scholarly journals Bridging the Knowledge Gap in Collaborative Research—in Dialogues We Trust

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Melander ◽  
Tomas Mullern ◽  
David Anderssson ◽  
Fredrik Elgh ◽  
Malin Löfving
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Collaborative Research ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
Learning Potential ◽  
Collaborative Dialogue ◽  
Managerial Practice ◽  
Learning Practices ◽  
Future Theory ◽  
Conceptual Language

AbstractBy building upon the prior work exploring the nature of practicing and knowing in collaborative research (CR), this article argues that focusing on how trust evolves in collaborative dialogue could enhance the learning potential in CR projects. Drawing from 42 workshops within a CR project, we analyze how dialogue and learning practices develop trust. We use the dialogical framework developed by Walton and Krabbe (1995) to identify and classify 107 dialogues. From our data, we identify three distinct dialogical patterns (educating, inquiring and practicing). These three dialogical patterns are related to four learning practices that are conceptualized as knowledge sharing, knowledge gapping, knowledge bettering and knowledge speculating. Combined, these dialogical patterns and learning practices develop collaborative trust in CR projects. We propose that these results represent an emerging conceptual language that addresses the development of trust in managing CR projects. This conceptual language can both improve managerial practice in the CR context and inspire future theory building.

scholarly journals A public goods model of outcomes from online knowledge sharing mediated by mental model processing

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald E. Rice ◽  
Marni Heinz ◽  
Ward van Zoonen
Keyword(s):  
Public Goods ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Public Good ◽  
Mental Model ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Learning Potential ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Individual

Purpose This study aims to take a public goods approach to understand relationships between collecting and contributing knowledge to an online knowledge sharing portal (KSP), mental model processing and outcomes at the individual and collective levels. Design/methodology/approach This study reports on a survey (N = 602) among tax professionals, examining the perceived individual and collective benefits and costs associated with collecting and contributing knowledge. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. Findings Collecting and contributing knowledge led to considerable mental model processing of the knowledge. That in turn significantly influenced (primarily) individual and (some) collective costs and benefits. Results varied by the kinds of knowledge sharing. Whether directly from knowledge sharing, or mediated through mental modeling, the perceived costs and benefits may be internalized as an individual good rather than being interpreted at the collective level as a public good. Research limitations/implications The study is situated in the early stages of a wiki-type online KSP. A focus on the learning potential of the system could serve to draw in new users and contributors, heightening perceptions of the public goods dimension of a KSP. Practical implications A focus on the learning potential of the system could serve to draw in new users, and thus the number of subsequent contributors, heightening perceptions of the collective, public goods dimension of a KSP. Originality/value This study explores how knowledge sharing and mental model processing are directly and indirectly associated with individual and collective costs and benefits. As online knowledge sharing is both an individual and public good, costs and benefits must be considered from both perspectives.

Two Faces of Organizational Irony: Endemic and Pragmatic

2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (11) ◽  
pp. 1427-1447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Hoyle ◽  
Mike Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Organization Theory ◽  
Major Change ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Organizational Analysis ◽  
Verbal Irony ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Future Theory ◽  
Change Efforts

This paper puts forward a perspective on organizational irony framed in terms of two reciprocal faces, as a contribution to the developing interest in irony as a tool for organizational analysis. Endemic irony explores theoretical approaches implying that irony is a characteristic of all organizations, extended by contingent manifestations in contemporary organizations. Pragmatic irony conceptualizes how organization members engage in ironic strategies and deploy verbal irony as modes of coping — with both endemic discrepancies between intention and outcome, and contingent contradictions generated through major change efforts. This perspective is offered as a heuristic for exploring organizations whose members are inherently confronted by irony. First, those philosophical, literary and organization theory approaches to irony are reviewed which relate most closely to organizational irony. Second, the endemic nature of organizational irony is elaborated. Third, distinctive manifestations of irony in contemporary organizations that extend endemic irony are discussed. Fourth, instances of pragmatic irony in contemporary organizations, conceived as the reciprocal of endemic irony, are explored. Finally, the value of an ironic perspective as a means of understanding organizations is asserted and suggestions offered for future theory-building and research.

Biased access? Exploring selection to advisory committees

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Rasmussen ◽  
Vlad Gross
Keyword(s):  
Interest Groups ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Advisory Committees ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Business Interests ◽  
Selection Processes ◽  
Future Theory

The existing literature on bias in interest group access faces the challenge that there is often no clear benchmark for judging whether a given distribution of interest groups involved in policy making is biased. To tackle this challenge, we link two new data sets on registered European Union (EU) interest groups and membership of the advisory committees of the European Commission and examine the factors affecting selection to these committees. Our approach allows us to qualify the conclusions of the existing literature. We see that, even if business interests dominate advisory committees, they are not generally privileged over other group types in the selection processes and their degree of access varies considerably between policy areas. Instead, supranational interest groups enjoy selection privileges, which are particularly pronounced on permanent committees. Finally, we find some evidence that, even though lobbying budgets are important for getting access, their value varies across group types. In this way, our study has implications for future theory building on resource exchanges between interest group types and decision makers.

Dealing with disappointment: How can a ‘coexisting imperatives’ view help us understand the unfulfilled dialogical promise of digital media

2021 ◽  
pp. 2046147X2110456
Author(s):  
Andrés Shoai
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Building Research ◽  
Future Theory ◽  
Highly Cited

The association between the concept of dialogue and the expansion of digital media in public relations started as a theoretical ‘promise’ and was later followed by a feeling of disappointment. This article argues that the dialogic promise of new media was in great measure a consequence of a well-established belief according to which the field was rapidly moving from a ‘functional’ to a ‘cocreational’ approach, whereas in fact both cocreational and functional imperatives persist and coexist in complex manners that need to be disentangled. This idea is explored through a critical analysis of highly cited literature about dialogue and digital technology in public relations. Implications for future theory-building, research and practice are discussed.

Full-service restaurants as learning organizations: a multiple-site case study

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Boccia ◽  
Maria Cseh
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Learning Organization ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Organizational Cultures ◽  
Multiple Site ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Learning Practices ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Leadership Approaches

Purpose This study aims to explore how Watkins and Marsick’s learning organization framework was enacted in the practices, structures, and policies of non-chain US restaurants. Design/methodology/approach Data from this multiple-site case study were collected from 52 employees in three full-service restaurants from the dimensions of the learning organization questionnaire (DLOQ), focus group interviews, observations, and document collection. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and constant comparative analysis. Findings Interviews elucidated and confirmed DLOQ findings. Pre-shift briefings, managers’ role-modeling and restaurant-generated documentation revealed employees’ tacit learning. Continuously fostered experimentation and knowledge sharing promoted a learning culture. Experimentation differed across restaurants owing to different leadership approaches and organizational cultures. Research limitations/implications Future research with subsegments of full-service restaurants having similar leadership approaches and organizational cultures, post COVID-19, and the applicability of the DLOQ to study learning in these types of restaurants both in the USA and in other countries is recommended. Practical implications Restaurateurs should capitalize on continuous life and work experiences of employees and codify learning practices by incorporating reflections in learning in pre-shift briefings and by fostering a culture of experimentation and knowledge sharing. Originality/value This study contributes to the learning organization literature by providing the first multiple-site case study account of learning practices in non-chain, full-service restaurants.

Has Human Factors Come of Age?

1977 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 457-461
Author(s):  
Kenyon B. De Greene
Keyword(s):  
Human Factors ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Laboratory Model ◽  
Psychology Laboratory ◽  
The Past ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
The Future ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Future Theory ◽  
Systemic View

A number of critical factors in the past, present, and future of the human factors field are evaluated. By many criteria human factors is efflorescent. However, probing beneath the surface and taking a longer-range and more systemic view suggests conditions of morbidity that, if unheeded, may lead to the demise of human factors as a separate entity. In order for human factors to be viable and useful in the future, theory building must be advanced which is explanatory of the interactions among people and machines (or technologies) in environments. Human factors must brake the momentum generated by existing institutional settings and overreliance on the experimental psychology (laboratory) model. A number of possible new liaisons with other fields and means of anticipating the future are identified. A number of specific research questions, deemed important to human factors expansion and realworld usefulness, are posed.

How the Future Has a Grip on Us

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 262-282
Author(s):  
Martin Sand ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Technology Assessment ◽  
Philosophy Of Technology ◽  
Correspondence Theory ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Technological Systems ◽  
The Past ◽  
Correspondence Theory Of Truth ◽  
Inferential Knowledge ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Theory

Being faced with bold statements about the technological future, the wickedness of technological systems and our frequent cluelessness when aiming at predicting the course of such systems, scholars from philosophy of technology and Technology Assessment (TA) have given up believing that any method can enhance our knowledge about the future. Hence, hermeneutic TA, forensics of wishing and other approaches shift their focus on the present of such futures. While these approaches are meaningful in their own right, they basically rest on a too sceptical foundation. In my article I will present some objections to these approaches. It is clearly true as has been pointed out that knowledge about the future cannot be tested to correspond with reality, since the future does not yet exist. However, it is debatable whether such a criterion is generally required for robust knowledge. Giving that we cannot observe the past but claim to know a lot about, I will argue that a commitment to the correspondence theory of truth is too strong a requirement for robust knowledge about the future. Theory building departs by inferring from present observations into both directions, future and past. To show this, some examples that illustrate how the future has a lock on us will be discussed. Furthermore, it will be outlined that the often cited notion of future’s openness also rests on such inferential knowledge, which indicates incoherence in the skeptics’ approach. These arguments build the basis for a modest realism about the future.

scholarly journals Workplace learning in crowdwork

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 250-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anoush Margaryan
Keyword(s):  
Workplace Learning ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Learning Potential ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Learning Practices ◽  
Self Study ◽  
Work Tasks ◽  
Chi Square Test ◽  
Self Regulatory Learning

Purpose This paper aims to explore workplace learning practices within two types of crowdwork – microwork and online freelancing. Specifically, the paper scopes and compares the use of workplace learning activities (WLAs) and self-regulatory learning (SRL) strategies undertaken by microworkers (MWs) and online freelancers (OFs). We hypothesised that there may be quantitative differences in the use of WLAs and SRL strategies within these two types of crowdwork, because of the underpinning differences in the complexity of tasks and skill requirements. Design/methodology/approach To test this hypothesis, a questionnaire survey was carried out among crowdworkers from two crowdwork platforms – Figure Eight (microwork) and Upwork (online freelancing). Chi-square test was used to compare WLAs and SRL strategies among OFs and MWs. Findings Both groups use many WLAs and SRL strategies. Several significant differences were identified between the groups. In particular, moderate and moderately strong associations were uncovered, whereby OFs were more likely to report (i) undertaking free online courses/tutorials and (ii) learning by receiving feedback. In addition, significant but weak or very weak associations were identified, namely, OFs were more likely to learn by (i) collaborating with others, (ii) self-study of literature and (iii) making notes when learning. In contrast, MWs were more likely to write reflective notes on learning after the completion of work tasks, although this association was very weak. Originality/value The paper contributes empirical evidence in an under-researched area – workplace learning practices in crowdwork. Crowdwork is increasingly taken up across developed and developing countries. Therefore, it is important to understand the learning potential of this form of work and where the gaps and issues might be. Better understanding of crowdworkers’ learning practices could help platform providers and policymakers to shape the design of crowdwork in ways that could be beneficial to all stakeholders.

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