The influence of e-conferences and e-meetings on increasing communication skills among leaders in Jordanian mining and manufacturing industries

This study aims to examine the influence of e-communication (e-meetings and e-conferences) on the communication skills of managers and leaders (decision making, problem solving, consistency, productivity and better work flow). Quantitative approach was employed to achieve the aim; 150 managers and leaders responded to a self-administered questionnaire, which was tackled later using SPSS.The results of the study confirmed an undeniable influence of e-communications on communication skills of managers and leaders within Jordanian mining and manufacturing industries; the most influenced variable was decision-making process associated with the real-time data that e-communication means can provide to decision makers (data, information, figures and numbers), which facilitated a faster ability to take decisions and avoid risks among organizations. The study also demonstrated that electronic meetings and conferences are based on transmitting voice over internet protocol (VoIP), which allows voice to be transmitted over the Internet, which is key to facilitating real-time electronic meetings. The study recommended adopting more electronic means of communication as an approach to avoid loss of time and efforts in face-to-face communication.

Eurachem General Assembly and Scientific Workshop 2020

The Eurachem Week 2020 was scheduled for May 25–29, 2020 in Bucharest, Romania. As topic for the two-day workshop ' Quality Assurance Elements for Analytical Laboratories in the University Curriculum ' was selected by the organisers. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the event had to be cancelled in March. In April the Executive Committee scheduled the General Assembly for May 27 and 28 and the Workshop for July 14 and 15, 2020 as electronic meetings. Both events were very well organized by Eurachem Romania.

ELECTRONIC SHAREHOLDERS’ MEETING AS A NEW NORM AFTER COVID-19: IS MALAYSIA READY?

Electronic shareholders’ meeting is a modern method of conducting a shareholders’ meeting. When it was first introduced, the corporate community was less excited to take advantage of it. This situation changed when the world faced the COVID-19 pandemic. When human movement is being controlled to break the chain of infections, companies see electronic meetings as an alternative to hold shareholder meetings. Whether it can survive as the new norm of the corporate world depends on various factors. This paper analyse three things deem fundamental in assessing the issue. First is the law that can be the basis of its implementation. The second is support from infrastructure. The third is the ability of shareholders to participate in it. At the end of this discussion, it is concluded that Malaysia has all three requirements as forwarded by this paper. As such, Malaysia may be considered ready to accept electronic meetings as a new norm in organising shareholders’ meetings.

Enhancing Creativity in E-Planning

Sharing ideas efficiently and effectively in groups is a challenge groups and teams face on a daily basis. In typical face-to-face meetings, many factors can serve to inhibit a full sharing of ideas and thus the development of effective decisions and plans. To overcome the limitations of face-to-face meetings, computer-based group decision support systems have been developed to facilitate both idea exchange and evaluation. Evidence suggests that such systems can lead to beneficial outcomes. However, unless they are utilized effectively, even electronic meetings may not effectively tap the intellectual and creative potential of groups. The authors summarize some of the major findings of collaborative creativity and their implications for effective e-planning.

Enhancing Creativity in E-Planning

Sharing ideas efficiently and effectively in groups is a challenge groups and teams face on a daily basis. In typical face-to-face meetings, many factors can serve to inhibit a full sharing of ideas and thus the development of effective decisions and plans. To overcome the limitations of face-to-face meetings, computer-based group decision support systems have been developed to facilitate both idea exchange and evaluation. Evidence suggests that such systems can lead to beneficial outcomes. However, unless they are utilized effectively, even electronic meetings may not effectively tap the intellectual and creative potential of groups. The authors summarize some of the major findings of collaborative creativity and their implications for effective e-planning.

Automatic Detection of Irrelevant Comments in an Electronic Meeting

Groups exchanging ideas in electronic meetings often generate irrelevant or off-topic comments that can detract from the conversation. Here, we describe a system that seeks to identify this immaterial text using previously identified keywords. Results of an experiment with the system show that group members believe meetings do have irrelevant comments that waste time, but participants often enjoy them. The system achieved an F measure of 42.3% for recall and precision, and further research is necessary to determine if this is sufficient or what can be done to improve this score.

Integrated KT 2.0: The next generation of teamwork

ABSTRACTObjectiveThe goal of this study was to engage members of a long-standing Integrated KT collaborative in a process to revitalize team goals and processes. “The Need to Know” Team started in 2001 in Manitoba, to engage knowledge users in the conceptualization, creation, and application of population health research. The team has garnered numerous national awards and citations for its approach. We conducted a survey of team members (N=27), representing all Health Authorities in the province, plus provincial government reps. Questions included frequency of data use and medium (print vs online), how well the team is meeting is goals, open-ended questions about how the team could be more useful to members and their organizations, and their top 3 suggestions to ensure the ongoing success and increase the impact of the team.MethodTwenty-two of 27 members responded to the survey (81.5%) within one week. Responses to questions about how well the team is meeting its existing goals revealed high scores – especially among those goals which lay entirely within the scope of the team’s control (91% extremely or moderately well). Objectives relating to larger-scale impacts on the healthcare system had lower ratings (72% extremely or moderately well), as might have been expected. ResultsOver 75% reported that the team’s work had impacted their organization’s work moderately or a lot. The most commonly cited examples were that the work of the team increased capacity for data analysis/interpretation and research (18%), provided results that were used in staff and/or board meetings (15%), influenced decisions and the discussions leading up to them (15%), influenced the development and use of region-relevant quality indicators (13%), and were used in the ongoing education of health professionals (13%). The open-ended questions regarding optimal next steps solicited a variety of suggestions ranging from developing even richer relationships with existing partners, to including a wider variety of partner organizations (e.g. Indigenous groups); aligning team priorities with those of the provincial government (where feasible); and moving to occasional electronic meetings for appropriate content issues and to increase impact in partner organizations. ConclusionThis exercise in reflection and strategic planning has shown that the team has done an exceptional job in achieving its initial goals, most of which remain relevant, but some of which need revision. More importantly, several creative approaches have been suggested which may increase future impact and enhance both the breadth and depth of the team’s reach.

An Analysis of Comment-Revision Thresholds in Bilingual Electronic Meetings

Prior studies have shown that providing participants in bilingual or multilingual, electronic meetings with the capability of revising comments can increase the accuracy of translations to other languages. This is often done via a round-trip translation (RTT) in which the source text is translated to another language, translated back again, and compared with the original. If the similarity falls below a certain threshold, e.g. 50%, the originator may wish to revise the comment before final submission. However, minor changes might not be needed, and it is not clear where the threshold lies between acceptable and non-acceptable text. In this study, we seek to determine at what point accuracy can be improved by comment revision. Results show that the threshold did not affect the target-language comprehension, but higher thresholds substantially increased the cognitive burden for users in the form of alerts and comment revisions.

Comment Evaluation and Revision in a Bilingual Electronic Meeting

Translation accuracy continues to be a major problem in multilingual electronic meetings and a significant reason for such systems’ lack of acceptance and use. One way of increasing accuracy is detecting potential errors before a comment is added to the discussion. By comparing the original message text with a round-trip translation (RTT) and correcting any wording mistakes, misunderstandings might be prevented in the overall conversation. In this study, one group used an electronic meeting system with automatic translation that detected differences between a participant’s typed comment and a RTT. If there was a significant change, the group member was then given an opportunity to modify the text before submitting it to the transcript. Another group, serving as the control group, used an equivalent electronic meeting system without error detection. Results show that there was only a slight, non-significant increase in comprehension when comments were revised and translated to German with an 80% similarity threshold, but there would have been a significant increase in comprehension if a 50% threshold had been chosen.

Large-scale, Distributed, Multilingual, Electronic Meetings: A Pilot Study of Usability and Comprehension

The United Nations, the European Union, and many other organizations must conduct meetings in many languages, but typically employ human interpreters with their accompanying cost. In addition, these oral discussions require participants to take turns speaking, lengthening the process. Many studies have shown that group support systems can reduce meeting time and increase productivity, and the addition of automatic translation into this process could support these multilingual groups. However, prior studies have typically used only a few languages with group members face to face. This study investigates how well a large multilingual group can use electronic meeting software in a geographically dispersed environment. Results show that the group members were able to understand comments exchanged in 66 languages when translated to English, and they believed the multilingual meeting system was useful for such discussions.