Information-related negotiations in interdisciplinary collaborative working groups
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Date
10/01/2023Author
Dozier, Marshall
Metadata
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
There is a trend to foster collaborative interdisciplinary approaches for projects and
for tackling complex problems in areas such as global health. This trend can be seen,
for example, in criteria for funding applications. Given the commitment to
interdisciplinary working in information-intensive contexts, a more detailed
understanding of information practices enacted to create informational resources –
including dynamics such as affordances, constraints, barriers and enablers – in
interdisciplinary group settings can allow better development of environments and
support infrastructures conducive to successful interdisciplinary collaborative
working. Discovery, selection, use and sharing of information are activities
examined by researchers in the different fields or perspectives of: information
literacy, information behaviour, information practices, and knowledge
management. Though these various perspectives have distinct contextual or
philosophical underpinnings, they do share some areas of interest and the
boundaries between them do overlap. However, there is little prior research into
the experiences of arriving at shared information practices in interdisciplinary
project groups.
AIMS:
Accordingly, this study explored experiences of collaborative information-handling
by people with different disciplinary backgrounds working together on health-related projects, guided by the following research questions:
a. From the perspectives and practices of individual members, what roles does
information play in the construction of the group and its activities?
b. How do individuals view the information practices of their disciplinary
backgrounds in relation to the collaborative working practices of their
project group? To what extent do the practices shape, or are they shaped
by, the context of the project group?
METHODOLOGY:
I have drawn from the constructivist Grounded Theory approach to analyse and
interpret how information practices within the group related (or not) to
respondents' experiences of disciplinary differences, identity, and purpose of the
group(s) they worked within.
METHODS:
Two interdisciplinary project groups in a health-related higher education setting
were studied. The principal source of data was a series of individual semi-structured
interviews designed to gather data on information-related negotiations within the
group. The interviews were centred on project-related artefacts which triggered
discussion about information-related interactions within the group as well as links
to wider aims and impacts of the projects. Emergent themes and theories were
identified as the interview series progressed for exploration in subsequent
interviews. On completion of interviews, the whole dataset was scrutinised to
further develop, and test for, coherence and robustness of themes and theories.
KEY FINDINGS:
Various forms of negotiations, whether tacit or explicit, were central to the
processes these interdisciplinary groups used to create informational resources. The
ways information was handled, managed, and negotiated were strongly linked to
the pre-stated aims of the projects, the contexts of the working groups, and
disciplinary background of participants and intended audience. From participants’
experiences of collaboratively creating informational resources, we can identify
several elements that contribute to group coherence and productivity, including
motivation, trust, identity, and an underpinning philosophy of the project.
The collaborative creation of informational resources was an intensively iterative
process of transformation. The iterations involved negotiations round identifying
key messages, structure, and style. The work related to the creation of
informational resources entailed learning on the part of group members, including
skills related to understanding methods of analysis, learning design, or technical
software skills. An important factor contributing to the successful creation of the
informational resources was motivation. Shared aims, values and of ways of
working were enabling factors for the project groups. There was a strong
association between the informational resources and the epistemological
perspectives of the project members and their intended audiences. Analysis of the
interview transcripts revealed how aspects of identity played out in the work of
creating these informational resources. These aspects were largely linked to
discipline, but also to individuals’ roles within the project groups.
KEY IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:
Collaborative creation of informational resources by interdisciplinary groups is a
time- and negotiation-intensive process, and motivation and trust can be key
facilitators of the effort individuals need to invest in arriving at shared information
practices toward completing projects. Organisations wishing to foster information-intensive interdisciplinary collaborations should consider enablers such as
alignment of project aims with participants’ values, working contexts and
disciplinary perspectives.