PCs and proble
Contents Feature Stories Communication students tackle online conflict English prof publishes book on Daytime TV Alum’s cross-country project aims to unite Biology prof wins grant to preserve kelp UWM Physicists tackle a black hole mystery Anthroplogy prof helps preserve monkeys
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Communication
You’ve downloaded Zoom. You’ve logged in to your work meeting. You’ve navigated your microphone and video settings and somehow managed to change your background. Now comes the hard part: Communication. Online group meetings are subject to the same pitfalls and miscommunications of face-to-face groups, perhaps even more so. Jessica Kahlow As the world rushed online to virtual meeting spaces during the coronavirus pandemic, two UWM graduate students began to wonder: How do group conflicts manifest online versus in person? How should group leaders manage those problems? Communication PhD candidate Jessica Kahlow and her co-author, Hanna Klecka, published a paper earlier this year exploring those questions. Klecka graduated from UWM with her Master’s degree in communication this spring. They and their mentor, associate professor of communication Erin Ruppel, examined existing research about online and face-to-face meeting conflicts and found they needed to account for a new type of group. “A more appropriate way to address or research these types of groups is actually looking at hybrid groups,” said Klecka. “For the most part, that’s the reality of today’s world, and we’ve seen that in a very aggressive way these past few months.” Hybrid groups are those that work with a mix of face-toface and online meetings. For example, a sales team that previously worked together in an office but now hosts meetings online would be considered a “hybrid group.”
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By examining hybrid groups, Kahlow and Klecka found some best practices to make online meetings run smoothly. Group leaders should: •
2 • IN FOCUS • August, 2020
Establish set norms from the beginning.
