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PP 718 Out of Sight, Out of Mind? Effects of Tie Strength and Residential Separation on Relationship Maintenance Behaviors on Facebook
S. Krueger1, K. Koban1, V. Belentschikow1
1 Chemnitz University of Technology, Institute for Media Research, Chemnitz, Germany
Ever since its market launch, Facebook has become a suitable means for individuals’ relationship maintenance (Lampe, Ellison, & Steinfield, 2006; Tong &
Walther, 2011). In doing so, users engage in different maintenance strategies depending on certain characteristics of the respective contact persons (Bry‑
ant & Marmo, 2009). For instance, Bryant and Marmo (2012) demonstrated that close friends communicate using a variety of Facebook’s features, while
acquaintances typically monitor each other’s profile updates mostly without direct interaction. These findings are in line with Haythornthwaite (2005)
who showed that weakly tied individuals, in contrast to strongly tied friends, limit their interactions to instrumental purposes. Although some authors
emphasized Facebook’s quality for maintaining relationships despite a lack of physical proximity (e.g., Bryant & Marmo, 2009), few studies examined
maintenance patterns of geographically distant Facebook friends. Thus, Vitak (2014) found evidence that distance enhances engagement in various rela‑
tionship maintenance strategies after controlling for relational closeness. Adding a temporal dimension, earlier findings by Shklovski and colleagues (2008)
further indicated that communication modes might differ with regard to its value for relationship maintenance after geographical separation. The present
study extends this line of research by linking together the effects of interpersonal tie strengths, physical proximity and length of separation on different
relationship maintenance behaviors on Facebook. A total of 295 participants (f = 203, age M = 23.85, SD = 4.16) completed an online survey which was
distributed via university mailing lists and social networking groups. Therein, participants were presented items quantifying their frequency of interaction
as well as their surveillance behavior on Facebook, each with regard to a close friend (strong ties), a good acquaintance (weak ties) as well as a distant
acquaintance (latent ties) with which they are befriended on Facebook. Additionally, participants stated both their own and their friends’current residence
and, if existent, the date of their geographical separation. As expected, analyses revealed a linear trend of relationship strength on the frequency of direct
interaction via Facebook (F = 280.19, p < .01) with strong ties exceeding weak ties (F = 54.51, p < .01) and weak ties exceeding latent ties (F = 120.61,
p < .01). More interestingly, the impact pattern of tie strength on surveillance behavior turned out to be quadratic (F = 10.43, p < .01). According to that,
participants passively monitor the Facebook profiles of good acquaintances more frequently than those profiles of both close friends (F = 8.26, p < .01) and
distant acquaintances (F = 5.32, p = .02). Additionally, hierarchical regression analyses showed moderation effects of tie strength as geographical distance
negatively predicted frequency of direct interaction only in close friendship (t = -2.96, p < .01) as well as positively predicted passive surveillance among
good acquaintances (t = 2.12, p = .03) but neither among close friends nor distant acquaintances.While the former results are in line with previous findings
on relationship maintenance strategies in different types of relationships, these latter results extend the literature by indicating heterogeneous dynamics
for maintenance behaviors over geographical distance.
PP 719 Listening in the Performance Review
S. Ortju1
1 University of Tampere, -, Tampere, Finland
Listening has been shown to improve job satisfaction and employee engagement as well as promote trust between superiors, subordinates and colleagues,
and to reduce the uncertainty experienced by the personnel, and thus, to contribute to the well-being (see. eg. Rodwell, Kienze & Shadur, 1998; Ala-Kortes‑
maa & Isotalus 2015). As has been stated in studies examining supervisors and their staff, under the superior experience of listening to the feedback and
the impact on organizational commitment (see.VanVuuren, Menno, & Seydel, 2007; Gerlander & Isotalus 2010; Ala-Kortesmaa 2015).The goal of the study
is to map how people observe and describe listening, understand it, and to examine attitudes of managers and employees towards it before and after
the performance review. The study shows how informants (a manager and an employee) perceive and describe listening, what each perceives as the most
important indicators of listening, andwhat is their satisfaction regarding the performance review in general (see. Nelissen &Van Selm, 2008). So the concept
of listening, attitudes towards listening and listening behaviour will be researched. Research questions: R1. What is the significance of listening in the com‑
munication relation of superiors and subordinates in the context of performance reviews? R2. According to the subordinates, how is their well-being at work
affected by the listening competence of their superiors? R3. According to the superiors, how does their listening competence affect their own well-being at
work? R4. How can listening competence be developed? The data of the study were gathered by interviewing the informants after the performance reviews
(34 interviews). The reason for the approach is to examine the interviewees' own experiences and observations. Being heard and listened to are becoming
important elements of the professional well-being. The interviewees were asked for example: What is listening in your opinion? Did the other listen to you?
How did you notice that? Did you listen and how did you show that you were listening? City of Tampere has 16,000 employees in 2,000 different units. For
example, the informants for this study are from various units: nurses working at children’s day care, home care department for aged people, and hospital
department of geriatrics, and employees from recruitment, public relations, and building units, libraries, and the department of exercise. The preliminary
results show that the informants think they are good or quite relatively listeners, because they give the speaker time and opportunity to tell what they want.
Informants think that it is important to make notes and not to interrupt. All informants said that listening is important, but the reasons why were different.
Some informants told that of course we have to listen all the time but some of them told that is not needed to listen and why. The interviewees, supervisors
and subordinates, say, or imply, that it specifically is included in the role of the listener that the supervisor and the employee have good listening skills.