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This article extends our understanding of risk communication related to communal risk and risk information sharing. Building on research from risk communication, organizational behavior, and social psychology, it examines individual-, relation-, and community-level motivations to share information about a devastating plant disease. This disease can bring about substantial economic risk to everyone in a farming community. We tested our hypotheses using a national sample of U.S. tomato and potato growers ( N = 452). Our findings show that growers were motivated to share information about a communal risk based on (a) individual-oriented concerns for economic costs, (b) relation-oriented concerns for reciprocation and the information recipient's trustworthiness, and (c) community-oriented concerns comprising a sense of shared responsibility and community cohesiveness.

This study developed a cross-level model to study the effects of contextual factors, including team-level conflict and team-level emotion management (EM), on how individual team members seek information. Cross-level analysis using data collected from 175 individuals in 30 teams showed that team-level relationship conflict (TRC) had a negative effect on individual information seeking (IS) behavior, whereas team-level task conflict (TTC) did not have a significant effect. EM at both team and individual levels had positive effects on individual IS behavior. The same set of analyses conducted using a subset of 22 of these teams at an earlier time point confirmed the same pattern of relationships. In addition, team-level EM interacted with TRC in influencing individual IS behavior, although the patterns varied for the two time points of data collection. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Taking a communication approach to expertise, this study examined emergence of expertise through communication accommodation (CA) in 46 four-person face-to-face (FtF) and text-based computer-mediated communication (CMC) groups. We found that FtF members with a lower pre-discussion task confidence accommodated to the linguistic styles of those with a higher pre-discussion task confidence. Meanwhile, CA influenced post-discussion expertise judgment in CMC groups such that members who accommodated to others were judged as having less expertise. CA also influenced post-discussion expertise judgment in FtF groups after taking into account perceived task-oriented communication and perceived influence. The findings emphasize the important roles of CA and of communication channel in expertise emergence.

This research tested a transactive theory model of how individuals allocate and retrieve task-related information in work teams. It extended prior research by exploring the role of communal information repositories in the context of human information resources. Structural equation modeling of six integrated hypotheses revealed several significant results. First, usage of information repositories was significantly related to individual access to information. However, the relationship between individual direct information exchange with team members (the human repositories) and individual access to information was significant only among average-level users of organizational information repositories. Second, development of individual expertise directories significantly influenced individual direct information exchange with team members. Third, perceived usage of organizational information repositories by team members significantly influenced actual usage. Finally, technology-specific competence in using intranets significantly influenced the actual usage of intranets as organizational information repositories.

Building on Kozlwoski and Klein's emergence framework, this research developed and tested a set of multilevel hypotheses regarding individual and team transactive memory processes in work teams. Literature from social psychology suggested hypotheses on how shared task interdependence influences individual expertise exchange. Social network theory suggested hypotheses that individual expertise exchange is channeled according to communication tie strength. Using data collected from 218 individuals from 18 organizational teams, the proposed hypotheses were tested using hierarchical linear modeling techniques. The results showed that at the individual level the relationship between directory development and expertise exchange was mediated by communication tie strength and moderated by shared task interdependence.Team-level variables also were significantly related to individual-level outcomes such that individual expertise exchange happened more frequently in teams with well-developed team-level expertise directories, as well as with higher team communication tie strength and shared task interdependence.

Collaboration within multinational teams necessitates the adoption of a common language, typically English, which often leads to significant differences in language proficiency across members. We develop and test a multilevel model of the effects of language proficiency within multinational teams. An experimental study of 51 teams (102 American and 102 Chinese participants) revealed that, at the individual level, members with higher levels of language proficiency were more likely to speak up, which led to more positive perceptions of their competence. At the team level, greater dispersion in language proficiency across members was associated with less accurate competence recognition, which, in turn, led to lower overall team performance. Moreover, communication medium moderated these relationships, such that the effects of language proficiency were more potent in face-to-face than in computer-mediated teams. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research and for managing participation, competence, and technology in multinational teams.

Abstract. Studies on the formation of the ancient Diexi barrier lake on the Mingjiang River, southwestern China, have long been carried out. However, investigations into the correlation between the palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironment and the palaeoseismic events in this area are rarely found in literature. The present study took sediments from the ancient Diexi barrier lake to investigate the palaeoclimate, palaeoenvironment and palaeoseismic events. A drilling at the centre of the barrier lake was conducted and the core of about 260 m long was examined. The palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironment indicators (sporopollen, carbon and oxygen isotopes, organic matter, calcium carbonate, granularity) from the sediments have been tested and analysed, and indicate that there were 10 climatic and environmental periods between 30 000 and 15 000 a BP (before present). The discovered disturbance segments in the core indicate there were at least 10 seismic events during that period. The consistency between climate change and seismic events indicates that a strong seismicity is normally accompanied by a climatic variation. This may be a useful supplement for climate and geohazard predictions in the future.