Professor Chiu Ming Ming, Chair Professor of Analytics and Diversity at the Department of Special Education and Counseling, and Director of Assessment Research Centre at The Education University of Hong Kong, received the 2017 Group and Organization Management Best Empirical Paper Award.

In the paper, entitled “Understanding Positivity within Dynamic Team Interactions: A Statistical Discourse Analysis”, Professor Chiu and his co-authors showed how to measure positive attitude in talk (positivity) and how team micro-processes affect its likelihood during team meetings. They defined positivity as constructive in intention or attitude, showing optimism and confidence (e.g., “This sounds great”, “This could really work” and “I’m really looking forward to this”). Their advanced analysis of 43,139 turns of talk during 43 team meetings of technicians indicated that (a) teams with more positivity show higher team performance, (b) recent positivity and solution-focused behaviours increase subsequent positivity and (c) problem-focused behaviours reduce subsequent positivity.