offer six propositions, which capture the mitigation and enhancement of risks and opportunities, respectively, as well as considerations for relationship dynamics arising from the analysis.