Research

My research focuses on groups and communities, primarily as they exist online. I’m interested in how people perceive groups and communities as “groups” and “communities.” I’m especially interested in how that occurs online in discussion forums as well as in social media (e.g., Facebook). My research interests also include virtual teams, particularly how leadership and influence occurs in this group.

I’m Queen Geek.  So if it’s about human behavior and cognition online, I’m interested in it!

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Here you will find a list of some of my papers.  The papers with links in the title should take you to the paper. If you would like one of these papers and there is not a link to it, let me know and I’ll send you a reprint. Also, please let me know if a link is broken and I will fix it!

To find  out more about my current research, please visit my research lab  home page!

Entitativity (Wiki) and Entitativty for normal folks

Entitativity is a horrible word that describes how people perceive the “groupy-ness” of a group.  (Blame 1959 psychologists trying to come up with fancy words for basic concepts)  Entitativity is essential, however, because if people don’t perceive a social unit as a group, group processes and outcomes are not likely to occur.

Much of my recent research is on this topic.

Blanchard, A. L., Caudill, L. E.* & Walker, L. S. (2020).  Developing an entitiativity measure and distinguishing it from antecedents and outcomes within online and face-to-face groups, Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, DOI: 10.1177/1368430217743577

Blanchard, A. L. & Allen, J. A. (2023). The Entitativity Underlying Meetings: Meeting Entitativity as Key in the Lifecycle of Effective Workgroups, Organizational Psychology Review.  https://doi.org/10.1177/20413866221101341

Blanchard, A. L., McBride, A.*, & Ernst, B.*. (2022), How are we similar: Group level entitativity in work and social groups, Small Group Research, doi/10.1177/10464964221117483

Blanchard, A. L., McBride, A.* & Allen, J. A. (2022) Perceiving meetings as groups: Entitativity as a theoretical explanation of meeting effectiveness, Psychology of Leaders and Leadership, 25 (2), 90-113. https://doi.org/10.1037/mgr0000124

Blanchard, A. L. & McBride, A.* (2020) Putting the “Group” in Group Meetings: Entitativity in Face-to-Face and Online Meetings, In Meinecke, A. L., Allen, J. A., & Lehmann-Willnebrock, N. (in press) Managing meetings in organizations, Emerald Publishing.

Askay, D.*, Blanchrd, A. L., & Stewart, O. J*. (2015) Managing Entitativity through Social Media

Online Groups and Social Psychology 

Blanchard, A. L., Duran, J.*, and Lewis, J.*. (2023) Electronic Communication. (Eds., Hogg, M.) The Oxford Journal of Social Psychology, Oxford Press.

Blanchard, A. L. (July 2022), Moving Your Groups Research Online, Film for Sage Research Methods.

Blanchard, A. L. (July 2022), Moving Your Face-to-Face Research Online, Film for Sage Research Methods.

Blanchard, A. L. (2021) The effects of COVID-19 on virtual working within online groups, Group processes and intergroup relations, 24(2), 290-296. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430220983446

Sense of Community in Organizations and Virtual Communities

Much of my previous research stream is on sense of community.  We are still working on research in this area, but the next paper is going to take a hard turn from this previous work.  Still, that nursing article from 2018 is mighty good at understanding why virtual communities don’t work at, well, work.

Blanchard, A. L., Stewart, O. J.*, & Medaugh, M.* (2018) The Paradox of Challenge: How Nurses use Professional Virtual Communities to Navigate their Career, Research in Careers, Volume 4.

Welbourn, J. L., Blanchard, A. L., & Boughton, M. D. (2012) Motivations in Virtual Health Communities and Their Relationship to Community, Connectedness and Stress.  Computers in Human Behavior.  (Google Scholar)

Blanchard, A. L., Welbourne, J. A. & Boughton, M. A*. (2011) A Model of Online Trust: The Mediating Role of Norms and Sense of Virtual Community. Information, Communication, and Society, 14(1), 76-106. (Google Scholar)

Blanchard, A. K., Askay, D*. & Callas, K*. (2010) Sense of Community in Professional Virtual Communities. In Shawn Long (Ed) Communication, relationships, and practices in virtual work. (Google Scholar)

Blanchard, A. L. & Rashotte, L. S. (2010) The Role of Technology in the Development of Group Trust. In D. Latusek & A. Gerbasi (Eds). Trust and Technology. (Google Scholar)

Welbourne, J., Blanchard, A. L., Boughton, M. D.* (2009). Supportive Communication, Sense of Virtual Community and Health Outcomes in Online Infertility Groups. In Communities and Technology 2007: Proceedings of the Fourth Communities and Technologies Conference, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. (Google Scholar)

Blanchard, A. L. (2008) Testing a model of sense of virtual community, Computers in Human Behavior, 24, 2107-2123. (Google Scholar)

Blanchard, A. L. (2008) Sense of Virtual Community: Definition, Antecedents and Outcomes, In S. Kelsey & Kirk St. Amant (Eds) Handbook of Computer-Mediated Communication Research. (Google Scholar)

Blanchard, A. L. (2008) The definition, antecedents and outcomes of successful virtual communities. In N. Kock (Ed.) The Encyclopedia of e-Collaboration.

Blanchard, A. L. (2007). Developing a sense of virtual community measure, Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 10, (6), 827-830. (Google Scholar)

Blanchard, A. L. (2006). Listserv implementation and sense of community: The relationships with increased knowledge and face-to-face interaction. International Journal of e-Collaboration, 2(2), 27-45. (Google Scholar)

Blanchard, A. L. & Markus, M. L. (2004). The Experienced “Sense” of a Virtual Community: Characteristics and Processes. The Data Base for Advanced in Information Systems, 35 (1), 64-71. (Google Scholar)

Blanchard, A. L. (2004) Blogs as Virtual Communities: Identifying sense of community in the Julie/Julia Project. Into the Blogosphere: Rhetoric, Community and Culture. L. Gurak et al (Eds). (Google Scholar)

Blanchard, A. L. & Markus, M. L. (2001). Sense of Virtual Community–Maintaining the Sense of Belonging, Proceedings of the 35th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Science, Nominated for best conference paper. (Google Scholar)

Virtual Teams 

Wadsworth, M. D.* & Blanchard, A. L. (2015)  Influence in Virtual Teams, Computers in Human Behavior, 44(1), 386-393.

Models of Successful Virtual Communities

Walker, L. S., Blanchard, A. L., & Burnett, H. D.* (2011)  The role of experiments in virtual groups.  In Shawn Long (Ed.) Virtual work and Human Interaction Research, IGI Global.

Blanchard, A. L. & Markus, M. L. (2007). Technology and Community Behavior in Online Environments In C. Steinfield, B. T. Pentland, M. Ackerman, & N. Contractor (Eds). Communities and Technology 2007: Proceedings of the Third Communities and Technologies Conference, Michigan State University, Springer. (Google Scholar)

Blanchard, A. L. (2004) Virtual behavior settings: An application of behavior settings theories to virtual communities, Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 9(2). (Google Scholar)

Cyberloafing

Blanchard, A. L., & Henle, C. A. (2008) Correlates of different forms of cyberloafing: The role of norms and external locus of control. Computers in Human Behavior, 24, 1067-1084.  (Google Scholar)

Henle, C. A., & Blanchard, A. L. (2008) Predicting cyberloafing at work: The relationship between work stressors, organizational sanctions, and cyberloafing. Journal of Managerial Issues 20(3), 383-400. (Google scholar)

Social Capital and Virtual Communities

Blanchard, A. (2003) The Effects of Dispersed Virtual Communities on Face-to-Face Social Capital. In M. Huysman and V. Wulf (Eds.) Social Capital and Information Technology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (Google Scholar)

Blanchard, A. L. & Horan, T. (1998) Social Capital and Virtual Communities, Social Science Computer Review, 16, 293-307. (Google Scholar)

Other Research

Ruggs, E.N., Walker, S. S., Blanchard, A.L.,  & Gur, S.* (2016). Online exclusion: Potential biases that may arise when using social media in employee selection, in (R. Landers & G. Schmidt, Eds) Social Media in Selection,

Gur, S.*, Blanchard, A. L, & Walker, L. S. (2016) Impacts on Society: Informational and Socio-Emotional Support in Virtual Communities and Online Groups, in (B. Baggio, ed) Analyzing Digital Discourse and Human Behavior in Modern Virtual Environments, IGI Global

Blanchard, A. L. & Cook, J. (2013) Virtual learning communities in psychology:  Future directions, Under 2^nd review In Buch, K. (Ed.) New directions for teaching and learning.

Blanchard, A. L., Welbourne, J. A., Gilmore, D., & Bullock*, A.  (2009) Followership styles and employee attachment to the organization.  The Psychologist Manager Journal, 12, 111-131. (Google Scholar)

Johnson, S. & Blanchard, A. L. (2006). Alternative medicine and herbal use among university students, Journal of American College Health, 55 (3), 163-169. (Google Scholar)

Ensher, E. A., Huen, C., Blanchard, A. (2003). Online Mentoring and Computer-Mediated Communication: New Directions in Research. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 63, 264-288. (Google scholar)