Enterprise Systems (ESs) embed industrial best practices into adopting organizations through the usage of their system features. Yet, employees often engage in workaround use, either internal or external to the ES, which does not conform to prescribed use, but nonetheless could be beneficial for accomplishing work tasks. Building on Cultural Tightness-Looseness theory and research on system workarounds, we develop a model examining how group cultural tightness-characterized by strong adherence to enforced norms within a group-shapes employees' conforming and workaround use of ES and how these different forms of usage influence job performance. To test the hypotheses, we employ a mixed-method approach with Study 1 leveraging multilevel, longitudinal, and multisourced data collected from 228 employees within 57 groups in a Chinese company, along with Study 2 utilizing an online experiment involving 240 participants from the United States. Collectively, the studies provide compelling evidence supporting our research model, indicating that group cultural tightness plays an instrumental role in increasing conforming use while decreasing internal and external workaround use for individual employees across different national contexts. The findings of Study 1 further indicate that both conforming and internal workaround use have positive effects on employees' job performance, whereas external workaround use negatively impacts their performance. An additional study, using a comparable research design and surveying 220 employees across 59 groups within a foreign multinational corporation operating in China, yields similar results, supporting the generalizability of these findings across different organizational settings. Findings from our study thus provide generalizable insights into the relative influence of group cultural tightness on conforming and internal and external workaround use of ES, as well as the distinct effects of these different modes of system usage on job performance.

IntroductionDigital stress is shaped by the processing demands embedded in everyday media environments, yet, these environments have not been empirically examined very much beyond general media use. Drawing on network theory, we conceptualize personal digital media environments as the ways in which individuals configure media use in relation to their social ties. The purpose of this study is to examine how network properties of these media configurations are associated with different forms of digital stress.MethodsDrawing on a network-based approach, we used a pilot sample of 793 and a test sample of 1,139 U.S. adults to compute three media configuration properties from their name-generated reported social ties (both strong and weak): size (the number of unique media), density (interconnection among unique media via social ties), and centralization (extent to which communication with one's social ties is concentrated across a small set of unique media). We also identify and justify five subdimensions of digital stress. We then tested hypotheses about how the properties associate with digital stress, using structural equation modeling.ResultsConfiguration properties explained additional variance in digital stress beyond general media use. Further, larger configurations were associated with greater communication overload, more deficient self-regulation, and higher self-presentation pressure; and greater centralization was associated with lower overconnectivity.DiscussionThese findings advance understanding of personal digital media configurations and how they may relate to different forms of digital stress, and could inform interventions aimed at improving digital wellbeing.

Introduction This article summarizes the concept of media mastery as a sensitizing framework for understanding several paradoxes of digital media use. It then applies the framework to understand ways in which university students attempt to manage their digital devices.Materials and methods The paper first provides an overview of the development of the concept. Then, based on focus group data from Norway 2015-2016 and relevant literature reviews, we explore how students attempted to navigate tensions and paradoxes involving connectivity (tensions between relationships and expectations) and control (tensions between dependency and awareness).Results Many participants expressed frustration with social media and their own ability to control media use and distractions, questioning whether they should consider themselves dependent or addicted to their devices. They also discussed self-regulation strategies, such as controlling or limiting their digital media consumption, by becoming more aware, in control, and mindful.Conclusion For the focus group university students, the benefits of digital convergence (e.g., communication and multifunctionality) were paradoxically accompanied by challenges (e.g., pressure of constant connectivity and digital dependency). The study provides insights into the tensions and paradoxes in the processes of amstering, and being mastered by, digital media.

This study examines how demographics (sex, age, education, religiousness), public (institutional) trust, support for science, science news use, and economy-level differences shape public opinion about artificial intelligence (AI) across and within 20 economies. According to the diffusion of innovations theory, uncertainty about an innovation may be reduced through awareness, knowledge, and trust, influencing opinions about its general social implications. Based on responses from 32,330 adults across 20 economies in a Pew survey, public opinion on whether AI is good for society ranged from 43.4% to 84.5%, with a mean of 65.0%. ANCOVA and binary logistic regressions—explaining the overall variance of 14% and 19%, respectively—show that all proposed influences were significantly associated with AI opinion, though with small effect sizes. The associations between awareness of and trust in institutions and science news with general opinion about AI and society are fairly consistent. The 20 economies explained 5% to 7% of the variance in opinion.

Introduction:As wildfires and extreme weather events increase in frequency and severity, understanding individuals' psychological and behavioral responses to these rising climate change impacts is necessary to cultivate pro-environmental behavior (PEB). Based on a theoretical model grounded in construal level theory and the theory of reasoned action, we propose that exposure to wildfires is associated with psychological distance of climate change, climate change and wildfire attitudes, and PEB; that psychological distance is associated with climate change attitudes and PEB; and that subjective norms are associated with PEB. Method:We assess these associations through an a priori content analysis of 66 semi-structured interviews with Pacific Crest Trail hikers during the 2022 wildfire season, illustrated through quotes responding to interview questions asking about such associations. Results and discussion:The analyses and quotes provide initial support for the proposed model, nuanced insights into the subdimensions of each construct, and a basis for possible wildfire and climate change messaging.

Multiple digital communication devices provide varying capabilities and processes for self-disclosure, surveillance, and privacy management, therefore eliciting a variety of user privacy perceptions and behaviours. Drawing from the media mastery framework and the comparative privacy research framework, this study investigates similarities and differences in online privacy outcomes associated with computer and mobile phone use via content analysis of 12 focus groups conducted with US college students in 2006 and 2016. Findings reveal similarities and differences across device type and time and their combinations among selected privacy-related codes from the media mastery framework. Cluster analysis of the codes reveals several general themes such as crossing the boundary from private to public, and safety and trust. Contributions include the use of a reliable conceptual foundation for categorising online privacy boundary phenomena, the generation of discussions about these phenomena from a goal-free evaluation approach, and comparisons across devices and time. The discussion provides theoretical and practical implications.

Contemporary discourse on the affordances of organizational information and communication technologies (ICTs) has largely been captivated by the allure of visibility. This article challenges that glare by elucidating the overlooked yet pivotal roles of a set of other organizational ICT affordances. Through a dominance analysis, our findings illuminate that awareness—the capacity of ICTs to link information and actors in an ongoing digital tapestry—and pervasiveness—the widespread nature, across time and space, of digital content and interactions—hold greater explanatory power compared to visibility in understanding some types of interactions fostered by ICTs (communication frequency, information-sharing quality at work [within and across departments], and identity processes [departmental and organizational]). By spotlighting the explanatory strength of affordances such as awareness and pervasiveness and somewhat dimming the role of visibility, this study urges scholars and practitioners alike to broaden their focus on the affordances of media in the digital workplace.

Algorithms increasingly mediate critical aspects of daily life across healthcare, hiring, and social media, shaping user experiences through automated decision-making processes. Yet, algorithmic bias, the systematic disadvantaging of certain groups through automated systems, has been widely documented across a variety of algorithms. Thus this study addresses the gap in understanding how users may respond to four epistemic categories of algorithm bias, depending on whether it exists or not, and is perceived or not. We apply the information systems concept of workarounds to characterize potential user responses to these categories of algorithmic bias. Then, we apply the Human–AI Interaction Theory of Interactive Media Effects to understand how users may detect bias through cue routes and develop workaround strategies through action routes. Our theoretical framework proposes how users' detection and workarounds may vary based on the four categories of bias. Understanding these adaptive strategies provides crucial insights for developing inclusive technologies and fostering algorithmic literacy, ultimately enhancing the ongoing negotiation between human agency and technological constraint in digital societies.

ChatGPT has diffused widely and rapidly, with diverse positive and negative implications. In educational settings it is important to understand students' perceptions of the acceptability of ChatGPT for various learning activities and to examine whether prior digital divide concerns pertain to this digital innovation, in order to provide guidance for users, inform policymakers and other stakeholders, and extend digital divide research. The purpose is to investigate the associations of socioeconomic status (SES, both family and student), gender, and race/ethnicity with students’ perceived acceptability of common ChatGPT activities as well as their opinion about how beneficial ChatGPT is for college education, and additionally, whether such relationships differ based on adoption experience. We analyzed survey data quantitatively in two phases (N = 360 and 1267), applying measurement reliability and validity, correlations, and structural equation modeling. The results indicate that students with higher family SES and lower individual SES, and females, tend to view the acceptability of ChatGPT uses more positively, although racial/ethnic minorities are more critical of displacement activities. ChatGPT adopters perceive two dimensions of ChatGPT activities (academic support and academic displacement) as more acceptable than do non-adopters, and they also perceive uses for academic support more positively than for displacement. Moreover, adoption is a significant moderator of some of these associations. At this early stage of ChatGPT diffusion, these digital divide influences on acceptability and general opinion are weak and variable. The discussion further considers theoretical and practical implications for digital education in the AI era.

This study investigates the association of socioeconomic status (SES) and digital and AI literacy with types of Chat GPT use by college students, with subsequent implications for academic self-efficacy and creativity, conditioned by trust. Analyses of a survey of U.S. college students (N = 947) show that SES has a greater association with AI literacy than with general digital literacy. Two dimensions of Chat GPT activities emerge: academic support and displacement. Structural equation modeling reveals that AI literacy is positively associated with both activity dimensions, while digital literacy is unexpectedly a negative contributor. Further, academic support is strongly linked to positive outcomes whereas academic displacement is negatively associated. Attitudinal trust in Chat GPT moderates the overall relationships. Our findings suggest that conventional digital inequality persists and evolves with generative AI, traditional digital literacy becomes insufficient in the age of AI, and trust in this new and opaque digital technology influences these relationships.

Pro-environmental behaviors are influenced by individuals’ pro-environmental attitudes and environmental efficacy, among many other factors. However, attitude-behavior models are inconsistent on whether and how attitudes, efficacy, and behaviors should match in specificity or generality, and on the moderation effect of efficacy. This study first tests a simple model including direct and moderating relationships between pro-environmental attitudes, environmental efficacy, and pro-environmental behaviors. Then it examines relationships among subscales matched or mismatched in their respective specific or general domain of environmental attitudes (concern, values), environmental efficacy (self, collective), and pro-environmental behaviors (private, public). Secondary data come from an overall sample of 11,000 respondents across 11 countries, with n = 1,000 from each country. Pro-environmental attitudes and efficacy have direct relationships with pro-environmental behavior, but efficacy has little moderation effect. Different combinations of (mis)matched measures produce slightly different results, with the most variance explained, counter to hypotheses, by two mismatched models. Results are generally consistent across countries.

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) are significant contributors culturally, socially, and economically, but little research has focused on their management of organizational crises. Research has been quickly documenting impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on different sectors, but again less so for NPOs. This is significant because research and recommendations developed in one sector (such as for-profit corporations) may not translate to others (such as NPOs). NPOs are particularly vulnerable due to their dependence on public financial support and demands on their resource during crises. We report on a unique and unfortunate opportunity to assess response dynamics from a half year before (2019) and a half year after (2020) the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. We draw on a unique dataset (combining surveys at two points in time, Twitter use data, and financial information, from 578 NPOs) to develop a general model (grounded in the discourse of renewal theory) of five sources of influence (communication, organizational resources, crisis experience, crisis management, crisis impacts) on three types of strategic responses by nonprofits (retrenchment, persevering, and innovating) to COVID-19. Higher levels of communication, crisis experience, and crisis management all predicted greater tendencies for persevering and innovating in response to COVID-19. The implications for research and practice include extending crisis communication research to the nonprofit sector and demonstrating how NPOs can strengthen themselves to recover from COVID-19 or the next crisis.

This study analyzed JMCQ articles in the specific topic area of mass communication technology and media channels, overall and across four 20-year periods. Primary topics changed from emphasizing media industry and policy issues, international issues of information freedom, audience research, and WWII media issues in early periods to more specific regulatory issues, ratings and audience analyses, macro and social issues, and media technology development issues in more recent periods. JMCQ serves as a treasure trove of the history of broadcast media technology and competition, policy debates, and audience interests, with a recent emphasis on more rigorous empirical analyses.

This study develops a model of direct association of exposure to environmental media content, and indirect association through environmental attitude and environmental efficacy, with pro-environmental behaviors. It also considers secondary media roles of exposure to general news media and involvement in mediated civic activism. The model and hypotheses are tested through Hayes Process mediation models, using secondary, cross-sectional survey data from 11,000 respondents across 11 countries. The model is well-supported overall and within countries, and the secondary media variables have generally consistent effects within countries. Socio-demographic covariates have varying relationships with environmental attitude, environmental efficacy, and pro-environmental behaviors, overall, and within countries. In line with social cognitive theory, these results suggest that media use related to environmental issues does not have to raise individuals' pro-environmental attitude or efficacy (though it does) to increase engagement in pro-environmental behavior.

Despite the operational nature of enterprise system (ES) implementation and use, individual employees or work groups may deploy technology workarounds to circumvent inflexibility in or obstacles to using the ES. However, our understanding of the multilevel nature of technology workarounds and their performance implications remains limited. Drawing upon the multilevel theory of system usage and adaptive structuration theory, the current study examines the conditions under which group technology workarounds affect group performance, individual technology workarounds, and individual performance. Based on two studies with different research designs, we find that group technology workarounds have distinctive effects on short‐ and on long‐term group performance. Specifically, while the impact of group technology workarounds on group performance is significantly positive in the short term, such effect diminishes over time. System failure and competition intensity strengthen the positive effect of group technology workarounds on short‐term performance, whereas system failure and task nonroutineness lessen the negative effect of group technology workarounds on long‐term performance. Our study further confirms the multilevel nature of technology workarounds, finding that group technology workarounds can influence individual technology workarounds and thereby individual performance. Our results support the view that technology workarounds as a group action should be considered alongside individual technology workarounds, as well as their positive and negative effects on both group and individual performance, in both the short‐ and long‐term.